Post by mwardncsu on Sept 27, 2013 10:10:21 GMT -5
Weather: Mostly sunny, little to no wind, temps in the upper 70's
Water: 68, visibility of 1-2' tops
Techniques: big gizzards on boards
After some fall-tease fishing this weekend with Tyler, I had the bug and the pics that I'd been getting from Chad & Travis and others were definitely not helping. The wife has the lake condo this weekend for a girls weekend so I'm running Dad's Taxi Service at home, so this weekend was out. I really wanted to try and find a way to get up to the lake on Wednesday with all the overcast skies, but it was not to be - but when Thursday's work calendar shaped up to be a couple of meetings in the morning and the several con-calls ending about 3pm, I saw a plan.... ditch out of the office at 11 after the face-to-face meetings and then do a "leap frog" up the highway for what is normally a 2.5 hr drive from the office in NC to the lake - but was longer today due to stopping here and there to take a call where I knew there was good cell service. I managed to get to the lake a little after 3 and was on the water by 3:30 and starting to catch bait about 4pm.
Tyler was also itching so I hung around catching bait to wait for him to get down from Roanoke after work. Was hoping I could load up with 20 or so quick and then do a little fishing while waiting for him but the big gizzards were a little allusive - they were there, but I did have to work for them. However, the amount of dark-matter in the lake right now is silly - thousands of pods of 2.5"-3.5" gizzards - I Christmas tree'd my net a couple of times throwing on them when I knew better.....
While catching bait I noticed something off in the water, and realized it was this little striper....
Don't know what his deal was - I thought maybe he was somehow foul hooked so I brought him aboard to check him out - looked healthy and he fought like a b*itch when lipping him...
Tried to revive him a bit - not sure if he was caught earlier and was not going to make it or what - after working him for several minutes he went down but popped right back up and laid in that same odd position that I found him.....
Anyway - caught a little more bait - ended up with 15 nice gizzards in the tank from 8"-12" and picked up Tyler and we headed out. Got our 1st action & bite within 5 min or less of putting out the baits - and it was our biggest fish of the day - 36" / 15 lbs. Hit our biggest gizzard.
We had pretty good action all evening - ended up with 4 fish to the boat in total (36"/ 15lb, 35" / 15 lb, 34.5" 15lb, 33", 10 lb), and several other swirls, chases and a few hard tugs when we were not close enough to the rod to hook them up.
I've said it before and will say it again - I envy you guys that can pop on the water for a few hours of water therapy after work - it does good for the soul.....
We fished till we could not see the planers any more then I dropped off Tyler and headed to the slip, cleaned the worst of the bait catching mess out of the boat and departed SML at 10p and headed back to NC - hit the sack about midnight. And worth every bit of it
Water: 68, visibility of 1-2' tops
Techniques: big gizzards on boards
After some fall-tease fishing this weekend with Tyler, I had the bug and the pics that I'd been getting from Chad & Travis and others were definitely not helping. The wife has the lake condo this weekend for a girls weekend so I'm running Dad's Taxi Service at home, so this weekend was out. I really wanted to try and find a way to get up to the lake on Wednesday with all the overcast skies, but it was not to be - but when Thursday's work calendar shaped up to be a couple of meetings in the morning and the several con-calls ending about 3pm, I saw a plan.... ditch out of the office at 11 after the face-to-face meetings and then do a "leap frog" up the highway for what is normally a 2.5 hr drive from the office in NC to the lake - but was longer today due to stopping here and there to take a call where I knew there was good cell service. I managed to get to the lake a little after 3 and was on the water by 3:30 and starting to catch bait about 4pm.
Tyler was also itching so I hung around catching bait to wait for him to get down from Roanoke after work. Was hoping I could load up with 20 or so quick and then do a little fishing while waiting for him but the big gizzards were a little allusive - they were there, but I did have to work for them. However, the amount of dark-matter in the lake right now is silly - thousands of pods of 2.5"-3.5" gizzards - I Christmas tree'd my net a couple of times throwing on them when I knew better.....
While catching bait I noticed something off in the water, and realized it was this little striper....
Don't know what his deal was - I thought maybe he was somehow foul hooked so I brought him aboard to check him out - looked healthy and he fought like a b*itch when lipping him...
Tried to revive him a bit - not sure if he was caught earlier and was not going to make it or what - after working him for several minutes he went down but popped right back up and laid in that same odd position that I found him.....
Anyway - caught a little more bait - ended up with 15 nice gizzards in the tank from 8"-12" and picked up Tyler and we headed out. Got our 1st action & bite within 5 min or less of putting out the baits - and it was our biggest fish of the day - 36" / 15 lbs. Hit our biggest gizzard.
We had pretty good action all evening - ended up with 4 fish to the boat in total (36"/ 15lb, 35" / 15 lb, 34.5" 15lb, 33", 10 lb), and several other swirls, chases and a few hard tugs when we were not close enough to the rod to hook them up.
I've said it before and will say it again - I envy you guys that can pop on the water for a few hours of water therapy after work - it does good for the soul.....
We fished till we could not see the planers any more then I dropped off Tyler and headed to the slip, cleaned the worst of the bait catching mess out of the boat and departed SML at 10p and headed back to NC - hit the sack about midnight. And worth every bit of it
