The week of July 4th - Mixed results
Jul 10, 2016 19:44:53 GMT -5
Jason54, Gator, and 2 more like this
Post by R22 on Jul 10, 2016 19:44:53 GMT -5
Fishing report of July 6th-9th
Water temperatures were 81-83 degrees
Air temperatures - HOT
Techniques - A variety lightlines and freelines on planers. Downlines
Bait - A variety of alewives and some gizzards up to dollar bill size
Following the July 4th weekend and a case of the family reunion blues, I was off work and fished leisurely throughout the week. I wish my results were better but I had a good time.
I caught bait on Tuesday night but just couldn't get myself out of bed on Wednesday morning. I had noticed some recent Facebook posts of some successful evening so I decided to give it a shot. The day had been very hot but a late afternoon shower cooled things nicely. I fished from 6:30-8:30 and managed to catch two fish, a 31 and 29 inch fish. Both came on lightlined planers and both hit 6 inch gizzards. Neither fish would return to the water so I stuck them in the cooler headed home.
I fished Thursday morning from 5:15-10:00 am. I fished mid-lake below the bridge. I managed a channel cat and a smallmouth. I spoke to a few other boats and none of them had experienced much luck. Thursday evening was a skunk but I only fished for about one hour. Thunder and lightning sent me home early.
Friday morning I decided to try a completely different area and it turned out to be a good call. I caught six fish from 5:45-7:15. Things were pretty steady during the brief morning trip ending well before I was ready to go home when two fish would not swim. Nothing very large with everything ranging from 27-30 inches. I never saw many fish on the sonar but seemed to be able to stay on a few that were willing to eat the entire time I was out. It was a short trip but lots of fun. Somehow, I felt like the action would continue had I not had my limit. I saw several boats, four guides and it seemed like everyone close was having the same good luck. Fish were hitting big ales. One on a small gizzard.
On Saturday morning I had a buddy along. I dumped all of my bait when I got back on Friday so we were going to leave the house at 5 am pretty confident that filling the tank would be pretty easy. My experience all week had been a one and done net toss. As we approached my go to light, it was off. It apparently needed to be reset after the Friday afternoon storm and widespread power outage. Now I was chasing darkness and we scrambled to find bait before the sun came up. We found large gizzards but not much else for a bit. We finally managed some decent bait and decided to stay mid-lake. Bad move. I should have gone back to where I was on Friday morning. We stuck with it until 9:00 but had caught nothing. With several boats in the area, we only saw or heard of one small fish caught. The recreational traffic picked up and we decided to head back to where I had been the day before. As we approached the area I felt as though I was the only person that did not get the memo. There must have been 20-25 boats in the general area. As much as I wanted to join in, I didn't want to be "that guy". So, we decided to head to Bull Run. Didn't do great with the stripers - caught two small 26-27 inch fish. caught two smallmouth, one just one inch shy and a half pound short of a citation and a small catfish. We caught the cat and smallmouth on an alewife but the stripers both hit gizzards.
My buddy had a good time and that pleased me. It was a fun week with mixed results. The neighbors loved the fish I brought home. I enjoyed being out but only wish that fishing didn't require you to get out of bed so early.
Can anyone tell me why there are so many large gizzards at the lights right now?
