Post by mwardncsu on Dec 6, 2015 22:46:20 GMT -5
Weather: Low 30's rising into something nice
Water: 53, visibility of a few feet
Techniques: 8" - 13" gizzard shad on freeline boards against the bank, and a freeline board on the deep side along with a light-line planer with a 7"-8" gizzard
Since Tyler and I were running the tournament on Saturday and too busy to fish the tourney or at all, we made plans to fish on Sunday. He's getting old and his blood is getting thin and does not like the cold like he used to, so we started late.... I think we did not get on the water until 9:15 or pushing 9:30a and went out in search of bait.
We had a bead on a few areas that were holding some good bait - so off we went down the lake a ways..... Stop 1 was a bust..... the bait was just not of the quality we needed today....
Stop two was a bit more fruitful..... grabbed 8 or so baits from the tank - one or two big ones - one that went 13" but mostly money-makers in the 7-9" range
We moved on down to one other spot..... this one was the motherload of money-makers..... (thanks Keith!) Another dozen or so baits quickly made their way into the tank and we were good to go!
We had plans to fish back up closer to my place, but decided we would fish close to our last bait stop - after all, where there is bait there are fish, right?
Setup for the pull - three boards bank-side. 10" shad against the bank, 13" shad in the middle and a 8" shad closest to the boat. Small 7" shad about 50' back on a 3/8 oz light-line and then a 9 or 10" shad on a freeline board on the deep side of the boat.
We pulled one point without any action and on down a bank when the big boy got nervous and boiled on a few times.... then it started to get eaten... Tyler let it play, taking its time and then the rod loaded up! All right - biggest bait in the tank... big bait - big fish!!!!! Right?
Uhmmm... barely cracked 6 lbs or so - maybe a 25" fish.... bait was over 1/2 the length of the fish..... Dooh! Well, at least the skunk kept away for the day....
Just a few minutes later after releasing that one to grow on up, and we were diligently watching the bank side boards I happened to look over my shoulder at the light-line which I noticed was doubled over.... guess I better go get that huh......
Another that could have been the 1st fish's twin - in fact for a moment we thought it might have been, but it as a bit lighter and barely broke 24"
Pulled on a while - had one other nervous bait but then we decided to move back on up the lake to an area Nathan fished the day before, landing several really nice fish which won the tournament for him.... We stopped at one other spot on the way up but as we were positioning to make a pull a few kayaks were coming around the point fishing and were headed down the bank we were going to fish and then a bass boat blew in right to the area we were targeting, so we just picked up and moved on out to our original planned spot
It was a good thing today was not the tournament because those fish were not there today... or they all had sore lips - we did have a few swirls in the area so there must have been a few fish in there but even after making 4 laps we could not get them to try and eat..... so we picked up and moved to my creek to give one last pull for the day.
Flyrod spotted us as he was headed back down the lake and came over to say hello - good to see / talk to you Flyrod! Unfortunately it was another dead-zone.... again or or two swirls but that's it... we did run across this interesting character in the creek however.... just hanging out, pulling boards, letting time pass on by... mumbling something about not enough sleep, and asking where the mongos were and how he hated some guy named Mwerd for getting in his head on Friday morning to come back to SML on Fri evening after fishing a long day on Thursday so that he could fish the tourney on Saturday..... but here he was on Sunday... just watching the water pass him by....
That was it - 2 fish - 1 each... at least we broke Tyler's losing streak with breaking & missing fish...... maybe we'll turn the corner with him and get on the pigs next trip out......
At least the bait was easy
Water: 53, visibility of a few feet
Techniques: 8" - 13" gizzard shad on freeline boards against the bank, and a freeline board on the deep side along with a light-line planer with a 7"-8" gizzard
Since Tyler and I were running the tournament on Saturday and too busy to fish the tourney or at all, we made plans to fish on Sunday. He's getting old and his blood is getting thin and does not like the cold like he used to, so we started late.... I think we did not get on the water until 9:15 or pushing 9:30a and went out in search of bait.
We had a bead on a few areas that were holding some good bait - so off we went down the lake a ways..... Stop 1 was a bust..... the bait was just not of the quality we needed today....
Stop two was a bit more fruitful..... grabbed 8 or so baits from the tank - one or two big ones - one that went 13" but mostly money-makers in the 7-9" range
We moved on down to one other spot..... this one was the motherload of money-makers..... (thanks Keith!) Another dozen or so baits quickly made their way into the tank and we were good to go!
We had plans to fish back up closer to my place, but decided we would fish close to our last bait stop - after all, where there is bait there are fish, right?
Setup for the pull - three boards bank-side. 10" shad against the bank, 13" shad in the middle and a 8" shad closest to the boat. Small 7" shad about 50' back on a 3/8 oz light-line and then a 9 or 10" shad on a freeline board on the deep side of the boat.
We pulled one point without any action and on down a bank when the big boy got nervous and boiled on a few times.... then it started to get eaten... Tyler let it play, taking its time and then the rod loaded up! All right - biggest bait in the tank... big bait - big fish!!!!! Right?
Uhmmm... barely cracked 6 lbs or so - maybe a 25" fish.... bait was over 1/2 the length of the fish..... Dooh! Well, at least the skunk kept away for the day....
Just a few minutes later after releasing that one to grow on up, and we were diligently watching the bank side boards I happened to look over my shoulder at the light-line which I noticed was doubled over.... guess I better go get that huh......
Another that could have been the 1st fish's twin - in fact for a moment we thought it might have been, but it as a bit lighter and barely broke 24"Pulled on a while - had one other nervous bait but then we decided to move back on up the lake to an area Nathan fished the day before, landing several really nice fish which won the tournament for him.... We stopped at one other spot on the way up but as we were positioning to make a pull a few kayaks were coming around the point fishing and were headed down the bank we were going to fish and then a bass boat blew in right to the area we were targeting, so we just picked up and moved on out to our original planned spot
It was a good thing today was not the tournament because those fish were not there today... or they all had sore lips - we did have a few swirls in the area so there must have been a few fish in there but even after making 4 laps we could not get them to try and eat..... so we picked up and moved to my creek to give one last pull for the day.
Flyrod spotted us as he was headed back down the lake and came over to say hello - good to see / talk to you Flyrod! Unfortunately it was another dead-zone.... again or or two swirls but that's it... we did run across this interesting character in the creek however.... just hanging out, pulling boards, letting time pass on by... mumbling something about not enough sleep, and asking where the mongos were and how he hated some guy named Mwerd for getting in his head on Friday morning to come back to SML on Fri evening after fishing a long day on Thursday so that he could fish the tourney on Saturday..... but here he was on Sunday... just watching the water pass him by....
That was it - 2 fish - 1 each... at least we broke Tyler's losing streak with breaking & missing fish...... maybe we'll turn the corner with him and get on the pigs next trip out......
At least the bait was easy
