Headed up to Dreher Island this weekend, curious as to what my best chances of getting a bite are. I will have my boat and plenty of tackle. Any suggestions as to what my best bet would be for times and targets? What do y’all lake lifers think? Any advice will be appreciated!
Fishing Nerd
“skilled labor isn’t cheap, cheap labor isn’t skilled”
What are you wanting to fish for?
No matter how much it hurts, how dark it gets, or how far you fall…you are never out of the fight.
I was asking for suggestions to target as well…sure wouldn’t mind landing a few nice stripers and or a couple of bucketmouths although I’m not against catching bream crappie or catfish… that’s why I asked what’s my best chances of landing a few good fish
Fishing Nerd
“skilled labor isn’t cheap, cheap labor isn’t skilled”
My son Mikey mentioned he had a buddy coming up from Chas to camp and fish. Stripers are biting good in that area, but if youre not set up for keeping herring alive, that may not be a good option.
IMO, since it sounds like your just looking at a good shot at putting some decent fish in the boat, I would suggest some early am/late eve/night time fishing for cats. Get some fresh herring and fish them cut on the bottom.
Find a point and anchor in maybe 10-15? on it. And cast out around the boat with multiple rods. Face into the wind and use an anchor in the front as well as the back to hold the boat stable. Keep the boat lit up well after anchoring at night time as it can get pretty crazy out there at night.
'07 198 DLX Carolina Skiff
DF90 Suzuki
If you do the same thing in 25-35 feet of water, and just enough light to be legal and see, you will prolly stomp the striper. If you do put out a light the herring should come to the boat. You can jig them with sabiki and put them out alive. Watch your graph. The fish around the light will be suspended.
The early morning topwater bite for bass should be good on main lake points if the wind is blowing. The big Whopper Plopper worked well for a friend yesterday. After that the same pattern has worked very well for me throwing a Carolina rig in 4’ to 12 ’ on rocky main lake points. Average bass are around 3 with larger ones hitting pretty good too. Watch for schooling bass and stripers early.
Once the bass go down try the rig or a deep running crankbait. There are still a few bass on woody cover near shore but a lot of the bigger bass have schooled up and pulled out from the bank. Or that’s the way it’s been for me for the past several weeks. If you catch one out deep there are probably a lot more there.
Striperskiff, thats me Mikey was talking about! Thanks for the heads up! I have a dual live well boat with pretty good overflow filling that keeps shrimp alive pretty well, hopefully it’ll do the same for the heron! Will likely try all of the options you guys mentioned! My weekend starts in 2 hours! Wish me some good luck!
Fishing Nerd
“skilled labor isn’t cheap, cheap labor isn’t skilled”
Don’t expect the herring to do very well if you circulate lake water in your built in tanks. The surface temp is probably mid 70’s right now. If you try the light you should get them thick enough to catch them as you need them with a sabiki or throw net. Once you draw them in, they will normally stay there as long as you leave the light on. The herring will eventually work their way up closer to the surface as you leave the light on, but this time of year I normally do best fishing well below them a couple of cranks off the bottom in 30-40 fow or so.
Good luck!
'07 198 DLX Carolina Skiff
DF90 Suzuki
I almost forgot to report back as coming back to work to a whirlwind of issues had me slammed until now… but we ended up with several small bass up to 3lbs, lots of bream and a few decent channel cat’s all on cranks, jerks, and beetle spins…yes the cat’s bit crankbaits, wild huh!? Located several schools of striper as you can see in the pic but couldn’t get them to eat our jigs spoons or bucktails. Even tried to get them to come to the top with some big top water plugs too. Tried dropping some shiners down to them as well but they weren’t having any of that either. We should had tried harder to get some Heron as Heron are the ticket right now. We spoke to a few anglers that were participating in the tournament and that’s the go to bait just like Striperskiff mentioned! Thanks for all the ■■■■■■■■ and suggestions guys!
Fishing Nerd
“skilled labor isn’t cheap, cheap labor isn’t skilled”