Post by mwardncsu on Dec 4, 2017 9:27:24 GMT -5
Weather: Nice! upper 50's or low 60's, mostly still winds, partly to mostly cloudy all day
Water: 47 where I was catching bait - 56 where I was fishing
Techniques: 9-12" gizzards freelined on boards (3) and a dollar-bill gizzard on a light-line behind the boat
I jumped on with a couple of buddy's mid-morning to pull a mid-lake creek and then go on a bait hunt with them. No fish were home in the creek but after one or two stops to look a few places we moved on and put the Humminbird side-scan to work and found the bait. We were up VERY shallow in less than 2' of water and the bait was often even shallower. Lots of dollar-bill sized shad but a couple of throws yielded some nice 10"-13" gizzards.
They had to head back around 2:30 so as soon as they dropped me off I made a bee-line for my boat, and headed back to the same spot to catch some bait for the evening bite. It was around 3:45 when I got there and the sun was already starting to get behind the trees which wasn't going to help - I knew I was on borrowed time before the bait moved out of the shallows and back into deeper water - but I was able to find a few smaller pods and get a 18-20 decent baits to go fish the evening and perhaps the morning with.
I wanted to fish a few spots closer to my place but I was running out of daylight, so I setup on a spot that has typically held fish this time of year - pulled down the stretch with a boil or two to start but then it was dead.... I broke off a board early in the pull when a bait found a submerged log so I used that as an excuse to double back on my pull, even though the it was getting dark. I figured the golden hour had passed and I could barely see my boards as I got about 1/2 way back down the stretch when one of them buried. Had a fun fight with a spunky fish - although I was running a fairly loose drag - and got a 9 lber to the boat for a quick photo session before a release.
Mission accomplished and my "itch" successfully scratched for the week......
Water: 47 where I was catching bait - 56 where I was fishing
Techniques: 9-12" gizzards freelined on boards (3) and a dollar-bill gizzard on a light-line behind the boat
I jumped on with a couple of buddy's mid-morning to pull a mid-lake creek and then go on a bait hunt with them. No fish were home in the creek but after one or two stops to look a few places we moved on and put the Humminbird side-scan to work and found the bait. We were up VERY shallow in less than 2' of water and the bait was often even shallower. Lots of dollar-bill sized shad but a couple of throws yielded some nice 10"-13" gizzards.
They had to head back around 2:30 so as soon as they dropped me off I made a bee-line for my boat, and headed back to the same spot to catch some bait for the evening bite. It was around 3:45 when I got there and the sun was already starting to get behind the trees which wasn't going to help - I knew I was on borrowed time before the bait moved out of the shallows and back into deeper water - but I was able to find a few smaller pods and get a 18-20 decent baits to go fish the evening and perhaps the morning with.
I wanted to fish a few spots closer to my place but I was running out of daylight, so I setup on a spot that has typically held fish this time of year - pulled down the stretch with a boil or two to start but then it was dead.... I broke off a board early in the pull when a bait found a submerged log so I used that as an excuse to double back on my pull, even though the it was getting dark. I figured the golden hour had passed and I could barely see my boards as I got about 1/2 way back down the stretch when one of them buried. Had a fun fight with a spunky fish - although I was running a fairly loose drag - and got a 9 lber to the boat for a quick photo session before a release.
Mission accomplished and my "itch" successfully scratched for the week......
