08-18-2008, 03:37 PM
Most of the time my cousin is always with me when fishing but he has a real problem with getting up early lately. Says he has to get up early every day and on the weekend by dang he's going to sleep in. Me on the other hand, I get up early each day also (though not as early as him) and I still like to get up even earlier to be to whatever waters I'm fishing by daylight. So it was no surprise to me that when I declared "Huntington Tigers this Saturday, leaving at 4:00 a.m....", he declared out. My daughter is also out of town, so I asked my wife if she wanted to go. She didn't want to, but she went anyway! [
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So Saturday morning (8/16) we hooked up to Cousin's 14' aluminum boat, equipped with the 9.9 hp on the back, and headed to Huntington. The first thing I noticed was that the hills were alive with the non-sound of Bow-Hunters. I couldn't believe how much traffic there was. The parking lot at Huntington was a natural pit-stop for all these hunters so I had to maneuver around the vehicles to get down to the boat ramp, which I might add, is a VERY WELCOME addition to this little lake, and it works awesome!
There was a scout camp on the shore by the ramp, and the leader told me they had not caught a fish the whole day before and asked me what they are biting on. Since this was my first time this year, I told him what I was going to try, but was not sure if any of that would work. I also told him that a canoe or small boat would help...but they did not have any available.
Anyway, off we went into the steam coming off the water, trolling...for almost an hour with not even a hit.
My wife was sleeping at this point, holding her pole, so I decided to try out some other lures to troll with. I experimented with 1/2 dozen different things, and only had a "bump" with a wooly bugger. I decided trolling was not the way to go.
So we then parked the boat (no wind at all yet) and tried casting flies with bubbles, Kastmasters, Jakes, etc. and still nothing.
Almost 9:00 a.m. now and I decided that jigging was going to have to be the ticket. By now a small breeze had started so it required an anchor to stay put. The first two stops only produced one fish. The 3rd stop, an old favorite waypoint on my GPS, ended up being the ticket. There were plenty of fish showing at all times on the fishfinder...but I couldn't get them to bite. I was using minnows and white tube jigs. I could see the fish following my lures up and down and many would come around to check it out, but very seldom would they bite. So I started downsizing. I ended up with a plain super small hook (#10) on about 2 or 3 feet of flurocarbon leader, below a sliding sinker, with a chunk of worm on it. They wouldn't touch the minnow chunks. Wife and I caught 13 fish over the next two hours and missed that many more. There were times when I couldn't keep up with my wifes pole. She would have a fish on before I get get my pole down!
All were Tigers of course, the biggest going about 17" inches. 2 of them had some nice fall-ish colors going, and lots of them had a hooked jaw. About 11:00 a gust of wind blew us off our spot and that was the end of the fishing. Was "chilly" all morning, kind of nice for a change. Weather was great till the wind came up around 11:00. Sorry, no pictures, I assumed that since my wife was coming she would bring her camera...she didn't.
Anyway, jigging was the ticket. Worms worked, minnows didn't. Which is really funny to me as I have NEVER caught a fish with a worm there before. I have tried many times, but couldn't get them to bite. Trolling and casting didn't work. Most fish were 14" to 16" inches or so with one or two going bigger and littler. Also, the fish were NOT on the bottom, which is also kind of weird to me this year. They were all suspended 20 to 30 feet. If we didnt' have a bite within about 2 minutes, we would reel up to that range and get bites immediately. ALL the fish fought very well and most did the air-acrobatics that I like so much. One almost jumped right into our boat!
Randy
[signature]
]So Saturday morning (8/16) we hooked up to Cousin's 14' aluminum boat, equipped with the 9.9 hp on the back, and headed to Huntington. The first thing I noticed was that the hills were alive with the non-sound of Bow-Hunters. I couldn't believe how much traffic there was. The parking lot at Huntington was a natural pit-stop for all these hunters so I had to maneuver around the vehicles to get down to the boat ramp, which I might add, is a VERY WELCOME addition to this little lake, and it works awesome!
There was a scout camp on the shore by the ramp, and the leader told me they had not caught a fish the whole day before and asked me what they are biting on. Since this was my first time this year, I told him what I was going to try, but was not sure if any of that would work. I also told him that a canoe or small boat would help...but they did not have any available.
Anyway, off we went into the steam coming off the water, trolling...for almost an hour with not even a hit.
My wife was sleeping at this point, holding her pole, so I decided to try out some other lures to troll with. I experimented with 1/2 dozen different things, and only had a "bump" with a wooly bugger. I decided trolling was not the way to go.
So we then parked the boat (no wind at all yet) and tried casting flies with bubbles, Kastmasters, Jakes, etc. and still nothing.
Almost 9:00 a.m. now and I decided that jigging was going to have to be the ticket. By now a small breeze had started so it required an anchor to stay put. The first two stops only produced one fish. The 3rd stop, an old favorite waypoint on my GPS, ended up being the ticket. There were plenty of fish showing at all times on the fishfinder...but I couldn't get them to bite. I was using minnows and white tube jigs. I could see the fish following my lures up and down and many would come around to check it out, but very seldom would they bite. So I started downsizing. I ended up with a plain super small hook (#10) on about 2 or 3 feet of flurocarbon leader, below a sliding sinker, with a chunk of worm on it. They wouldn't touch the minnow chunks. Wife and I caught 13 fish over the next two hours and missed that many more. There were times when I couldn't keep up with my wifes pole. She would have a fish on before I get get my pole down!
All were Tigers of course, the biggest going about 17" inches. 2 of them had some nice fall-ish colors going, and lots of them had a hooked jaw. About 11:00 a gust of wind blew us off our spot and that was the end of the fishing. Was "chilly" all morning, kind of nice for a change. Weather was great till the wind came up around 11:00. Sorry, no pictures, I assumed that since my wife was coming she would bring her camera...she didn't.
Anyway, jigging was the ticket. Worms worked, minnows didn't. Which is really funny to me as I have NEVER caught a fish with a worm there before. I have tried many times, but couldn't get them to bite. Trolling and casting didn't work. Most fish were 14" to 16" inches or so with one or two going bigger and littler. Also, the fish were NOT on the bottom, which is also kind of weird to me this year. They were all suspended 20 to 30 feet. If we didnt' have a bite within about 2 minutes, we would reel up to that range and get bites immediately. ALL the fish fought very well and most did the air-acrobatics that I like so much. One almost jumped right into our boat!
Randy
[signature]
] Any idea how far the boat ramp still extends into the water? I still need to get up there and get my ice-chipper bar back and not sure if I need to take the Porta-bote or the larger boat could be launched. I have noticed that when fishing Huntington on some trips they will bite whole minnows or chunks and other times they only want crawlers. Some trips I have had them change what they want during day (strange reservoir).