09-28-2011, 09:42 PM
I fished the past couple weeks, and feel guilty for not reporting.
Smallmouth are all over the place right now, but the big ones are still hiding deep. I caught a ton of tiny smallmouth on big crankbaits. I also caught a few on creature baits, but they would only bite it if the shad were getting them excited. If no shad were around, they would ignore the creature. Adventurous little guys...
[inline "sept 2011 055.jpg"]
There were some nice largemouth in the mix, but they were finicky. I would find them, toss a bunch of crap at them that they didn't care about, and then catch 'em on a drop shot in the end.
[inline "sept 2011 056.jpg"]
And throughout the day there were stripers cruising for shad. Never saw a boil (I launched out of Callville) but they were scaring the shad enough to send them sky-bound. Casting a crankbait at the commotion would get them to bite. I kept a couple small ones for tacos. No love on the zara spook tuesday.
[inline "sept 2011 072.jpg"]
There are threadfin shad EVERYWHERE right now. They had a great spawn this year with all that vegetation in the water and the rising levels. Should see some fat fish this fall.
I also had a huge school of gizzard shad come up under my boat. They were big enough that I mistook them for stripers off the bat, but as they got closer I realized they were gizzards. Must have averaged 10" a piece, and the school had to be 300 strong.
It's the first time I've sen that type of gizzard schooling activity in Mead. I saw it all over on Powell, and they are huge there. Some go to 16" and a couple pounds. That's an awesome meal for a 40 or 50lb striper. Apparantly, they spawn twice a year - that is a ton of small food for our hungry gamefish. I welcome the new species to our lake. Hopefully they have a positive impact.
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Smallmouth are all over the place right now, but the big ones are still hiding deep. I caught a ton of tiny smallmouth on big crankbaits. I also caught a few on creature baits, but they would only bite it if the shad were getting them excited. If no shad were around, they would ignore the creature. Adventurous little guys...
[inline "sept 2011 055.jpg"]
There were some nice largemouth in the mix, but they were finicky. I would find them, toss a bunch of crap at them that they didn't care about, and then catch 'em on a drop shot in the end.
[inline "sept 2011 056.jpg"]
And throughout the day there were stripers cruising for shad. Never saw a boil (I launched out of Callville) but they were scaring the shad enough to send them sky-bound. Casting a crankbait at the commotion would get them to bite. I kept a couple small ones for tacos. No love on the zara spook tuesday.
[inline "sept 2011 072.jpg"]
There are threadfin shad EVERYWHERE right now. They had a great spawn this year with all that vegetation in the water and the rising levels. Should see some fat fish this fall.
I also had a huge school of gizzard shad come up under my boat. They were big enough that I mistook them for stripers off the bat, but as they got closer I realized they were gizzards. Must have averaged 10" a piece, and the school had to be 300 strong.
It's the first time I've sen that type of gizzard schooling activity in Mead. I saw it all over on Powell, and they are huge there. Some go to 16" and a couple pounds. That's an awesome meal for a 40 or 50lb striper. Apparantly, they spawn twice a year - that is a ton of small food for our hungry gamefish. I welcome the new species to our lake. Hopefully they have a positive impact.
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