Post by 31Airborne on May 21, 2023 13:46:54 GMT -5
Hadn't been on Gaston in 10 years. A lot has changed. Tons of new houses and docks, lots of construction going on, and the spotted bass have officially taken over. On my last trip I caught a few small spots. Recall catching one that was about 14" or so but that was it. On this trip, I fished for 3 days without catching a LM. And the spots have grown up. Had several in practice that were 3+ lbs, lots of 2-2.5 lb fish. Finally caught a small LM later in the week but he was a punk - short, skinny, and pasty. Fortunately, my recent Hartwell experience gave me some background on how to target the better spots. Was able to apply some of the stuff I learned to Gaston and make it work.
Has been a while since the VA FoM division had been to Gaston. Was kinda excited to see it on the schedule. Took advantage of a slow period at work and unplugged for the week. Got in on MON around noon and spent the first day in Pea Hill Creek and some of the main lake stuff close by. TUES and WED were dedicated to working the middle section of the lake. Spent most of THUR working the upper end (above Poplar Creek). Found plenty of fish willing to eat a variety of baits. Spook, jig, and c-rig were the top producers. Had a couple of fish on a medium running crank bait, incl one about 3 lbs, but couldn't get that bite to repeat anywhere. Nothing working on a spinner bait for me (altho' my partner had some fun with it in the wind on TUES and WED).
On MON the better fish were holding deeper, in 15-25' of water. They came up a bit when the cooler air and clouds moved in. 10-15' was the magic zone. The top water bite was solid every day. It was a little slower in the stronger winds. This is where my recent trip to Hartwell helped the most. Offshore humps and long, tapered points held fish willing to eat a top water presentation ~all day long. Gaston doesn't have shoals like Hartwell, but it is rich in humps and long points. We had an impressive series of storms blow thru the area TUES nite, dumping ~2" rain. The backs of some of the creeks muddied up a bit on WED. That stain made its way into the upper main lake by THUR. Surprisingly, the storms didn't shut the fish down. In fact, the bite on WED was the best of the 6 days we fished. We also caught our best fish on WED, boating several 18"+ fish.
It didn't take long for me to realize that any plan to target LM was going to be challenging. I was able to find plenty of really nice spots just about everywhere. As I progressed thru my practice days, I built a plan to target them. Each day got progressively better in terms of numbers of quality fish and their weights. My partner and I spent FRI confirming what we thought we'd learned and visiting some new stuff, just to expand our list of places to target. I had three rods on the deck for TX day - a spook, a jig, and a c-rig. We mapped out a plan to hit a short list of places we knew were holding better fish. We also had a list of stuff that didn't produce the quality we were looking for in practice but had similar structure to our top priority places.
Our first stop was a stretch of main lake points where the main channel butted right up against them. No takers on top but we did bang out 2 solid keepers on the c-rig. Our next stop was a secondary point with an adjacent ledge that dropped off from 15-17' to 30'. I managed to catch a decent keeper on this spot each day of practice. It didn't disappoint on TX day. We filled out our limit on the first pass, including a sweet 4.79 lb spot that crushed my partner's DD 1.5. The bait deflected off of a stump on the ledge. The fish was on it in a second. We culled twice on the 2nd pass (c-rig). After a couple more passes with only short guys to show for it, we began running our short list. The next stop was a secondary point that touched the edge of the creek channel. I caught a couple of solid keeps on this point in practice. It was on fire on TX day. We culled three more times on our first pass (c-rig), incl a ~3 lb LM. After this played out, we worked our way down the list until we had exhausted it. We did hit some new stuff later in the day, but at that point the boat traffic made fishing anything anywhere a challenge. We called it a day with ~30 minutes to go. Our 5 fish weighed 12.95, good enough for the win. My partner's monster spot took the big fish prize.
Observations: 1) WTs were in the mid 70s on MON, then dropped off a bit after the cooler air moved in. Morning WTs ranged from 68 to 70. WTs rose to the low 70s during the day. 2) Clarity on Gaston is a mixed bag. The lower end of the lake is clearer, with 7-10' of viz in most places. The mid lake region has a slight stain on but you still have 4-7' of viz. Upper Pea Hill is tannic, more tannic than I recalled from years past. You have 3-5' of viz in most places. The backs of Poplar and Holly Grove were dirty. Maybe 18" of viz in some places, less in others. 3) Main lake points out-produced secondary points for numbers. Secondary points held better quality for us. The most productive points touched the main channel. Points that touched channel swings were special. 4) Long, tapered points were better than shorter, more rounded points. The point had to have some chunky stuff on it - rocks, stumps, man-planted enhancements. 5) You could tell the quality of the fish by the way it hit your bait, esp on the plastix. Sudden, sharp strikes were smaller fish. The better fish would suck the bait in and start swimming off with it. The rod just loaded up. Same-same for the jig. If you felt the distinct 'click', it was a smaller fish. The better fish sucked it in and started swimming deep with it. 6) The top water strikes were best earlier in the week. They killed it. Bites were a bit more tentative later in the week and on TX day. We did not boat a top water fish on TX day, in fact (and we threw the spook a lot). 7) No surprise on plastix and jigs - greens. Smaller profile baits (4-5") were better for quality and numbers. We caught very few fish on larger profile baits. 8) The majority of our fish (say, 75-80%) were caught off of breaks. The more dramatic the break the better. A stump, rock pile, or brush on a break was money. 9) We caught a lot of fish on docks in practice, to incl a couple of solid keeps. These fish were holding on the front pilings for the most part. Docks with deeper fronts (8-10' or more) were best. 10) I knew from my Hartwell experience that spotted bass were hard fighters. The Gaston spots were the hardest fighting fish we'd hooked into. 11) If our FoM scales are accurate, my partner's 4.79 may have been a state record. Someone caught a 4-12 (4.75) out of Claytor in 2020. We didn't even think about calling a DNR biologist. We do have a sweet picture of it tho'. It's a beast. 12) The better bite for us was in the cleaner water.
This was my first win on the FoM trail. Came close a bunch of times but never was able to quite close the deal. This was kinda cool. The guys and gals who fish the VA East division are some of the most talented anglers I've met. There are Elite and MLF pros who've come thru our division. Tons of guys who are regularly in the money on the higher end trails in VA and along the east coast. It's an honor to fish with these folks. It's humbling to have been able to put it all together on a really tuff day against a field of this caliber. Many of them are close friends. A smaller group have been patient and willing coaches and mentors, sharing what they've learned about fishing in a team format. We were successful today because of them. My current partner and I have been friends a long time, but only recently started fishing as a team. We knew that first year the chemistry was right. We managed to build on it every year. Brad has been the biggest influence on my approach to this format. He got about a hundred thank-yous after we got the call from the TD with the final results. I'm still shaking my head that 13 lbs held up. Whooda thunk it?
We have a 4-week break, then we'll be back at it on the Pawmunkey River in mid JUN; the Chickahominy River in JUL.
be safe,
B
Has been a while since the VA FoM division had been to Gaston. Was kinda excited to see it on the schedule. Took advantage of a slow period at work and unplugged for the week. Got in on MON around noon and spent the first day in Pea Hill Creek and some of the main lake stuff close by. TUES and WED were dedicated to working the middle section of the lake. Spent most of THUR working the upper end (above Poplar Creek). Found plenty of fish willing to eat a variety of baits. Spook, jig, and c-rig were the top producers. Had a couple of fish on a medium running crank bait, incl one about 3 lbs, but couldn't get that bite to repeat anywhere. Nothing working on a spinner bait for me (altho' my partner had some fun with it in the wind on TUES and WED).
On MON the better fish were holding deeper, in 15-25' of water. They came up a bit when the cooler air and clouds moved in. 10-15' was the magic zone. The top water bite was solid every day. It was a little slower in the stronger winds. This is where my recent trip to Hartwell helped the most. Offshore humps and long, tapered points held fish willing to eat a top water presentation ~all day long. Gaston doesn't have shoals like Hartwell, but it is rich in humps and long points. We had an impressive series of storms blow thru the area TUES nite, dumping ~2" rain. The backs of some of the creeks muddied up a bit on WED. That stain made its way into the upper main lake by THUR. Surprisingly, the storms didn't shut the fish down. In fact, the bite on WED was the best of the 6 days we fished. We also caught our best fish on WED, boating several 18"+ fish.
It didn't take long for me to realize that any plan to target LM was going to be challenging. I was able to find plenty of really nice spots just about everywhere. As I progressed thru my practice days, I built a plan to target them. Each day got progressively better in terms of numbers of quality fish and their weights. My partner and I spent FRI confirming what we thought we'd learned and visiting some new stuff, just to expand our list of places to target. I had three rods on the deck for TX day - a spook, a jig, and a c-rig. We mapped out a plan to hit a short list of places we knew were holding better fish. We also had a list of stuff that didn't produce the quality we were looking for in practice but had similar structure to our top priority places.
Our first stop was a stretch of main lake points where the main channel butted right up against them. No takers on top but we did bang out 2 solid keepers on the c-rig. Our next stop was a secondary point with an adjacent ledge that dropped off from 15-17' to 30'. I managed to catch a decent keeper on this spot each day of practice. It didn't disappoint on TX day. We filled out our limit on the first pass, including a sweet 4.79 lb spot that crushed my partner's DD 1.5. The bait deflected off of a stump on the ledge. The fish was on it in a second. We culled twice on the 2nd pass (c-rig). After a couple more passes with only short guys to show for it, we began running our short list. The next stop was a secondary point that touched the edge of the creek channel. I caught a couple of solid keeps on this point in practice. It was on fire on TX day. We culled three more times on our first pass (c-rig), incl a ~3 lb LM. After this played out, we worked our way down the list until we had exhausted it. We did hit some new stuff later in the day, but at that point the boat traffic made fishing anything anywhere a challenge. We called it a day with ~30 minutes to go. Our 5 fish weighed 12.95, good enough for the win. My partner's monster spot took the big fish prize.
Observations: 1) WTs were in the mid 70s on MON, then dropped off a bit after the cooler air moved in. Morning WTs ranged from 68 to 70. WTs rose to the low 70s during the day. 2) Clarity on Gaston is a mixed bag. The lower end of the lake is clearer, with 7-10' of viz in most places. The mid lake region has a slight stain on but you still have 4-7' of viz. Upper Pea Hill is tannic, more tannic than I recalled from years past. You have 3-5' of viz in most places. The backs of Poplar and Holly Grove were dirty. Maybe 18" of viz in some places, less in others. 3) Main lake points out-produced secondary points for numbers. Secondary points held better quality for us. The most productive points touched the main channel. Points that touched channel swings were special. 4) Long, tapered points were better than shorter, more rounded points. The point had to have some chunky stuff on it - rocks, stumps, man-planted enhancements. 5) You could tell the quality of the fish by the way it hit your bait, esp on the plastix. Sudden, sharp strikes were smaller fish. The better fish would suck the bait in and start swimming off with it. The rod just loaded up. Same-same for the jig. If you felt the distinct 'click', it was a smaller fish. The better fish sucked it in and started swimming deep with it. 6) The top water strikes were best earlier in the week. They killed it. Bites were a bit more tentative later in the week and on TX day. We did not boat a top water fish on TX day, in fact (and we threw the spook a lot). 7) No surprise on plastix and jigs - greens. Smaller profile baits (4-5") were better for quality and numbers. We caught very few fish on larger profile baits. 8) The majority of our fish (say, 75-80%) were caught off of breaks. The more dramatic the break the better. A stump, rock pile, or brush on a break was money. 9) We caught a lot of fish on docks in practice, to incl a couple of solid keeps. These fish were holding on the front pilings for the most part. Docks with deeper fronts (8-10' or more) were best. 10) I knew from my Hartwell experience that spotted bass were hard fighters. The Gaston spots were the hardest fighting fish we'd hooked into. 11) If our FoM scales are accurate, my partner's 4.79 may have been a state record. Someone caught a 4-12 (4.75) out of Claytor in 2020. We didn't even think about calling a DNR biologist. We do have a sweet picture of it tho'. It's a beast. 12) The better bite for us was in the cleaner water.
This was my first win on the FoM trail. Came close a bunch of times but never was able to quite close the deal. This was kinda cool. The guys and gals who fish the VA East division are some of the most talented anglers I've met. There are Elite and MLF pros who've come thru our division. Tons of guys who are regularly in the money on the higher end trails in VA and along the east coast. It's an honor to fish with these folks. It's humbling to have been able to put it all together on a really tuff day against a field of this caliber. Many of them are close friends. A smaller group have been patient and willing coaches and mentors, sharing what they've learned about fishing in a team format. We were successful today because of them. My current partner and I have been friends a long time, but only recently started fishing as a team. We knew that first year the chemistry was right. We managed to build on it every year. Brad has been the biggest influence on my approach to this format. He got about a hundred thank-yous after we got the call from the TD with the final results. I'm still shaking my head that 13 lbs held up. Whooda thunk it?
We have a 4-week break, then we'll be back at it on the Pawmunkey River in mid JUN; the Chickahominy River in JUL.
be safe,
B
