Post by 31Airborne on Apr 29, 2018 6:28:57 GMT -5
I managed to right the ship a bit on this outing after struggling the first few events of the year. It was a typical Anna experience - cold, warm, calm, windy, clear water, stained water, and rec turds idling over your line and cutting it. Gee, I really missed this place.
Practice: I don't sight fish. Never learned the ins-n-outs of it and don't feel comfortable doing it. Nothing against those who know how, mind you. It's just not something I do. That said, even tho' I knew it would be the winning pattern I made the decision to target post-spawn fish. My thinking was the bulk of the field would be sight fishing, leaving me ~free to work all of the traditional post-spawn stuff. On THUR I targeted the last set of secondary points in the back of creeks and larger main lake cuts. I also worked the transition areas to/from those points. If there was a dock on or near those points or transition areas I worked those over pretty good, too. I had one bite the entire weekend on a moving bait - a chunky ~4-5 lb'er nailed a DT10 early on THUR morning. After that, everything came on the jig, the c-rig, or the fluke. Most of the fish I found during practice were holding on breaks. I did find some holding on submerged wood or rock piles. FRI was kinda weird. Cold, cloudy, clammy and it put the fish in a funk. I didn't spend a lot of time working anything from THUR's practice so I focused on new water, new stuff. None of it worked. Late in the AM I switched back to the c-rig and jig and n ailed a nice keeper on a secondary point. I shut it down after that. I had my plan in place.
TX: We had a late start due to fog and the fog forced me into a different starting place than what I had planned but it worked out nicely. I caught three off of the first point I pulled up on (all on c-rig). I caught two off of the adjacent point (also c-rig). I had a limit by 0800 for ~8 lbs. From there I spent the rest of the day hopping a series of points or brush piles and looking for upgrades. I caught lots of small keepers but did manage to cull 4 times, incl a nice 4.56 lb'er late in the day. More on this fish in a minute. I spent my last hour hopping from place to place, almost all of which had been worked over already. I finished the day w/ 5 fish for 13.76.
Observations: 1) Water clarity is a tale of two lakes. Heavily stained up in the rivers (but fishable), gin clear downlake. Midlake has a nice tint to it - perfect in my opinion. I caught most of my fish downlake. The better fish came from midlake. 2) Water temps ranged from 55 at launch on THUR AM (HPM) to 66 on SAT afternoon (back of Sturgeon Creek). 3) Bait is thick up in the rivers, almost void downlake. A few small pods here and there. 4) Nothing fancy to my c-rig and jig colors or set-up. Greens w/ a lil bit of orange on the jig, green w/ a lil bit of chartreuse dye for the c-rig plastics. 5) Early in the AM the sweet spot was in the 2-6' range. As the sun came up they moved out on points or along transition lanes into 8-12'. 6) Fish were oriented along the outside posts on docks. Didn't have to skip very far back to get a strike. 7) All of the strikes I had were no-doubters. The fish slammed it. In several cases on TX day they had throated the bait before I could react. The bites happened that quickly, violently. 8) I never competed for fishing space. Most everyone was running the banks looking for bedding fish. My combination of points and offshore structure were virtually free of fishermen.
I would grade this outing as a B because I still had a couple of execution issues. On one, I had a really nice upgrade break off at the boat as I tried to boat sling it. I tried to do the sexy pro style swing and ended up slamming the fish against the side of the boat. The net was right there but I had to be pigheaded. On a couple others I had fish on and failed to accommodate for the bow in my line caused by the wind. I'll get the chance to work on these when on the Chick in 2 weeks. Overall, I'm kinda stoked I was able to turn things around a bit.
There's always a story: So, it's late in the day and I'm looking for my next upgrade. I'm working a small point near HPM when this dood in a black and green Moomba wave boat idles across my line. I look at him w/ my arms extend (in that WTF position) and asked, "Are you really gonna do this?" "You shouldn't be fishing here," he replied. As he crossed my line his prop cut it. I reel it in, re-rig, then resume fishing. The next cast I hook up on my big fish of the day. He watched as he was waiting to recover. I held it up and showed it to him. "Respect matters, dood. The lake is here for all to enjoy," I said. He threw me the finger. I'll see him again....
peace,
B
Practice: I don't sight fish. Never learned the ins-n-outs of it and don't feel comfortable doing it. Nothing against those who know how, mind you. It's just not something I do. That said, even tho' I knew it would be the winning pattern I made the decision to target post-spawn fish. My thinking was the bulk of the field would be sight fishing, leaving me ~free to work all of the traditional post-spawn stuff. On THUR I targeted the last set of secondary points in the back of creeks and larger main lake cuts. I also worked the transition areas to/from those points. If there was a dock on or near those points or transition areas I worked those over pretty good, too. I had one bite the entire weekend on a moving bait - a chunky ~4-5 lb'er nailed a DT10 early on THUR morning. After that, everything came on the jig, the c-rig, or the fluke. Most of the fish I found during practice were holding on breaks. I did find some holding on submerged wood or rock piles. FRI was kinda weird. Cold, cloudy, clammy and it put the fish in a funk. I didn't spend a lot of time working anything from THUR's practice so I focused on new water, new stuff. None of it worked. Late in the AM I switched back to the c-rig and jig and n ailed a nice keeper on a secondary point. I shut it down after that. I had my plan in place.
TX: We had a late start due to fog and the fog forced me into a different starting place than what I had planned but it worked out nicely. I caught three off of the first point I pulled up on (all on c-rig). I caught two off of the adjacent point (also c-rig). I had a limit by 0800 for ~8 lbs. From there I spent the rest of the day hopping a series of points or brush piles and looking for upgrades. I caught lots of small keepers but did manage to cull 4 times, incl a nice 4.56 lb'er late in the day. More on this fish in a minute. I spent my last hour hopping from place to place, almost all of which had been worked over already. I finished the day w/ 5 fish for 13.76.
Observations: 1) Water clarity is a tale of two lakes. Heavily stained up in the rivers (but fishable), gin clear downlake. Midlake has a nice tint to it - perfect in my opinion. I caught most of my fish downlake. The better fish came from midlake. 2) Water temps ranged from 55 at launch on THUR AM (HPM) to 66 on SAT afternoon (back of Sturgeon Creek). 3) Bait is thick up in the rivers, almost void downlake. A few small pods here and there. 4) Nothing fancy to my c-rig and jig colors or set-up. Greens w/ a lil bit of orange on the jig, green w/ a lil bit of chartreuse dye for the c-rig plastics. 5) Early in the AM the sweet spot was in the 2-6' range. As the sun came up they moved out on points or along transition lanes into 8-12'. 6) Fish were oriented along the outside posts on docks. Didn't have to skip very far back to get a strike. 7) All of the strikes I had were no-doubters. The fish slammed it. In several cases on TX day they had throated the bait before I could react. The bites happened that quickly, violently. 8) I never competed for fishing space. Most everyone was running the banks looking for bedding fish. My combination of points and offshore structure were virtually free of fishermen.
I would grade this outing as a B because I still had a couple of execution issues. On one, I had a really nice upgrade break off at the boat as I tried to boat sling it. I tried to do the sexy pro style swing and ended up slamming the fish against the side of the boat. The net was right there but I had to be pigheaded. On a couple others I had fish on and failed to accommodate for the bow in my line caused by the wind. I'll get the chance to work on these when on the Chick in 2 weeks. Overall, I'm kinda stoked I was able to turn things around a bit.
There's always a story: So, it's late in the day and I'm looking for my next upgrade. I'm working a small point near HPM when this dood in a black and green Moomba wave boat idles across my line. I look at him w/ my arms extend (in that WTF position) and asked, "Are you really gonna do this?" "You shouldn't be fishing here," he replied. As he crossed my line his prop cut it. I reel it in, re-rig, then resume fishing. The next cast I hook up on my big fish of the day. He watched as he was waiting to recover. I held it up and showed it to him. "Respect matters, dood. The lake is here for all to enjoy," I said. He threw me the finger. I'll see him again....
peace,
B
