Post by lund2 on Mar 29, 2016 11:58:21 GMT -5
Got off work thursday afternoon and headed straight up to the lake with a couple of buddies, after Lund1 and Mrs. Lund ditched me for Easter weekend. Woke up Friday and was on the water by 630 with one thing in mind, Bait. I was forced to throw a smaller net all weekend bc our 10' 1"mesh net has some issues with the brail lines, which tended to make the bait excursions somewhat extended. I was throwing an 8' half inch mesh that is 1.5lbs per foot. Needless to say, it was pretty useless trying to throw on anything in more than 15ft of water. finally made about 5-6 gizzards ranging from 9"-15". ran down the blackwater in search of some nice clean water. Water temps were about 55. started pulling, boards along the shore and it wasnt long before some actions started. 2 boards that were both pulling 12"+ gizzards got buried fairly quick. long story short, I missed both. I Think it is a combination of not using stingers on those big baits, and my terrible patience. I rigged up some stingers and set back out. had some more action throughout the afternoon but no solid hits. Friday went down as a skunk in my log book. after that long day of fishing and no catching, most of my buddies thought i was a failed fisherman so they decided to go on a day hike. I told them there wasnt a chance that I was gonna miss a whole day of fishing after getting skunked. So i recruited another buddy who was staying down by the mountain in Penhook to tag along with me. quickly caught 2 more big gizzards to compliment a couple left over from the day before and started pulling the same area as the day before. started to get some busy bait. had a planer board bury off a point and finally got a good hookset on the fish (let the rod load then swept across my body in a smooth motion). he was about a 1/4in shy of 30in and almost 15lbs got him to the boat right as the game Wardens pulled me over. moved to another creek on the BW to pull some bait in the evening. pulled big gizzards across some points for the last 2 hours of light. Had one really good hit that buried a board and as i attempted to give him the sweep strike again I felt the pressure give. reeled in to see that my stinger hook had broken off. Sunday morning I was on the water before daylight again in order to try and get some fresh bait. I succeeded in making about 8 big gizzard and few dollar bills. pulled an area up the BW till about 1030 with not even a sniff at a big bait or a dollar bill. Called it a day around 11am bc I had to get back to Raleigh for the Hurricanes game. Apparently fish were hitting small bait throughout the day on Sunday?
It was was a weekend of a lot of work for a little reward. I am slowly gaining knowledge from all of these failures tho. eventually I'll stop missing so many big fish on these planers. I plan to head up again this weekend, and I may try my hand on the roanoke side for both bait and stripes. It seemed to work for Cohesion.
It was was a weekend of a lot of work for a little reward. I am slowly gaining knowledge from all of these failures tho. eventually I'll stop missing so many big fish on these planers. I plan to head up again this weekend, and I may try my hand on the roanoke side for both bait and stripes. It seemed to work for Cohesion.