Post by R22 on Jun 1, 2016 12:40:24 GMT -5
We arrived at the lake on Thursday evening. We had family coming for the holiday weekend so I was unsure if this would mean more or less of an opportunity to fish. Turned out, I had more fishing time than I could handle. My nights were short as my wife and I were keeping our four month old granddaughter and I had night time feeding duty. Having a four month old around is hard work but a lot of fun.
It was a real joy to have Lucy with us for a few days.
Friday, May 27th
Bait on Thursday night was very easy and of great quality. I got a bit of a late start arriving at the lower end of the lake at 7:30. I was surprised to find a large number of boats on a Friday morning. I only had a few hours to fish. I set out four planers and had action within 10-15 minutes. I ended up with six fish, all in the 24-29 inch range.
All fish came on lightline planers with medium to large baits and in 30-40 feet of water.
I had a conversation with another boat that said they had a lot of luck the past few mornings up river a bit. They said they had caught 24 earlier that morning and shared their exact location.
Saturday, May 28th
I got out of the house a little earlier today. It was good that I kept Friday's bait in my tank as today was a completely different story. In several throws over a one hour period, I put one 14 inch gizzard in the tank, threw away four 6-8 inch stripers and a crappie. I suppose this could have been the reason that bait was scarce.
I had to be back at the house by about 10 am so I decided to stop and try the location provided me on Friday. I was a little suspicious on the intel but when I arrived my new friend was there with planers in tow in the same area he had given me. I said hello and joined in the fun. I did not catch a single striper but did manage three nice catfish, two in the 5-6 pound range and another that registered almost 23 pounds. That was a blast, enough that I have decided to go back through former posts in an effort to learn more about catfishing.
Sunday, May 29th
Bait was fairly easy this morning. I was working off little sleep. The past few nights were pretty short and Saturday night just got worse with only 3 hours of sleep. My youngest son wanted to go. I was very pleased as he has not shown much interest in the past.
We were met with a wonderful sunrise. As a college senior, I don't think he has seen many of these but even he thought it was one of the most beautiful sites he had ever seen.
I don't often take many pictures fishing by myself. Today, we were out for 4.5 hours and caught six stripers and one nice largemouth. All of the stripers we small, ranging from 22-29 inches. The largemouth was a nice fish at just over 6 pounds. We did set a couple of downlines but all fish were caught on planers but in 20-30 of water.
We headed back at 10am. By that time the recreational boat traffic was getting pretty heavy. We did go back out at sunset but caught nothing. Each time we would check our baits, we had a few stripers following our baits to the boat but we never even had as much as a pull down.
I did not fish on Monday.
Tuesday, May 31st
No additional bait was necessary. I fished more mid-lake on Tuesday. Only a few boats out and they we doing laps around an island. I kept my distance but fished close by. I marked very few fish, caught none and saw none caught.
All in all, it was a great few days. I rally enjoyed having my son along. Mostly small fish aside from the one nice cat.
