1/1 - 1/5 - Starting the New Decade on the right foot....
Jan 5, 2020 18:13:06 GMT -5
jb4sml, thenextlevel, and 9 more like this
Post by mwardncsu on Jan 5, 2020 18:13:06 GMT -5
Weather: Everything - Sunny with temps in the 60's, to overcast to Pouring rain and temps in the low 40's with wind 10-15 gusting to 25
Water: 48-50, visibility unusually clear even on upper end of lake
Techniques: Pulling 8" - 10" gizzard shad on planers & floats - freelined on the bank, 1/4 & 3/8 oz weights on the channel size - mixed up lengths from 12 - 50' behind the board or float.
Bait Catching: Plenty of bait everywhere above the bridge - caught it 40'-60' with a 10', 5/8" 1 lb/ft tape net, and then in 1'-2' of water with a 10'., 3/4" 1.5 lb/ft net
Dining: Magnum Point Marina New Year’s Day special, Pizza Pub pizza, Moosies Nachos, Wendy's Frosty's; Homemade Sausage balls, Oatmeal & sausage biscuits, and peanut butter crackers
New Year - New Me - right -
I can count the # of times I fished in 2019 on one hand, and the number of times fished on my boat on 2 fingers. My 2020 Resolution was to fish more again..... always make resolutions you can keep - checked that one off my list already
My buddy Charlie (Archenemy for those of you that have been on the forums long enough) was going to come up and fish SML over the weekend with me. So I came up to the lake on New Years Day afternoon with the objective of catching some bait while the sun was out and nice temps to get a head start on things. Stopped by Magnum Point Marina on the way in for the New Year’s Day special - I need all the luck I can get!
Had another buddy, Chad (Hokiechad) jump on with me about 2pm and we went in search of bait - checked a few creeks and tossed on some deep bait but found a bunch of it where I thought I would be with the warmer sun - in 1' of water. It wasn't very big - silver dollar to dollar bill sizes - topping out around 7".
We decided with an hour and a half of daylight left to fish some nearby waters that were also a bit warmer than the rest of the lake..... did not pay off but it was sure nice to be pulling boards on New Years day.
Thur late afternoon I went back out in search of some bigger bait - broke out the taped net and put I'm the work on bait that was 40-60' deep. My body is still cursing me for it, but I was able to find some better bait that went 8"-9"
Charlie got up to the lake around 1 on Friday and we headed straight to the boat an had lines out minutes later. I lost a decent fish on the way to the boat on a good sized shad - threw the stinger hook at me - guess I was rusty
I did "redeem" myself by landing a 6.5 lb / 21.5" green football.....
We moved to some old familiar waters and Charlie hooked up with one that was about 34.5".
We moved on to catching some more bait in deep deep waters and then finished up the evening pulling another long creek - had one boil / roll on a point but that was the only love
Saturday morning came and we started as the sun tried to crack and the fog was setting in. We pulled close to home base again without any love so we moved South to another creek for a long, lonely, uneventful pull.
Decided to make a move back north. We pulled from just above Lynville all the way to Moormans and while we marked a few fish, we didn’t even have so much as a nervous bait.
Went back into big bait search mode - hit the spot from Wednesday and the little guys were still there shallow - left those and tried some other shallow areas and were rewarded with some solid 9-11" bait mixed in with a lot of 6-8". Was throwing the net when the squall line hit - went from calm and pleasant to a full on gale and downpour for a 10 minutes or so - then 20+ mph winds - kept throwing in the wind a bit longer and then went to pulling bait nearby.... no luck again so we made a move back down the lake to try another creek.
Pulled in the main channel first a little while to hit several points - did have a good hit that did not hook up. Moved into the creek and got out of the wind and finally found our striper for the day there.... 31.5".... We did try one more creek and then main channel closer to mid-lake to round out the day until the wind was unbearable and the light was waning.
Sunday morning we decided to try a mid-lake creek that we'd not hit yet - started about 2/3 of the way back - pulled to the back and circled out - while making the turn and letting out one of the back boards it decided to disappear - only to find it had a fish pulling it away. I finally put my 1st striper of 2020 in the Sea Hunt (and I think the 1st striper since late 2018... how sad is that).
We worked the creek for a while without any more action then decided to make a move down the lake a ways to mix it up. There is SO much bait above the bridge in the main channel and creeks that why would a fish need to eat ours..... From what I saw earlier in the week the lower end creeks were not holding near as much bait - but the water temps are such that the striper would be happy so we thought maybe there were some resident fish that would be hungry for a meal
Dropped into the front 1/3 of a creek an setup - I was feeding out a lightly weighted float with about 35' behind it - feeding it way behind the boat when after looking over to adjust another board and looking back I could not find the float - engaged the reel and cracked down and the line came tight - Fish On! Another 31"-ish fish - while I was working to reel it in and Charlie was getting the net ready a bank-side board started tugging... and finally dove - he grabbed that and reeled in a 6 lb largemouth for the Daily Double!
We stayed in there the rest of the morning as the wind in the channel was brutal - picked up one more fish on a weighted free-line about 45' back - a nice small - and then had one other hook-up on a long weighed float that looked like a nice smallmouth until it threw the hook about 10' from the boat.
We called it quits about 11:30 and rode the white-caps back up the lake. Good to get time back on the water and do so with a good friend. Looking forward to more fishing in 2020 hopefully and come quality fish to catch & release!
Water: 48-50, visibility unusually clear even on upper end of lake
Techniques: Pulling 8" - 10" gizzard shad on planers & floats - freelined on the bank, 1/4 & 3/8 oz weights on the channel size - mixed up lengths from 12 - 50' behind the board or float.
Bait Catching: Plenty of bait everywhere above the bridge - caught it 40'-60' with a 10', 5/8" 1 lb/ft tape net, and then in 1'-2' of water with a 10'., 3/4" 1.5 lb/ft net
Dining: Magnum Point Marina New Year’s Day special, Pizza Pub pizza, Moosies Nachos, Wendy's Frosty's; Homemade Sausage balls, Oatmeal & sausage biscuits, and peanut butter crackers
New Year - New Me - right -
I can count the # of times I fished in 2019 on one hand, and the number of times fished on my boat on 2 fingers. My 2020 Resolution was to fish more again..... always make resolutions you can keep - checked that one off my list already
My buddy Charlie (Archenemy for those of you that have been on the forums long enough) was going to come up and fish SML over the weekend with me. So I came up to the lake on New Years Day afternoon with the objective of catching some bait while the sun was out and nice temps to get a head start on things. Stopped by Magnum Point Marina on the way in for the New Year’s Day special - I need all the luck I can get!
Had another buddy, Chad (Hokiechad) jump on with me about 2pm and we went in search of bait - checked a few creeks and tossed on some deep bait but found a bunch of it where I thought I would be with the warmer sun - in 1' of water. It wasn't very big - silver dollar to dollar bill sizes - topping out around 7".
We decided with an hour and a half of daylight left to fish some nearby waters that were also a bit warmer than the rest of the lake..... did not pay off but it was sure nice to be pulling boards on New Years day.
Thur late afternoon I went back out in search of some bigger bait - broke out the taped net and put I'm the work on bait that was 40-60' deep. My body is still cursing me for it, but I was able to find some better bait that went 8"-9"
Charlie got up to the lake around 1 on Friday and we headed straight to the boat an had lines out minutes later. I lost a decent fish on the way to the boat on a good sized shad - threw the stinger hook at me - guess I was rusty
I did "redeem" myself by landing a 6.5 lb / 21.5" green football..... We moved to some old familiar waters and Charlie hooked up with one that was about 34.5".
We moved on to catching some more bait in deep deep waters and then finished up the evening pulling another long creek - had one boil / roll on a point but that was the only love
Saturday morning came and we started as the sun tried to crack and the fog was setting in. We pulled close to home base again without any love so we moved South to another creek for a long, lonely, uneventful pull.
Decided to make a move back north. We pulled from just above Lynville all the way to Moormans and while we marked a few fish, we didn’t even have so much as a nervous bait.
Went back into big bait search mode - hit the spot from Wednesday and the little guys were still there shallow - left those and tried some other shallow areas and were rewarded with some solid 9-11" bait mixed in with a lot of 6-8". Was throwing the net when the squall line hit - went from calm and pleasant to a full on gale and downpour for a 10 minutes or so - then 20+ mph winds - kept throwing in the wind a bit longer and then went to pulling bait nearby.... no luck again so we made a move back down the lake to try another creek.
Pulled in the main channel first a little while to hit several points - did have a good hit that did not hook up. Moved into the creek and got out of the wind and finally found our striper for the day there.... 31.5".... We did try one more creek and then main channel closer to mid-lake to round out the day until the wind was unbearable and the light was waning.
Sunday morning we decided to try a mid-lake creek that we'd not hit yet - started about 2/3 of the way back - pulled to the back and circled out - while making the turn and letting out one of the back boards it decided to disappear - only to find it had a fish pulling it away. I finally put my 1st striper of 2020 in the Sea Hunt (and I think the 1st striper since late 2018... how sad is that).
We worked the creek for a while without any more action then decided to make a move down the lake a ways to mix it up. There is SO much bait above the bridge in the main channel and creeks that why would a fish need to eat ours..... From what I saw earlier in the week the lower end creeks were not holding near as much bait - but the water temps are such that the striper would be happy so we thought maybe there were some resident fish that would be hungry for a meal
Dropped into the front 1/3 of a creek an setup - I was feeding out a lightly weighted float with about 35' behind it - feeding it way behind the boat when after looking over to adjust another board and looking back I could not find the float - engaged the reel and cracked down and the line came tight - Fish On! Another 31"-ish fish - while I was working to reel it in and Charlie was getting the net ready a bank-side board started tugging... and finally dove - he grabbed that and reeled in a 6 lb largemouth for the Daily Double!
We stayed in there the rest of the morning as the wind in the channel was brutal - picked up one more fish on a weighted free-line about 45' back - a nice small - and then had one other hook-up on a long weighed float that looked like a nice smallmouth until it threw the hook about 10' from the boat.
We called it quits about 11:30 and rode the white-caps back up the lake. Good to get time back on the water and do so with a good friend. Looking forward to more fishing in 2020 hopefully and come quality fish to catch & release!
