1/20/17 - Bait Catching & a Little Fishing
Jan 22, 2017 13:33:56 GMT -5
Jason54, drag4striper, and 1 more like this
Post by mwardncsu on Jan 22, 2017 13:33:56 GMT -5
Weather: overcast, temps in the upper 50's, no wind - just perfect
Water: 47-49, visibilty of a foot or two
Techniques: Throwing the cast net (10', 5/8" 1.5 lb/ft and a 1.25 lb/ft net) and then pulling dollar-bill to money-maker gizzards on free-line planers along the bank mid-way back in a creek
Headed up to the lake mid-day on Friday with the intention of catching bait to use on Saturday for some fishing. Gator was going to fish with me on Saturday so he decided to come along for the ride so we got down to the boat about 1:30 and spent a little time looking for bait in my creek - finding some dollar-bills and a couple of better baits. After 30 min or so we moved on up the lake to another creek where good amount of bait has been holding and were not disappointed. Bait was right were it should be - holding in 30+ feet of water, sitting 15' to the bottom. Move into 20-25 feet deep and you wouldn't find much bait at all. We traded off throwing for a while and at one point did a double toss on a carpet of bait..... that was a mistake
Dollar bills were plentiful but larger stuff was hard to find. Between us we probably threw the net 20-30 times. Ran into another boat tossing a 6' Wal-mart type net and struggling so we passed over a bucket of a couple dozen dollar-bills to them to help them out.
We put 4 dozen or so baits in the tank and still had an hour and a half or so before dark so decided we'd fish that creek for the rest of the evening. Put out a spread on the bank side and pretty quickly had fish to the boat.
Worked that stretch a while back and forth and picked up 4 fish, a large-mouth and missed several. The fish were not playing - just slamming the baits aggressively. Often times the board would get hammered and you could not even get to the rod before it had let go. Fish were all 26-30" range - up to about 12 lbs.
We even were treated with a double that was almost a triple......
About 20 min before sunset we made a move a bit further up the creek to try another stretch - found fish but could not get hooked up - missed two there I think - so we called it a day and headed back to the dock with a tank full of dollar-bills and a few money-makers ready for Saturday morning.....
I warmed up a delicious SmartOnes in the microwave for dinner and ate that and then looked at the clock and it was 7:30 - decided I could catch up on some Walking Dead episodes or take advantage of these 50 degree temps in January so back down to the boat I went - and headed down the lake to check out a few creeks to see if I could find some 10"+ shad to add to the mix.
I was well rewarded - the first creek had bait - again holding in the 30' bottom depths - more scattered than the afternoon but I was netting a few at a time - and being rewarded with 1 or 2 10"-12" baits at least 3 of 4 throws. I tossed in there maybe 20 times and then decided to move on down to another creek.
Marked a lot of scattered bait on the way in over 40' of water, but moved on back into the back of the creek to check - it was slam full of much smaller bait that I did not even through on - marked what looked like a little larger bait in 10' of water in the very back but it was all dollar-bills so I headed back out to where I found the scattered back in 40' of water. Bingo - was pulling up 1-3 10"-14" baits each throw. I'm sure I could have stayed there all night and caught 100 or or more put after putting a dozen more big bait in the tank it was about 11pm so I headed back to the house.... Changed some water and the cold-shocked baits had settled in for a nice nights chill.... and I a short nights nap.
Water: 47-49, visibilty of a foot or two
Techniques: Throwing the cast net (10', 5/8" 1.5 lb/ft and a 1.25 lb/ft net) and then pulling dollar-bill to money-maker gizzards on free-line planers along the bank mid-way back in a creek
Headed up to the lake mid-day on Friday with the intention of catching bait to use on Saturday for some fishing. Gator was going to fish with me on Saturday so he decided to come along for the ride so we got down to the boat about 1:30 and spent a little time looking for bait in my creek - finding some dollar-bills and a couple of better baits. After 30 min or so we moved on up the lake to another creek where good amount of bait has been holding and were not disappointed. Bait was right were it should be - holding in 30+ feet of water, sitting 15' to the bottom. Move into 20-25 feet deep and you wouldn't find much bait at all. We traded off throwing for a while and at one point did a double toss on a carpet of bait..... that was a mistake
Dollar bills were plentiful but larger stuff was hard to find. Between us we probably threw the net 20-30 times. Ran into another boat tossing a 6' Wal-mart type net and struggling so we passed over a bucket of a couple dozen dollar-bills to them to help them out.
We put 4 dozen or so baits in the tank and still had an hour and a half or so before dark so decided we'd fish that creek for the rest of the evening. Put out a spread on the bank side and pretty quickly had fish to the boat.
Worked that stretch a while back and forth and picked up 4 fish, a large-mouth and missed several. The fish were not playing - just slamming the baits aggressively. Often times the board would get hammered and you could not even get to the rod before it had let go. Fish were all 26-30" range - up to about 12 lbs.
We even were treated with a double that was almost a triple......
About 20 min before sunset we made a move a bit further up the creek to try another stretch - found fish but could not get hooked up - missed two there I think - so we called it a day and headed back to the dock with a tank full of dollar-bills and a few money-makers ready for Saturday morning.....
I warmed up a delicious SmartOnes in the microwave for dinner and ate that and then looked at the clock and it was 7:30 - decided I could catch up on some Walking Dead episodes or take advantage of these 50 degree temps in January so back down to the boat I went - and headed down the lake to check out a few creeks to see if I could find some 10"+ shad to add to the mix.
I was well rewarded - the first creek had bait - again holding in the 30' bottom depths - more scattered than the afternoon but I was netting a few at a time - and being rewarded with 1 or 2 10"-12" baits at least 3 of 4 throws. I tossed in there maybe 20 times and then decided to move on down to another creek.
Marked a lot of scattered bait on the way in over 40' of water, but moved on back into the back of the creek to check - it was slam full of much smaller bait that I did not even through on - marked what looked like a little larger bait in 10' of water in the very back but it was all dollar-bills so I headed back out to where I found the scattered back in 40' of water. Bingo - was pulling up 1-3 10"-14" baits each throw. I'm sure I could have stayed there all night and caught 100 or or more put after putting a dozen more big bait in the tank it was about 11pm so I headed back to the house.... Changed some water and the cold-shocked baits had settled in for a nice nights chill.... and I a short nights nap.
