4/10/15 - Scoping out new grounds
Apr 10, 2015 11:48:19 GMT -5
CorneliaGale, jb4sml, and 3 more like this
Post by mwardncsu on Apr 10, 2015 11:48:19 GMT -5
Weather: Fogged in all morning; temps in the upper 50's
Water: 59, visibility of a few feet
Techniques: money-maker to big gizzards on freeline boards bank-side (2-3), one freeline board deep size, and 1 freeline float with an alewife, set about 20' behind the float
Time Fished: 7-10:30a
Decided to mix it up and try a few creeks which I'd either not fished in a long time, or not at all. Was on the water and had bait in the water just after 7 am. Visibility was marginal to start but a little after 7 it totally socked in.
First fish was in the boat at 7:10. A smaller 25" fish hit the alewife freeline and shooed the skunk away for yet another day.
Released!
Kept pulling and while I was getting that fish back in the water and rebating the line I noticed one of my boards was gone.... took a moment to process and by the time I figured out which rod it went to, the board popped back up.... of course without the bait.... my largest bait which I'd put out
Pulled on - marking a few pods of smaller fish. Picked up the 2nd fish of the day - a 26" fish on a money-maker behind a planer.
Pulled on into the creek along some nice banks - but no action. Somewhere in the back of the creek I looked in the bait tank and noticed I had baits going belly up left and right :shock: I tossed a couple and grabbed my pump and pulled 90% of the water out and refilled with creek water, resalted and they were happy the rest of the morning. Don't now what was going on. I had done a partial water change at the dock this morning, added some salt, baking soda (as I usually do). I also added some ammonia remover - but I've used that numerous times without issue. I had put a new Rule pump on last night as the one I was using was starting to squeal the early warning signs of death. But it ran all night without issue. The only thing I can think of is I had some Neosporin and a Band-Aid on my finger that had been there since last evening... perhaps some of that leached into the tank when doing the water change or pump change and caused issues....
really don't know..... but crisis avoided...... 
Nothing else in that creek to play with, so I moved to another creek which I'd not fished hard before but Tyler suggested I try. Well - good call on his part. Started my pull in to the creek at a point and could not even get past the point without a fish slamming the board. Another one on the small side at 26"
Picked up a few more and missed one or two pulling the creek-bank... all in that 25-26" range. At one point I was flipping baits to the other side of the boat to pull out when I had a fish fish a board.. I set the rod in my hand which had a bait on the hook, into the rod holder and the bait was maybe 3" in the water at the side of the boat. I got the fish that had hit the board into the boat, unhooked & released. About then the rod I had set in the holder exploded - a fish attacked the bait holding shallow and started ripping drag. I could barely get the rod out of the holder and this fish felt like an absolute beast. Pulling drag - heading to the bank/blow-downs, etc - I was able to get it turned but it kept bull-dogging me. This was either foul-hooked or a absolute beast.
Well..... you can guess..... foul hooked in the top of the fish with the stinger. Still was a respectable 14" / 33" fish, but not the 40 lber I was having visions of
Picked up one more on the way out, bring the total to 6 fish for the day. Quit around 10:30 to go and try and chase some bait to back-fill the dent I made in the tank this morning.....
Water: 59, visibility of a few feet
Techniques: money-maker to big gizzards on freeline boards bank-side (2-3), one freeline board deep size, and 1 freeline float with an alewife, set about 20' behind the float
Time Fished: 7-10:30a
Decided to mix it up and try a few creeks which I'd either not fished in a long time, or not at all. Was on the water and had bait in the water just after 7 am. Visibility was marginal to start but a little after 7 it totally socked in.
First fish was in the boat at 7:10. A smaller 25" fish hit the alewife freeline and shooed the skunk away for yet another day.
Released!
Kept pulling and while I was getting that fish back in the water and rebating the line I noticed one of my boards was gone.... took a moment to process and by the time I figured out which rod it went to, the board popped back up.... of course without the bait.... my largest bait which I'd put out
Pulled on - marking a few pods of smaller fish. Picked up the 2nd fish of the day - a 26" fish on a money-maker behind a planer.
Pulled on into the creek along some nice banks - but no action. Somewhere in the back of the creek I looked in the bait tank and noticed I had baits going belly up left and right :shock: I tossed a couple and grabbed my pump and pulled 90% of the water out and refilled with creek water, resalted and they were happy the rest of the morning. Don't now what was going on. I had done a partial water change at the dock this morning, added some salt, baking soda (as I usually do). I also added some ammonia remover - but I've used that numerous times without issue. I had put a new Rule pump on last night as the one I was using was starting to squeal the early warning signs of death. But it ran all night without issue. The only thing I can think of is I had some Neosporin and a Band-Aid on my finger that had been there since last evening... perhaps some of that leached into the tank when doing the water change or pump change and caused issues....
really don't know..... but crisis avoided...... 
Nothing else in that creek to play with, so I moved to another creek which I'd not fished hard before but Tyler suggested I try. Well - good call on his part. Started my pull in to the creek at a point and could not even get past the point without a fish slamming the board. Another one on the small side at 26"
Picked up a few more and missed one or two pulling the creek-bank... all in that 25-26" range. At one point I was flipping baits to the other side of the boat to pull out when I had a fish fish a board.. I set the rod in my hand which had a bait on the hook, into the rod holder and the bait was maybe 3" in the water at the side of the boat. I got the fish that had hit the board into the boat, unhooked & released. About then the rod I had set in the holder exploded - a fish attacked the bait holding shallow and started ripping drag. I could barely get the rod out of the holder and this fish felt like an absolute beast. Pulling drag - heading to the bank/blow-downs, etc - I was able to get it turned but it kept bull-dogging me. This was either foul-hooked or a absolute beast.
Well..... you can guess..... foul hooked in the top of the fish with the stinger. Still was a respectable 14" / 33" fish, but not the 40 lber I was having visions of
Picked up one more on the way out, bring the total to 6 fish for the day. Quit around 10:30 to go and try and chase some bait to back-fill the dent I made in the tank this morning.....
