2/7/17 - Early Spring redeaux
Feb 8, 2017 11:42:46 GMT -5
tiltntrim, smlfishing, and 3 more like this
Post by mwardncsu on Feb 8, 2017 11:42:46 GMT -5
Weather: started the morning in the low 50's and rising to almost 70 by mid-day. Partly Cloudy, still to start the day but winds building from the S by late morning at 10-15 gusting to 20+
Water: 43-49, visibility of 2-6 feet
Techniques: Freeline planers with 8-11" gizzards, light line & down line with 6-7" gizzards
Time Fished: 7am - noonish
Picked back up where we left off for the day on Monday - literally as Kurt / LiveBaitJunkEE picked me up at my dock at 7 and we spend a little time in my creek looking for some bigger bait on sonar for just a few minutes but since we had a good 18 or so nice baits we decided to move on up the lake, dodging a lot of debris and the setup to pull the wall in front of a main creek and then on into the creek. Water was getting cooler the further we moved into the creek - from about 46 down to 43. Didn't have high hopes, though we were marking some fish deep in the creek - and there was a lot of bait around. As we came across a point about 1/3 of the way into the creek a board took a dive and we were hooked up with what turned out to be a 28" striper - getting the day off on the right foot.
We worked that creek a while - and then Kurt tossed the net a few times to see if we could find any more bigger bait in there - then we made another move - wanted to hit the stretch we caught fish on the day before but it was covered up in debris as things had settled over the night to we moved on a bit further. Decided to try again in the colder water that we fished the day before without success. This time it paid off. Very quickly Kurt was hooked up and then unbuttoned - twice in about 10 minutes - we worked around that area for a while and picked up 5 total around there I think - with several good fish - I landed a 33" fatty that went 16 lbs and later Kurt caught one just shy of 18 lbs that was 35.75" Several others that were in the 27-29" range as well - including one 8 lber that I foul hooked on the back of the head - thought I had the state record for a bit as he was digging
We spent a lot of time working to dodge this crap..... and as the wind was starting to pick up a bit mid-morning we were able to double back and fish some stretches we could not fish earlier as the trash was being pushed around.
The bite died down for us around 10:30 or so and we made a few moves trying a few other stretches of main channel without any more luck - about 12:30 we made a half-hearted attempt at catching more bait as we almost out of the bigger baits but the wind was continuing to build - we took a quick time-out to reset - I drove down the road to meet Kurt back at the hotel where he was staying as we had planned to fish the lower lake in the afternoon - we stopped to help a couple of guys there that were staying in the hotel to get their StructureScan working (they were getting a blank SS screen - turned out he had not hooked up the yellow-wire off the SS box to the HDS or other power source so the SS was not turning itself on) - I found that pretty quick and got those guys sorted. However, the wind was getting worse and worse and Kurt had a three hour drive or so home, and I needed to get on back to NC so we bailed on the afternoon fishing and took the morning success.
6 striper to the boat from 28"-35.75", with the two biggest going 33" / 16 lbs & 35.75" / just under 18 lbs. Good morning of fishing - can't beat these warm temps in early February even if the wind did cut us short early. Good to bump into drag4striper today - and a big thanks to Kurt for having me on the last two days..... can't beat live-bait fishing in 60+ degree temps in February!
Water: 43-49, visibility of 2-6 feet
Techniques: Freeline planers with 8-11" gizzards, light line & down line with 6-7" gizzards
Time Fished: 7am - noonish
Picked back up where we left off for the day on Monday - literally as Kurt / LiveBaitJunkEE picked me up at my dock at 7 and we spend a little time in my creek looking for some bigger bait on sonar for just a few minutes but since we had a good 18 or so nice baits we decided to move on up the lake, dodging a lot of debris and the setup to pull the wall in front of a main creek and then on into the creek. Water was getting cooler the further we moved into the creek - from about 46 down to 43. Didn't have high hopes, though we were marking some fish deep in the creek - and there was a lot of bait around. As we came across a point about 1/3 of the way into the creek a board took a dive and we were hooked up with what turned out to be a 28" striper - getting the day off on the right foot.
We worked that creek a while - and then Kurt tossed the net a few times to see if we could find any more bigger bait in there - then we made another move - wanted to hit the stretch we caught fish on the day before but it was covered up in debris as things had settled over the night to we moved on a bit further. Decided to try again in the colder water that we fished the day before without success. This time it paid off. Very quickly Kurt was hooked up and then unbuttoned - twice in about 10 minutes - we worked around that area for a while and picked up 5 total around there I think - with several good fish - I landed a 33" fatty that went 16 lbs and later Kurt caught one just shy of 18 lbs that was 35.75" Several others that were in the 27-29" range as well - including one 8 lber that I foul hooked on the back of the head - thought I had the state record for a bit as he was digging
We spent a lot of time working to dodge this crap..... and as the wind was starting to pick up a bit mid-morning we were able to double back and fish some stretches we could not fish earlier as the trash was being pushed around.
The bite died down for us around 10:30 or so and we made a few moves trying a few other stretches of main channel without any more luck - about 12:30 we made a half-hearted attempt at catching more bait as we almost out of the bigger baits but the wind was continuing to build - we took a quick time-out to reset - I drove down the road to meet Kurt back at the hotel where he was staying as we had planned to fish the lower lake in the afternoon - we stopped to help a couple of guys there that were staying in the hotel to get their StructureScan working (they were getting a blank SS screen - turned out he had not hooked up the yellow-wire off the SS box to the HDS or other power source so the SS was not turning itself on) - I found that pretty quick and got those guys sorted. However, the wind was getting worse and worse and Kurt had a three hour drive or so home, and I needed to get on back to NC so we bailed on the afternoon fishing and took the morning success.
6 striper to the boat from 28"-35.75", with the two biggest going 33" / 16 lbs & 35.75" / just under 18 lbs. Good morning of fishing - can't beat these warm temps in early February even if the wind did cut us short early. Good to bump into drag4striper today - and a big thanks to Kurt for having me on the last two days..... can't beat live-bait fishing in 60+ degree temps in February!
