Post by mwardncsu on Jan 2, 2016 23:18:55 GMT -5
Weather: Cold & Windy! 5-15 with gusts to more than that from NW. Overcast to start with the sun breaking through around 9. Temps starting around 34 and rising into the 40's
Water: 52-54, visibility of a few feet
Techniques: Pulling big bait on freeline planers (5), casting swim-baits & flukes at school fish revealed by birds
We got the gang together - Tyler, Nathan & myself, to chase some fish on Saturday morning for a few hours before Tyler & I were headed to the Virginia Tech / NC State Basketball game in Blacksburg. We got on the water a bit before 7:30.... I had been thinking the night before that we should do some creek-hopping mid-lake, but they guys got me second-guessing my plan - saying we should fish were I'd been catching fish if the fish were there - so we headed to where I got three the morning before. On our way we spotted some birds building and looking but they did not seem to be diving or truly active, so we kept rolling. We did look for a couple of minutes and crossed over this bait for a good 1/2 mile..... figured that was what the birds were eyeing....
It was COLD out this morning......
So we headed on to the spot I caught several the morning before and put out our spread. Did I say it was cold? It was. And the wind was BLOWING - gave my trolling motor a work-out - had it on 8 and 10 at times to keep it going 1.1 mph
We pulled and pulled and pulled with nothing happening. Not even a swirl - not that we could have seen a swirl with all the waves. After passing a point we had one board make a very slow downward move - not sure what we hooked into - acted like one of those winter time sluggish bites..... and when Nathan grabbed the rod whatever it was seemed to move out into the channel away from the bank - and then pulled loose..... bringing back a bent #2 Gamakatsu treble stinger hook. I've not had any issue yet with these hooks opening on me with fish up to 20 lbs when using them in the winter - so I don't know if we hooked a big striper, a catfish, or a log......
We did not have a lot of time - maybe 90 minutes left to fish so decided we'd make a move back down lake and go with my original plan to hit a creek or two. However on the way as we passed the stretch where we'd seen birds earlier in the moving they were there and diving in a cove, so we bee-lined over to them and started casting flukes & swim-baits.
Tyler hooked up first with a largemouth that somehow did not get its picture taken
, but then he was into the right species.... with his 1st fish of 2016
We were marking a lot of fish on the bottom and throughout the water column and Nathan was next to hook-up - and then I got my turn - followed by Tyler catching a 2nd striper for the day.
Somewhere in there we dropped a few money-maker gizzards down on downlines and put out a few boards, but they did not draw any strikes. We wrapped up the last 30 or so minutes we had to fish by moving to a nearby creek and putting out a gizzard spread to see if we could raise a larger fish - but not luck.....
Called it just after 11:00am with 4 stripers to the boat that went 4-6 lbs fish but fun on light tackle - and back to the dock and cleaned up by 11:30.... then off to watch my Wolfpack blow a 10 pt lead to the Hokies, leaning to an overtime win by Virginia Tech...... at least I caught a fish.......
Water: 52-54, visibility of a few feet
Techniques: Pulling big bait on freeline planers (5), casting swim-baits & flukes at school fish revealed by birds
We got the gang together - Tyler, Nathan & myself, to chase some fish on Saturday morning for a few hours before Tyler & I were headed to the Virginia Tech / NC State Basketball game in Blacksburg. We got on the water a bit before 7:30.... I had been thinking the night before that we should do some creek-hopping mid-lake, but they guys got me second-guessing my plan - saying we should fish were I'd been catching fish if the fish were there - so we headed to where I got three the morning before. On our way we spotted some birds building and looking but they did not seem to be diving or truly active, so we kept rolling. We did look for a couple of minutes and crossed over this bait for a good 1/2 mile..... figured that was what the birds were eyeing....
It was COLD out this morning......
So we headed on to the spot I caught several the morning before and put out our spread. Did I say it was cold? It was. And the wind was BLOWING - gave my trolling motor a work-out - had it on 8 and 10 at times to keep it going 1.1 mph
We pulled and pulled and pulled with nothing happening. Not even a swirl - not that we could have seen a swirl with all the waves. After passing a point we had one board make a very slow downward move - not sure what we hooked into - acted like one of those winter time sluggish bites..... and when Nathan grabbed the rod whatever it was seemed to move out into the channel away from the bank - and then pulled loose..... bringing back a bent #2 Gamakatsu treble stinger hook. I've not had any issue yet with these hooks opening on me with fish up to 20 lbs when using them in the winter - so I don't know if we hooked a big striper, a catfish, or a log......
We did not have a lot of time - maybe 90 minutes left to fish so decided we'd make a move back down lake and go with my original plan to hit a creek or two. However on the way as we passed the stretch where we'd seen birds earlier in the moving they were there and diving in a cove, so we bee-lined over to them and started casting flukes & swim-baits.
Tyler hooked up first with a largemouth that somehow did not get its picture taken
, but then he was into the right species.... with his 1st fish of 2016We were marking a lot of fish on the bottom and throughout the water column and Nathan was next to hook-up - and then I got my turn - followed by Tyler catching a 2nd striper for the day.
Somewhere in there we dropped a few money-maker gizzards down on downlines and put out a few boards, but they did not draw any strikes. We wrapped up the last 30 or so minutes we had to fish by moving to a nearby creek and putting out a gizzard spread to see if we could raise a larger fish - but not luck.....
Called it just after 11:00am with 4 stripers to the boat that went 4-6 lbs fish but fun on light tackle - and back to the dock and cleaned up by 11:30.... then off to watch my Wolfpack blow a 10 pt lead to the Hokies, leaning to an overtime win by Virginia Tech...... at least I caught a fish.......
Had plenty of time not catching unfortunately on Sat.....