6/1/13 - Can't hit the Night Bite Right

[mwardncsu]

Weather: Upper 70's, started off as a light & variable, but picked back up to a 5-10 from NW; mostly clear, no moon
Water: 75, visibility of 5-8'
Techniques: tossing jointed thundersticks to rip-rap banks where alewifes were spawning.

My son had a Scout gathering on Saturday evening at a small lake near home - Lake Cammack near Burlington, NC - supposed to be a good lake for numbers of largemouth, but who wants to catch those - plus I don't have a NC fishing license, so I just enjoyed the scenery during the sunset.



I had made plans to head up to help out my buddy Mark work on his place at SML on Sunday - he had a water heater go bad and leak a bunch of water and he thought he had gotten to it soon enough and got things dried out until he found a very spongy floor over Memorial Day weekend that led to tons of mold in the floor bays, drywall and walls, so he had about 100 sq ft of flooring to tear out and a few walls to re-do. He had the demo done earlier in the week so things could dry out and had insulation back in when I arrive so that we could focus on the flooring and walls.



However, his misfortune created the opportunity for me to head up late Saturday evening after the Scout event was done and his the banks with him for a few hours late Sat night / early Sun AM to try and get some night fishing in while we still could. Things looked promising as the wind had laid down nicely and when we headed out at 11pm it was nice and still. The lake looked like Christmas will all the red & green bow lights out there - seemed like there was a boat or two on every point in the ares we were targeting in Bulls Run & lower Blackwater - but we found one we wanted to fish. The ales were up and working but we were not hearing any splashes from aggressive feeding.

We moved to another point where we've done well in the past and the ales were really up, and we were hearing some sporadic busting.  Worked both sides of this point for a while and Mark finally hooked up with our 1st fish...



A monster


Unfortunately - it was also our last fish. The wind started to pick up and blow. We tried several other points but many where in strong wind - we went back to the point where we caught the fish and as we approached we heard a few nice bust but they disappeared.

Called it quits about 2am so that we could get a little rest before starting the construction work early Sunday am.....

I'm still skunking on the Spring night fishing this year - think I've been out 4 times or so now for various durations....... vacation coming up next week so if the water temps don't jump too fast I may give it one more shot.....

[CorneliaGale]

Nice report, wind makes it rough to fish the points

[BentRod]

You sound about like me Mward. I think it has more to do with us not actually knowing how to night fish than not hitting it right. Haha.

[mwardncsu]

Tyler - there is probably a lot of truth to that statement ;D

[grasscutter]

Nice report....better than mine....got to the ramp at pen hook and then the truck broke.....maybe another night lol

[ray]

I've been up 4-5 times or more the last couple months, I don't striper fish and haven't caught a whole lot of them and not that big for stripers,from what I read. but catch some striper almost every trip. I mostly fish the midlake from the osprey's nest up to Beckys. Friday night they were busting good on r-22. They were on the banks and out 60-70 yrds. off the bank and a pile of them, still the only ones we got were right on the bank. When you start catching shad on that thunderstick you.ve got the retrieve right. Usually get 2-3 around turtle island 7-8 lbs. Last year I hung one there that pulled the back section of my redfin this year had one straighten the hooks out on a thunderstick. Don't no why but always seem to get the ones to bite that seem to be by themselves. Had it happen a lot here one big ole splash then throw the thunderstick/redfin on his head. Just my experience , I don't really go out after them but will throw a plug at'em when they bustin.