Post by chrisw on Aug 19, 2023 10:37:01 GMT -5
I made it to the lake with 2 teenage boys a little later than last week, too late for dock lights to attract anything anymore. So I went to a fishy area and started throwing the net. The second throw brought 3 threadfins, and I thought I was going to get enough bait fairly quickly, but 20 minutes later we still had only 3 threadfins. We did catch something else under a floating dock though, and it was a bit too big to use for bait.
After the catfish, we gave up with the cast net and started catching sunfish along the banks. 2 greens and a bluegill and I decided we could start fishing. We headed to a cove that rhymes with “pistol grove” and saw some good looking marks, so lines went in for a drift. I was sure to downsize the hook for the threadfin, and keep the big hooks for the sunfish.
After a few minutes, one of the rods fell down and a passing boat called out to us. I ran over, and I’m not sure how the rod wasn’t lost, as the rod holder had completely broken and the butt of the rod was laying across the transom. I picked it up, and it still had a sunfish on, but the hapless bait had bite marks. No fish on.
It was around this time that the sonar just completely blew up. Biggest school of stripers I had ever seen (not saying much). We had three rods in the water and were throwing spoons and swimbaits, and … nothing. The passing boat who had called out to us was trolling about 8 lines and one of them went off. Then a nearby pontoon and a Robalo bay boat each hooked up. Meanwhile, nothing for us, despite a spaghetti colored sonar screen. Finally, I got a good bite on a spoon and was hooked up! I was ginger pulling it in because that rod only had 8lb line on it, but it finally came in and we boated it. 24 inches and 5.75 pounds.
By the time I got the fish taken care of and checked the live baits, the school had disappeared and the nearby boats were moving away in search of the fish again. We stuck around for a little while longer, but didn’t catch anything else. All three of our sunfish ended up with considerable bite marks though, and one got bit so much it died. The threadfin didn’t attract any attention, and one of them died in the tank before we even used him. We were back home and had the striper cooked up by 10.
After the catfish, we gave up with the cast net and started catching sunfish along the banks. 2 greens and a bluegill and I decided we could start fishing. We headed to a cove that rhymes with “pistol grove” and saw some good looking marks, so lines went in for a drift. I was sure to downsize the hook for the threadfin, and keep the big hooks for the sunfish.
After a few minutes, one of the rods fell down and a passing boat called out to us. I ran over, and I’m not sure how the rod wasn’t lost, as the rod holder had completely broken and the butt of the rod was laying across the transom. I picked it up, and it still had a sunfish on, but the hapless bait had bite marks. No fish on.
It was around this time that the sonar just completely blew up. Biggest school of stripers I had ever seen (not saying much). We had three rods in the water and were throwing spoons and swimbaits, and … nothing. The passing boat who had called out to us was trolling about 8 lines and one of them went off. Then a nearby pontoon and a Robalo bay boat each hooked up. Meanwhile, nothing for us, despite a spaghetti colored sonar screen. Finally, I got a good bite on a spoon and was hooked up! I was ginger pulling it in because that rod only had 8lb line on it, but it finally came in and we boated it. 24 inches and 5.75 pounds.
By the time I got the fish taken care of and checked the live baits, the school had disappeared and the nearby boats were moving away in search of the fish again. We stuck around for a little while longer, but didn’t catch anything else. All three of our sunfish ended up with considerable bite marks though, and one got bit so much it died. The threadfin didn’t attract any attention, and one of them died in the tank before we even used him. We were back home and had the striper cooked up by 10.
