09-30-2019, 02:50 AM
"The sea was very 
my friends"...
Yup, I went out with a friend of mine to fish the Berry. I hadn't been there since last year. We ended up arriving around 8am and headed out to start trolling off Haws Point.
The wind was very mild, with a slight chop on the water. Pleasant morning and only a few boat trailers at the marina.
We zigged and zagged back and forth from Haws Point, heading south towards the Meadows and Renegade Point.
We were trolling at around 1.5mpg and would vary speed from 1.5 to 2mpg to see if it made any difference. Didn't seem to matter what speed we tried, the cuts were pretty random. We were able to hook up with a few cuts along the way down to the Meadows. By about 9am, the wind had picked up. I'd guess around 10+mph..
Anyway, we buzzed over to Renegade point and decided to jig for a while. Unfortunately, or fortunately, depending on how you look at it, the wind was blowing enough to move our boat at a steady 1mph without using our trolling motor at all.
So, we let the wind blow us North-East and were able to hook up with a few more cuts. After we drifted most of the way through the Meadows, we would use the main motor and buzz quickly back to Renegade Point and then start our drift back again. We saw several schools of fish on the sonar.
Some times, there were dozens of traces showing up at different depths. We'd see them from 30-40ft and then sometimes around 20ft and sometimes one or two a bit shallower. We always caught the fish when our lines were shallow.
My friend had weighted line on one of his poles, but never got a nibble on that one. I started out using two poles, but invariably, I'd get a hit on the pole I WASN'T holding, and by the time I switched poles, the worm was gone...
We were using 3" pearl tube jigs tipped with worms. We discovered that using a half night-crawler wasn't enough. They were greedy fish. They'd bite at a whole night-crawler only.. Anyway, they were quite picky eaters, never taking a big bite, just nibbling and hitting really soft. Sometimes taking 5-6 hits before all the worm was gone.
I had brought some Corn, marinated in minced garlic to see if it would work. It did. Problem was that the fish would nibble off the 3 pieces I had on my hook and it was hard to actually hook one. We were pretty much feeding them.
I went to tipping my tube jig with a night crawler and a piece of corn. That worked pretty well, though I think it would have worked just as well with just the night-crawler.
My friend tried a 4" silver Rapalla for a while, but didn't get anything with it, so he went back to tube jigs and started hooking up the cutts again.
Anyway, we ended up with about 20 fish between us before we called it a day and headed back around 1:30pm. The wind had picked up probably to 15+mph and rocking the boat quite a bit, but not too dangerous yet.
I have an 18 1/2 foot Aluminum boat with 150hp Mercury and an electric trolling motor. The boat did well. I pity anybody in something less than 18ft when the wind was blowing like it was.
So, we met my friend's brother-in-law and his son that night headed out again around 7pm. The wind had died down just before that, so we had a fairly calm time on the water. We started at Haws Point and zig-zag trolled down to that island that's on the west side of the lake on the north end of the meadows, across from the south entrance of the narrows.
The 4 of us did pretty well, probably landing around 15 cuts in a couple hours until it was full-dark. We then headed back to the marina in the dark and camped for the night.
Next morning we got up, had some breakfast and headed out at around 7:20am. Starting again at Haws Point and repeated what we'd done the previous day. Wind picked up pretty heavy around 8:30am, but none of us were seasick, so we kept fishing until around 11am.
We finished up the day catching a few just 100 yards west of Haws point. We'd boat over to the bank and start in 20 ft of water and let the wind drift us North-East. We were catching all our fish on the surface. Even catching them in 80ft of water off Haws Point.
Anyway, a great time was had by all !! We only caught Cutts. Sizes from 15" up to probably 20". Random assortment with most on the small side.
The water was slightly merky, but not enough to cause too much 'salad fish' hookups.
See ya all later...
[signature]
my friends"...Yup, I went out with a friend of mine to fish the Berry. I hadn't been there since last year. We ended up arriving around 8am and headed out to start trolling off Haws Point.
The wind was very mild, with a slight chop on the water. Pleasant morning and only a few boat trailers at the marina.
We zigged and zagged back and forth from Haws Point, heading south towards the Meadows and Renegade Point.
We were trolling at around 1.5mpg and would vary speed from 1.5 to 2mpg to see if it made any difference. Didn't seem to matter what speed we tried, the cuts were pretty random. We were able to hook up with a few cuts along the way down to the Meadows. By about 9am, the wind had picked up. I'd guess around 10+mph..
Anyway, we buzzed over to Renegade point and decided to jig for a while. Unfortunately, or fortunately, depending on how you look at it, the wind was blowing enough to move our boat at a steady 1mph without using our trolling motor at all.
So, we let the wind blow us North-East and were able to hook up with a few more cuts. After we drifted most of the way through the Meadows, we would use the main motor and buzz quickly back to Renegade Point and then start our drift back again. We saw several schools of fish on the sonar.
Some times, there were dozens of traces showing up at different depths. We'd see them from 30-40ft and then sometimes around 20ft and sometimes one or two a bit shallower. We always caught the fish when our lines were shallow.
My friend had weighted line on one of his poles, but never got a nibble on that one. I started out using two poles, but invariably, I'd get a hit on the pole I WASN'T holding, and by the time I switched poles, the worm was gone...
We were using 3" pearl tube jigs tipped with worms. We discovered that using a half night-crawler wasn't enough. They were greedy fish. They'd bite at a whole night-crawler only.. Anyway, they were quite picky eaters, never taking a big bite, just nibbling and hitting really soft. Sometimes taking 5-6 hits before all the worm was gone.
I had brought some Corn, marinated in minced garlic to see if it would work. It did. Problem was that the fish would nibble off the 3 pieces I had on my hook and it was hard to actually hook one. We were pretty much feeding them.
I went to tipping my tube jig with a night crawler and a piece of corn. That worked pretty well, though I think it would have worked just as well with just the night-crawler.
My friend tried a 4" silver Rapalla for a while, but didn't get anything with it, so he went back to tube jigs and started hooking up the cutts again.
Anyway, we ended up with about 20 fish between us before we called it a day and headed back around 1:30pm. The wind had picked up probably to 15+mph and rocking the boat quite a bit, but not too dangerous yet.
I have an 18 1/2 foot Aluminum boat with 150hp Mercury and an electric trolling motor. The boat did well. I pity anybody in something less than 18ft when the wind was blowing like it was.
So, we met my friend's brother-in-law and his son that night headed out again around 7pm. The wind had died down just before that, so we had a fairly calm time on the water. We started at Haws Point and zig-zag trolled down to that island that's on the west side of the lake on the north end of the meadows, across from the south entrance of the narrows.
The 4 of us did pretty well, probably landing around 15 cuts in a couple hours until it was full-dark. We then headed back to the marina in the dark and camped for the night.
Next morning we got up, had some breakfast and headed out at around 7:20am. Starting again at Haws Point and repeated what we'd done the previous day. Wind picked up pretty heavy around 8:30am, but none of us were seasick, so we kept fishing until around 11am.
We finished up the day catching a few just 100 yards west of Haws point. We'd boat over to the bank and start in 20 ft of water and let the wind drift us North-East. We were catching all our fish on the surface. Even catching them in 80ft of water off Haws Point.
Anyway, a great time was had by all !! We only caught Cutts. Sizes from 15" up to probably 20". Random assortment with most on the small side.
The water was slightly merky, but not enough to cause too much 'salad fish' hookups.
See ya all later...
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