10-20

[sharkslayer]

Put in at Hardy right about day break and thanks to Bentrod and CorneliaGale navagating the shallow water was fairly easy. Started marking fish about a half mile past Bay Roc. We never did catch the size bait that we needed, although the peanuts were all over the place there. That is my inexperience on SML. This was my 4th time on the lake. So we weeded through a load of those to get some useable ones. We put out some boards, free and light lines. Pretty quickly we caught a decent channel cat. After about another hour we decided to run up to Beaverdam. We fished around the 1st island for a while with the wind kicking pretty good. No takers. Went deeper into the creek to try and find bigger bait, but still just peanuts. We went back to where we caught the channel, and started getting some action then. We caught four 8-15 pound stripers, a smallie that went about 4, and a green one that was over 5. All fish except the smallie were caught against the wind with cloud cover and on planer boards. We caught nothing with out the cloud cover. The smallie was caught with the wind in cloud cover. We had one real good pull down on a light line that didn't hook up. We kept one striper for nuggets and the others were released. It was a really fun, and beautiful day to be out fishing. I know a lot of you catch your bait at night and use it the next day. That is hard for me to do since I live an hour away but maybe I can put in before daylight and catch nicer ones in some lights. Any suggestions would be appreciated.

[mwardncsu]

Nice report - thanks for sharing! Nice fish!

[BentRod]

Good report!

No need to catch bait at night right now..plenty to be caught during the day! Nicer ones are easier during the day actually. Big bait is plentiful too throughout the lake. Some spots to check would be Anywhere up around Hardy and Bayroc, tressles cove, and most creeks from hardy to hales ford that I can verify. When looking in the creeks, focus on 8-12ft of water for the larger groups of shad. you should be able to pick up some scattered pods in less than 5ft. Basically its a "pick your favorite spot" and you should find em. For you Sharkslayer putting in at Hardy, I'd check the Tressles or BayRoc. This year has been insane with 7"+ shad. I go to a different creek every time just to see if its as loaded as the last one. I have not been in beaver though..takes to long to ride up in there (gas!)!

[sharkslayer]

Oct 22, 2012 11:45:07 GMT -5 BentRod said:

Good report!

No need to catch bait at night right now..plenty to be caught during the day! Nicer ones are easier during the day actually. Big bait is plentiful too throughout the lake. Some spots to check would be Anywhere up around Hardy and Bayroc, tressles cove, and most creeks from hardy to hales ford that I can verify. When looking in the creeks, focus on 8-12ft of water for the larger groups of shad. you should be able to pick up some scattered pods in less than 5ft. Basically its a "pick your favorite spot" and you should find em. For you Sharkslayer putting in at Hardy, I'd check the Tressles or BayRoc. This year has been insane with 7"+ shad. I go to a different creek every time just to see if its as loaded as the last one. I have not been in beaver though..takes to long to ride up in there (gas!)!

Thanks for the info. I probably should have been more patient and looked in the coves and creeks. I really should have looked in Bay Roc. I saw a few bigger ones flipping in there but it got shallow pretty quick, so I backed out and went on. The small ones were absolutely everywhere. I think if I would have caught some of the 7" plus shad I would have had more fish, because they were stacked for a good 1/2 mile all day. I understand the gas part too. I have to make that decision everytime I want to come to SML. I can catch bait and put out lines not 300' from where I keep my boat at Claytor. It is just that the fishing doesn't compare, so as often as I can, I load up and head to Smith.

[striperseeker]

Hey Sharkslayer after you are past Bay Roc try the second channel marker on the right. The shad there tend to be significantly bigger.

[dogsbestfriend]

thanks for posting your report. sounds like ya had a good day!

[mwardncsu]

We're all going to pitch in and get Sharkslayer a camera that takes bigger pictures for Christmas ;D

[sharkslayer]

Oct 22, 2012 15:13:41 GMT -5 mwardncsu said:

We're all going to pitch in and get Sharkslayer a camera that takes bigger pictures for Christmas ;D

I'd appreciate that. Actually took those with a droid razr and played with photo bucket for an hour before I gave up.

[sharkslayer]

Oct 22, 2012 13:40:30 GMT -5 striperseeker said:

Hey Sharkslayer after you are past Bay Roc try the second channel marker on the right. The shad there tend to be significantly bigger.

We fished and caught the bait on the opposite side all day. I will look there next time. Thanks.

[Deleted]

Good report, thanks for sharing.

and yep, I'm in on the camera.

[CorneliaGale]

How deep was the water after the turn at Hardy?

[sharkslayer]

Oct 22, 2012 23:06:55 GMT -5 CorneliaGale said:

How deep was the water after the turn at Hardy?

3-4' in one small stretch off the point after going under the bridge. No problem at all after that. The most shallow part is between the landing and the bridge. Also at the landing, the dock is pretty much useless right now. We beached the boat for me to get on after putting in. No big deal though.

[CorneliaGale]

What about from 85R to the first railroad bridge, its used to be a shallow spot there, you had to switch sides.

[mwardncsu]

Are you talking about where that tree comes up on the left-hand side (going down the lake) that StriperSeeker was referring to in the other post?

Two weekends ago the lake was right around 791' - where is has been give or take for the last several weeks - ran across the whole flat right down the middle on plane, and then around the curve staying to the right of middle of the center of the channel heading down. Plenty of water when I got to the R85 marker leaving the flat - it's watching that 3 ft or so of water under the xducer when crossing the flat that is fun......

[sharkslayer]

You could see the water color change there, so I started switching sides before it got shallow.