Post by mwardncsu on May 9, 2016 9:28:18 GMT -5
Weather: Temps in mid-50's rising to mid 70's, mostly clear to sunny, Winds from W 5-10,
Water: 64-66, visibility of 5-8'
Techniques: pulling large gizzards on freeline planers, 8-10" alewive/bluebacks on freeline & light-line planers and light-lines / float , smaller alewives on downlines
One of the guys that had helped to sponsor our Striper Mafia tournament, Darian, was going to be up at SML this weekend for his 22nd anniversary trip so I offered for him to jump on with me on Saturday AM. After our Striper Club meeting Friday, I headed out around 10pm to hit the lights and catch some alewives and swing by to pick up some big gizzards that I had tucked away in the tank last weekend. Fortunately the giz were all still in good shape and cured out nice and clean and I was able to get a good mix of other bait at the light from smaller ales to 10"+ ales/bluebacks. I did stop at one light on my way back up the lake and loaded up with probably 30 monster ales/bluebacks - so many that I had to toss half of them back as the tank was already on the overcrowded side.
Anyway - I got back to the dock around mid-night and caught a little over 4 hours of sleep before I was up and headed back down the lake to pick up my guest. He was staying down the lake which was convenient as that's where I was heading - hit the down-lake, spawning schools. Picked him up right at 6am and we were fishing by 6:15 and think we had our first fish before 6:30. We started in the bowl of the dam and marked a fair number of fish as we came in - and saw a lot of carp breaking surface so wasn't sure if we were marking striper or carp or both - but a light-line with a big alewife or blueback buried over and Darian had his 1st SML striper - nothing to write home about but you gotta start somewhere - and a lot of what is to be expected this time of year in that area.
We worked around that area for a while marked a huge pile of bait with some fish working the edge of it...
We picked up another fish off a planer with a big gizzard - this one maybe in the 27" range
It got slow for us, so I picked up and moved to check out a near-by cove - as we reeled in we found a couple of our baits were missing - including a larger gizzard - must've had a few hits that didn't hook up that we missed....
Moved on over to the other cove - several boats in there but I marked no fish and very little bait, so we moved back into the channel for a pull - and stared marking a fair number of pods of fish - carp or striper unclear - and the carp were rolling, but we picked up a few more fish in this stretch - and had one come off at the boat and another just after hooking up. He let me catch one
and of course it was the largest of the day - though only at 28"....
We worked that stretch back and forth twice and the fish were moving out, so we picked up and moved back up the lake a bit to another creek - checked a cove in that creek and didn't mark anything back in the cove, but marked some smaller looking fish in the mouth of the cove / main creek so we put baits down - but then realized it was right at 11 and Darian needed to get back to his bride so we pulled in and headed back to drop him off. Wasn't a good strong numbers day I 'd hoped for, but given the day before was overcast and raining and we moved into a blue-bird skies during what is likely the peak of the spawn (one fish left some eggs on Darian and another male left his love juice as a thank-you for the release
), I was happy with 4 fish to the boat and chances at several others for a morning trip....
Water: 64-66, visibility of 5-8'
Techniques: pulling large gizzards on freeline planers, 8-10" alewive/bluebacks on freeline & light-line planers and light-lines / float , smaller alewives on downlines
One of the guys that had helped to sponsor our Striper Mafia tournament, Darian, was going to be up at SML this weekend for his 22nd anniversary trip so I offered for him to jump on with me on Saturday AM. After our Striper Club meeting Friday, I headed out around 10pm to hit the lights and catch some alewives and swing by to pick up some big gizzards that I had tucked away in the tank last weekend. Fortunately the giz were all still in good shape and cured out nice and clean and I was able to get a good mix of other bait at the light from smaller ales to 10"+ ales/bluebacks. I did stop at one light on my way back up the lake and loaded up with probably 30 monster ales/bluebacks - so many that I had to toss half of them back as the tank was already on the overcrowded side.
Anyway - I got back to the dock around mid-night and caught a little over 4 hours of sleep before I was up and headed back down the lake to pick up my guest. He was staying down the lake which was convenient as that's where I was heading - hit the down-lake, spawning schools. Picked him up right at 6am and we were fishing by 6:15 and think we had our first fish before 6:30. We started in the bowl of the dam and marked a fair number of fish as we came in - and saw a lot of carp breaking surface so wasn't sure if we were marking striper or carp or both - but a light-line with a big alewife or blueback buried over and Darian had his 1st SML striper - nothing to write home about but you gotta start somewhere - and a lot of what is to be expected this time of year in that area.
We worked around that area for a while marked a huge pile of bait with some fish working the edge of it...
We picked up another fish off a planer with a big gizzard - this one maybe in the 27" range
It got slow for us, so I picked up and moved to check out a near-by cove - as we reeled in we found a couple of our baits were missing - including a larger gizzard - must've had a few hits that didn't hook up that we missed....
Moved on over to the other cove - several boats in there but I marked no fish and very little bait, so we moved back into the channel for a pull - and stared marking a fair number of pods of fish - carp or striper unclear - and the carp were rolling, but we picked up a few more fish in this stretch - and had one come off at the boat and another just after hooking up. He let me catch one
and of course it was the largest of the day - though only at 28"....We worked that stretch back and forth twice and the fish were moving out, so we picked up and moved back up the lake a bit to another creek - checked a cove in that creek and didn't mark anything back in the cove, but marked some smaller looking fish in the mouth of the cove / main creek so we put baits down - but then realized it was right at 11 and Darian needed to get back to his bride so we pulled in and headed back to drop him off. Wasn't a good strong numbers day I 'd hoped for, but given the day before was overcast and raining and we moved into a blue-bird skies during what is likely the peak of the spawn (one fish left some eggs on Darian and another male left his love juice as a thank-you for the release
), I was happy with 4 fish to the boat and chances at several others for a morning trip....
.. Explain this cool water pump back? Is this something that pulls from below the dam and introduces that water back to the main lake? That may be a dumb question??