30 March 2019
Those that do not learn from history are destined to repeat it. However, if you fall off a horse, you orta jump back on that thing, don’t let a failure keep you from succeeding. Well all these great things roll through my head Saturday as I am out mowing, knowing that I am headed to the lake shortly after this chore is done. That chore complete (too many others to name) and I am off to pick up the father in law Herb.
After all of my deep thought, and consulting with my partner, we decided to give Fort Patrick Henry a go. Now I have fished this place a few times, but honestly only remember catching about one fish, I am completely unfamiliar with that lake. We put in above the 81 bridge and decide to look for fish on the electronics. We found some, so the electronics indicated and began casting. We were fishing brush piles hoping some of the stuff we were seeing were crappie.
The water temperature was around 50, so catching crappie was probably not going to be in the cards at our location, but hey, I’ve caught all kinds of stuff on my little jigs. We fished around, lost a few jigs, played with electronics and trolling motor, then moved to deeper water.
I switched over to a purple and brown jig I had tied. This was in honor of the daughter who loves using the PB & J Ned Rig. We are seeing all kinds of structure, let me say that this down imaging, scan, or whatever they are all called is amazing to me. I have that with a sonar pulled up and being able to see the structure like it does is really incredible and obviously from my previous post, a game changer as far as catching fish (he says with sarcasm). In all seriousness, I think this stuff is going to help once I finally get a good hold on it.
I toss my jig in and bam, got bit. I set the hook and start reeling as if it’s a Marlin dancing across the water. It’s been a while since I felt that pull of a fish and I was pumped. The first one was not very big, but I acted like it was a beast. I stretched out my hand and grabbed a pic. I should have gotten close to make it look bigger, but that stuff don’t matter much to me, just glad that my hands will smell like fish for a while.
We fish on down the bank and 10-15 minutes later, another hit, this one was nice. Fortunately, I had left my net at the house and this one needed a net. But Herb was there and ready, he reached down and lipped that thing and brought her up. I grabbed my camera, told him to grin, we discussed who should be in the picture. He realized that I have a good cameraman face, but not necessarily a good photo face. He grinned, I snapped the pic and the fish was released. It was a nice one, he had asked if I had scales, I explained that my scales are at home, batteries leaked, not in good shape, and then a simple nope. He said it may have been close to 3 pounds, honestly, I don’t know but it was a keeper if I was in a tournament.
Anyway, that was pretty much the day, we drove around looking at the side scan, this will take me a while to figure out how to see fish on this thing. Then we headed to the house, a good day was in the books. My guess is that now the generators have normalized a bit, if we have some warm days and not really cold nights, we may see the water temperature creep up a bit. If so, beware fishes. This next weekend is the race, good crowds in town, time the fishing trip to get home without too much traffic. I hope everyone had a great weekend, Lord willing, I will be back out next week, getting in a lot of casting, and hopefully a little catching. Have a great week, God bless.
29 March 2019
A friend of mine from work has never been fishing and wanted to give it a go. I had a feeling that Boone was still slow, but thought we’d give it a shot anyway. I arrived a few minutes early and got the boat loaded. I spoke with a couple of anglers who were pulling out and they had not gotten a bite, this sounded like me last week.
I drove the boat around over a few spots trying to see if I could find any crappie, apparently I could not. I went back to the ramp to pick up my fishing partner and saw a couple more anglers, they said, they had not gotten a bite, it was déjà vu all over again. But being the fellers we are, we headed out to catch a few.
I went down a cove, saw nothing worth stopping for so headed to another. Here we see quite a few dead shad, and schools of shad. I catch a dozen or so and toss one behind the boat as we try to throw toward the bank. The water temperature was showing 51-53 and I switched to a bucktail jig (hand tied by TFR (that’s me)). I tried tying one with colors that I hope look similar to a rainbow trout. I’m using my 5/8-6oz lure rating rod built by TFR Custom Rods (I hope you like these shameless plugs I’m putting in here). I do love this rod, I can throw this 1 oz jig quite a distance.
Anyway, I put my buddy a swim bait on, small and on a spinning rod. He has never casted a rod before so this day was just a learning day, I think he learned that I don’t catch a lot of fish. I’m throwing my jig and feeling some good bumps, I’m thinking, I am going to slay these things today. Then on up the way, I have, on two separate cast, a couple of nice hybrid follow the jig to the boat. I’m thinking maybe I tied this thing up to actually look like something the fish want, either that or they were laughing as they followed.
Anyway, we rolled back through the area, more bumps and I set the hook. I hauled in to the boat a gar I had hooked in the tail. I figure they were schooled up toward the bank and I must have snagged that thing. We get closer to where I had been followed in and a big bump, hook set, drag going, and I thought I had me a hybrid. When it got to the boat, it was a gar I had hooked in the belly. I reeled the rod to the hook, pushed hard, it released. This thrilled me as I had no desire to get that thing in the boat, I caught them before and they are tough, muscle, with a bunch of teeth.
My buddy in the back gets excited after a few cast, he had a couple follow his in as well. They did not take it or did not bite, but that was enough. He had a good time, or is too nice to say otherwise, which I appreciate either one. But I figured it might be slow from last week, but at least he saw a couple and had a few chasing.
We packed it up after a few hours and headed home, a few funny things happened but it didn’t happen to me, which is unusual, so I won’t release all that information. Let me say that my new trolling motor is pretty awesome, it saved me a ton of stress as events unfolded that would have put stress on me in the high wind, but the anchor, mode (or whatever it’s called), is fantastic. Not having to control the boat while doing something else relieves a lot of pressure.
I did head out Saturday and caught a couple, I’ll write that up in a bit, sometime this week, but anyway, Boone was struggling on Friday. Although, the tournament guys may have them figured out, I headed to Fort Patrick Henry on Saturday, and it was a decent decision. Have a great week and God bless.
23 March 2018
Finally I got out there
The new trolling motor was installed, the sensor heading installed, fishfinder installed, and new batteries hooked up and ready. Shew, it isn’t nearly as complicated as I make it, but when you have no idea what you are doing, things tend to drag along, at least for me. I still have not figured out where I am putting the on board charger, but I was tired of hanging out in the garage and running lines was to be no more for a while. So Saturday was time to test everything out.
A friend of mine had gone down the lake last weekend, he didn’t have much luck striper fishing. I decided to try Davis, the water temperature was still cold I was hearing, but longer days, I guess I was hoping the striper were moving up, crappie in the creek, and maybe a few other things. Well, the water temperature was still cold, they have been generating a lot, Beaver Creek was a bit warmer, I think 51 if I remember correctly. So I went and I fished all over.
Long story short, never even got a bite, hardly seen anything as well, it was tough on the upper end, shoulda went down the lake. However, this was a day of testing. I had called SeaArk and asked about the size of trolling motor, they recommended 52” but could try a 48”. The model I was looking at had a choice of 45” or 60”. 45 woulda worked if there were no waves so I went with the 60”, yep it’s a bit of overkill on length, but better too much than not enough.
I gave it a test on a few things and I like it a lot. The anchor mode is going to be a must when the wind is blowing and I’m catching bait or baiting up the lines. Should help when going after crappie also when I get it all figured out. I didn’t test much because this would have required me reading some things and I just wanted to wet a line. The fishfinder seems outstanding, I now have two different ones on the boat and they both seem awesome.
So Saturday was a test. I didn’t catch anything, but I got some things calibrated, got to play with new electronics, and had a really good time just getting back out on the water. My plan which is subject to change, is to get out there at least one day on the weekend. I have a bunch of chores at the house, but I will have to work them in around fishing. I know that Feb and March did not show much on the journal, my apologies, but Lord willing, we will get into a groove come April and have some things to talk about. Have a great week and God bless.
18 March 2019
It’s been a while and my apologies. At the beginning of the month we went on vacation. I was unable to do some fishing, but did do a bit of snorkeling, we had a blast. The daughter is 19 and graduates from Community College this year, and this was the years vacation. To be honest, I probably wouldn’t have gone fishing if I were at home, I heard it was in the teens one day and with all the rain we’ve had, well, I probably would not have gone fishing.
So when I got back I had me a new trolling motor and fishfinder to hook up, not to mention other chores that I am still behind on completing. I am thinking I need a week off to stay at home if I am every going to get near caught up. Anyway, the one rod is about complete, just needs epoxy, one repair should be done this week as well, but what is really chomping at me is getting everything hooked up.
I’ve drilled new holes, run new wires, trying to find hiding spots for everything, it has been a real bear and I am now close. Let me explain the issues briefly, I removed the sides of the trolling motor to access the holes, placed motor right where I wanted it and drilled them. Did my best impression of Mister Fantastic, stretching to put nuts on the bolts, daughter helping as I am just not that limber or long enough. The motor was in place, went to put on the sides and boom, I had put it too close to the light, they won’t fit. This is the first of many unplanned for events, as I have chosen to move the light to the right a little bit (should be better visibility.
The fishfinder is not supposed to be connected to the battery the trolling motor is using and consideration of putting on the light at the front crossed my mind. However, I have opted to purchase a new cheap, small, 9amp/hr battery. This will allow me to not interfere with my trolling motor batteries and let me hook up old fishfinder on the kayak. Let me say that hooking that up will probably take a while as I will avoid this type of work for a bit when I am complete (he says with confidence that he will complete it).
So onboard charger, where to put it. The battery box no longer has room with two batteries in there. The rod box just don’t make sense to me to use. The other big storage box I have a lot of stuff in and just don’t want to use it either. I think I am going to cover it on the deck in the front out of the way and roll with that. It should be good for not overheating and easy access. And if I place it near the fishfinder, it should not get in the way. This may not be the best plan, however, I am not going to try to run wires real long on that thing, it has been too much of a headache.
Anyway, I reckon you can tell what I’ve been a doing and not fishing. The only positive I have gotten from this is that I heard the stripers were not easy catching this past weekend. At least from a couple of folks, they had a great time but struggled to catch many. So the hope is to be done with rods, boat, and mow the yard by the weekend. If this works out, I’m going to find me a nice little spot to test the trolling motor, electronics, and hopefully catch a few fish. Sorry for little to no update on the fishing, I’m trying to find more reports but seems to be a struggle right now. I hope everyone gets out there soon, have a great week and God bless.
