Post by mwardncsu on Apr 11, 2015 16:40:53 GMT -5
Weather: Blue-bird skies, winds 5-10 with frequent gusts of 15 from the NW. Pressure rising through the morning. Temps from low to high 60's
Water: 69, visibility of several feet
Techniques: gizzards on freelance boards (2-3 on bank side, 1-2 on deep side); alewives on freelines (2) and downlines (2)
Planned to spend my Birthday morning taking my son, Matt, out for his 1st trip of the year, along with Nathan and his son, Ethan. Hit a couple of lights to load up on alewives to go with the gizzards so that we had something to target smaller fish in hope for numbers. Bait was easy between 10 & 11pm - gilled way too many in my 1/2" net however......
Love the overcrowded bait tank
Up at 6a, and heading to the boat about 6:40 with the crew in tow. Headed up to where larger numbers (of small) fish had been reported. Was greeted to the wind right off the bat......
We setup in a creek and pulled for a while and things felt grim. I said we'd give it to a certain channel marker and if we didn't get action we'd move. Just before the marker we had Fish On!
Matt took the rod and made good work of bringing the fish to the boat. around 26" & 6 lbs
We hung in the creek a while after that but got no more action. We picked up and moved down the lake a bit, and while we had one good roll & swipe on a bait, it did not hook up - and other than a few nervous baits pushed up we couldn't get a bite. Packed back up around 10 and moved back above where we started the day. Set up facing a strong wind where I was barely able to make headway with the trolling motor wide open - fortunately that gust only lasted 5 minutes
As we were working to get out the boards I noticed a pile of fish on the bottom. Had the guys toss out ales on downlines & light-lines and within moments we were hooked up on a light-line. Ethan was on deck and took his turn at the rod... another in the same class of 26" or so
Kept fighting the wind along the bank and we picked up one on a downline (with an alewife). This was the small one of the day....
We moved over to the other side of the channel and hit the other bank..... pulled a while when a board got totally slammed.... Nathan set the hook and handed back over to Ethan, who was on deck again....
Our biggest fish of the day - 33" & about 14 lbs. Took both the boys to hold it up
We had one more opportunity - a fish just tugged a board straight down and I did my best one handed grab, made sure the line was tight and handed over to Matthew
Tail-Slap :lol:
That fish took one the board with it and tangled things in a huge mess - and then with the wind and boat turning we got everything else into a mess. Spent the next 30 minutes untangling, retying, getting line out of the prop, etc..... put on quite a show for some guys anchored in another boat as the wind pushed us towards them at 100 miles per hour. Finally got straight and we headed up a bit further to hit one other bank - which was a totally dud. Called it a day about 11:30 with 5 fish to the boat, biggest at 33" and headed off to get some pizza with the boys to round out a great Birthday morning!
Water: 69, visibility of several feet
Techniques: gizzards on freelance boards (2-3 on bank side, 1-2 on deep side); alewives on freelines (2) and downlines (2)
Planned to spend my Birthday morning taking my son, Matt, out for his 1st trip of the year, along with Nathan and his son, Ethan. Hit a couple of lights to load up on alewives to go with the gizzards so that we had something to target smaller fish in hope for numbers. Bait was easy between 10 & 11pm - gilled way too many in my 1/2" net however......
Love the overcrowded bait tank
Up at 6a, and heading to the boat about 6:40 with the crew in tow. Headed up to where larger numbers (of small) fish had been reported. Was greeted to the wind right off the bat......
We setup in a creek and pulled for a while and things felt grim. I said we'd give it to a certain channel marker and if we didn't get action we'd move. Just before the marker we had Fish On!
Matt took the rod and made good work of bringing the fish to the boat. around 26" & 6 lbs
We hung in the creek a while after that but got no more action. We picked up and moved down the lake a bit, and while we had one good roll & swipe on a bait, it did not hook up - and other than a few nervous baits pushed up we couldn't get a bite. Packed back up around 10 and moved back above where we started the day. Set up facing a strong wind where I was barely able to make headway with the trolling motor wide open - fortunately that gust only lasted 5 minutes
As we were working to get out the boards I noticed a pile of fish on the bottom. Had the guys toss out ales on downlines & light-lines and within moments we were hooked up on a light-line. Ethan was on deck and took his turn at the rod... another in the same class of 26" or so
Kept fighting the wind along the bank and we picked up one on a downline (with an alewife). This was the small one of the day....
We moved over to the other side of the channel and hit the other bank..... pulled a while when a board got totally slammed.... Nathan set the hook and handed back over to Ethan, who was on deck again....
Our biggest fish of the day - 33" & about 14 lbs. Took both the boys to hold it up
We had one more opportunity - a fish just tugged a board straight down and I did my best one handed grab, made sure the line was tight and handed over to Matthew
Tail-Slap :lol:
That fish took one the board with it and tangled things in a huge mess - and then with the wind and boat turning we got everything else into a mess. Spent the next 30 minutes untangling, retying, getting line out of the prop, etc..... put on quite a show for some guys anchored in another boat as the wind pushed us towards them at 100 miles per hour. Finally got straight and we headed up a bit further to hit one other bank - which was a totally dud. Called it a day about 11:30 with 5 fish to the boat, biggest at 33" and headed off to get some pizza with the boys to round out a great Birthday morning!
.
