Post by mwardncsu on Oct 23, 2015 20:32:02 GMT -5
Weather: Beautiful - upper 70s I guess, mostly sunny, light breeze from NW
Water: 61 - 68, visibility of 5 or so feet
Techniques: pulling dollar-bill to 10" gizzards on freeline planers - 6
Working from the lake has its advantages.... like staring at the clock all afternoon trying to wish the clock to get to 4 pm or so quicker...... then saying f-it about 3pm and heading out to the boat....
Thursday afternoon while up here I got a call from Ready2Fish asking if I was already at the lake and if I needed bait as he'd just caught 30-40 more baits than he needed in 2 throws. Uhh... Yes Please. Thank you very much!
I got down to the boat lickety split and filled up the tank about the time he rolled into my creek and he transferred over 30 nice dollar-bill gizzards. Now that's my kind of "one and done"!
Friday afternoon rolls around. I wanted to add some larger ones to go with the dollar bills so I spend an hour or hour and a half this afternoon throwing the net various spots looking for bigger bait - no flipping going on to tip them off for me. Found more of the dollar-bills.... and only a couple bigger ones. About 4:30 I decided it was time to fish. Headed to where we fished with HokieChad the day before but the leaves were terrible and there wasn't much action. I did have one fish hit a board that was totally covered with leaves and I think it prevented a good hook-set and the fish came off after just a few seconds
I packed it up and moved elsewhere a little before 6 while there was still some daylight. I headed straight for a spot that's done us good in the past and put out three boards on the bank side. In under 5 minutes I had drag peeling off the Tekota.
It slapped the bait a time or two and then got enough of it in its mouth for the hook to slam home in the upper lip. Hook almost just fell out when I landed the fish - keep that line tight 
It ain't much to look at, but it did put up a nice little fight and was the key to keeping the skunk away
That fish managed to get into both the other boards on the bank side, so I had to untangle the mess once I got the fish released and reset. I circled back on that spot hoping he had friends that wanted to play as well - but no luck. Pulled on and just as it was starting to get dark I had a strong boil or two on the middle planer and it was Fish On! again This one came almost straight to the boat, but then once it saw the boat tried to make 5 or 6 runs down. Thought it might be a bit bigger than the 10 lbs / 30" fish that it turned out to be.
Pulled it into the sunset - as I was just starting to pull in the channel side boards - which had been out there all alone with no love - all of a sudden a fish swirled on the outside bait. I left it alone and fish seemed to go away. I stopped the boat and started to pull in the other rods when it grabbed the bait and made a run - thought I had him but nope.... strike 2 for the day. Not the way I wanted to end it, but maybe if I let the fish win that one I'll win tomorrow
Headed back to the dock, with a stop to throw the net on a new spot that was a good decision - yielded several big baits to replace the ones that got eaten this evening...... they wanted the bigger ones tonight and not the dollar-bills...... hopefully they want a good mix tomorrow.....
Water: 61 - 68, visibility of 5 or so feet
Techniques: pulling dollar-bill to 10" gizzards on freeline planers - 6
Working from the lake has its advantages.... like staring at the clock all afternoon trying to wish the clock to get to 4 pm or so quicker...... then saying f-it about 3pm and heading out to the boat....
Thursday afternoon while up here I got a call from Ready2Fish asking if I was already at the lake and if I needed bait as he'd just caught 30-40 more baits than he needed in 2 throws. Uhh... Yes Please. Thank you very much!
I got down to the boat lickety split and filled up the tank about the time he rolled into my creek and he transferred over 30 nice dollar-bill gizzards. Now that's my kind of "one and done"!Friday afternoon rolls around. I wanted to add some larger ones to go with the dollar bills so I spend an hour or hour and a half this afternoon throwing the net various spots looking for bigger bait - no flipping going on to tip them off for me. Found more of the dollar-bills.... and only a couple bigger ones. About 4:30 I decided it was time to fish. Headed to where we fished with HokieChad the day before but the leaves were terrible and there wasn't much action. I did have one fish hit a board that was totally covered with leaves and I think it prevented a good hook-set and the fish came off after just a few seconds
I packed it up and moved elsewhere a little before 6 while there was still some daylight. I headed straight for a spot that's done us good in the past and put out three boards on the bank side. In under 5 minutes I had drag peeling off the Tekota.
It slapped the bait a time or two and then got enough of it in its mouth for the hook to slam home in the upper lip. Hook almost just fell out when I landed the fish - keep that line tight 
It ain't much to look at, but it did put up a nice little fight and was the key to keeping the skunk away That fish managed to get into both the other boards on the bank side, so I had to untangle the mess once I got the fish released and reset. I circled back on that spot hoping he had friends that wanted to play as well - but no luck. Pulled on and just as it was starting to get dark I had a strong boil or two on the middle planer and it was Fish On! again
This one came almost straight to the boat, but then once it saw the boat tried to make 5 or 6 runs down. Thought it might be a bit bigger than the 10 lbs / 30" fish that it turned out to be.Pulled it into the sunset - as I was just starting to pull in the channel side boards - which had been out there all alone with no love - all of a sudden a fish swirled on the outside bait. I left it alone and fish seemed to go away. I stopped the boat and started to pull in the other rods when it grabbed the bait and made a run - thought I had him but nope.... strike 2 for the day. Not the way I wanted to end it, but maybe if I let the fish win that one I'll win tomorrow
Headed back to the dock, with a stop to throw the net on a new spot that was a good decision - yielded several big baits to replace the ones that got eaten this evening...... they wanted the bigger ones tonight and not the dollar-bills...... hopefully they want a good mix tomorrow.....
