Post by mwardncsu on Sept 16, 2013 9:34:41 GMT -5
Weather: Mostly Sunny, temps starting in the low 50's rising to low 80s, still winds until afternoon, then 5-10 from SE
Water: 72-73, visibility of a couple of feet
Techniques: Pulling gizzards on planers
Saturday was Club Tourney day. Tyler and I had our game plan set since the last tourney in July - though the weather conditions had not quite shaped up like we were hoping - a recent warm spurt and no rain (after rain all summer) was screwing up the plan but we were going to stick with it - fish big bait in search of some lurking big fish. We could chase the schools of 4-8 lb fish and "maybe" find a decent one in there... but sometimes you have to do what others are not. This was not about a lot of bites - but a a BIG bite.
Got up to the lake about 4 pm and headed out to chase some gizzards - could not find any big ones in my creek after several throws so I waited on Mark that was fishing with us to show up and we headed up the lake in search of some bigger bait . We threw till dark when we finally found a spot where some bigger gizzards were holding - we netted a good dozen then headed back down to hit a few shallow water lights and topped the tank off with a little over 20 nice money-maker and larger gizzards - 10" - 12" range.
Sure felt nice to have bait in the tank and be able to get to bed at a decent hour. I went down right at 11 pm to clean the filter and tuck the nice little baits in to bed for the morning.
6 am rolled around and Tyler came over and we headed down to the boat. I had this bad feeling....... you know that one that haunts you about your bait dying overnight just before a tournament..... yeah.... that one....... As I approach the boat something does not sound quite right - I can hear the pump but it just does not sound normal. I jump on the boat, lifted the lid to the tank and see all but one of the gizzards floating or on the bottom of the tank
Somehow overnight the pump had come off the output hose to the venturi - maybe I bumped it when I put the filter box back in the tank after cleaning the night before, thought it clearly ran a while as the filters were full off gizzard crap again.....
We had about 20 min of dark left, so we went into scramble mode - dropped the boat in and I hauled it to a shallow light where we had gotten 6 or so nice gizzards in one throw the night before so I felt like we had a chance. The guys emptied the tank while we headed over and Tyler prepped with the net - pulled in, threw the net and we did land 6 or 8 nice gizzards and one 10" alewife. Tossed them in a bucket as we were still emptying the tank and then needed to refill it - headed to check another dock/light while we refilled the tank and got the gizzards in - the ale did not make it but the gizzards did.....
Shame - this monster ale would have been nice to fish - so we kept it for cut-bait later if needed.....
It was a good thing our plan was to fish gizzards and not ales - The sun was up but since we were looking for gizzards we hit a couple of more docks to get about a dozen total to start fishing - delayed us getting to our fishing hole as early as we wanted but we salvaged the morning....
We started pulling boards - nice to be fishing "fall style" again - love planer board fishing so much more than downline. The 1st fish was a small one, but fish is fish during a tourney - especially when you're doing a tourney series based on total length - they all add up.
We circled that area and it was a good call as we had another bite. This one was was a decent fish - 31" - not a monster but one we were glad to have in the boat - did not expect it at the time but this one turned out to majority salvage the day.
From there we pulled on for a while with little to no action - I think we did have one or two chases that would not commit and one missed hookset. Meanwhile my trolling motor batteries were going and going and almost gone. By 10 am I basically was running the TM on 10 to just make headway. We turned to head back the other way with the wind initially at our back to that we could cover water and hope the TM held up. About the time we got back to where we found the few fish initially the wind seemed to switch directions - and the TM was all but toast.
That was a sign - it was time for lunch. This was starting to look like the most we had to look forward to for the day.
So, after a round of double cheeseburgers we decided to head back to the spot where we found the fish, which was on/near a flat, and anchor up and throw up some live & cut bait - finish the last couple of hours of the tournament up that way to see if we could pull off the win. We had a couple of pulls but missed them. Things were getting slow(er).... seemed the only kind of luck we could find this day was bad luck.
Then, one of the live baits on a float had a big blow-up show happen on it
After a minute or so of show, the float dove - fish on - I grabbed the rod that was rigged with 30 lb test and set the hook hard enough to cross the eyes of any fish. Then in a fraction of a second I felt the fish and then felt the "pop". Seriously? I pulled the bait? 
Nope - 30 lb test snapped clean above the swivel/leader. All we can figure is maybe the line got up against the threaded rod of the Redi-rig float and cut it, or that it already had a nick or something. Between the size of the bait and the blow-up show it put on, it was a decent fish and one that we definitely needed to the boat, given I only had a 25.5" fish and we were in a individual, two-fish total length format tourney. That and we did not think the 31" Mark had would hold up for the Big Fish money prize.
Yep, we'd not have any luck if it were not for bad luck.... pump failure, a few missed hooksets, trolling motor battery failure, 30 lb line failure,. Seriously considered just pulling the plug on the boat and leaving it right there....
We had about 30 min left..... we did get one more hit on a cut-bait (the monster alewive worked even as cut-bait) - but we could not get a hook-up..... what else would we expect....
Hauled it to the check-in with our tails between our legs......
Then the tally - certainly no hope at 1st through 3rd today..... but...... you know that 31" fish...... well, turns out that was all it took today to take home the big fish prize.....
WIN!
Guess I'll be using a share winnings to help pay a part of some new batteries and a pipe clamp....
Water: 72-73, visibility of a couple of feet
Techniques: Pulling gizzards on planers
Saturday was Club Tourney day. Tyler and I had our game plan set since the last tourney in July - though the weather conditions had not quite shaped up like we were hoping - a recent warm spurt and no rain (after rain all summer) was screwing up the plan but we were going to stick with it - fish big bait in search of some lurking big fish. We could chase the schools of 4-8 lb fish and "maybe" find a decent one in there... but sometimes you have to do what others are not. This was not about a lot of bites - but a a BIG bite.
Got up to the lake about 4 pm and headed out to chase some gizzards - could not find any big ones in my creek after several throws so I waited on Mark that was fishing with us to show up and we headed up the lake in search of some bigger bait . We threw till dark when we finally found a spot where some bigger gizzards were holding - we netted a good dozen then headed back down to hit a few shallow water lights and topped the tank off with a little over 20 nice money-maker and larger gizzards - 10" - 12" range.
Sure felt nice to have bait in the tank and be able to get to bed at a decent hour. I went down right at 11 pm to clean the filter and tuck the nice little baits in to bed for the morning.
6 am rolled around and Tyler came over and we headed down to the boat. I had this bad feeling....... you know that one that haunts you about your bait dying overnight just before a tournament..... yeah.... that one....... As I approach the boat something does not sound quite right - I can hear the pump but it just does not sound normal. I jump on the boat, lifted the lid to the tank and see all but one of the gizzards floating or on the bottom of the tank
Somehow overnight the pump had come off the output hose to the venturi - maybe I bumped it when I put the filter box back in the tank after cleaning the night before, thought it clearly ran a while as the filters were full off gizzard crap again.....
We had about 20 min of dark left, so we went into scramble mode - dropped the boat in and I hauled it to a shallow light where we had gotten 6 or so nice gizzards in one throw the night before so I felt like we had a chance. The guys emptied the tank while we headed over and Tyler prepped with the net - pulled in, threw the net and we did land 6 or 8 nice gizzards and one 10" alewife. Tossed them in a bucket as we were still emptying the tank and then needed to refill it - headed to check another dock/light while we refilled the tank and got the gizzards in - the ale did not make it but the gizzards did.....
Shame - this monster ale would have been nice to fish - so we kept it for cut-bait later if needed.....
It was a good thing our plan was to fish gizzards and not ales - The sun was up but since we were looking for gizzards we hit a couple of more docks to get about a dozen total to start fishing - delayed us getting to our fishing hole as early as we wanted but we salvaged the morning....
We started pulling boards - nice to be fishing "fall style" again - love planer board fishing so much more than downline. The 1st fish was a small one, but fish is fish during a tourney - especially when you're doing a tourney series based on total length - they all add up.
We circled that area and it was a good call as we had another bite. This one was was a decent fish - 31" - not a monster but one we were glad to have in the boat - did not expect it at the time but this one turned out to majority salvage the day.
From there we pulled on for a while with little to no action - I think we did have one or two chases that would not commit and one missed hookset. Meanwhile my trolling motor batteries were going and going and almost gone. By 10 am I basically was running the TM on 10 to just make headway. We turned to head back the other way with the wind initially at our back to that we could cover water and hope the TM held up. About the time we got back to where we found the few fish initially the wind seemed to switch directions - and the TM was all but toast.
That was a sign - it was time for lunch. This was starting to look like the most we had to look forward to for the day.
So, after a round of double cheeseburgers we decided to head back to the spot where we found the fish, which was on/near a flat, and anchor up and throw up some live & cut bait - finish the last couple of hours of the tournament up that way to see if we could pull off the win. We had a couple of pulls but missed them. Things were getting slow(er).... seemed the only kind of luck we could find this day was bad luck.
Then, one of the live baits on a float had a big blow-up show happen on it
After a minute or so of show, the float dove - fish on - I grabbed the rod that was rigged with 30 lb test and set the hook hard enough to cross the eyes of any fish. Then in a fraction of a second I felt the fish and then felt the "pop". Seriously? I pulled the bait? 
Nope - 30 lb test snapped clean above the swivel/leader. All we can figure is maybe the line got up against the threaded rod of the Redi-rig float and cut it, or that it already had a nick or something. Between the size of the bait and the blow-up show it put on, it was a decent fish and one that we definitely needed to the boat, given I only had a 25.5" fish and we were in a individual, two-fish total length format tourney. That and we did not think the 31" Mark had would hold up for the Big Fish money prize. Yep, we'd not have any luck if it were not for bad luck.... pump failure, a few missed hooksets, trolling motor battery failure, 30 lb line failure,. Seriously considered just pulling the plug on the boat and leaving it right there....
We had about 30 min left..... we did get one more hit on a cut-bait (the monster alewive worked even as cut-bait) - but we could not get a hook-up..... what else would we expect....
Hauled it to the check-in with our tails between our legs......
Then the tally - certainly no hope at 1st through 3rd today..... but...... you know that 31" fish...... well, turns out that was all it took today to take home the big fish prize.....
WIN!
Guess I'll be using a share winnings to help pay a part of some new batteries and a pipe clamp....
It was all downhill from here. At one point as I was moving to try another spot, I noticed the boat was a little more sluggish than it should be. I have a new (to me) boat, and this was only the 3rd time I had it on the water, with no issues the first two trips. The sluggishness ended up being from water from a leak somewhere and the bilge of course was not pumping. Not a terrible amount of water, but enough I headed in, loaded the boat and headed back home and didn't even get to meet up with everyone at the check in. I doubt my 24" would have done much! Sorry I didn't get to meet up with everyone at CQ's, hopefully I'll get to try again in November if I can get myself out of the woods long enough to make it down.
