6/28 & 6/30 - Wrapping up June
Jul 1, 2013 13:29:40 GMT -5
jb4sml, grasscutter, and 8 more like this
Post by mwardncsu on Jul 1, 2013 13:29:40 GMT -5
Fished on Friday morning and had my buddy Keith aboard and had some bait left over so went out again on Sunday, this time with Tyler.
Bait was easy - caught bait Thur night - hit a few lights up the lake about 10pm and was getting mostly big gizzards so I headed down mid-lake and found the bait bonanza. Pulled up on the Captains Quarters light somewhere around 10:30p and there had to have been 50 gizzards in a 5' diameter & 5' thick right under the light, with ales circling them. Didn't want the gizzards so I threw off to the side to try and get some ales and scatter the gizzards. Got plenty - picked through to get the nice big ones. Threw a few more times to load the tank and then a few other guys were there to get bait so I tossed once and handed the net over to them to get them set. Got to love easy bait - won't be long before it gets harder...
Picked Keith up about 5:15 and we had lines in at 5:30. Marked fish right away and started picking up a few small ones.
You know they are small when you can wrap your whole hand around them
We had good action for about an hour and then the fish moved - we found scattered fish but never a good pile like we were on - fished till 11am and tried a few spots without finding the motherload again. Still a good morning though the class of fish was on the smaller side.
We did make a dent in the bait supply, though I still had around 3 dozen left over - so I babied them over the next couple of days with a partial water change, some more salt, several bags of ice to keep the water in the 68-72 range and the occasional filter cleaning.
Saturday AM turned out into what looked like a perfect morning to fish - but I slept. About 11 am I went out and it was still cool and cloudy - probably called that one wrong. I was on and off about fishing on Sunday, but since there was bait in the tank Tyler and I twisted each others arms into going. That and Travis asked for some help in catching a few to fry up later next week. Got down to the boat at 5 and since it was still dark enough I stopped at a near-by light for one throw to top off the tank with a little more bait - figured I had enough but we had lost a number of baits while fishing when dropping them below 20' so I wanted a few more in case we had similar issues. One throw netted several dozen and I dropped them straight into the tank and off I went to pick up Tyler.
We hit the same spot as Friday AM - did not see the same # of fish but enough to have us put out lines - I could not even get one of the lines out all the way before it was FISH ON! A Monster!
Worked the area a while but did not see the action from Friday - pulled the main part of the creek but just was not marking anything good. We picked up and went to check some other spots. Ended up heading down the lake a bit to meet up with new forum member Smythley so that Tyler could driver a rod to him - marked some fish on the way in there and they were catching a few so we hung around and started to pick some up as well - mostly in the 4-6 lb class. Tyler did lose one almost at the boat that fought him for several minutes - it let us see it and then threw the hook - seems the bad luck of getting the good fish to the boat continues - at least it was not me holding the rod that time
BTW, nice to meet you smythley - nice rig and glad you guys got into some as well!
The fish that wanted to eat were on the points in shallower water for whatever reason - the deeper fish mostly just let the baits go by....
We fished till about 11:30 or so - the overcast skies made it nice and the boat traffic did not get too bad till late morning - I figure it will be a whole different story next weekend.
We caught our share and put a limit in the box along with a 3-4 lb channel to get to Travis to fry up. Still had plenty of bait left over
The fish we released were on the smaller side and had crazy kick to them when returned to the water. That said, surface water was reaching 82 and you've got to get down about 20'-22' to find water in the upper 60's and it is now July, so will be time to watch the release a little closer - my next trip will be with my son, nephews, brother-in-law and father-in-law, so hopefully we'll be able to find them to put the kids on fish....
Bait was easy - caught bait Thur night - hit a few lights up the lake about 10pm and was getting mostly big gizzards so I headed down mid-lake and found the bait bonanza. Pulled up on the Captains Quarters light somewhere around 10:30p and there had to have been 50 gizzards in a 5' diameter & 5' thick right under the light, with ales circling them. Didn't want the gizzards so I threw off to the side to try and get some ales and scatter the gizzards. Got plenty - picked through to get the nice big ones. Threw a few more times to load the tank and then a few other guys were there to get bait so I tossed once and handed the net over to them to get them set. Got to love easy bait - won't be long before it gets harder...
Picked Keith up about 5:15 and we had lines in at 5:30. Marked fish right away and started picking up a few small ones.
You know they are small when you can wrap your whole hand around them
We had good action for about an hour and then the fish moved - we found scattered fish but never a good pile like we were on - fished till 11am and tried a few spots without finding the motherload again. Still a good morning though the class of fish was on the smaller side.
We did make a dent in the bait supply, though I still had around 3 dozen left over - so I babied them over the next couple of days with a partial water change, some more salt, several bags of ice to keep the water in the 68-72 range and the occasional filter cleaning.
Saturday AM turned out into what looked like a perfect morning to fish - but I slept. About 11 am I went out and it was still cool and cloudy - probably called that one wrong. I was on and off about fishing on Sunday, but since there was bait in the tank Tyler and I twisted each others arms into going. That and Travis asked for some help in catching a few to fry up later next week. Got down to the boat at 5 and since it was still dark enough I stopped at a near-by light for one throw to top off the tank with a little more bait - figured I had enough but we had lost a number of baits while fishing when dropping them below 20' so I wanted a few more in case we had similar issues. One throw netted several dozen and I dropped them straight into the tank and off I went to pick up Tyler.
We hit the same spot as Friday AM - did not see the same # of fish but enough to have us put out lines - I could not even get one of the lines out all the way before it was FISH ON! A Monster!
Worked the area a while but did not see the action from Friday - pulled the main part of the creek but just was not marking anything good. We picked up and went to check some other spots. Ended up heading down the lake a bit to meet up with new forum member Smythley so that Tyler could driver a rod to him - marked some fish on the way in there and they were catching a few so we hung around and started to pick some up as well - mostly in the 4-6 lb class. Tyler did lose one almost at the boat that fought him for several minutes - it let us see it and then threw the hook - seems the bad luck of getting the good fish to the boat continues - at least it was not me holding the rod that time
BTW, nice to meet you smythley - nice rig and glad you guys got into some as well!
The fish that wanted to eat were on the points in shallower water for whatever reason - the deeper fish mostly just let the baits go by....
We fished till about 11:30 or so - the overcast skies made it nice and the boat traffic did not get too bad till late morning - I figure it will be a whole different story next weekend.
We caught our share and put a limit in the box along with a 3-4 lb channel to get to Travis to fry up. Still had plenty of bait left over
The fish we released were on the smaller side and had crazy kick to them when returned to the water. That said, surface water was reaching 82 and you've got to get down about 20'-22' to find water in the upper 60's and it is now July, so will be time to watch the release a little closer - my next trip will be with my son, nephews, brother-in-law and father-in-law, so hopefully we'll be able to find them to put the kids on fish....
