5/14 and 5/15 Gills Creek

[gillscreek]

I drove down to the lake from Richmond Friday night; went out for the striper night bite late Friday (see separate post on the striper board, but the short story is I threw the whole tackle box and couldn't get the busting fish to bite).

Saturday morning I went out in my kayak; got a small striper on a jerkbait; lost another good fish (didn't see what it was).  Got 2 nearly identical 16" fat largemouths on a Zoom Baby Brush Hog and lost another good fish right at the boat.  Got one in about 6 feet off the middle of a dock.  The two others bit right up on the bank.  Pretty solid action overall.  

Saturday afternoon, a cold front blew in; after the rain let up, the air temp had dropped at least 15 degrees, and the wind was howling.  And it never stopped all weekend.  Made the rest of my fishing very tough and unproductive.  Stayed in the house most of the time; it's difficult to battle whitecaps in a kayak.  

[mwardncsu]

Heck - it was difficult to battle the white-caps and wind standing in the boat that was in the lift while doing some rewiring on Sunday..... that wind was brutal!

[bigd7400]

For night fishin park your kayak right up on the riprap and cast parallel to the bank as close as you can. If you dont bang off the rocks every now and then on a cast or hang up in a tree you probably arent close enough. Thundersticks work, but smaller jointed stickbaits produce better for me 3 to 1, probably because 1000 people are throwing a thunderstick so they get conditioned to it. Changing baits a lot is a hinderance I think because the name of the game is keeping that lure in the water and in play, basically the fish are there and they are eating at tandom you just gotta chucj and wind as much as humanly possible. Dont chase down random busting fish, if theres a lot of shad on the bank you are on then theres fish there too though some stretches produce much better than others just gotta find the sweet spot and park there all night. Ive got a handful of spots around the lake that might only be 100yds long that i stay on all night. Lastly dont shine a white light all around to see where your casting, its the #1 mistake in my opinion, I think it spooks fish out and everyone Ive ever taken out catches way more fish once they get confident enough not to blast the whole area with a light before casting. Lost lures are part of it but losing a lure while catchin fish is better than losing one and skunking so its worth it to me. Sorry for the long post but I feel obligated to help out the kayak brotherhood hope any of this helps. P.S. if you are in a boat disregard this nonsense it wont work for boats lol

[goherd1982]

Thanks for the report. Those cold fronts are depressing as you can feel the air changing. I just bought a house up Gills Creek, hoping to learn that water soon.