4/1/17 & 4/2/17 - April Fool's and I'm the Fool
Apr 4, 2017 21:49:04 GMT -5
Jason54, smlfishing, and 1 more like this
Post by mwardncsu on Apr 4, 2017 21:49:04 GMT -5
4/1
Weather: 50's to start rising to upper 60's - light winds building to 10-15 from the NW with gust to 25
Water: 57-59, visibility of 0 - 5 feet
Techniques: gizzard planer spread - mostly 10-12" baits and a few smaller ones
Time Fished: 7a - 7p with a few hours mid/late afternoon to (try and) catch bait and do some bait tank maintenance
Went out on Friday evening to try and net up some bait and hopefully fish the evening bite, but the storm system that moved through earlier that day seemed to have moved all the bait or pushed them somewhere - I found a few but spent a lot of time looking in a few creeks including the side of banks the wind was blowing. I picked up another 12-16 baits from the tank and headed back for the evening without pulling out a rod - ready for the morning.
Headed out solo on April Fool's Day - started in my own creek and had a blow-up and fish on within 50 yards of putting out baits - good start to the morning! Well, it was a 27" fish so nothing special, but at least the day would not be a skunk - which I had been concerned it would be with the post-front conditions.
Missed one or two in the creek and after staying in there a while I moved on down the lake - I tried a couple of spots I'd not fished in a while with no action - mid morning I moved back up the lake and pulled a long stretch, having a blow-up that did not eat and then finally connected again - this time with a more respectively 34" fish.
Headed back down lake for the afternoon "bite" - and pulled several creeks with just a couple of swirls or blow-ups and one or two missed connections. Around 2:30 or so I went back on the bait-hunt in the 15 mph winds - marked some small pods here and there but could not manage to scrape up any in the wind, so I went and spent an hour or so on tank maintenance.
Had the intention to head on to the house and get some rest, but there was still an hour and a half or so of daylight, so I had to pull on - hit another cree with no love and then headed back to mine - with a aggressive hit on the board that stole the bait and left me hanging.... decided that was my sign so I packed it in for the day and headed to the Mexican restaurant for some pork and a margarita.
4/2
Weather: low 40''s to start rising to upper 60's - light winds building to 5-10 from the S
Water: 58-60, visibility of 0-5 feet
Techniques: gizzard planer spread - mix of 6-8" gizzards, 10-12" gizzards and a few big alewives
Time Fished: 7a - 1p
Headed back out on Sunday with Gator - I decided to pull my creek again to start - bad call - a few nervious baits and that was it - wasted a bit over an hour before we made a move. Moved up the lake and pulled a bank with a missed hook-up and then on up some more to where I'd caught my 2nd fish day before and we pulled a long stretch with just some nervous baits. Talked to another guy at the end of that pull that said it had been on good at first light - while we were waiting time in my own creek - so much for that resolution to fish my own creek more
We moved back down and tried to catch some more bait in a creek - it was slam packed full of 6" gizzards but we found some bigger ones along a rip-rap bank.
We moved on down a ways an pulled a stretch of main channel that has a bunch of small points and then pulled into a creek - on the way into the creek one of our small baits got slammed - then a short distance down another got hooked up but came off after I handed the rod over to Gator. We did have bigger bait get nailed in the back of the creek but we decided they were into the smaller baits today so we ran back to the creek where we caught bait earlier and quickly netted a few dozen smaller gizzards and also some big alewifes and headed back to pull those points again.
Well, we had a number of chases & nervous baits, and one good tail-slap, but no more hook-ups. I had to call it a little after one to get back to the dock and get things tucked away in time to get to a meeting that afternoon, so we didn't get to try the evening bite. Seems we had just been in the wrong places at the right time - maybe with the wrong-sized bait..... can't win them all - 1st skunk of the year on 4/2, so I guess it's not so bad....
Taking a break from SML for a couple of weeks - going to try and tangle with some out of state stripers this week
Weather: 50's to start rising to upper 60's - light winds building to 10-15 from the NW with gust to 25
Water: 57-59, visibility of 0 - 5 feet
Techniques: gizzard planer spread - mostly 10-12" baits and a few smaller ones
Time Fished: 7a - 7p with a few hours mid/late afternoon to (try and) catch bait and do some bait tank maintenance
Went out on Friday evening to try and net up some bait and hopefully fish the evening bite, but the storm system that moved through earlier that day seemed to have moved all the bait or pushed them somewhere - I found a few but spent a lot of time looking in a few creeks including the side of banks the wind was blowing. I picked up another 12-16 baits from the tank and headed back for the evening without pulling out a rod - ready for the morning.
Headed out solo on April Fool's Day - started in my own creek and had a blow-up and fish on within 50 yards of putting out baits - good start to the morning! Well, it was a 27" fish so nothing special, but at least the day would not be a skunk - which I had been concerned it would be with the post-front conditions.
Missed one or two in the creek and after staying in there a while I moved on down the lake - I tried a couple of spots I'd not fished in a while with no action - mid morning I moved back up the lake and pulled a long stretch, having a blow-up that did not eat and then finally connected again - this time with a more respectively 34" fish.
Headed back down lake for the afternoon "bite" - and pulled several creeks with just a couple of swirls or blow-ups and one or two missed connections. Around 2:30 or so I went back on the bait-hunt in the 15 mph winds - marked some small pods here and there but could not manage to scrape up any in the wind, so I went and spent an hour or so on tank maintenance.
Had the intention to head on to the house and get some rest, but there was still an hour and a half or so of daylight, so I had to pull on - hit another cree with no love and then headed back to mine - with a aggressive hit on the board that stole the bait and left me hanging.... decided that was my sign so I packed it in for the day and headed to the Mexican restaurant for some pork and a margarita.
4/2
Weather: low 40''s to start rising to upper 60's - light winds building to 5-10 from the S
Water: 58-60, visibility of 0-5 feet
Techniques: gizzard planer spread - mix of 6-8" gizzards, 10-12" gizzards and a few big alewives
Time Fished: 7a - 1p
Headed back out on Sunday with Gator - I decided to pull my creek again to start - bad call - a few nervious baits and that was it - wasted a bit over an hour before we made a move. Moved up the lake and pulled a bank with a missed hook-up and then on up some more to where I'd caught my 2nd fish day before and we pulled a long stretch with just some nervous baits. Talked to another guy at the end of that pull that said it had been on good at first light - while we were waiting time in my own creek - so much for that resolution to fish my own creek more
We moved back down and tried to catch some more bait in a creek - it was slam packed full of 6" gizzards but we found some bigger ones along a rip-rap bank.
We moved on down a ways an pulled a stretch of main channel that has a bunch of small points and then pulled into a creek - on the way into the creek one of our small baits got slammed - then a short distance down another got hooked up but came off after I handed the rod over to Gator. We did have bigger bait get nailed in the back of the creek but we decided they were into the smaller baits today so we ran back to the creek where we caught bait earlier and quickly netted a few dozen smaller gizzards and also some big alewifes and headed back to pull those points again.
Well, we had a number of chases & nervous baits, and one good tail-slap, but no more hook-ups. I had to call it a little after one to get back to the dock and get things tucked away in time to get to a meeting that afternoon, so we didn't get to try the evening bite. Seems we had just been in the wrong places at the right time - maybe with the wrong-sized bait..... can't win them all - 1st skunk of the year on 4/2, so I guess it's not so bad....
Taking a break from SML for a couple of weeks - going to try and tangle with some out of state stripers this week
