caught 9 today up river, 6 keepers, All were caught on live bait planers and freelines. very little schooling activity which turned out to be a good thing as all the chasers didnt bother us other than buzzing by too close. caught 1 big gar on an ice fly.
Good work Railroader! 4 stripers like the one you’re holding would fair well in our MSC tournaments! If you’re not already a member you should come join us. (I don’t recall seeing you around.) Our monthly meeting is this Tuesday at the ■■■■■■■■■■ in Lexington at 7.
Xpress HB-22
175 Yammy Jammer
Nice fish!
'07 198 DLX Carolina Skiff
FS90 Suzuki
Ditto on Fogman and Striperskiff’s comments.
All reports we’ve been hearing is that the fish are at the upper end of the lake, but since we are reluctant to travel that far by water, we thought we’d check out the shallow water in the back of creeks and bays around Beards Creek today. Didn’t see a fish, but did see 6 deer. Went to our cut between Burton and Wessinger and fish passed through pretty regularly, but the only bites they turned in for the most part were the short strike variety (That’s getting old. Even jigging didn’t turn them on.) One short and one catfish was our tally. Nothing touched our freelines.
quote:
Originally posted by pattianneDitto on Fogman and Striperskiff’s comments.
All reports we’ve been hearing is that the fish are at the upper end of the lake, but since we are reluctant to travel that far by water, we thought we’d check out the shallow water in the back of creeks and bays around Beards Creek today. Didn’t see a fish, but did see 6 deer. Went to our cut between Burton and Wessinger and fish passed through pretty regularly, but the only bites they turned in for the most part were the short strike variety (That’s getting old. Even jigging didn’t turn them on.) One short and one catfish was our tally. Nothing touched our freelines.
Do u yall have a trolling motor? This time of yr the fish are always on the move it seems. Try pulling those freelines and get ya a set of waterbugz from lake world in the shallows back in your creeks and coves and across shallow points. Sometimes the herring will be kinda docile in the cooler water and not swim real well. By pulling them with the trolling motor it will put a lil more swimming action to them. I tend to pull them around. .5-.7 mph…if i am moving from spot to spot i will usually run them around 1mph and still receive hits.
In order to best figure out the speed they want try turning often. If your getting bites on the inside lines on turns they either want it slower OR they want it deeper and the baits are falling on the turn. Add a split shot or slow down. And same goes for when getting bites on the outside. They want it faster and then adjust your straight line speed accordingly.
Also add a float of some sort to your freelines. It is much easier to notice bites that u would never see without them. Also if anchored using a freeline u never really know where and what your bait is doing.
“Sea~N~Stripes”
21’ Hewes Craft Custom
1
We’ve got front and rear trolling motors and what we were doing in the shallows was trolling with freelines, but I just don’t think anything was at where we were. Also concur that during this cooler time of year that the fish are moving a lot more and one needs to be moving with them for best chances. That being said, I guess we need to stop fiddling around and purchase and learn to use planer boards or Dipsy Divers.
Dipsy divers aren’t really worth the effort or investment. Side surface planers are! They will help you catch fish you’ve been missing. Also, burn some gas and come join us above the Gap. Though you will occasionally run into a good school downlake, the biomass is upriver this time of year.
Ok! Think I’ve said enough for the night.
Xpress HB-22
175 Yammy Jammer
I spent my first two winters fishing the lower lake, it was all I knew. Like fogman said, there are scattered schools down there, but the majority of the fish are up. 2 years ago Jim Gibbs took me up the big saluda at thanksgiving and I’ve been hooked on fishing up there since. Seems like the fish break up in the big pool around halloween, then show up in the big gap for a little. By thanksgiving they are usually up in the big saluda, then they move over to the little saluda. Then when the water gets down in the 40’s they seem thickest in the deeper water around spinners/buffalo/hawleek. Funny thing is the patterns seem to be different every year. Last year I caught my river fish in the deepest holes up in the river. This year I haven’t marked anything in those holes but caught fish back in 5-6 feet of water. Every time I think I figured something out it changes.
Wellcraft V-20 sportfish with a 200 Evinrude
A couple of Januarys ago, before our tournament, water temps. dipped into the high 30’s upriver and the fish got lockjaw. I decided to roll the dice and try downlake since that was where the water temp. was a balmy 45. Fishing over 60 feet of water with dowrods and freelines out from the Coastguard station, I found good fish and won the tournament when everyone else was fishing up. There was still snow on many banks… That’s the exception with abnormal conditions. We had a warming trend and the fish I caught were gone the next week. The bite returned to normal upriver.
Just shows you have to be flexible when conditions are extreme to have success.
Xpress HB-22
175 Yammy Jammer
what is an Ice fly??
Scout '282
tidewater '21
Oscar '10
They are a small spoon that people will use when the fish are feeding on real small baits. They are very light so usually used as a trailer behind a bucktail or top water plug.
http://www.fishingpharmacy.com/ice-fly-white-p-220.html
'07 198 DLX Carolina Skiff
FS90 Suzuki
gotcha, thought you were referring to fly fishing. Ive been tying up some clousers in hope to catching a few stripers on OTF one day on the lake, but I suck with fish finding and dont know if I feel like making the drive up from charleston to a potentially waisted day.
Scout '282
tidewater '21
Oscar '10
Kinda like a small clarks spoon. With some hair/feathers tied on the hook. Most people use them on a three way swivel with a bucktail.
“Sea~N~Stripes”
21’ Hewes Craft Custom
115 Evinrude