Memorial weekend trip

[AdictedBassTard]

Friday was a waste. We got to our "secret" lake only to have the thunderheads roll in and hammer us with rain and lightning. My wife and I got off the water and decided to wait the storm out, but the rain kept coming as did the lightning, so we decided to give the day up as lost for fishing and use it to run errands instead.

[#40a0ff]My wife shelters under her FC seat. We discovered it made for a nice little shelter.[/#40a0ff]
[#000000]The following morning (Saturday)we headed out to our friends' private lake which is not too far from my in-laws (we got a late start).[/#000000]
My wife immediately began finding all the big pickerel.

[#4040ff]A nice 18" pickey[/#4040ff]
[#000000]Between us we must have nailed at least twelve pickey's. Unfortunately we also lost a few, our brand new lures along with them. I have no idea how they are breaking the line at the knot so often. last year this was not an issue![/#000000]

[#4040ff]This 22" swine broke my lure away from the line as i was measuring it, and flipped back into the water. The lure fortunately snagged onto my shirt and ws not lost. Thank God![/#4040ff]
[#000000]I did manage to get two nice bass out of the day. One 2lb 7oz LMB on a natural X-Rap and one 3lb 3oz LMB on a Booyah spinner with double silver shiner blades. The 2lber came of a deep ledge while the 3lb came out of some shallow structure.[/#000000]
The latter got tangled in my wife's flippers but she managed to untangle it and I landed the fish.

[#4040ff]A nice little piggy[/#4040ff]
[#000000]Sunday morning we headed to our "secret" lake again and got there at around 07h00. It was to be a hot, breezy day with blasting sunshine.[/#000000]
[#000000]Because we had lost so many good lures to the cursed pickeys the day before, I decided we would use some heavy duty Spider Wire as a leader to stop the pickeys from stealing our tackle (we fish light -6lb line).[/#000000]
[#000000]Although this worked in its intended way, the bass would not touch our tackle. Everything else under the sun was having a go at our baits, except perch and bass.[/#000000]
[#000000]My wife and I wondered if it wasn't perhaps due to the thick, visible leaders we were now using.[/#000000]

[#4040ff]My wife is definitely the pickerel queen. A nice 19" one here.[/#4040ff]

[#4040ff]A nice crappie[/#4040ff]

[#4040ff]Another crappie[/#4040ff]
I decided to remove my heavy leader and WHAM! - a 5lb lmb on the edge of some fire lily and broad lily using my trusty natural X-RAP.

[#4040ff]5lb piggy[/#4040ff]
I was an excellent fight. She took me into the salad and I had to work to get her out of it and into my hands.
A little while later I snagged a 3lb LMB holding in the shallows behind some broad lilies on a sandy shelf. She was also a great fight. For the shallows I had been using a Yozuri Super Shallow Diver with extreme action, and she hit it like a steam train.
But alas ... the very next fish was another pesky pickey which once again broke my lure free from my line as I was lifting it from the water. I was just too frustrated at that point and my wife and I decided to head for home.
I have NO idea how the pickerel are breaking the lure free from the line when they are being lifted from the water. They are NOT biting it, merely shaking like an epileptic fish with its fin caught in a power line. I am wondering if this vigorous side-to-side shaking isn't causing the lure's ring to cut through the line?? Any advice folks? i have NEVER seen this before in my 32 years of fishing.
REALLY frustrating. Not to mention the fact that the pickey population is WAAAY too abundant in my opinion.

-ABT-
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[TubeDude]

[cool][#0000ff]Good report and pics of the pickeys...and bass. Too bad about the lost lures. I make all mine so it is not as much of a loss, but the store bought ones are pricey.[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]I can't remember the last time I have lost a fish to a breakoff or bad knot. You need better quality line or different knots. You also need to use a net to control the fish and do not lift the fish by the line. You are right. The flopping of the fish will increase the chances of line or knot failure.[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]I suspect that you are using a line that is soft to cast but which has poor abrasion resistance. I have been using the Silver Thread Excalibur for several years. It is clear and soft to cast, but really holds up against abrasion from snags or fishes' teeth. I have landed flathead cats over 30 pounds on six pound Excalibur, with the jig way down inside the nasty teeth. I have also landed large walleyes, northern pike and toothy trout on 4#, with nary a breakoff.[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]Bass are usually more line shy than other species, especially in clear water. It is not surprising that you noticed fewer strikes while using a braided line for leader.[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]Good to see your wife getting out amongst em and doing her share to keep the fish properly exercised.[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]By the way, we had nasty weather througout the Memorial Day weekend in the west too. Some campers actually had to contend with snow here in Utah. At least you had some decent weather part of the time.[/#0000ff]
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[Fishhound]

[black][size 3]Great photos ABT ![/size][/black]

[black][size 3]Looks like you folks had some good weather to do some good fishing in. Nice looking fish too.[/size][/black]
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[black][size 3]I'll second what TD said about the knots, good quality line and a landing net. [/size][/black]
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[black][size 3]If the fish are going to be released anyway, Often I'll use barbless single hooks on my lures. The loss percentage does increase a bit but, that way, I usually don't have to handle the fish at all - I just reach with the pliers, grab the hook, give it a little twist, and the fish is off and going. [/size][/black]
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[AdictedBassTard]

Thx for the replies and comments gentlemen.
We use 6lb Eagle Claw clear mono, which has always worked well for us, until now. I now understand why after much deliberation, we are experiencing these problems:until our tubing discovery we were always fishing from shore where we were able to bring the fish right up to our waists and simply grab it. Now in a tube, this is difficult and thus my wife and I have decided to go the way of the net (I have always hated using a net). I have also decided to change my knots from the improved Clinch knot (which I have used most consistently throughout my life with great success) to either a palomar or trilene knot - anything with a double hanger through the eye of the hook.

P.S. sorry to hear you folks had a less than best Memorial weekend. I was in Utah one late July in '99 and it snowed for about 20 minutes. Hilarious.

-ABT-
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[flygoddess]

TD, I was guiding up at Altamont Sat. & Sun. Got up there Fri. to key in on what flies to give my clients and it was 90+ degrees, then Sat. comes in and windy and quite a bit cooler. Sunday less wind but, cold. Got my clients into plenty of nice trout. Left Sun. evening around 4:00. Went over Wolf Creek pass, and it was a total white out for about 40 miles. Probably a good thing though cause it kept me at 40 miles an hour and there were patrol men all over the place. The Durango that was in front of me got nailed.
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[TubeDude]

[cool][#0000ff]You must be living right. Right?[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]Glad you were able to put your clients on some fish. [/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]Hope the weather gods got it all out of their systems this past weekend and we can get back to some decent sunshine with no wind.[/#0000ff]
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[zonker]

Nice report ABT. Looks like you either got yourself a new camera or finally persuaded the better half to let you use hers. (Recalling your former comments on her reluctance to use the expensive equipment out on the water.) Nice pics!

Sounds like you've had plenty of good advice in the posts above so I'll hold my two cents - except to say that the net is probably a good addition when fishing from the tube. I recently set aside my deep bagged net in favor of a shallow bagged one that Flygoddess recommended in one of her posts. It is called a "Measure Net." It has a nice soft, shallow bag for easy handling and release of fish. The bottom is calibrated in inches so that you can see the length of your fish without removing it from the net. I use the "large" size which has a nice telescoping extension handle. Perfect for tubing I think. Even beats my beloved wood hooped tube net as far as functionality - and it is a lot cheaper. Oh, but there is one negative. Though it has a nice foam handle, it doesn't float. I learned this last week while fishing some rough seas. My untetherered net was pitched out of the back of my Super Fat Cat when I was hit by a sneaker wave. It sank slowly out of sight before I could get to it. I bought another this week and you can bet it was tethered on the next trip.

Here's a link to one place that has them if you're interested. I don't get anything for recommending it. It just works for me.

[url "http://www.yagersflies.com/the-measure-net.html"]Measure Net[/url]

zonker
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[bassguy64]

Thanks for the great report!

Finally a super weekend here in the northeast. I was out both Sat and Sun as well. 4 small largemouth on Sat and 2 nice Pickerel on Sun before I called it quits.

I know what you mean about breaking at the knot while trying to get a hooked epileptic Pickerel to the toon. After my first trip I bought a small net and have not lost a fish since.

Bguy64
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