Not the Best Results
24 July 2017
You can tell by the lack of photo what kind of day we had on the water. The weather was calling for storms/ rain, therefore I didn’t head out early. The daughter was going yard sale shopping anyway, so no need to get too early. I headed out late morning and the water temperature was around 71 at Davis. I thought this might be a great thing and I started catching some bait. A red flag began flying when the bait was not real easy to catch, it wasn’t hard, but they just weren’t all over the place like I’ve been seeing.
I caught what I needed and then headed toward a route that I usually catch something. During this pass I got one bite on my Ned Rig but nothing on the shad. I trolled around and finally my daughter arrived. They got in the boat and we headed elsewhere. We had some bites here last time and I thought certain we would get something. We made a pass on both sides and we didn’t see or hear any of the big boys. Now the carp were out in force, a few shad, not many flipping, and quite a few turtles, but the stripers were just not around.
We headed back to try one more spot before she had to go into work. We made a fast pass over some shallow then deeper water. We began seeing a few more shad and a couple big ones on the fish finder, but nothing seemed to be hungry, well, I was but that’s a different story.
We saw a fellow angler who had caught quite a few hybrid early down the lake and I thought I should’ve just gotten wet this morning and went. We ended up getting two hits on the Ned Rig and nothing with the shad. Daughter goes on vacation Saturday, so Friday is the day I need to get her on a striper, it’s been tough on her so far this year. She did go with a friend on the banks the other day and they did well with the bluegill and a redeye, but she wants striper. Friday I am vacating from work, hopefully she will get one in the boat. I hope everyone has a great 4th of July weekend. The boaters will be out so be careful and enjoy the festivities. Sorry no pics, but hey, I had some awesome company and time on the water, it was a good day. Have a great week and God bless.
16-18 June 2017
Oh, The Weekend
Friday my wife was going to join me on the lake after work, so I headed out about an hour or so early, make sure I could catch some bait and bank fish a bit. A couple of older gentlemen were fishing from the dock and bait catching was not too hard so I pulled up and gave them a few shad then headed to the other side of the lake. I tossed in my Ned Rig and before the wife arrived, I landed a couple of nice hybrid. Now these fish are scrappy and using my Ned Rig rod, it sure makes them fun. After catching both, the wife arrived.
I picked her up, we put out a couple of lines to give it a go there at the dock. After about 20 minutes or so, we made a pass over my hybrid hole and she landed one with a shad. Sorry no pics, used her phone. We made another pass but then wanted to venture into uncharted waters for me. I needed to find some big boys as the girl was coming back into town on Saturday and had said she wanted to catch a striper Sunday evening.
We headed up and made a few passes over a new spot and we got a bit of activity. We had about 4-5 assaults on our shad. The fish were definitely striper, but they just weren’t taking the shad. We weren’t using anything real big, 5-7”, but they just seemed like they wanted to kill the fish instead of eating. We figured we had found them, but decided it was time to go home, but we’ll be back.
Saturday was going to be an easy day around the house, do some chores and play a little catch up. Then I got an invite to ride in the back of a boat and fish, hmmm, sure. Off I went, just doing a little bass fishing. I was starting to think the Ned Rig had lost it’s touch, I had many bites, but just couldn’t catch anything. Then, off one of the rocks, I landed a catfish, nothing huge but decent size, again I didn’t take a pic. I did get many more bites, but seeing flashes, looked like some of them were trout and those fellers are a bit difficult to catch on this little rig (maybe it’s just me).
Father’s Day happened to fall on my daughter’s birthday this year, she is officially an adult now. So we went to church, out to lunch with wife, son, daughter, and myself, then came home. We checked the weather and storm was coming, so not boating today. We decided to hit the river. We headed up and saw the biggest mess of brown trout you have ever seen in your life. It looked like a trout farm and they had some size. We wondered around looking to see if the striper had made it up that far when we heard thunder, then saw lightning. That is the surest way to get me away from the water, we left in a hurry.
We got home and the weather had changed, no storm coming, she wanted to get the boat out so off we went. This time it was daughter, wife, myself, and Bella the lab. We head up to the hopeful honey hole and there is nothing worth staying for, no sign of the big boys there. We came back down and saw a few shad flip and made an effort, finally I had found some big shad. We caught two that were big, one was over a pound, I was guessing 2 pounds, the other was not quite as bit, but large. I was excited and we threw them out and began trolling.
The same thing began happening in this area, the striper would come up, wreak havoc on the shad, but then leave, they did not take it but just messed with it. It was a bit frustrating as I was wanting the girl to catch one real bad. Then I started flipping the bank while trolling and I hooked one. Drag starting screaming and I was running low on line, I put my hand on the reel just to reduce the drag but no too much as it’s only 8 lb test. The fish just released. Everything came back to the boat fine (except the plastic needed adjusting), but the fish was off. I think we had more than 5 assaults on the shad, I hooked a nice one, but we went home empty handed.
The weekend was filled with fishing, a short trip with some striper trips. I landed a couple hybrids and a catfish, the wife caught one on her first trip out, but the girl hasn’t caught a striper this year. So I am going to make an effort to put her on a good one this weekend, maybe even take off on Friday to try to get her on one. We did have a great Father’s Day. I got to spend time with all the family, my son also changed a light for us in the kitchen yesterday, while I did the holding for him. The fishing is great, but time spent with the family is really where the memories are made. We laughed, joked, and had a grand ‘ol time, I hope your weekend was just as good. Have a great week and God bless.
A Day of First
09 June 2017
Here we are into June and my girl asked if she could take her year old dog Bella fishing with us. We got Bella from the pound (not sure if that is the politically correct way to say that, but don’t care) last year and she is mostly lab. I said, whatcha wanna fish for, she said striper, I said no. Why she ask, I said first trip, treble hooks, paws, hyper, asking for trouble, negative, she said let’s bass fish. Bella got to take her first fishing trip.
We were trying to squeeze in this trip between a doctor visit, a last meal before she headed to the beach with a friend, and of course last minute shopping. So off we go at noon which happens to be our favorite time to fish anyway. I am equipped with my favorite mud minnow and shortly after arriving I hook a smallmouth. Bella is unsure of this thing, she leans, then the fish flips at her, she snaps back, sniffs, bites at it and thinks it to be a game. We take photos and release the fish completely uharmed.
My daughter begins with a bluegill. I had lended, lent, let someone borrow (however you say that) my typical rod of choice and I was using my med light 7.5′ rod for this trip, it’s fun with the smaller fish, although I have landed striper with this bad boy. I felt a bump, set the hook and said ugh, it’s a rock, then after a couple of seconds, the rock methodically began swimming to the left, my daughter landed a little redeye. I began adjusting the trolling motor as I was using a reel that is spotty at best with the drag and figured that if this big fella wanted to hit another gear, I better be ready. This was odd, this fish felt like it could do just what ever it wanted and I had absolutely zero control. I was just about to ask the daughter who had released her fish into the water if she would like to wrestle this one as I was not in any shape to battle when I realized it was going deep and under a fallen down tree. About that time, snap, the leader broke. My best guess was that was the biggest catfish that I had ever hooked, possible would have made the river monster television program highlight reel, not sure, but since I didn’t see it, I’m gonna say it was possible. It has now become a myth.
Anyway, we braved the elements a bit longer and I discovered I was all out of my secret weapon, I tried a few of the other colors but not dare treading into the color of my daughters choice. I got a few hits, but nothing like the beast of Boone I had enjoyed earlier. As I would flip to the bank, I could hear a voice saying, good grief are you ever going to stop talking about the big fish you lost, I get it, the fish was big, let’s move on. I laughed and she out fished me really good that day. I will have to say, it felt just as good for her to catch more than it does when I do. It is really hard to lose when you go fishing with your kids.
And by the way, we stopped for about 15 minutes to let Bella take a dip in the lake and scare off a few fish, chase a few sticks, and get a little mud in the boat and all it did was make us laugh. I hope everyone had a great week, take care and God bless.
03 June 2017
A Little Time On The Yak
First allow me to apologize, I was gonna right up the last fishing trip on Memorial Day, but something came up. The daughter got rear-ended, no worries, she got a bit of whip lash, still sore in the neck and back, but it orta work out soon. To wrap it up in a nut shell, we caught about 7 fish, and I stepped into the livewell, the daughter said, since your not hurt, do you mind if I laugh, cause that was hilarious. I did get the last laugh, I caught more fish.
Well saturday I was not feeling up 100% but I had to get out of the house for a spell. I decided the kayak was the best bet. I launched at Sugar Hollow and hugged a bank armed only with a ned rig mud minnow. The first fish was a little rock bass, then followed by a small mouth, neither had much size and not worth risking a photo.
The largemouth followed then some dead time. I got in on a nice largemouth, and as I went to figure out how to lip him and set the rod down, he escaped, but it sure was fun. Then came along the crappie, and a couple more smaller smallmouths.
I began heading back and caught a few more until ending up the day catching a 15″ catfish. I was on the water about 1.5 hours and caught about 7 fish, it was a good time. I’m hoping to get out there Friday, hope you can get out there soon. Hope you have a great week and God bless.
