Post by mwardncsu on Dec 21, 2017 22:17:04 GMT -5
Weather: Darn near beautiful - 40+ by 10a and got up into the high 50's with no wind and mostly sunny skies
Water: 50-52, pretty clear most places with viability of 5' or so
Techniques: 12"+ gizzard shad freelined behind planers - 6' - 12' bank-side. Occasionally had a deeper side freelined board out or a light-line out the back of the boat - neither of those produced.
I had a lunch appointment at noon and it was right at freezing at daybreak so I drug my heels this morning - almost deciding to wait and go out until after lunch. About 10am it was 40+ and I decided I needed to stop slacking, so I got in the boat and headed over to a near-by creek where I've found big baits this time of year - Figured I had about 90 minutes to try a few spots. I idled around the creek looking for some good marks and as I started to head back out of the creek, getting close to the mouth I saw some schooled up big marks down on the bottom in 50'. Threw the net on them, pulled it up thinking I'd blanked, but found 15 mongo baits all 12" of bigger (ok, a few were 11) with at least 2 of them going 14"
Turned out to be one & done - I could not get back on that same pile and the others I tossed on were small baits that mostly went through the 5/8" mesh. But, hey, I had 15 quality baits - not going to be greedy. It was approaching noon so I cleaned the filter and headed off to lunch.
After lunch I figured I'd try and load some dollar-bill sized bait in the tank to add to the spread - I went to a creek that's been holding these for a couple of months but did not find them deep nor shallow. I took that as a sign that I was only to fish with big bait and headed on to go fishing!
I had a few creeks I wanted to hit with these beauties that have produced in late December / early January in past years. Put put a three bait spread and it was one minutes before I had a planer board dive but I think I let the line get slack as it threw the hook after 30 seconds or so
I pulled on an pretty quickly had another hit - this time fish on - with a 8 lber that was hungry for a bait almost 1/2 its size.
I circle back on that stretch and had another nail a board but sneak off with the bait, but then a little further down this time I was hooked up with a 12 lber.
Decided this was not the class of fish I was going to invest these baits on, so I moved to the back of the creek for a pull with no action so I moved on back up the lake a ways to pull some main channel points. Had no action across a bunch of points but pulled back into the creek where I had caught the bait earlier that day - I figure if big bait had been in the creek, then there was a good chance some fish were as well. As I got towards the back of the creek my middle board took a dive and I hung up - the fish peeled some good drag - fortunately running towards the middle of the creek and not to the timber on the bank. It came up and rolled a ways out there, which was a good sign if a better fish - and it was a nice fight to get it towards the boat. I could not see much of the fish but I saw the tail come out a couple of times and it looked like a decent sized tail so I was hopeful this was a good fish. As often happened it looked unimpressive in the water and got bigger as I laid it on the deck. This one went 20 lbs on the Bogas and 38" on the tape - my 1st Citation since early February!
It was about 4:30 and I wanted to hit one more creek and hopefully look for some bait, so I picked up and moved once again. Along my next pull I watched a fish blow tiny baits up onto the rocks about 50' away from me - I tossed a swimbait up into the carnage and it got hit once but I did not hook up - and the big shad just swam right on by.... no love in that creek - tried the channel on the way out of the creek but the golden hour has passed - and by the time I got the boat sorted to try and chase some bait it had vanished as well.
So be it - I have 6 quality baits, including the two 14"er's to drag tomorrow morning.....
Water: 50-52, pretty clear most places with viability of 5' or so
Techniques: 12"+ gizzard shad freelined behind planers - 6' - 12' bank-side. Occasionally had a deeper side freelined board out or a light-line out the back of the boat - neither of those produced.
I had a lunch appointment at noon and it was right at freezing at daybreak so I drug my heels this morning - almost deciding to wait and go out until after lunch. About 10am it was 40+ and I decided I needed to stop slacking, so I got in the boat and headed over to a near-by creek where I've found big baits this time of year - Figured I had about 90 minutes to try a few spots. I idled around the creek looking for some good marks and as I started to head back out of the creek, getting close to the mouth I saw some schooled up big marks down on the bottom in 50'. Threw the net on them, pulled it up thinking I'd blanked, but found 15 mongo baits all 12" of bigger (ok, a few were 11) with at least 2 of them going 14"
Turned out to be one & done - I could not get back on that same pile and the others I tossed on were small baits that mostly went through the 5/8" mesh. But, hey, I had 15 quality baits - not going to be greedy. It was approaching noon so I cleaned the filter and headed off to lunch.
After lunch I figured I'd try and load some dollar-bill sized bait in the tank to add to the spread - I went to a creek that's been holding these for a couple of months but did not find them deep nor shallow. I took that as a sign that I was only to fish with big bait and headed on to go fishing!
I had a few creeks I wanted to hit with these beauties that have produced in late December / early January in past years. Put put a three bait spread and it was one minutes before I had a planer board dive but I think I let the line get slack as it threw the hook after 30 seconds or so
I pulled on an pretty quickly had another hit - this time fish on - with a 8 lber that was hungry for a bait almost 1/2 its size.I circle back on that stretch and had another nail a board but sneak off with the bait, but then a little further down this time I was hooked up with a 12 lber.
Decided this was not the class of fish I was going to invest these baits on, so I moved to the back of the creek for a pull with no action so I moved on back up the lake a ways to pull some main channel points. Had no action across a bunch of points but pulled back into the creek where I had caught the bait earlier that day - I figure if big bait had been in the creek, then there was a good chance some fish were as well. As I got towards the back of the creek my middle board took a dive and I hung up - the fish peeled some good drag - fortunately running towards the middle of the creek and not to the timber on the bank. It came up and rolled a ways out there, which was a good sign if a better fish - and it was a nice fight to get it towards the boat. I could not see much of the fish but I saw the tail come out a couple of times and it looked like a decent sized tail so I was hopeful this was a good fish. As often happened it looked unimpressive in the water and got bigger as I laid it on the deck. This one went 20 lbs on the Bogas and 38" on the tape - my 1st Citation since early February!
It was about 4:30 and I wanted to hit one more creek and hopefully look for some bait, so I picked up and moved once again. Along my next pull I watched a fish blow tiny baits up onto the rocks about 50' away from me - I tossed a swimbait up into the carnage and it got hit once but I did not hook up - and the big shad just swam right on by.... no love in that creek - tried the channel on the way out of the creek but the golden hour has passed - and by the time I got the boat sorted to try and chase some bait it had vanished as well.
So be it - I have 6 quality baits, including the two 14"er's to drag tomorrow morning.....
