3/29 & 3/30 - This is Our House!
Mar 31, 2019 15:50:37 GMT -5
jb4sml, tiltntrim, and 9 more like this
Post by mwardncsu on Mar 31, 2019 15:50:37 GMT -5
Weather: mostly sunny with light winds on Friday, cloudy to start with a short period of light rain, then clearing skies and turning windy from the S mid-day
Water: 52-54, visibility of several feet
Techniques: 10-14" gizzards on free-lined planer boards in creeks
Time Fished: 7:15a - 1:30p on Friday (with about 1/2 or more of that time spent chasing bait and checking creeks for bait/fish), and 6:30 - 2:40 on Saturday
As I never get to fish the tourneys that I'm directing, I decided I'd support the Catch-Photo-Release format that the American Striped Bass Challenge was putting on for their SML tourney and fish it along with Tyler, and we enlisted Yam to join us as well. The American Striped Bass Challenge series is a "trail" with events across the southeast, and a number of teams came in to fish from GA, SC, NC and elsewhere.
Yam was up Thursday doing some bait catching a little fishing and more bait catching and I got up late Thur night to do some pre-fishing and bait catching on Friday so we were ready for the tourney.
Caught my 1st fish of 2019 on Friday - a little 31" that went 13-14 lbs.... he hit a 10" or so shad in the middle / back of a smaller creek.
Only fish I saw on Friday but I really only fished that creek and one other - most of the rest of my time was spent scouting - for big bait or fish.... and was off the water around 1:30 to get things ready and go check in for the tourney. When I got back to the dock my charger was showing my trolling batts at 25% and after 6 to 7 hours it was still showing 25%. I was concerned something had gone wrong with them not being on the charger for about 2 months so we decided to use Yam's ride for Saturday just to be safe.
We convened about 5:30am on Sat to load the bait tank and we were headed to our target starting creek about 6:10, and sitting in our spot waiting on lines in at 6:30.
We were still getting baits out in the pitch dark when a rod was buried over and Tyler realized it - but as soon as he put his hands on the rod it came free due to a cut leader - fish probably had swallowed the bait and cut the line with its gills - we were not sure if we were getting out bad luck out early or if this was to be a bad omen.... but on we pulled.
Worked that creek for maybe 2 hours an we picked up our 1st fish there - a 29" that was at least something to get on the board but we knew we'd need to do a lot better.
There were definitely fish in this area as well as some big bait so we stayed a while making multiple passes - but after a while without another hit we decided to move on to the creek we had in mind as our go-to.
Got there and started a pull - pulled way in without any action but had a little bit of signs of life in the very back so made a circle on the way out when a big mongo was hammered - Tyler was on the rod and had a fight on his hands - the fish was digging hard then making its way to the creek-middle boards so we got those out of the way as Yam did an excellent NetMan move - just as he scooped the fish the hook fell out of the fishes mouth. We knew it was a good fish, but once we got it on the board our mood changed drastically......
She went 40.25" - but she was skinny - a bit under 20 lbs. Tyler finally had landed his 40"+ SML striper, so the rest of the outcome for the day would only be gravy. The fish released quickly in the 53 degree water leaving Tyler with some love scrapes on the hands for his trouble
We circled in there another time looking for her granddaddy - and on another out-pass we had another board slammed - I got on this one and it was a good fight, but just a fat 31" - it did allow us to upgrade the earlier 29" - we were certain we were going to need more than 71" however so we held out hope for another big girl.
We moved on to a couple of other creeks without any action - we went back to our first creek where we were marking big bait to catch some fresh big bait and got a handful to work wit. The sun was up and the wind was building - and time was starting to get short. We hit a few other spots for run & gun pulls to try and cover as many hot-spots as we could with some big bait. Decided on one last creek/cove to try and pull out a 35"+ fish - pulled across the mouth and had something hit a board that I had WAYYYY out - but we didn't get hooked up. Got into the narrow part and Tyler got another dink that was 28-29" - we were getting very short on time but pulled the other side of this cut/creek and it seemed dead - started to reel in the baits when the outside, bank board slammed down - Yam was reeling in another board so had to drop that rod and jump on the fish - he got it to the boat - not the 35" we were looking for but a nice 33" and another upgrade for our smaller fish - giving us 73.25" to head to the check-in.
Sent the pictures in via email on the ride to the check-in - We got there and found that we were sitting on top of the leader board with a few teams still not checked in. But, fortunately our total held and Team Mongo Mafia took 1st place in the tourney - keeping honors for Smith Mountain.
Appreciate the opportunity to fish with great friends & fishermen (and bait catchers) - and for the American Striped Bass Challenge supporting the CPR format - hope to see them move to that for all their events and other series to do so as well! Good to see the other fisherman and the youth out yesterday as well! Looking forward to switching back to the director role in a couple of weeks, but hopefully I can get some more fishing time in next weekend if all goes good!
Water: 52-54, visibility of several feet
Techniques: 10-14" gizzards on free-lined planer boards in creeks
Time Fished: 7:15a - 1:30p on Friday (with about 1/2 or more of that time spent chasing bait and checking creeks for bait/fish), and 6:30 - 2:40 on Saturday
As I never get to fish the tourneys that I'm directing, I decided I'd support the Catch-Photo-Release format that the American Striped Bass Challenge was putting on for their SML tourney and fish it along with Tyler, and we enlisted Yam to join us as well. The American Striped Bass Challenge series is a "trail" with events across the southeast, and a number of teams came in to fish from GA, SC, NC and elsewhere.
Yam was up Thursday doing some bait catching a little fishing and more bait catching and I got up late Thur night to do some pre-fishing and bait catching on Friday so we were ready for the tourney.
Caught my 1st fish of 2019 on Friday - a little 31" that went 13-14 lbs.... he hit a 10" or so shad in the middle / back of a smaller creek.
Only fish I saw on Friday but I really only fished that creek and one other - most of the rest of my time was spent scouting - for big bait or fish.... and was off the water around 1:30 to get things ready and go check in for the tourney. When I got back to the dock my charger was showing my trolling batts at 25% and after 6 to 7 hours it was still showing 25%. I was concerned something had gone wrong with them not being on the charger for about 2 months so we decided to use Yam's ride for Saturday just to be safe.
We convened about 5:30am on Sat to load the bait tank and we were headed to our target starting creek about 6:10, and sitting in our spot waiting on lines in at 6:30.
We were still getting baits out in the pitch dark when a rod was buried over and Tyler realized it - but as soon as he put his hands on the rod it came free due to a cut leader - fish probably had swallowed the bait and cut the line with its gills - we were not sure if we were getting out bad luck out early or if this was to be a bad omen.... but on we pulled.
Worked that creek for maybe 2 hours an we picked up our 1st fish there - a 29" that was at least something to get on the board but we knew we'd need to do a lot better.
There were definitely fish in this area as well as some big bait so we stayed a while making multiple passes - but after a while without another hit we decided to move on to the creek we had in mind as our go-to.
Got there and started a pull - pulled way in without any action but had a little bit of signs of life in the very back so made a circle on the way out when a big mongo was hammered - Tyler was on the rod and had a fight on his hands - the fish was digging hard then making its way to the creek-middle boards so we got those out of the way as Yam did an excellent NetMan move - just as he scooped the fish the hook fell out of the fishes mouth. We knew it was a good fish, but once we got it on the board our mood changed drastically......
She went 40.25" - but she was skinny - a bit under 20 lbs. Tyler finally had landed his 40"+ SML striper, so the rest of the outcome for the day would only be gravy. The fish released quickly in the 53 degree water leaving Tyler with some love scrapes on the hands for his trouble
We circled in there another time looking for her granddaddy - and on another out-pass we had another board slammed - I got on this one and it was a good fight, but just a fat 31" - it did allow us to upgrade the earlier 29" - we were certain we were going to need more than 71" however so we held out hope for another big girl.
We moved on to a couple of other creeks without any action - we went back to our first creek where we were marking big bait to catch some fresh big bait and got a handful to work wit. The sun was up and the wind was building - and time was starting to get short. We hit a few other spots for run & gun pulls to try and cover as many hot-spots as we could with some big bait. Decided on one last creek/cove to try and pull out a 35"+ fish - pulled across the mouth and had something hit a board that I had WAYYYY out - but we didn't get hooked up. Got into the narrow part and Tyler got another dink that was 28-29" - we were getting very short on time but pulled the other side of this cut/creek and it seemed dead - started to reel in the baits when the outside, bank board slammed down - Yam was reeling in another board so had to drop that rod and jump on the fish - he got it to the boat - not the 35" we were looking for but a nice 33" and another upgrade for our smaller fish - giving us 73.25" to head to the check-in.
Sent the pictures in via email on the ride to the check-in - We got there and found that we were sitting on top of the leader board with a few teams still not checked in. But, fortunately our total held and Team Mongo Mafia took 1st place in the tourney - keeping honors for Smith Mountain.
Appreciate the opportunity to fish with great friends & fishermen (and bait catchers) - and for the American Striped Bass Challenge supporting the CPR format - hope to see them move to that for all their events and other series to do so as well! Good to see the other fisherman and the youth out yesterday as well! Looking forward to switching back to the director role in a couple of weeks, but hopefully I can get some more fishing time in next weekend if all goes good!
