5/5/17 pm - 5/7/17 am - Competition Time
May 7, 2017 20:28:40 GMT -5
BentRod, widgeon3, and 6 more like this
Post by mwardncsu on May 7, 2017 20:28:40 GMT -5
Weather: Fri - 60's with light winds; Sat - cloudy with occasional drizzle, wind 10-15 from the W - rising to 15-20 with gusts to 30 in afternoon then laid down about 5pm; Sunday, temps in the 40's to low 50's, partly cloudy, winds 5-10 from W
Water: 62-66; visibility of 1 - 5 feet
Techniques: Freeline planers (3-6) with alewifes, dollar-bill gizzards & mongo-gizzards; light-lines with ales, downlines with ales or small gizzards
Tyler, Brock & I were teaming up to fish the "Smith Mountain Lake Fishing Tournament" - a multi-species tourney with live-weigh-in. With water temps in the low to mid 60's and the protective slot of 30"-40" in place, we felt comfortable enough in fishing it and being able to keep a sub 30" striper in shape to release - and helped the low water temps would help those that did not know as much about how to take care of a striper....
Tyler and Brock hit the water around 5 on Fri on Brock's Sea Pro as I headed to our Striper Club Meeting - they were in search of bait and hoping to do some fishing. A big storm Thur night / Fri Am that dumped 2-3" of rain and sent a ton of muddy water and trash down the river into the lake caused a change in our plans / strategy. They were not able to do much with bait until after dark - I joined them about 9 and we hit lights tossing the net and occasionally tossed a Thunderstick at the banks until 2 am when we finally assembled a decent tank of bait - good mix of large to monster alewifes, maybe a dozen money-makers and 6 big gizzards.
We hit the water at first light and headed down the lake to some big fish grounds. We had a little bit of action, a few chases / rolls and a tug but could not get them to commit. We moved over to schoolie-land where some large schools have been roaming with a back-up strategy of trying to get a fish as close to 30" as we could.
We were looking around one cove when all of a sudden stripers came up and started breaking right in front of us. Brock and I both grabbed casting rods and started throwing - he hooked up on the 1st cast - I had one hit and miss - then knock my Thunderstruck 3' of of the water but not connect. I did finally connect on one but they were all 6 lb fish which we knew were not worth checking in. They went down almost as quick as they came up. We saw them come up later aways away from us and we could not get there in time - but fortunately we ran right over them marking them on sonar and they came up all around us again. We picked up several more casting and on downrods - but all on the smaller side.
They went back down and we pulled over towards the side of the cove to hit some points - we had almost gotten back out to the mouth of the cove when we had a bank-side board near a dock get hit but missed the hook-up. A moment later the deeper side board took off and Tyler was by the rod and went to work - landing what would turn out to be a $1000 fish.
At first glance we thought it was over 30", but when we got it on our measuring board it was just under - so we decided to pull in and make the run up the other side of the lake to the weigh-in point. We were VERY thankful we were in Brock's deep-V center console as the wind was tough and crossing some of the bigger water on the lower lakes had some decent waves rolling. The fish went in the bait tank with its mouth near the venturi output and I made sure it stayed right-side up on the trip. It was checked in at 29 7/8" and weighed at 10.89 lbs - Tyler released it dock-side and she swam off to grow and be caught again. That put us on the top of the board around 10:30a on Saturday - 25 1/2 hours to go....
We moved back up the lake and hit a couple of spots inside creeks to see if we could find some other fish for Brock or I to measure in to get additional places on the board (the tourney is a "individual" format) - or hopefully for a 40"+ fish - but we didn't get any sniffs. We took a lunch break, which turned into a nap break as the wind had turned on crazy blowing 15-20 with 30-35 mph gusts and headed back out about 5pm when the wind had laid down. We hit a few more creeks till dark but had no more action as the skies cleared and the cooler temps were settling in.
We were still holding 1st at 9pm on Sat but decided we better head out on Sunday AM in case someone managed to pull in a heavier fish or find a 40"+ - or to try and secure one or two more spots. We should have stayed in bed. It was low 40's and a little wind and sunny skies - and a dead bite. We had one or two half-hearted rolls at best - probably more just bored baits - but we fished sun-up till 9am or so when we headed back to the slip to clean up, go get some breakfast and get over to the check-in with plenty of time to spare.
One more striper came to the scales just as we arrived at the check-in, causing some stress, but it was a smaller one that didn't make the board. Our Sat AM fish had held and Tyler was presented with the honors for 1st place in the Striped Bass category.
Good way to close out a hard weekend of fishing - 9 fish on Sat AM with over 1/2 of those coming from casting to breaking fish - always a blast, even if they are not huge fish. Was fun to get to be on the other side of the tournament game again for me - had a good time with the guys and the win was a bonus!
Water: 62-66; visibility of 1 - 5 feet
Techniques: Freeline planers (3-6) with alewifes, dollar-bill gizzards & mongo-gizzards; light-lines with ales, downlines with ales or small gizzards
Tyler, Brock & I were teaming up to fish the "Smith Mountain Lake Fishing Tournament" - a multi-species tourney with live-weigh-in. With water temps in the low to mid 60's and the protective slot of 30"-40" in place, we felt comfortable enough in fishing it and being able to keep a sub 30" striper in shape to release - and helped the low water temps would help those that did not know as much about how to take care of a striper....
Tyler and Brock hit the water around 5 on Fri on Brock's Sea Pro as I headed to our Striper Club Meeting - they were in search of bait and hoping to do some fishing. A big storm Thur night / Fri Am that dumped 2-3" of rain and sent a ton of muddy water and trash down the river into the lake caused a change in our plans / strategy. They were not able to do much with bait until after dark - I joined them about 9 and we hit lights tossing the net and occasionally tossed a Thunderstick at the banks until 2 am when we finally assembled a decent tank of bait - good mix of large to monster alewifes, maybe a dozen money-makers and 6 big gizzards.
We hit the water at first light and headed down the lake to some big fish grounds. We had a little bit of action, a few chases / rolls and a tug but could not get them to commit. We moved over to schoolie-land where some large schools have been roaming with a back-up strategy of trying to get a fish as close to 30" as we could.
We were looking around one cove when all of a sudden stripers came up and started breaking right in front of us. Brock and I both grabbed casting rods and started throwing - he hooked up on the 1st cast - I had one hit and miss - then knock my Thunderstruck 3' of of the water but not connect. I did finally connect on one but they were all 6 lb fish which we knew were not worth checking in. They went down almost as quick as they came up. We saw them come up later aways away from us and we could not get there in time - but fortunately we ran right over them marking them on sonar and they came up all around us again. We picked up several more casting and on downrods - but all on the smaller side.
They went back down and we pulled over towards the side of the cove to hit some points - we had almost gotten back out to the mouth of the cove when we had a bank-side board near a dock get hit but missed the hook-up. A moment later the deeper side board took off and Tyler was by the rod and went to work - landing what would turn out to be a $1000 fish.
At first glance we thought it was over 30", but when we got it on our measuring board it was just under - so we decided to pull in and make the run up the other side of the lake to the weigh-in point. We were VERY thankful we were in Brock's deep-V center console as the wind was tough and crossing some of the bigger water on the lower lakes had some decent waves rolling. The fish went in the bait tank with its mouth near the venturi output and I made sure it stayed right-side up on the trip. It was checked in at 29 7/8" and weighed at 10.89 lbs - Tyler released it dock-side and she swam off to grow and be caught again. That put us on the top of the board around 10:30a on Saturday - 25 1/2 hours to go....
We moved back up the lake and hit a couple of spots inside creeks to see if we could find some other fish for Brock or I to measure in to get additional places on the board (the tourney is a "individual" format) - or hopefully for a 40"+ fish - but we didn't get any sniffs. We took a lunch break, which turned into a nap break as the wind had turned on crazy blowing 15-20 with 30-35 mph gusts and headed back out about 5pm when the wind had laid down. We hit a few more creeks till dark but had no more action as the skies cleared and the cooler temps were settling in.
We were still holding 1st at 9pm on Sat but decided we better head out on Sunday AM in case someone managed to pull in a heavier fish or find a 40"+ - or to try and secure one or two more spots. We should have stayed in bed. It was low 40's and a little wind and sunny skies - and a dead bite. We had one or two half-hearted rolls at best - probably more just bored baits - but we fished sun-up till 9am or so when we headed back to the slip to clean up, go get some breakfast and get over to the check-in with plenty of time to spare.
One more striper came to the scales just as we arrived at the check-in, causing some stress, but it was a smaller one that didn't make the board. Our Sat AM fish had held and Tyler was presented with the honors for 1st place in the Striped Bass category.
Good way to close out a hard weekend of fishing - 9 fish on Sat AM with over 1/2 of those coming from casting to breaking fish - always a blast, even if they are not huge fish. Was fun to get to be on the other side of the tournament game again for me - had a good time with the guys and the win was a bonus!
