12/21/15 - Kicking off the Holidays
Dec 24, 2015 15:58:12 GMT -5
Live Bait JunkEE and steviejayvaughan like this
Post by mwardncsu on Dec 24, 2015 15:58:12 GMT -5
Weather: Lows in mid-30's, highs in mid-50's, mostly overcast with light & variable winds
Water: 52-54, visibility of a few feet
Techniques: Medium to Mongo gizzards on freeline planers, light-line planer, light-line float, light-lines, and a few down-lines from time to time
Had the week off work and Charlie, (ArchEnemy), Kurt (LiveBaitJunkEE) and I had been working a plan to get out to the Bay for a few days - but as we got into the weekend the forecast for Mon & Tue were questionable (which of course turned out to be great....), so we decided we would just head to SML for a few days and crash at my place where we knew we could fish and catch fish and we'd have fun regardless. I got up mid-afternoon on Sunday and headed out to catch bait. Found a dozen fairly quickly but struggled in a few creeks until after dark when the bait came up and I was able to load up with all the 6"-8" gizzards you'd want. Had a just a few mongo - not as many as I'd like but figured it would get us started and we could look more on Monday.
Kurt was going to fish Monday with Yam then jump on with us on Tuesday. Charlie got to the lake around 6:30 am on Monday and we were on the water a bit after 7am. We decided to start in my own creek and put out the spread with the biggest bait in the tank bank-side - a nice 14" gizzard. Not 3 min into the pull that bait got blown up on along with another and the big bait got hooked up but the line broke when Charlie grabbed the rod
Missed another along the bank and hung a couple of gizzards on submerged trees - not getting the trip off to a great start..... We pulled the creek for a while, finally picking up a fish at 32.5" as we crossed the middle of the creek channel going from one bank to the other.
Mid-morning we moved on down to mid-lake and pulled a creek where I'd had luck the previous few weeks before the cold snap that came in over the weekend, but we only had one nervous bait. Tried another mid-lake creek that a buddy caught some fish in before the cold-snap and the only thing we could raise was a large-mouth that thew the bait and the hook on the way boat
Decided it was time for a lunch break so we called in an order for pizza and picked it up to go, and then headed on up a bit to our next creek. On the way back up the lake we spotted this.... not sure what happened as all the lift cables were in place - but the cradle was way too high - but the bimini not crushed so still haven't figured out this one.....
Stopped in our third mid-lake creek and gave it a tour.... finally picking up my first fish as we almost done - unfortunately the hook got deep in the gut and caught some of the gills and it bled out really bad so we kept that one since it was under the slot and gave it to some other buddies to clean and enjoy that night.
We moved quite a ways on up the lake and found some fish that wanted to play - we had our share of misses but managed to pull a couple of fish out of there in the end...
We moved on up a bit more and tried one more area a bit aways from where some other buddies were fishing, not getting a sniff unfortunately.
As dark set in we spent a while catching up some more bait for Tuesday when Kurt was going to join us.... we tag-teamed the bait with Kurt & Yam, catching a while and had a good tank full of medium to large baits before we headed to the house around 9pm - just in time to get to the Mexican restaurant about 9:30p to enjoy dinner.... then back to the house for a few hours of shut-eye to do it all again the next day.....
Not a great catch-rate day - four fish to the boat with the biggest at 32.5" - but we missed easily that many.... still a heck of an enjoyable day.
Water: 52-54, visibility of a few feet
Techniques: Medium to Mongo gizzards on freeline planers, light-line planer, light-line float, light-lines, and a few down-lines from time to time
Had the week off work and Charlie, (ArchEnemy), Kurt (LiveBaitJunkEE) and I had been working a plan to get out to the Bay for a few days - but as we got into the weekend the forecast for Mon & Tue were questionable (which of course turned out to be great....), so we decided we would just head to SML for a few days and crash at my place where we knew we could fish and catch fish and we'd have fun regardless. I got up mid-afternoon on Sunday and headed out to catch bait. Found a dozen fairly quickly but struggled in a few creeks until after dark when the bait came up and I was able to load up with all the 6"-8" gizzards you'd want. Had a just a few mongo - not as many as I'd like but figured it would get us started and we could look more on Monday.
Kurt was going to fish Monday with Yam then jump on with us on Tuesday. Charlie got to the lake around 6:30 am on Monday and we were on the water a bit after 7am. We decided to start in my own creek and put out the spread with the biggest bait in the tank bank-side - a nice 14" gizzard. Not 3 min into the pull that bait got blown up on along with another and the big bait got hooked up but the line broke when Charlie grabbed the rod
Missed another along the bank and hung a couple of gizzards on submerged trees - not getting the trip off to a great start..... We pulled the creek for a while, finally picking up a fish at 32.5" as we crossed the middle of the creek channel going from one bank to the other.Mid-morning we moved on down to mid-lake and pulled a creek where I'd had luck the previous few weeks before the cold snap that came in over the weekend, but we only had one nervous bait. Tried another mid-lake creek that a buddy caught some fish in before the cold-snap and the only thing we could raise was a large-mouth that thew the bait and the hook on the way boat
Decided it was time for a lunch break so we called in an order for pizza and picked it up to go, and then headed on up a bit to our next creek. On the way back up the lake we spotted this.... not sure what happened as all the lift cables were in place - but the cradle was way too high - but the bimini not crushed so still haven't figured out this one.....
Stopped in our third mid-lake creek and gave it a tour.... finally picking up my first fish as we almost done - unfortunately the hook got deep in the gut and caught some of the gills and it bled out really bad so we kept that one since it was under the slot and gave it to some other buddies to clean and enjoy that night.
We moved quite a ways on up the lake and found some fish that wanted to play - we had our share of misses but managed to pull a couple of fish out of there in the end...
We moved on up a bit more and tried one more area a bit aways from where some other buddies were fishing, not getting a sniff unfortunately.
As dark set in we spent a while catching up some more bait for Tuesday when Kurt was going to join us.... we tag-teamed the bait with Kurt & Yam, catching a while and had a good tank full of medium to large baits before we headed to the house around 9pm - just in time to get to the Mexican restaurant about 9:30p to enjoy dinner.... then back to the house for a few hours of shut-eye to do it all again the next day.....
Not a great catch-rate day - four fish to the boat with the biggest at 32.5" - but we missed easily that many.... still a heck of an enjoyable day.