8/1/15 - Now THIS is what I'm talking about!
Aug 1, 2015 18:13:52 GMT -5
jb4sml, seajay, and 4 more like this
Post by mwardncsu on Aug 1, 2015 18:13:52 GMT -5
Weather: mid-60's rising to low 80's, mostly sunny, slight breeze
Water: 84-85, visibility of just a few feet
Techniques: Medium, some large and one or two Jumbo Ales/bluebacks on 1/4 & 3/8 oz light-lines (2 ea) and 2 oz downlines (6)
The family had been at the lake since Wednesday with some friends so I came on up Thursday night and worked from the lake Friday. Matt's friend that was up wanted to go fishing, so I decided that with the full moon, and the typical weekend crowd, I'd go catch alewifes Thursday night and it had the side benefit that I could get a few extra hours of sleep come Fri/Sat. Ales of small/medium size were VERY easy, but I had to work across several lights to get some larges and jumbos. Matt's friend that was up at the lake was VERY excited about striper fishing and even wanted to come along to catch bait, so I had 2 first mates with me for the evening.
Saturday rolled around and I had the boys up at 5:15a and we were on the water at 5:45. Looking back in my logs there had been fish very close to home this time of year the last several years, so I decided to spend a bit of time looking.
Marked some scattered fish, enough that I thought we'd try and perhaps save some gas from running down the lake. We spent 30 minutes without marking anything again, and the bait was dying as soon as it crossed 20', so I packed it up and put the ol' Sea Hunt on plane pointed down-stream.
I pulled into one of the standard late Summer haunts and there were just a few boats already in there looking - we spent 15 minutes or so in search mode - looking at the mouth and then on back into the creek and even in a finger and some points where I've found them in the past - but did not seem more than a few scattered fish so we headed on down a bit further. Spotted SeaJay, who I'd not talked with in a while, so I stopped and chatted with him a few minutes as well as SueReel who was aboard with him and then idled on down a bit further looking - saw a decent number of scattered fish, and to keep the boys interest we dropped the trolling motor and put out bait.
Well, before long we had Matt's friend hooked up on his 1st striper! Though we definitely left him plenty of room for future personal bests :
Still, it was the biggest fish he's ever caught in his life, so that's cool - and it was still early.
Well, Matt was next on deck - and had his chance soon enough...
We just kept pulling around in the area - the light-lines were getting almost all the attention - I think we got one on a down-line in the area - this after I had told SeaJay earlier when talking with him that we'd gotten good action on downlines the other week so he re-rigged some of his rods.....
Sorry about that SeaJay..... hope you left some light-lines out as well. We keep coming across small pods or a hand-ful of fish - some would hit - others wouldn't. But the boys stayed busy enough - I let them do the catching and the other would handle the netting, and then unhooking, for the fish we were keeping - if I saw it was a smaller one, sub 22" or so, I'd get it unhooked quickly and back in the water.
Cool sonar shot of a released fish, followed by another hook-up!
Fish on!!!!
Got to watch SeaJay's son reel in one of their catches of the day......
Things had gotten a bit slow when the back 1/4 oz light-line bent over just as we had hung 3 or 4 downlines in a tree. I thought it was hung as well until it pulled drag.... but was also tangled up in another line. I should have put this rod in Matt's buddy's hand but with the tangle I was trying to get it loose and then it was almost to the boat..... and of course it was our biggest of the day - 29" and 10 lbs..... sorry buddy.... I did let the boys pose with it though
Around 9am I decided to pull in and go check another creek mouth - on my way I just had a feeling I should check the mouth of another creek that was on the way..... we dropped off plane and idled into the creek and a few hundred yards into the creek the screen blacked out.
Chaos began as I leaped up to the bow to drop the trolling motor, the boys and I started furiously hooking ales through the mouth and dropping them down to around 40' and trying not to step on my jaw that was on the floor of the boat watching the sonar screen with the biggest school I've seen probably in a few years.
It did not happen immediately, but quickly enough one of the down-rods bent to the water (I didn't even bother at that point trying to get out any light-lines, especially with the fish marking 30-60'). We got a small 3 lb or so striper to the boat and released when another rod went off. The boys stayed VERY busy for probably 10-15 min, though it seemed MUCH longer. I tried to get a jig down on them, but between trying to handle a few other things, as well as call SeaJay in on the fun (you'll learn not to have that phone on vibrate, huh..... Oh, sorry for the errant text Hillbilly....... wrong Jay
), I missed at least 5 hits on the jig and then I had to help deal with a fish at the boat so I had to put the jigging rod away.
We were pulling back to the mouth of the creek and we moved off the school. As I tried to regroup I saw a boat near me towards the bank hook-up and he said he had gone over them - but I never found them after that - quickly there were 5 boats wide in the creek so someone should have found them - my guess, given the time of day, is we hit the fish schooling up and moving out of the creek into the main channel.
We called it a morning around 10:30 or so - heading back to the dock with some tired boys (and a tired Dad) - and 5 striper to clean..... We'll be eating good at lunch on Sunday!
Water: 84-85, visibility of just a few feet
Techniques: Medium, some large and one or two Jumbo Ales/bluebacks on 1/4 & 3/8 oz light-lines (2 ea) and 2 oz downlines (6)
The family had been at the lake since Wednesday with some friends so I came on up Thursday night and worked from the lake Friday. Matt's friend that was up wanted to go fishing, so I decided that with the full moon, and the typical weekend crowd, I'd go catch alewifes Thursday night and it had the side benefit that I could get a few extra hours of sleep come Fri/Sat. Ales of small/medium size were VERY easy, but I had to work across several lights to get some larges and jumbos. Matt's friend that was up at the lake was VERY excited about striper fishing and even wanted to come along to catch bait, so I had 2 first mates with me for the evening.
Saturday rolled around and I had the boys up at 5:15a and we were on the water at 5:45. Looking back in my logs there had been fish very close to home this time of year the last several years, so I decided to spend a bit of time looking.
Marked some scattered fish, enough that I thought we'd try and perhaps save some gas from running down the lake. We spent 30 minutes without marking anything again, and the bait was dying as soon as it crossed 20', so I packed it up and put the ol' Sea Hunt on plane pointed down-stream.
I pulled into one of the standard late Summer haunts and there were just a few boats already in there looking - we spent 15 minutes or so in search mode - looking at the mouth and then on back into the creek and even in a finger and some points where I've found them in the past - but did not seem more than a few scattered fish so we headed on down a bit further. Spotted SeaJay, who I'd not talked with in a while, so I stopped and chatted with him a few minutes as well as SueReel who was aboard with him and then idled on down a bit further looking - saw a decent number of scattered fish, and to keep the boys interest we dropped the trolling motor and put out bait.
Well, before long we had Matt's friend hooked up on his 1st striper! Though we definitely left him plenty of room for future personal bests :
Still, it was the biggest fish he's ever caught in his life, so that's cool - and it was still early.Well, Matt was next on deck - and had his chance soon enough...
We just kept pulling around in the area - the light-lines were getting almost all the attention - I think we got one on a down-line in the area - this after I had told SeaJay earlier when talking with him that we'd gotten good action on downlines the other week so he re-rigged some of his rods.....
Sorry about that SeaJay..... hope you left some light-lines out as well. We keep coming across small pods or a hand-ful of fish - some would hit - others wouldn't. But the boys stayed busy enough - I let them do the catching and the other would handle the netting, and then unhooking, for the fish we were keeping - if I saw it was a smaller one, sub 22" or so, I'd get it unhooked quickly and back in the water. Cool sonar shot of a released fish, followed by another hook-up!
Fish on!!!!
Got to watch SeaJay's son reel in one of their catches of the day......
Things had gotten a bit slow when the back 1/4 oz light-line bent over just as we had hung 3 or 4 downlines in a tree. I thought it was hung as well until it pulled drag.... but was also tangled up in another line. I should have put this rod in Matt's buddy's hand but with the tangle I was trying to get it loose and then it was almost to the boat..... and of course it was our biggest of the day - 29" and 10 lbs..... sorry buddy.... I did let the boys pose with it though
Around 9am I decided to pull in and go check another creek mouth - on my way I just had a feeling I should check the mouth of another creek that was on the way..... we dropped off plane and idled into the creek and a few hundred yards into the creek the screen blacked out.
Chaos began as I leaped up to the bow to drop the trolling motor, the boys and I started furiously hooking ales through the mouth and dropping them down to around 40' and trying not to step on my jaw that was on the floor of the boat watching the sonar screen with the biggest school I've seen probably in a few years.
It did not happen immediately, but quickly enough one of the down-rods bent to the water (I didn't even bother at that point trying to get out any light-lines, especially with the fish marking 30-60'). We got a small 3 lb or so striper to the boat and released when another rod went off. The boys stayed VERY busy for probably 10-15 min, though it seemed MUCH longer. I tried to get a jig down on them, but between trying to handle a few other things, as well as call SeaJay in on the fun (you'll learn not to have that phone on vibrate, huh..... Oh, sorry for the errant text Hillbilly....... wrong Jay
), I missed at least 5 hits on the jig and then I had to help deal with a fish at the boat so I had to put the jigging rod away.We were pulling back to the mouth of the creek and we moved off the school. As I tried to regroup I saw a boat near me towards the bank hook-up and he said he had gone over them - but I never found them after that - quickly there were 5 boats wide in the creek so someone should have found them - my guess, given the time of day, is we hit the fish schooling up and moving out of the creek into the main channel.
We called it a morning around 10:30 or so - heading back to the dock with some tired boys (and a tired Dad) - and 5 striper to clean..... We'll be eating good at lunch on Sunday!
