7/16/15 - The Family that Fishes Together.....
Jul 16, 2015 10:46:25 GMT -5
Jason54, drag4striper, and 1 more like this
Post by mwardncsu on Jul 16, 2015 10:46:25 GMT -5
Weather: Overcast/Cloudy, temps in the 70's, E'ish wind around 5
Water: 82-83 - visibility of 5'
Techniques: Alewifes on downlines (6), light-lines (2), and at one point a couple of light-line floats
Time Fished: 6a - 10:15a
My wonderful wife had agreed to fish ONE morning on vacation, so we scheduled it for Thursday. I even convinced her to ride along with me on Wednesday evening to catch bait - but no luck in getting her to throw the net. We hit one light a little before 10pm and the bait was a bit thin, so after a few throws we moved over to another, somewhat deeper light, around 10:30 and it was the motherland of alewives - though on the smedium side - but figured they'd do.
Set the alarm for 5am and we were on the water and in search mode for stripers about 5:50.
Spent A LOT of time looking the morning - nothing in the spots of the last week (well, I did skip over one as the last time we didn't get much action there - sort of feeling like I should have checked that one now). Checked the mouths and about 1/2 way or more back in several creeks and marked maybe a dozen fish total in all that time, but we were treated to a beautiful sun-rise.
We did put out baits about 1/2 back in one creek where I marked several fish, but once out we never marked them - made a big loop and as we went to pull in the baits to make a move, Matt found a white perch on the end of one of the lines
Same spot as my citation perch the other day 
About 7am we moved to another creek where there were a few boats already fishing, marked a few fish so we decided to put out bait and give it a try. The wind was a bit stiffer in there than elsewhere which made speed control a little challenging, but it was not very long before one of the light-lines buried over and my wife was on the 1st fish of the day - a 24", 6 lber
Set back up and kept pulling around - and the same rod bent over..... and Matt went to work - landing one that went about 28" and 8 lbs
We picked up one more small fish, but nothing after that - so around 8:30 or so we pulled in to go back and check some of the spots we'd looked at 1st thing in the morning. Nothing still, but I pulled into a near-by creek that we did not check yet and looked at some points in 20'-30' of water towards the mouth of the creek and saw a few scattered fish, so we turned around and setup to pull back out.
Good call as we quickly came over a nice pod of fish, and then spend the next hour circling and picking up a few for each of them. It was a school of smaller fish - largest there was 24" with most being 18"-22" - but the perfect size for some fun catching and releasing and it still amazes me how hard a 4 lb striper will pull on a ML rod.
This one is cool - you can see a release, and about the time the fish gets back down, a bait is hit and you can just make out the fish fighting to the surface
A little after 10am we started to wrap up - pulling out way out to the channel - had a down-line go off one more time and they let me reel that one in - a nice little dink......
It was a great morning to be on the water - the week-day and overcast skies and a bit of a chill in the wind kept most of the pleasure boaters and jet-ski's away, and it was great to spend some time fishing (and catching) with my wife & son. Caught 9 for the morning, keeping one that would not go back on release. Biggest was 26", with most being 20"-22".
Water: 82-83 - visibility of 5'
Techniques: Alewifes on downlines (6), light-lines (2), and at one point a couple of light-line floats
Time Fished: 6a - 10:15a
My wonderful wife had agreed to fish ONE morning on vacation, so we scheduled it for Thursday. I even convinced her to ride along with me on Wednesday evening to catch bait - but no luck in getting her to throw the net. We hit one light a little before 10pm and the bait was a bit thin, so after a few throws we moved over to another, somewhat deeper light, around 10:30 and it was the motherland of alewives - though on the smedium side - but figured they'd do.
Set the alarm for 5am and we were on the water and in search mode for stripers about 5:50.
Spent A LOT of time looking the morning - nothing in the spots of the last week (well, I did skip over one as the last time we didn't get much action there - sort of feeling like I should have checked that one now). Checked the mouths and about 1/2 way or more back in several creeks and marked maybe a dozen fish total in all that time, but we were treated to a beautiful sun-rise.
We did put out baits about 1/2 back in one creek where I marked several fish, but once out we never marked them - made a big loop and as we went to pull in the baits to make a move, Matt found a white perch on the end of one of the lines
Same spot as my citation perch the other day 
About 7am we moved to another creek where there were a few boats already fishing, marked a few fish so we decided to put out bait and give it a try. The wind was a bit stiffer in there than elsewhere which made speed control a little challenging, but it was not very long before one of the light-lines buried over and my wife was on the 1st fish of the day - a 24", 6 lber
Set back up and kept pulling around - and the same rod bent over..... and Matt went to work - landing one that went about 28" and 8 lbs
We picked up one more small fish, but nothing after that - so around 8:30 or so we pulled in to go back and check some of the spots we'd looked at 1st thing in the morning. Nothing still, but I pulled into a near-by creek that we did not check yet and looked at some points in 20'-30' of water towards the mouth of the creek and saw a few scattered fish, so we turned around and setup to pull back out.
Good call as we quickly came over a nice pod of fish, and then spend the next hour circling and picking up a few for each of them. It was a school of smaller fish - largest there was 24" with most being 18"-22" - but the perfect size for some fun catching and releasing and it still amazes me how hard a 4 lb striper will pull on a ML rod.
This one is cool - you can see a release, and about the time the fish gets back down, a bait is hit and you can just make out the fish fighting to the surface
A little after 10am we started to wrap up - pulling out way out to the channel - had a down-line go off one more time and they let me reel that one in - a nice little dink......
It was a great morning to be on the water - the week-day and overcast skies and a bit of a chill in the wind kept most of the pleasure boaters and jet-ski's away, and it was great to spend some time fishing (and catching) with my wife & son. Caught 9 for the morning, keeping one that would not go back on release. Biggest was 26", with most being 20"-22".
