11/22/15 - If You're Only Gonna Catch One.....
Nov 22, 2015 17:04:59 GMT -5
jb4sml, R22, and 2 more like this
Post by mwardncsu on Nov 22, 2015 17:04:59 GMT -5
Weather: Low 40's, Wind from NW 5-10, gusting to a boat halting 15-20 mph, overcast for first few hours then sunny
Water: 57-58, visibility of several feet
Techniques: 8-10" gizzards on freeline planers, about 12-15' behind the board. 3 bank-side, 1 or 2 channel side. An occasional alewife on a light-line board channel-side. A light-lined gizzard out the back on a float or not
I'd invited one of our newer Striper Club members to go out with me this morning so he could learn first-hand some of the in's and out's of live-bait fishing. He's starting to setup a pontoon to striper fish from as his wife won't go out with him on the bass boat anymore - and he wanted to learn some of the rigging, and such.
Had bait left over from the previous few days so I rolled out from the dock around 6:30 after a morning water change and picked up Jim just after 6:45. We were fishing by 7am, working similar areas as we did Saturday morning.
Similar result to Saturday AM - the back of the creek was dead.... we did get a small boil on the 1st point but no chase even after circling back on it..... then no action all the way to the back of the creek. So we picked up and moved to another finger of the creek further out and setup to pull the point going in..... Jim got to see his first striper boil and then the board burried - I was at the rod and even though I let it go for what I thought was plenty long, the hook didn't connect and I missed.....
So I pulled a wide circle fighting the wind and pulled back through. On this pass the inside board started tugging down with that "I'm gonna eat your bait but I'm not the fish you're looking for" kind of pull that a large green sunfish makes...... and then it pulled the board down so I reeled up and handed the rod to Jim..... saw a really large largemouth let go of the bait about 5' from the boat.... Jim was pulling in the planer just as the biggest bait we had out got blown up on once and the planer dove for the depths. I grabbed the road and handed what we WERE looking for over to Jim....
He was working the fish and it did not seem like he was making progress - saw the drag slipping and after a couple of minutes I figured the drag must have worked really loose cause it had been smaller fish in that area the day before - tightened the drag just a bit for him and he was finally able to make progress and get the fish to the boat..... as it surfaced I saw the head and realized there was a reason he didn't just yank this one right in.....
Scooped it up in the rubber net and laid it on the deck to find a really nice fish.... one that went 36.5" and about 17 lbs. Jim's biggest striper ever, even with having fished for striper out at the Chesapeake Bay.
We kept on pulling looking for some more fun..... had a planer dart off again and then nothing..... well, nothing but a hook turned into the bait
Doubled back with no love so we picked up and moved to a creek I'd not fished since Spring.... trying it on a hunch......well, not all hunches pay off.....
Moved to our third creek - hitting a main creek point then working our way to the back. As we were pulling a wooded stretch of bank just before the last point I was going to hit we had a really nice boil on the bank-side bait then it went quiet. I went to adjust the middle bank-side board to give it some slack when the fish came off the back bait and nailed the middle one..... and that, coupled with me grabbing the rod - with the reel still in free-spool - caused a bit of a back-lash to were I could not reel up. I quickly cleared the backlash and for a second the fish was still on - but then the bait pulled free..... again with a turned hook 
We doubled back on the point for one last go before I had to drop off Jim and run back to the house.... but no luck on our last pass.....
It's always fun to put someone on a new personal best - and if you're only going to catch one, it, might as well be a nice 'un.....
Water: 57-58, visibility of several feet
Techniques: 8-10" gizzards on freeline planers, about 12-15' behind the board. 3 bank-side, 1 or 2 channel side. An occasional alewife on a light-line board channel-side. A light-lined gizzard out the back on a float or not
I'd invited one of our newer Striper Club members to go out with me this morning so he could learn first-hand some of the in's and out's of live-bait fishing. He's starting to setup a pontoon to striper fish from as his wife won't go out with him on the bass boat anymore - and he wanted to learn some of the rigging, and such.
Had bait left over from the previous few days so I rolled out from the dock around 6:30 after a morning water change and picked up Jim just after 6:45. We were fishing by 7am, working similar areas as we did Saturday morning.
Similar result to Saturday AM - the back of the creek was dead.... we did get a small boil on the 1st point but no chase even after circling back on it..... then no action all the way to the back of the creek. So we picked up and moved to another finger of the creek further out and setup to pull the point going in..... Jim got to see his first striper boil and then the board burried - I was at the rod and even though I let it go for what I thought was plenty long, the hook didn't connect and I missed.....
So I pulled a wide circle fighting the wind and pulled back through. On this pass the inside board started tugging down with that "I'm gonna eat your bait but I'm not the fish you're looking for" kind of pull that a large green sunfish makes...... and then it pulled the board down so I reeled up and handed the rod to Jim..... saw a really large largemouth let go of the bait about 5' from the boat.... Jim was pulling in the planer just as the biggest bait we had out got blown up on once and the planer dove for the depths. I grabbed the road and handed what we WERE looking for over to Jim....
He was working the fish and it did not seem like he was making progress - saw the drag slipping and after a couple of minutes I figured the drag must have worked really loose cause it had been smaller fish in that area the day before - tightened the drag just a bit for him and he was finally able to make progress and get the fish to the boat..... as it surfaced I saw the head and realized there was a reason he didn't just yank this one right in.....
Scooped it up in the rubber net and laid it on the deck to find a really nice fish.... one that went 36.5" and about 17 lbs. Jim's biggest striper ever, even with having fished for striper out at the Chesapeake Bay.
We kept on pulling looking for some more fun..... had a planer dart off again and then nothing..... well, nothing but a hook turned into the bait
Doubled back with no love so we picked up and moved to a creek I'd not fished since Spring.... trying it on a hunch......well, not all hunches pay off.....
Moved to our third creek - hitting a main creek point then working our way to the back. As we were pulling a wooded stretch of bank just before the last point I was going to hit we had a really nice boil on the bank-side bait then it went quiet. I went to adjust the middle bank-side board to give it some slack when the fish came off the back bait and nailed the middle one..... and that, coupled with me grabbing the rod - with the reel still in free-spool - caused a bit of a back-lash to were I could not reel up. I quickly cleared the backlash and for a second the fish was still on - but then the bait pulled free..... again with a turned hook
We doubled back on the point for one last go before I had to drop off Jim and run back to the house.... but no luck on our last pass.....
It's always fun to put someone on a new personal best - and if you're only going to catch one, it, might as well be a nice 'un.....
For me it really all depends on how much bait is in the tank and how easy it was/is to replenish. However, if a bait got abused by a striper popping it around but never actually eating it, and it's missing a lot of scales, it probably won't get to make the ride to the next stop - unless we are desperately low on bait (or it's our only really big bait). But, if the bait has been pulled around and still looks good and not missing but a few scales, and is still friksy and active, then it will go in the tank to get another chance at serving it's divine purpose to die in the mouth of a citation striper 
