Post by mwardncsu on Oct 25, 2014 22:02:25 GMT -5
Weather: Almost perfect - temps in the upper 60's, mostly clear skies, winds 5-10 from W to start but laid down late afternoon
Water: low 60's, visibility of a few feet
Techniques: Pulling big gizzards on freelined planers
My son had a Boy Scout campout and my daughter, who has ballet practice every weekend in Oct - mid-Dec had her practice set for mid-Sunday afternoon this week so my wife and daughter were going to come up Friday night and enjoy the lake on Saturday. And somehow in there, I managed to convince them to spend the afternoon on the boat with me while "I" fished - and they could enjoy a book or whatever in the perfect Fall weather. Now, the last time either had been out fishing with me was Summer of 2011 I believe - maybe 2010 - so when I got the agreement from both, there was not question about where I was going to be this Saturday.
We slept in and had a lazy morning - then around noon headed out with a plan to try and check a few spots for gizzards, then get lunch, throw the net some more if needed and then fish the late afternoon.
Checked the back of my creek but did not see any flipping - checked another near-by creek and threw once with no results, and didn't see much on sonar or flipping - other than "peanuts", so I headed on to where we caught some bait the day before. Tossed on the same spot where we got 30 yesterday and was rewarded with 7 nice gizzards. Figured that might be enough for a trip with the girls but decided to throw in another spot or two..... a few empty nets and then I found the motherload..... 30+ in the net
A nice assortment of 8" - 12" gizzards to boot....
Decided we had enough to fish
so we headed on to get some lunch... weaving through the Tressles area in what felt like 50 boats fishing within that 1/2 mile stretch of each other to get to the BayRoc to eat.
We had a nice lunch outdoors and hung out a bit while I changed out my 5/0 hooks for 7/0 and put stingers on a couple for the bigger baits. Around 2:30 we set out to see if we could put the girls on some fish. Made a move to the area I wanted to drag those wonderful gizzards and started putting them out - three on each size - I had gotten the baits out on the port side and had just got the 1st gizzard on a hook for the starboard side when a board shot back and we were hooked up
Handed the rod to my wife, and let her get to work.... a nice 32" fish that went about 12 lbs.
In a fairly short stretch we had another one get hit and not hook up and then a couple of other swirls - things went slow for a while but then as the boards pulled by a blow-down the middle board shot back hard - my daughter's turn on the rod. Now, my daughter is about as girly-girl as you can be, and just being on the boat with bait in the tank was an accomplishment in my book - but to my surprise she stepped up and took the rod and fought that fish to the boat without any assistance
This one went 31" and 10 lbs - and this is the closest you'll see her to holding a striper
We kept on pulling but it went dead - so we picked up and moved back to where our earlier action came from and sure enough there were still fish there. Back to back in like 5 minutes I had two 12-13" gizzards, with stingers, get nailed and the hooks not connect, but the fish getting the better end of the deal keeping the bait
The day was getting short and I knew whatever magic I had managed to get the girls out today was shortly going to wear off -but I wanted to pull one more fish out of that area. Worked it a while longer and as I was messing with a board and had basically stopped the boat a board with a big 12" shad disappeared under the water - I got to bring this one in - smallest of the day of course - 29" and 9 lbs - but it was hooked not on the stinger but the main hook - that smaller fish had no issue trying to gobble up that 12" shad
We called it a day around 6 and packed things up and rode back to the house.... the girls thought it was a little cold on the ride home
Water: low 60's, visibility of a few feet
Techniques: Pulling big gizzards on freelined planers
My son had a Boy Scout campout and my daughter, who has ballet practice every weekend in Oct - mid-Dec had her practice set for mid-Sunday afternoon this week so my wife and daughter were going to come up Friday night and enjoy the lake on Saturday. And somehow in there, I managed to convince them to spend the afternoon on the boat with me while "I" fished - and they could enjoy a book or whatever in the perfect Fall weather. Now, the last time either had been out fishing with me was Summer of 2011 I believe - maybe 2010 - so when I got the agreement from both, there was not question about where I was going to be this Saturday.
We slept in and had a lazy morning - then around noon headed out with a plan to try and check a few spots for gizzards, then get lunch, throw the net some more if needed and then fish the late afternoon.
Checked the back of my creek but did not see any flipping - checked another near-by creek and threw once with no results, and didn't see much on sonar or flipping - other than "peanuts", so I headed on to where we caught some bait the day before. Tossed on the same spot where we got 30 yesterday and was rewarded with 7 nice gizzards. Figured that might be enough for a trip with the girls but decided to throw in another spot or two..... a few empty nets and then I found the motherload..... 30+ in the net
A nice assortment of 8" - 12" gizzards to boot....Decided we had enough to fish
so we headed on to get some lunch... weaving through the Tressles area in what felt like 50 boats fishing within that 1/2 mile stretch of each other to get to the BayRoc to eat.We had a nice lunch outdoors and hung out a bit while I changed out my 5/0 hooks for 7/0 and put stingers on a couple for the bigger baits. Around 2:30 we set out to see if we could put the girls on some fish. Made a move to the area I wanted to drag those wonderful gizzards and started putting them out - three on each size - I had gotten the baits out on the port side and had just got the 1st gizzard on a hook for the starboard side when a board shot back and we were hooked up
Handed the rod to my wife, and let her get to work.... a nice 32" fish that went about 12 lbs.
In a fairly short stretch we had another one get hit and not hook up and then a couple of other swirls - things went slow for a while but then as the boards pulled by a blow-down the middle board shot back hard - my daughter's turn on the rod. Now, my daughter is about as girly-girl as you can be, and just being on the boat with bait in the tank was an accomplishment in my book - but to my surprise she stepped up and took the rod and fought that fish to the boat without any assistance
This one went 31" and 10 lbs - and this is the closest you'll see her to holding a striper
We kept on pulling but it went dead - so we picked up and moved back to where our earlier action came from and sure enough there were still fish there. Back to back in like 5 minutes I had two 12-13" gizzards, with stingers, get nailed and the hooks not connect, but the fish getting the better end of the deal keeping the bait
The day was getting short and I knew whatever magic I had managed to get the girls out today was shortly going to wear off -but I wanted to pull one more fish out of that area. Worked it a while longer and as I was messing with a board and had basically stopped the boat a board with a big 12" shad disappeared under the water - I got to bring this one in - smallest of the day of course - 29" and 9 lbs - but it was hooked not on the stinger but the main hook - that smaller fish had no issue trying to gobble up that 12" shad
We called it a day around 6 and packed things up and rode back to the house.... the girls thought it was a little cold on the ride home
