[#0000ff]Been trying to line up a mutually doable schedule for fishing with SkunkedAgain for a few weeks. Had planned on Thursday at Pineview but weather forecrash for that day took a downturn. Today looked better so we both scrambled and made it happen.
Got launched from the Port Ramp a little before 8 am. Air temp 40 and water temp 54...warming to 56 by the time we left just after noon.
Sonared and bottom bounced a bit out from the docks. Didn't see much on sonar and saw nothing on the jigs. We decided to throw up a rooster tail with our electric motors (yeah right) and cruise down to the narrows. Felt confident we would find some biters there. Got it right.
I was a ways ahead of Jeff in my tube. I kept making big S turns as I watched the sonar. The lake had been very barren up to that point. Then my sonar got busy on the bottom in about 50 feet of water. Shortly thereafter my jigs got a positive vote from the stacked up crappies.
I hollered Jeff down on my radio and we proceeded to abuse...and be abused by...a whole bunch of little 9" cookie cutter crappies. Hoping to catch some larger ones we threw back the first few. Finally accepting that a 10 incher might be top fish for the day we kept a few for fodder.
They were hitting a variety of jigs with worms for SA. I was doing some damage with small jigs decorated with 1" Gulp Minnows. Jeff also picked up a few decent bluegills. I got a small smallmouth. And something else.
I had several big swirls as I lifted the crappiettes aboard my tube. JAWS...Pineview style. And I had a couple of crappie get VERY HEAVY on the way up...only to not make it all the way to the top. Purina tiger chow. About noon, as I was getting about ready to power back to the ramp, one of those "heavy" crappies started zinging string off my reel.
Waiting for the tiger muskie to either cut my line or tear the crappie loose I simply let it run a bit. And run it did. I noticed I had only a few turns left on my ultralight reel so I cranked my electric motor up to 5 and gave chase. Got to the middle of the dam arm and the fish alternately dived to the bottom and came to the top...circling the wagons before an attack...or so I thought.
With my ultralight outfit and 6# line I didn't have a lot of "lift". But I gradually "short stroked" the big toothy critter closer to the tube. I managed to get one picture of him in the water but wanted to at least scoop his head in my small net to get a better picture. Good thought. Didn't work. Couldn't get more than about a third of his total length in the stretchy bag. I had already stressed the beautiful beast enough so I reached down with pliers to remove the hook. Mr. Muskie would not think of leaving without a souvenir so he rolled and snapped his jaws...cutting the line and escaping with a nice new lip ornament.
Had plenty of crappies and plenty of exercise and excitement. So I motored over to say howdy to JJAnnie on my way back. Got Jeff and Jil to pose for a picture but Annie didn't wanna get up from her snooze in the sun to pose for some dimbulb.
Had a light breeze for a while that made it challenging to maintain position over the fish, but mostly a beautiful day. Glad the Skunk man was able to juggle his schedule and get together on the water. I think a good had was timed by all...or whatever.
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Great story! Catching a muskie after it eats a target gamefish must be one of the most exciting things in fishing. I would say it was impossible on 6 lb test, except i know enough people who have done the same thing. Good work!
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It looks like you got a Tiger by the tail. Boy that looks like FUN. Glade you got out, thinking it's been real quite this past week.
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Tiger by da tail...thanks for tips[cool]
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Good to see you and SA Jeff out there today. Catching wasn't working nearly as well for me as it was for Jeff this time around - and I think he even caught your TM!
Starting about 1pm we were seeing many TMs chasing our crappie we'd be bringing in. It was pretty fun trying to get them in in before they'd get chomped.
Sorry Annie wouldn't pose for you... (thx for the pic)
See our attached report and pics
It really was a Great day!
Hey Pat thanks that was a fun day. Pretty fun watching you get drug all over the lake by the TM. I thought it was the fish pulling you at first. Figured you were ready for a set of skis to keep up. Lots of action today I enjoyed the little critters. Ended up with 17 crappie and 8 gills on the day but only took a few home. That decender worked really well for saving the puffed up fish and sending them home safe. Anyhow thank you. Later J
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Nice pics, especially the one of the sunrise.....
[#0000FF]I love and respect all fish...including those toothy critters. But I seldom fish for them on purpose. However, over the years I have had quite a few "encounters" with them...mostly while fishing for other species. Sometimes they hit the lures I am using. Other times they try to abscond with the other species I am reeling in. Always fun and unexpected.
I have landed several pike and muskies on the six pound mono (co-filament) I use...Silver Thread Excalibur. It is extremely abrasion resistant. I started using it when fishing waters with flathead catfish in Arizona about 15 years ago. Used to lose a lot of them to abraded line. Never lost another one after I began using the Excalibur.
Here is a pic of another tiger muskie I brought up from the bottom at Pineview...in 45 feet of water. This one ate a small jig with worm on it that I was also fishing for crappies and perch. The jig was well inside the tooth zone and the fish jumped two or three times before I was able to subdue it. As you can see in the picture, the line is still intact.
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[#0000FF]The pic does look like the fish is hooked "aft". But I was using a tandem jig rig and the fish was hooked in the corner of the mouth with the bottom jig...and had rolled and had the line wrapped around its body.
Thanks for letting me play with one of your darlings.
It was still full of p & v when it munched the line and boogied. If you happen to catch it again you are welcome to the "lip ornament".
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[#0000FF]Good to see you guys on the water too. Glad you got to exercise a few of those "huge slabs"...and a couple of toothy playmates.
I suspect that there is a whole food chain thing going on in that area. The zooplankton and other invertebrates go deeper in cooler water. The small crappies and perch follow them. And the top predators (tigers) stay around where the groceries are. Those who target the tigers might do well by vertical jigging big spoons or tubes in the "zone". I know a couple of hard-deckers who always keep a rod rigged with those things for when the big boys show up on sonar...or looking up at them through their ice holes.
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Great report! Sounds like a really fun day on the water. I'm glad you and the gang had a good day up there!
Is there a minnow/forage species in PV or do the perch and crappie mostly eat there own young?
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[#0000FF]It really was a nice day. Glad we were able to put it together and that Pineview treated you well on your first visit.
But, as I told you, I am still not impressed with the QUALITY of the crappies in that lake. Heavy on the quantity but those things would just be "yearlings" in a more southerly and more productive crappie pond.
Here is what real crappies look like.
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Thanks for the report and the pictures. It sounds like an adventure trying to keep the toothy critters from stealing your dinner. Glad you got to wrestle one in and photograph it. And I thought the sea lions along the Columbia River were bad!
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I'm glad you had some fun up there! Thanks for the report and, as has been said, great pictures!
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sounds as you guys had a great time. Amazing that the Tiger didn't snap the line. Guess I need to go crappie fish to get a tiger. Tiger Muskie is still on my bucket list. no boat but I've been up there before casting giant crank bait all day and still no strike. don't know that I'd want those teeth next to my tube.
TubeDude I see that you and Jeff have motors on your tubes/toon. I just bought an old water otter at a yard sale have you got any designs that would help me mount a motor on it? attach a picture
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[quote Piscophilic]Great report! Sounds like a really fun day on the water. I'm glad you and the gang had a good day up there!
Is there a minnow/forage species in PV or do the perch and crappie mostly eat there own young?[/quote]
[#0000FF]There is no natural (surviving) forage base in Pineview. During years of good spawn and recruitment there are abundant young perch and crappies for the bigger ones to snack on. But right now Pineview is in a cycle of low perch numbers and high crappie numbers. The smallies, crappies and other perch have just about wiped out the perch...so very few baby perch on the predators' menus.
So the bigger fish have survived mostly on baby carp and sunfish...as long as they are small enough to eat. After that the perch, bluegills and crappies rely on zooplankton and small invertebrates for their food supply. I brought home 14 crappies yesterday and ever one of them were full of "goo", the remnants of foraging on the bottom-hugging zooplankton. Not a single small fishlet in the bunch. No married ones either.
In the past...when there were huge numbers of perch...both the perch and crappies grew much faster and much larger by feeding on their own young of the year. 12 inchers of both species were not uncommon...and most were barfing up babies when brought to the surface...open water or ice. Just as in Deer Creek, the smallies have really added to the decimation of the perch by their young feeding heavily on perch fry before they even reach one inch in length.
It is interesting to review the history of species in Pineview. In the "olden days" there were trout. But the warm water was not hospitable to them and they developed "pizza sides" (anchor worm) if they survived. The warm water species flourished. They included largemouth bass (no smallies), bluegills and crappies. No perch. No tiger muskies. There were also green sunfish, black bullheads and (of course) carp.
In earlier times the crappies were thick and large. Easy to load up on footlongs plus. And the largemouths were plentiful and willing. 30-50 fish sessions...with many 4# fish on any given trip. For the panfish fans there were hordes of 8" bluegills and lots of aggressive green sunfish.
Then perch were introduced and exploded. The lake became full of stunted perchlets. Smallmouths and then tiger muskies were introduced to help control perch and provide more fishing. That worked well...until the predation went past the tipping point.
Since then it has been tough to maintain a constant healthy balance of species...by sizes and numbers. Some years there have been hordes of small perch and fewer crappies. Then a good spawn and recruitment of crappies...during a year of poor spawn success with perch...and BINGO...we have the current unbalanced fishery.
All we can do is take advantage of whatever is going on during any given year and wait to see what Mama Nature deals up the following year.
In those days it was not unusual
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"Amazing that the Tiger didn't snap the line."
[#0000FF]It is surprising that the teeth didn't cut the line. But when an angler has a fish SNAP their line it is usually angler error and not fish size or strength that is the cause. Line breakage is usually a combination of poor line, poor knots and/or poor drag settings.
A quick look at the picture of your new ride suggests that it might be possible to mount a motor and battery on your craft, but it will take some re-engineering. Those things add a lot of weight and that can change the balance...and not for the better.
Send me a PM and I will send you a chapter on putting motors on tubes and toons. Then, if you would like to bring your new ride to my "tubeatorium" I can look at it more closely and make suggestions...or help you rig it.
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Thanks Jil, man you guys must have really caught them after we left that is quite the haul... and I love that picture of Jeff with the muskie it's a real trophy for a crappie day... Glad to see ya on the pond on a pretty day... I was glad when the wind let up down there in the narrows I about froze all morning... Didn't take my extra coat and I needed it.. Later J
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Hey Pat,
Was a little tired last night when I pecked that post out... I must agree with your thoughts on the crappie size, took me too long to fillet them for what I got in return... I think the 10"ers is the minimum size I'll keep from now on... Had a couple gills that weren't hardly worth taking home, but since I was working on fish for a pot of chowder I keep them, I'm sure they will be enjoyed..
I liked those pictures of slabs, I was down south myself on my mission and in Florida they called them specs, if I remember correctly and they were much larger than what we were catching.. Sure is fun to catch a nice sized slab... some even make you think you have a real fish on the line...
Well I did enjoy the day and appreciate the invitation and it sounds like we did better there than if we would have tried a slow Willard bay... Nice choice... Later J
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Forget the fish, I will take those panoramic photos, especially the one looking back at cemetery point.
Glade you two got into fish. When I was up there I didn't venture down that far and never found a fish of any kind.
Richard
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