Kind of a slow day, but better than I expected, based on recent reports.
Got bait from David at about 7:00 AM, picked up the last of my guests at 7:30 and started at the mouth of Yacht cove, where I caught the 28.5 lb’er last week. Marked a lot of fish in 50 to 70’ but bait would not live below 45’. Only had one pull down and no fish.
Wind was pretty strong out of the west and it was “white-capping” on the main lake.
Moved to Jake’s Cove, just inside Providence Pt. and it took quite a while to find fish. Found fish in 40 - 60’ of water suspended over 80 - 85’. Chummed, drummed, and the bait was staying alive down to 50’. We caught 11 fish with a 10, 9, and 2 - 8’s,and a couple of 14 - 15"ers.
Went back to the mouth of Yacht cove and did manage 3 more fish. But the bait would still not stay alive below 45 feet. Ended up one fish shy of a limit, but better than I expected based on recent reports.
I am not sure why bait will live longer and deeper on the South side of the lake, but they do.
Water temperature was 82 to 84. We only saw 3 floaters, and no schooling surface fish. We fished from 0730 to 1400.
Rick, that is a great report. How were you able to determine at what depth your bait were able to survive or not survive? Just by trial and error? Striperskiff, do you think the the longevity of the bait and the ability for it to survive in greater depths in different parts of the lake has to do with thermocline changing in relation to the depth of the water?
… Striperskiff, do you think the the longevity of the bait and the ability for it to survive in greater depths in different parts of the lake has to do with thermocline changing in relation to the depth of the water?
~Rob
I’m guessing that the DO and/or temp is not uniform at the same depth all over the lake because certain aras are probably affected more by things like how much water may be being pulled from the lake, as well as other factors like maybe wind turning up the water in one area as opposed to another area that may be sheltered? or the sun warming up the water on one side of the lake faster than the other?
Like I said though, just speculation on my part. Maybe Woody (Reality Bites) or someone else who actually knows what they are talking about will comment. lol
Thanks for posting Fog. Actually, it was a week ago, last Tuesday, August 13th. This was a “fat shoe-mama”, as Fog likes to call them. I was surprised at the girth for this late in the summer.
Nice fish Rick. It’s really fat, looks like a springtime, egg filled female. Good to see you out on the big water. I guess that means your back is better.
Some better, buy not great. I had an MRI on it the day of the “take the troops fishing tournament”, and you know that I would have not missed that, if there was a choice.
The surgeon says that my back is inoperable. I said “what do I do about the pain” and he said “learn to deal with it, it will always be there”!
