Post by mwardncsu on Jun 17, 2013 8:26:17 GMT -5
Weather: Clear skys, temps in upper 60's rising fast to upper 70's or more. Light & variable winds
Water: 76-77, visibility of 7'-10'
Techniques: small alewives on downlines and one lightline out behind the boat; jigging flukes
Well, the storm on Thursday managed to take out our power, leaving my boat hanging high & dry in the lift..... it was clear it would be several days before we had power again based on the # and size of the trees down on power lines in the area, so I made plans to drive over to the other side of the lake and fish Saturday morning with my buddy Mark. Mark caught bait off his dock the night before - he can consistently get ales, but they are consistently small - 4" is a big one at his dock - not sure why - if its the clearness of the water, the shallowness of his dock, or what, but he did not get the USDA Choice Alewives like I can get on my side - I'm going to have to figure out a bait-ferry system to take some nice ones over to him (not that it would have helped me this trip with my power being out).
We got on the water around 7am and headed to the back of his creek where he had a report fish were holding. One of his other buddies was back there and was on and off schools of fish so we started working an S-pattern with the side-scan to try and find them. Was not too long and we started marking some singles and then smaller pods like this one.
We found the fish - nothing big, but fish that would tug on the line....
Crossed over a few schools like this..... hard to stay on them, and more frustrating when we pulled through them without a bite
Mark got a nice brown fish....
As we moved over one of the schools I grabbed the rod rigged with a 1/2 jig and fluke and dropped it down into the fish. Let it hit the bottom and started a slow retrieve and jig when the rod loaded up. Had a nice little fight on light tackle and landed this one that went around 28" and 7ish lbs.
The bite seemed to stop, so we made the old mistake of leaving fish to find fish...... as we reeled in and started heading out we marked the ones we had been on, starting to make their way out of the creek - but Mark wanted to check another spot where they typically showed up later in the morning, so we moved....
Didn't catch another one that morning - oh well....
Oh, and to round out the "fishing without power" - when we pulled in from the last spot the big motor would not crank - dead cranking battery.... see - no power... it all comes together......
Fortunately a quick re-rig of a few battery cables from the trolling motor banks and we were back at the dock.....
Water: 76-77, visibility of 7'-10'
Techniques: small alewives on downlines and one lightline out behind the boat; jigging flukes
Well, the storm on Thursday managed to take out our power, leaving my boat hanging high & dry in the lift..... it was clear it would be several days before we had power again based on the # and size of the trees down on power lines in the area, so I made plans to drive over to the other side of the lake and fish Saturday morning with my buddy Mark. Mark caught bait off his dock the night before - he can consistently get ales, but they are consistently small - 4" is a big one at his dock - not sure why - if its the clearness of the water, the shallowness of his dock, or what, but he did not get the USDA Choice Alewives like I can get on my side - I'm going to have to figure out a bait-ferry system to take some nice ones over to him (not that it would have helped me this trip with my power being out).
We got on the water around 7am and headed to the back of his creek where he had a report fish were holding. One of his other buddies was back there and was on and off schools of fish so we started working an S-pattern with the side-scan to try and find them. Was not too long and we started marking some singles and then smaller pods like this one.
We found the fish - nothing big, but fish that would tug on the line....
Crossed over a few schools like this..... hard to stay on them, and more frustrating when we pulled through them without a bite
Mark got a nice brown fish....
As we moved over one of the schools I grabbed the rod rigged with a 1/2 jig and fluke and dropped it down into the fish. Let it hit the bottom and started a slow retrieve and jig when the rod loaded up. Had a nice little fight on light tackle and landed this one that went around 28" and 7ish lbs.
The bite seemed to stop, so we made the old mistake of leaving fish to find fish...... as we reeled in and started heading out we marked the ones we had been on, starting to make their way out of the creek - but Mark wanted to check another spot where they typically showed up later in the morning, so we moved....
Didn't catch another one that morning - oh well....
Oh, and to round out the "fishing without power" - when we pulled in from the last spot the big motor would not crank - dead cranking battery.... see - no power... it all comes together......
Fortunately a quick re-rig of a few battery cables from the trolling motor banks and we were back at the dock.....