4/6 Evening trip

[chrisw]

Trailered the boat to SML a little after 8pm with 5 kids, ages 4 to 12. Full truck and full boat. Was on the water just past 9pm until around 10:30. Tried the cmstower method of artificials on main lake points, mostly above the bridge. Had one on, but failed to land any. The hit came on a 4” spoon near a dock light on a prominent point. Checked out one secondary point but it was pretty lifeless on sonar, so headed back to the main lake.

Each time I’ve been out the last few months I’ve felt like I was closer than ever before to cracking the code and catching some stripers, and this was another case of that, but still nothing brought to the boat. Maybe next time.

The air temp was in the upper 60s after some thunderstorms earlier in the day. The water was 63 to 64. The wind was fairly light, but from the north and started to pick up as it got later.

Got the kids back home by 11:30, but not before they all fell asleep on the way. Here are some of my co-conspirators from earlier in the day.

[31Airborne]

We had some pretty impressive storms before you got here. They may have had an affect on the fish. I remember vividly every zero I logged when I first started fishing. I learned something every time I went out. Eventually, I had enuff data points to help put the pieces together. It was worth the wait.

[johnr]

Keep trying. Like airborne says, every trip is a learning experience.

It took me 6-7 months of 3 days a week fishing for them before I started catching stripers. And it wasn’t for a lack of fish nearby. Plenty of equipment/tackle failures, poor techniques, not understanding the bait dynamics, not fully grasping the seasonal movements of these fish, etc.

Then one day in mid April 2007, I was just “out fishing”, had lost all hope(lol), and I just landed on them AND they were biting. I quickly built on that afternoon of catching and it was east after that.

Time on the water is key.

[bailout]

Agreed. Keep at it and you'll get them. And I know plenty of guys do well with artificials, but I personally have found livebait to be the trick. Alewives and gizzards are great but even jumbo minnows from Capt Qtrs can do it. Good luck & be safe!

[chrisw]

Apr 7, 2023 5:33:14 GMT -5 31Airborne said:

We had some pretty impressive storms before you got here. They may have had an affect on the fish.

Yeah, I should have been there yesterday. Haha.