Post by mwardncsu on Jan 1, 2017 14:28:45 GMT -5
Weather: partly cloudy turning partly sunny - temps in low 40's rising into the low 50's, little to no wind
Water: 47, visibility of a few feet
Techniques: freeline planers bank-side with two decent 9-10" gizzards and the rest dollar-bill sized (or smaller) gizzards (3), light-line out the back and for a while one freeline planer on the deep side.
We had a WILD New Year's Eve by watching a movie as a family, eating some snacks & drinking multiple diet cokes. So, I got a late start and was not on the water until about 7:45 after retying some rods.
I pulled the back half of my creek to start the morning without a sniff - didn't see any bait either. I decided I'd make a move down lake to see if I could find some birds and as I was starting to come out of my creek I saw some flying around and noticed a guy on his dock reeling in a striper. I hung around the mouth of the creek a while and marked some fast-moving pods of fish - dropped a jig down a few times - hung a jig in a tree.... and then decided it was time to move on and look for other birds.
Ran down the lake a ways and saw a few other boats out looking as well, but didn't find any birds so I turned tail and headed back up the lake to where I'd fished the night before and had my butt handed to me - was time for some revenge. Started there about 10am and pulled the bank in the front of the creek a while without any action so I picked up and moved further deeper into the creek and setup again. About the time I was pulling across a blow-down there was a boil and then the board with one of my two "larger" gizzards (maybe 10") dove - fish on!
First Fish of 2017! 34.25" & 15 lbs
Worked that stretch of bank for the next hour or two and picked up three more stripers and missed one or two. My other "bigger" bait was the next to go - but fortunately the fish were willing to eat the dollar-bills as well.... however the size dropped with each catch - had a 30" / 9 lber and a pair of twins at 8 lbs & 29"
Late morning I moved back to pull the front part of the creek on my way out - hoping that the fish had showed back there or were hungry - but all I could pull out of there were a couple of largemouth..... one of which skidded on top of the water as I reeled it straight in - why do folks chase these green fish???
I called it a morning just after noon and headed back to the house - got 2017 off on the right foot and looking forward to see what this year brings!
Happy New Year!
Water: 47, visibility of a few feet
Techniques: freeline planers bank-side with two decent 9-10" gizzards and the rest dollar-bill sized (or smaller) gizzards (3), light-line out the back and for a while one freeline planer on the deep side.
We had a WILD New Year's Eve by watching a movie as a family, eating some snacks & drinking multiple diet cokes. So, I got a late start and was not on the water until about 7:45 after retying some rods.
I pulled the back half of my creek to start the morning without a sniff - didn't see any bait either. I decided I'd make a move down lake to see if I could find some birds and as I was starting to come out of my creek I saw some flying around and noticed a guy on his dock reeling in a striper. I hung around the mouth of the creek a while and marked some fast-moving pods of fish - dropped a jig down a few times - hung a jig in a tree.... and then decided it was time to move on and look for other birds.
Ran down the lake a ways and saw a few other boats out looking as well, but didn't find any birds so I turned tail and headed back up the lake to where I'd fished the night before and had my butt handed to me - was time for some revenge. Started there about 10am and pulled the bank in the front of the creek a while without any action so I picked up and moved further deeper into the creek and setup again. About the time I was pulling across a blow-down there was a boil and then the board with one of my two "larger" gizzards (maybe 10") dove - fish on!
First Fish of 2017! 34.25" & 15 lbs
Worked that stretch of bank for the next hour or two and picked up three more stripers and missed one or two. My other "bigger" bait was the next to go - but fortunately the fish were willing to eat the dollar-bills as well.... however the size dropped with each catch - had a 30" / 9 lber and a pair of twins at 8 lbs & 29"
Late morning I moved back to pull the front part of the creek on my way out - hoping that the fish had showed back there or were hungry - but all I could pull out of there were a couple of largemouth..... one of which skidded on top of the water as I reeled it straight in - why do folks chase these green fish???
I called it a morning just after noon and headed back to the house - got 2017 off on the right foot and looking forward to see what this year brings!
Happy New Year!
