Post by R22 on May 9, 2016 14:07:37 GMT -5
It had been an incredibly long work week and it was just Thursday. I decided to head for the lake with the thought that working/fishing from the lake house on Friday was a good idea. I set out the light on Thursday night and was able to catch some decent size ales. I filtered through my catch, keeping a few dozen. I am not sure why, but I decided to keep a dozen or so medium sized baits just for some variety. I added about a half dozen nice gizzards that had been in my home tank for the past few weeks.
Friday, May 6th
After catching up on some sleep and emails I headed out late morning to fish. This was my first trip this year towards the dam. With only one or two boats around, I decided to scout a little but with bait out. I set out four planers. The first hour was pretty slow and all of a sudden all heck broke loose. I came across a school that was pretty decent, not huge, but fairly stationary. During the next hour and 40 minutes I pretty much ran circles through the same 150 yd. stretch catching eight fish ranging between 27 and 31 inches. Twice, I had doubles that I got to the boat while likely missing another 6-8 fish. All fish came on the medium ales. They did not touch the lone gizzard nor did I hook up on any of the large ales. There were several times I missed on the larger ales but no fish to the boat. Just as quickly as everything started, it stopped. I fished from just before noon until almost 6 pm with all of the action coming from about 1 pm until 2:45.
Saturday's weather was mixed with the barometric pressure declining slightly during most of my trip. Scattered to heavy showers off and on mixed with some sunshine. As the front passed, the fish stopped biting, the wind picked up and the pressure started to rise slightly.
Saturday, May 7th
I refreshed my baits on Friday night expecting another good trip on Saturday. I called a friend to see if he wanted to join me. It didn't take much to convince him to hop on board as he is always ready to go fishing. I misjudged what safe light might be by a good 45 minutes. We arrived at our first stop by about 6:40 - No Fish. We headed to where I was the day before, we marked a few but had no takers. As we moved from place to place, we found the most concentration of fish to be be random and simply suspended at 20-30 feet in much deeper water. We had lookers and no takers all morning. We tried mixing up as much as we could. We did get two boards slammed but could not hook up on either. We would see fish come up, presumably near our baits. We would see the baits dance across the surface but we could not catch a fish. As the boat traffic became too much, we headed back to the house with a skunk.
After a good afternoon nap, I decided I was going head back out for a few hours prior to dark. I fished more mid-lake just below the state park down to parkway. I marked some decent fish that evening with most in 30-40 feet of water. I lengthened the distance below the boards and the bait and added some weight. I was able to pick up one very small fish about 22 inches to save the day and throw the skunk off the boat.
Friday, May 6th
After catching up on some sleep and emails I headed out late morning to fish. This was my first trip this year towards the dam. With only one or two boats around, I decided to scout a little but with bait out. I set out four planers. The first hour was pretty slow and all of a sudden all heck broke loose. I came across a school that was pretty decent, not huge, but fairly stationary. During the next hour and 40 minutes I pretty much ran circles through the same 150 yd. stretch catching eight fish ranging between 27 and 31 inches. Twice, I had doubles that I got to the boat while likely missing another 6-8 fish. All fish came on the medium ales. They did not touch the lone gizzard nor did I hook up on any of the large ales. There were several times I missed on the larger ales but no fish to the boat. Just as quickly as everything started, it stopped. I fished from just before noon until almost 6 pm with all of the action coming from about 1 pm until 2:45.
Saturday's weather was mixed with the barometric pressure declining slightly during most of my trip. Scattered to heavy showers off and on mixed with some sunshine. As the front passed, the fish stopped biting, the wind picked up and the pressure started to rise slightly.
Saturday, May 7th
I refreshed my baits on Friday night expecting another good trip on Saturday. I called a friend to see if he wanted to join me. It didn't take much to convince him to hop on board as he is always ready to go fishing. I misjudged what safe light might be by a good 45 minutes. We arrived at our first stop by about 6:40 - No Fish. We headed to where I was the day before, we marked a few but had no takers. As we moved from place to place, we found the most concentration of fish to be be random and simply suspended at 20-30 feet in much deeper water. We had lookers and no takers all morning. We tried mixing up as much as we could. We did get two boards slammed but could not hook up on either. We would see fish come up, presumably near our baits. We would see the baits dance across the surface but we could not catch a fish. As the boat traffic became too much, we headed back to the house with a skunk.
After a good afternoon nap, I decided I was going head back out for a few hours prior to dark. I fished more mid-lake just below the state park down to parkway. I marked some decent fish that evening with most in 30-40 feet of water. I lengthened the distance below the boards and the bait and added some weight. I was able to pick up one very small fish about 22 inches to save the day and throw the skunk off the boat.
