Post by R22 on Oct 11, 2016 8:11:36 GMT -5
Water Temperature - 69-71 degrees
Air Temperature - Upper 50s to mid 60s
Weather - Very windy with some heavy gusts, clear blue skies
Technique - free and lightlined planers, downlines, freelines, lightlined floats
Water quality - Stained
No ales at my light. We headed up river just before daylight, stopping at a good light along the way and added some very large alewives to a tank of 20 or so gizzards that were 6-8 inches. Our intention was to catch fish, but more than anything, we wanted to do some scouting and see if we could learn something that would benefit us in the coming weeks. Our initial plan was to start much further south than we actually began the day but the wind was a real B*&^#. My boat is a 24ft. bay with T-Top. The wind was making a 6 MPH speed difference just by turning a corner. I have a 36 volt 112 Lb. trolling motor. On a regular day I rarely have the motor above level 3. There were times during the day where we were sitting on level 5 and going backwards.
We had lines in before 7am. We started with a mix of gizzards and the large to jumbo ales. We immediately began marking a few fish. We never really saw many fish but it was steady enough to think we had a shot at hooking up.
Through the first few hours we got no love at all. As we moved through an area where we have had good luck at this time during the past few years a gizzard on an inside board got crushed. Michael set the hook on what seemed to be a decent fish and maybe five seconds later "snap". All we got back was a curly-Q with the line broken in the knot above the swivel. Daggone it Primetime, I thought I had moved past these knot tying woes. When one breaks, it sure makes you question the quality of every line you have out.
We stayed below most of the heavy trash. At one point when we were going through a regular bait checking exercise, Michael decided to try a smaller ale on one of the downlines. We had culled most of the 4-5 inch variety before loading the tank. It seems that may have been a bad decision. Not 5 minutes in, the smaller ale got slammed on a downline. The fish was only 26 inches but was the shape of a football. It fought like something much larger. We reloaded with the only remaining small ale and it too was hit within the first five minutes but we failed to hook up.
We wanted to try and catch some bigger bait and watch the second half of the Skins game so we called it quits about noon. Decent bait was pretty easy to find. I have not yet found the larger baits this fall. Even though small ales seemed to be their preference today I still want to stock up on some bigger baits. Any help from the members to point me in the direction of mongomania is greatly appreciated.
Air Temperature - Upper 50s to mid 60s
Weather - Very windy with some heavy gusts, clear blue skies
Technique - free and lightlined planers, downlines, freelines, lightlined floats
Water quality - Stained
No ales at my light. We headed up river just before daylight, stopping at a good light along the way and added some very large alewives to a tank of 20 or so gizzards that were 6-8 inches. Our intention was to catch fish, but more than anything, we wanted to do some scouting and see if we could learn something that would benefit us in the coming weeks. Our initial plan was to start much further south than we actually began the day but the wind was a real B*&^#. My boat is a 24ft. bay with T-Top. The wind was making a 6 MPH speed difference just by turning a corner. I have a 36 volt 112 Lb. trolling motor. On a regular day I rarely have the motor above level 3. There were times during the day where we were sitting on level 5 and going backwards.
We had lines in before 7am. We started with a mix of gizzards and the large to jumbo ales. We immediately began marking a few fish. We never really saw many fish but it was steady enough to think we had a shot at hooking up.
Through the first few hours we got no love at all. As we moved through an area where we have had good luck at this time during the past few years a gizzard on an inside board got crushed. Michael set the hook on what seemed to be a decent fish and maybe five seconds later "snap". All we got back was a curly-Q with the line broken in the knot above the swivel. Daggone it Primetime, I thought I had moved past these knot tying woes. When one breaks, it sure makes you question the quality of every line you have out.
We stayed below most of the heavy trash. At one point when we were going through a regular bait checking exercise, Michael decided to try a smaller ale on one of the downlines. We had culled most of the 4-5 inch variety before loading the tank. It seems that may have been a bad decision. Not 5 minutes in, the smaller ale got slammed on a downline. The fish was only 26 inches but was the shape of a football. It fought like something much larger. We reloaded with the only remaining small ale and it too was hit within the first five minutes but we failed to hook up.
We wanted to try and catch some bigger bait and watch the second half of the Skins game so we called it quits about noon. Decent bait was pretty easy to find. I have not yet found the larger baits this fall. Even though small ales seemed to be their preference today I still want to stock up on some bigger baits. Any help from the members to point me in the direction of mongomania is greatly appreciated.
