Fishin' 03-25-2016 / New PB!!!

[wolfs4evr]

What a call to go yesterday. The winds are ripping through my neighborhood right now. Madi blew off the big homework projects she had all week so decided to stay home and knock them out/start working on them. So a solo trip.

Hit the ramp before sunrise and off and running. A little surprised by the amount of vehicles/trailers in the lot plus the quantity of fisherman launching before me and after me. The lake has dropped almost another foot since last weekend (1081). Water temp when I first looked was 60 in the main lake and got up to 66 back in the coves in the later afternoon (I saw 67 for a splash once). A pinch chilly for shorts initially but I got over it.

I really wanted Madi to go but her call. The main part of this trip was to test out some new Riviera dual planer boards that I just got and messing with stuff like this can be a handful when solo. (Terrova trolling motor to the rescue to handle navigation when one is busy doing other stuff! I troll with the big motor doing main propulsion and the TM doing the steering.) Anyways... I got these because I absolutely detest using "normal" planer boards that clip on the line. Having to drag them all the way back to the boat is a major chore and takes all the fun out of the catching part since one has to nearly lock down the drag to get the board in. A project I have been slowly working on since last year when we first used planer boards to catch Kokanee Salmon in Utah. A few lessons learned yesterday so off to the project board later today for me. (Mast needs to be higher and I need to buy more of the "sample" release clips that came with the boards. They worked way better than the ones I had already purchased for this project.)

BIG suckers... (There is a pair of Off Shore Tackle OR12 side planers in the box below them for size comparison.)





Landed 5 and called the testing good enough. By this time the lake was glass and it was killing me messing with this stuff verse chasing some LMB/SMB.

Off to the good stuff... Hit a couple coves on one side of the lake and missed a couple. Hit the other side and first to the boat was a small SMB off a KVD flat side crank. I hit the back of that first cove and grabbed my Dobyns worm rod and started pitching any cover that I could find. First pitch and... Half of my offering was gone. Missed 'em. Grabbed something else and got it Texas rigged and back into the same area. Next cast same spot BAM!!! The best fight I have ever had was happening. I adjusted the drag twice and was pushing the limits of the 15lb fluorocarbon I had on. The water had a little murk to it so still haven't seen what was on but I knew it was decent. She pulled the boat darn near 180 degrees around at this point. Finally I see her and she is heading straight for the nasty stuff. All I could do was hit the TM to get the boat going in the other direction and thumb the spool. I was swinging the rod tip in every direction trying to turn her praying I didn't snap the line. I got her turned just as she got to the edges of the nasty stuff and back out into open water. Finally to the boat and into the net. (I am soooo glad that I had the net laying on the bimini.)

My new PB LMB (personal best) was in the boat. 5lb 12oz and at/around 22". I bought a selfie stick last year just for situations like this... Pretty much never used it before so it kicked my tail. (I had the livewell already full with Stripers so I had her in it while I figured out the picture taking part...)







Released of course after the snaps.

A couple other fish for the day.





Not a lot of fish but a great time was had. One couldn't ask for better weather. Essentially glass all day with a couple 10-15 minute long <10 mph wind spurts. 5 Stripers, 3 SMB and 6 LMB. All the Striper were caught trolling swimbaits, all the SMBs where caught casting cranks and all the LMB were caught using plastic (Texas rigged worms). I lost more than I caught and I saw waaaay more than I lost and caught. Still extremely spooky and if you see one you are not going to catch it. I cruised by the LMB bed I found last weekend (I caught the male and turned him loose promptly)... Someone caught/kept the male sometime since. She was still there cruising around the bed area waiting for him to come back. Bummer for her.

Home, cleaned up and the 10pm Striper snack session was on! Rolled them in a 50/50 mix of flour and bread crumbs. One can't beat a just caught fresh fishy snack!!! Sooooo good! Madi smelled it and was out of bed in a second. Half for her and half for me []



Tom
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[BigE]

[cool]Great report. And congrats on the PB. That beats my pb lmb by 12oz. I was out also yesterday and got four stripers on the troll in the kayak. I tried for lmb later in the day but had no success. It can only get better from here. How far out were those planer boards? I would be worried about them getting snagged by a boater or jetskier not paying attention.
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[wolfs4evr]

It looks far but really isn't. 100 feet of line out from the front of the boat. Angled back, etc.

Dragging Madi into this for the math... If they are out at a 45 degree angle from the boat then they would be +/- 70 feet out vertically. No one should ever be that close shooting by another boat. Especially on Mead with the amount of room one has. Actually they are less than a 45 so closer yet.

Slowly working my way to a 6lb'r. 5 even, 5.11, 5.35, several others all in that arena. Close to 10 so far I suppose on Mead in the lower 5lb area.

Tom
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[StarsnStripers]

Congrats on the new PB!!!
It was nice talking with you on the dock. I wound up getting on the bass first thing. Wasnt really sure if they would be eating early but they were. Its funny I didnt get any smallies on plastics only cranks and oppisite for lmb only plastics not cranks.
I landed around 15-18 fish total the biggest being 3.5lbs. The smb were only around a pound and lmb were from 2-3.5.
It was a great day to be on the water!!!
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[wolfs4evr]

Good catching you too at the dock. I messed around chasing the Stripers too late it appears. Figured wait for the temps to come up more for better success. I figured wrong.

Tom
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