Pre-Spawn

[CarolinaAngler]

Hey all,

I’ve been watching the weather forecasts and water temps from Gills Creek carefully trying to time a trip around the first warming.

Do you all agree that Mid-March is gonna be “go time” or do you think this weekend might kickstart the LMB to start feeding shallow?

Also, How is the water clarity? Last time I was at the lake it was just finally clearing up after the mud from the flooding.

Best wishes,

CarolinaAngler

[johnr]

A few can be found shallow right now, with the feed bag on. It’s the biggest ones that are up now.

47- 49 degree pocket water can and will hold a bunch of good fish, but those water temps are probably 6-10 days away unless we get some good sun.

[johnr]

As for the water, it looks good except the backs of creeks are dingy. Supposed to get a bunch of rain this weekend. If the forecast holds, probably gonna be more than the creek backs that are muddy.

[herringbone]

Last weekend the back half of the creeks were getting dirty, may have smoothed out by now but was def a line. On the other hand, that dirtier water will warm a little quicker in the shallows maybe drawing some attention from the homeowners. I saw warmer temps in all creeks once I hit the dirty line.

[31Airborne]

Dunno about this weekend - we have a hard front coming thru today. Tomorrow could be tuff, even w/ the warmer temps. You need 3-4 days of stable conditions. Doesn't necessarily have to be warm. Just stable. To your question, I believe you'll find fish shallow this weekend. I'm not sure it'll be a blue ribbon kinda time.

The pre-spawn feed is more of a process vc a singular event. Fish will come up and pull back as the weather ebbs and flows. The fish won't come up all at once usually. It's a phased process. It's something you can put on a calendar in broad terms, not on any specific day or weekend. Better (IMHO) to watch the LR forecasts, look for periods where the weather holds ~steady for 2-3 days. The day(s) following the more stable periods have a higher probability of being more productive.

[flintster55]

I'll be getting out tomorrow to give it a good run. Been watching the water temps on SMLfishfinder closely and temps up river have warmed considerably this week (Hardy was up to 49 yesterday). Definitely unfortunate timing on the cold front coming through today as Airborne mentioned though. Hoping to find some fish shallow, but have the assortment of different winter staples ready as well if the fish pull back a little bit today with the cooler temps. Planning to put in at Moorman's or Hardy, but will report back with hopefully a good report.

[herringbone]

Have a jerkbait ready. Deep suspending husky style. Long points with deep water near. It’s close, but the weather is everywhere.

[flintster55]

Put in at Moormans around 10 Saturday morning after the rain had moved out and was pleasantly surprised to still find 48 degree water temps with nice water clarity. Fished down from the ramp to about the tennis courts bouncing from point to point while trying a few pockets as well. No takers on A rig, jerkbait, shad rap or wiggle wart. Even fished a few ledges thoroughly with a jig and single swim bait. Moved up river closer to hardy and landed a nice chunky 34 inch striper on the A rig and my partner landed a solid 3.5lb largemouth not long after on the rig as well. Both were pretty tight to the bank but on nearly vertical rock or rock faces. Water temp was 46 near the tennis courts and 47 at Hardy. Very similar water clarity everywhere we fished.






Also had a quick spur of moment trip to Claytor yesterday afternoon. WT 44 at the state park launch and jumped up to 46 up lake a little below lighthouse bridge. Very clear for this time of year as well, probably 2 to 3 ft viz which was odd to have cleaner water than SML. Only managed 1 LM about 2lbs all day also on the a rig on a secondary point in Peak Creek. No takers on jerkbaits or swim bait. Beautiful 65 degree February day on the water though.

[31Airborne]

nice work! awesome pics, dood.

[herringbone]

Good job getting on them dude. The bass from Claytor looks to be turning into a unicorn from the opposite end! Might be the “one”!