Late evening bait trip 3/20/2013

[BentRod]

Hit the water about 4pm in search of bait for this weekend. Tomorrow's high of 38 had me a little worried. It was a bit of a pain, but I got a couple dozen monster shad and two of the biggest alewives you'll ever see..like baby skipjacks! Talked to Todd for a bit. Then loaded up my big tank with those baits and went back out looking for a few more shad to fish with for the last hour of daylight. First throw I got 25 of those big ugly red pregnant shad! No good for the tank, but perfect for fishing. Put out a spread and turned around and watched the biggest one (~14-15") take off like a rocket for the middle of the creek. Heck yeah I thought..stud right off the bat. After a minute of tug of war, the hook pulled and I yelled a bad word. Then I cried for the next 5 minutes. The sun was setting and I knew I didn't have much time to get another bite, especially a quality bite on 14" shad. Had some nervous baits and a couple tugs but they wouldn't commit. Finally, it got dark and I was about to head in but was texting a buddy when I heard a rod go off. I couldn't even see my boards, but the rod was bent, so I picked it up and it was screaming line off like it was the new state record. I thought I had something pretty good til after about five minutes into the fight I see a 14lber hooked in the side of her head. Decent way to end the evening I guess.

If you set your phone on the lip of the Lowrance screen and put on the self facing camera and timer, you can take pics of yourself easily without being a GoPro high roller like Mward!


Water temps are 45-47ish. Creeks seem a little muddier than they did last weekend. ? Weather's crap this year.

[perchnut]

Nice fish, and a good story to boot. Couple quick questions, as Im planning on arriving early burly sat am prior to the sun coming up, and I imagine right about the coldest time of the day. The plan is to hit some lights, maybe the bridge, and throw for some bait. How does the cold affect bait fish? Drive them deeper? Scatter them? And why not the pregnant shad in the tank...they dont last long? Looks like the weather could make for some touch fishing this weekend, but Im psyched to 'un-plug' for a few days.

[maintenanceman4lif]

Cool Story Tyler, and a good Striper cant wait till they really turn on. Caught three this past weekend where we talked about on Saturday pulling bucktails all were small.

[BentRod]

Yeah, it may push them deeper. It probably wouldn't scatter them much..probably school more. I don't honestly know..it changes daily and hourly right now the weather has been so screwy. I've always generally said in the winter to throw on lights in the evening when the water is at it's warmest. But you can certainly get some bait easily in the mornings too sometimes.

I was talking about my home tank. They would live just fine in a boat tank for the day. It really doesn't have anything to do with them being full of eggs. Just some that have a lot of winter stress still. They're red and lose their scales very easily. I can't get em to live very long in my tank. The bait further up the lake is better looking and not as stressed. I don't know why.

The stripers are ready to turn on but the weather's got em screwed up I believe. That's actually the smallest fish I've caught in past week and a half. Granted I've only caught 4-6 others but they were all studs. I'm in big bait stud mode right now..caught dinks all winter.

[mytoyzfishing]

The last couple of weekends the bait at lights in the morning has been rough. Ive had a lot better success in the evenings right after the sun goes down.

[perchnut]

thanks for the advise guys. Im happy to post how we do each day, if theres some connectivity at the house we are staying at.....It will just be great to get down there and in the boat for a few days.

[mytoyzfishing]

Hey bentrod if you catch more bait than you can store Id be happy to take some off your hands