Post by mwardncsu on Jun 19, 2016 11:56:41 GMT -5
Weather: Mostly Sunny, temps in low 60's rising to low 80's, light wind from NW
Water: 78, visibility of a few feet to 10' depending on where we were
Techniques: Full 14 rod spread - big gizzards on freeline planers (2) money-maker gizzards on freeline planers (1 or 2), monster ales or bluebacks on freeline planers (1 or 2), medium ales on light-line planers (2), large ales on light-line float (1), medium to large ales on light-lines (3), medium ales on downlines (4)
Well, another week and another Friday cold-front moving through.
We had the Smith Mountain Striper Club member-guest tournament this weekend and were harvesting fish for our once-a-year fish-fry at our next Club meeting. I was going to have a father-son pair of my lake-neighbors fish the tournament with me as guests. Headed down to the boat around 9:30p or so on Friday and retied all the rods & reels to put fresh leaders on and get the right light-line weights and such so that we were ready to roll on Saturday AM. Then I headed out to get bait around 10:30 - it was a serious Easy Button Friday - and the main reason I threw more than two times was I was trying to get some alewifes that were less than 8".... 
, and also to get a half-dozen or so money-maker gizzards. Tyler and our other buddy Brock pulled up to catch bait as well so I offloaded a dozen or two big ales to them and started to work my way back home, hitting a few lights until I found the money-maker gizzards I was looking for.
We were on the water just ahead of lines at 5:30 - started near the house and made a long pull - didn't mark much but we haven't been so decided to "just fish" - we picked up our first fish within the first 20 min or so of the pull, and a second on down a little ways further, so I decided to keep with it in that area. I'd been hearing how it was an early bite then would die off quick into the morning, with maybe a bite mid-day so I knew we needed to be in the right place and didn't want to run around too much. Tommy got the fish fish to the boat that went a little over 8 lbs. A bit later I looked over to see the float rod buried off the back of the boat I picked it up and tried to hand it to Kevin but he said he was going to wait for the big one..... so I landed this one that went a bit over 9.5 lbs. We pulled a LONG pull for a few hours until around 8:30 or a bit later then made a move after landing those two fish early and then one missed hook-up.
Moved on back down the lake and setup for a pull along an area with a bunch of major points that come out on the main lake. A planer board was doing a small dip action and I hooked into it and handed it to Kevin - when the fish came up and tailspashed on the surface - yep - a 3 or so lb largemouth....
We kept working that stretch and those points when a light-line with an ale buried and Kevin landed a striper - he made a bad call waiting for "the big one" this was our smallest of the day at 7 lbs....
Pulled on and another light-line dragging a rocky point got bit - thought it felt light but felt some head-shaking so thought we might have a striper - till I saw the brown flashing in the clear water.... was a nice smallmouth at 19.5" - 1/2" shy of a citation fish.
We were going to have to head to the other side of the lake so we picked up and moved to another creek on down the lake a ways - I marked a few scattered fish so we put out the spread and pulled for 30 min or so but didn't have any action - picked up and I did some looking in a few other spots including a main creek over on the other side of the lake but we didn't mark really anything and the 1pm weigh-in was approaching so we called it a day and headed to the weigh-in with one fish each (of our allowed two).
Turned out to be a tough day of fishing for pretty much everyone - several guys didn't land any, and several others landed one or two per boat - but given this was an individual tournament it spread the catch thin.
We ended up taking a clean-sweep in the adult category - my 9.76 lber taking 1st, Tommy's 8.7 taking second and Kevin's 7.62 taking third. Sort of sad to do so with one fish each....
We had two youth weigh in fish - one that brought two fish to the scales totaling 12.16 lbs and KB's daughter that brought a 8.38 lb striper in.
Water: 78, visibility of a few feet to 10' depending on where we were
Techniques: Full 14 rod spread - big gizzards on freeline planers (2) money-maker gizzards on freeline planers (1 or 2), monster ales or bluebacks on freeline planers (1 or 2), medium ales on light-line planers (2), large ales on light-line float (1), medium to large ales on light-lines (3), medium ales on downlines (4)
Well, another week and another Friday cold-front moving through.
We had the Smith Mountain Striper Club member-guest tournament this weekend and were harvesting fish for our once-a-year fish-fry at our next Club meeting. I was going to have a father-son pair of my lake-neighbors fish the tournament with me as guests. Headed down to the boat around 9:30p or so on Friday and retied all the rods & reels to put fresh leaders on and get the right light-line weights and such so that we were ready to roll on Saturday AM. Then I headed out to get bait around 10:30 - it was a serious Easy Button Friday - and the main reason I threw more than two times was I was trying to get some alewifes that were less than 8".... 
, and also to get a half-dozen or so money-maker gizzards. Tyler and our other buddy Brock pulled up to catch bait as well so I offloaded a dozen or two big ales to them and started to work my way back home, hitting a few lights until I found the money-maker gizzards I was looking for.We were on the water just ahead of lines at 5:30 - started near the house and made a long pull - didn't mark much but we haven't been so decided to "just fish" - we picked up our first fish within the first 20 min or so of the pull, and a second on down a little ways further, so I decided to keep with it in that area. I'd been hearing how it was an early bite then would die off quick into the morning, with maybe a bite mid-day so I knew we needed to be in the right place and didn't want to run around too much. Tommy got the fish fish to the boat that went a little over 8 lbs. A bit later I looked over to see the float rod buried off the back of the boat I picked it up and tried to hand it to Kevin but he said he was going to wait for the big one..... so I landed this one that went a bit over 9.5 lbs. We pulled a LONG pull for a few hours until around 8:30 or a bit later then made a move after landing those two fish early and then one missed hook-up.
Moved on back down the lake and setup for a pull along an area with a bunch of major points that come out on the main lake. A planer board was doing a small dip action and I hooked into it and handed it to Kevin - when the fish came up and tailspashed on the surface - yep - a 3 or so lb largemouth....
We kept working that stretch and those points when a light-line with an ale buried and Kevin landed a striper - he made a bad call waiting for "the big one" this was our smallest of the day at 7 lbs....
Pulled on and another light-line dragging a rocky point got bit - thought it felt light but felt some head-shaking so thought we might have a striper - till I saw the brown flashing in the clear water.... was a nice smallmouth at 19.5" - 1/2" shy of a citation fish.
We were going to have to head to the other side of the lake so we picked up and moved to another creek on down the lake a ways - I marked a few scattered fish so we put out the spread and pulled for 30 min or so but didn't have any action - picked up and I did some looking in a few other spots including a main creek over on the other side of the lake but we didn't mark really anything and the 1pm weigh-in was approaching so we called it a day and headed to the weigh-in with one fish each (of our allowed two).
Turned out to be a tough day of fishing for pretty much everyone - several guys didn't land any, and several others landed one or two per boat - but given this was an individual tournament it spread the catch thin.
We ended up taking a clean-sweep in the adult category - my 9.76 lber taking 1st, Tommy's 8.7 taking second and Kevin's 7.62 taking third. Sort of sad to do so with one fish each....
We had two youth weigh in fish - one that brought two fish to the scales totaling 12.16 lbs and KB's daughter that brought a 8.38 lb striper in. 
