Post by 31Airborne on Dec 12, 2020 14:51:20 GMT -5
Can you believe 67* on the 11th of DEC??? Yep, that's what we had ~2 PM. What a glorious day for fishing. Now, the catching part was . . .
Put in at the state park and saw 55* w/ slightly stained water. Must say I was a bit surprised at the WT. I was expecting 5 or more degrees lower. Spent the entire day bouncing around midlake feeder creeks. Started in the backs looking for bait and was even more surprised to see very little. I did not pick up any kind of baitfish activity until I hit the ~mid way point on creeks, and all of that was suspended over the main creek channel or hugging the bottom. To help put this into perspective, I made 12 stops (feeder creeks and longer main lake coves). I did not find any large pods of bait in any of these. I found a few very small pods but there was no discernible pattern to their location beyond what I mentioned above. I marked fish shallow (<5') down to 25'. Some suspended, some tight to the deck, some hovering over submerged brush or rock. We threw moving baits, slow presentations, and everything in between. I had two bites all day and neither of those fish made it into the boat. I made subtle adjustments and big adjustments. Nothing I did was correct.
Observations: 1) WTs rose to 60+ in a couple places in the early afternoon. Saw 57-58* steady everywhere. Slight stain (~4' of viz) - perfect water conditions. 2) I saw herons and loons but no gulls. No surface activity, no subsurface feeding activity. 3) The best bite I had came off of a submerged rock pile in ~10'. I had crawled my c-rig over the top of a rock and the fish hit it as it fell on the near side. Pretty solid bite. I just failed to take up all of the slack before setting the hook. 4) When we put in I could see the lake had been drawn down ~18" or so. About 10ish they started pumping water back in. This is one aspect of SML I have yet to break the code on. I know what to do on an incoming tide but I am befuddled when it comes to reverse flow on SML. 5) The wind picked up around midday and I thought that would fire things up. Nope. We hit main lake stuff, secondary stuff, flats, bluffs, sharp breaks, subtle breaks, and everything in between. Marked fish everywhere we went. None of them had any interest in our baits.
The hi-lite of the day was being passed by a 'toon. This thing was hauling enuff a** for all of us. Caught up w/ him a little further uplake - the dood had a 300 on a 22'er. Woof. The weather forecast was on target and did not disappoint. Hard to believe we had to wear buffs in December but the sun was intense. I'll be back over the holidays. Hopefully things will cool down a bit.
peace,
B
Put in at the state park and saw 55* w/ slightly stained water. Must say I was a bit surprised at the WT. I was expecting 5 or more degrees lower. Spent the entire day bouncing around midlake feeder creeks. Started in the backs looking for bait and was even more surprised to see very little. I did not pick up any kind of baitfish activity until I hit the ~mid way point on creeks, and all of that was suspended over the main creek channel or hugging the bottom. To help put this into perspective, I made 12 stops (feeder creeks and longer main lake coves). I did not find any large pods of bait in any of these. I found a few very small pods but there was no discernible pattern to their location beyond what I mentioned above. I marked fish shallow (<5') down to 25'. Some suspended, some tight to the deck, some hovering over submerged brush or rock. We threw moving baits, slow presentations, and everything in between. I had two bites all day and neither of those fish made it into the boat. I made subtle adjustments and big adjustments. Nothing I did was correct.
Observations: 1) WTs rose to 60+ in a couple places in the early afternoon. Saw 57-58* steady everywhere. Slight stain (~4' of viz) - perfect water conditions. 2) I saw herons and loons but no gulls. No surface activity, no subsurface feeding activity. 3) The best bite I had came off of a submerged rock pile in ~10'. I had crawled my c-rig over the top of a rock and the fish hit it as it fell on the near side. Pretty solid bite. I just failed to take up all of the slack before setting the hook. 4) When we put in I could see the lake had been drawn down ~18" or so. About 10ish they started pumping water back in. This is one aspect of SML I have yet to break the code on. I know what to do on an incoming tide but I am befuddled when it comes to reverse flow on SML. 5) The wind picked up around midday and I thought that would fire things up. Nope. We hit main lake stuff, secondary stuff, flats, bluffs, sharp breaks, subtle breaks, and everything in between. Marked fish everywhere we went. None of them had any interest in our baits.
The hi-lite of the day was being passed by a 'toon. This thing was hauling enuff a** for all of us. Caught up w/ him a little further uplake - the dood had a 300 on a 22'er. Woof. The weather forecast was on target and did not disappoint. Hard to believe we had to wear buffs in December but the sun was intense. I'll be back over the holidays. Hopefully things will cool down a bit.
peace,
B