I normally don’t fish much in August, but it’s only recently I’ve been able to get out much this summer and while the fish don’t seem to be at 100%, they definately seem to be in a good a shape as I can remember for this time of year.
Ive been keeping them and I kept my fish tonight because I know someone wants them, but I would have seriously considered releasing the smaller ones if I didnt. Im catching them at about 50’ and they seem to be unusually feisty for this time of year. I’m using 20 lb test, so I get them in relatively quickly; especially the smaller fish.
Yea, the surface temp is 85, but with them coming from only 50’ and being in such good shape, I’m thinking the smaller ones would do fine as long as they were brought in and released quickly?
There were a few reports of surfacing fish this weekend. Releasing fish might not be too far away.
I wasn’t able to make this month’s msc meeting but heard they had a quick speaker on the state of the lake. Heard even though the DO level is low in the big pool, the water quality in the rest of the lake is VERY good. Kinda put everyone’s mind at ease on a fish kill. Now if it was normal conditions and all the fish were stacked up in the big pool with a low DO then they would be worried about a kill…
We get some cooler weather and maybe some rain in the next 2 weeks we may be schooling right on schedule with 1st or 2nd week ofor sept! Just one step closer to boards…lol…
“All fisherman lie. And if they say otherwise, then they’re lying”
Was out there yesterday…saw a few floaters but not very many. Less than I saw a couple weeks ago. Afternoon trip to run the boat mainly but I picked up some bait just to try it anyway. Took my nephews and they’re pretty young so their patience level doesn’t last very long. We managed to catch a few fish down in the 50-60 foot range - marked a lot of window shoppers, but could tell they were small fish. They were in the baits but didn’t bite…and for the record, I had a mix with some light line and fluorocarbon leader setups so it can’t be that the line was too heavy. The bait didn’t do too well for any length of time (had to keep them deeper than 50’ for sure), but we found some better water in the channel near spence. Caught fish there in 60’. I did mark fish down around 80-90’ as well.
Dnr’s study showed very high mortality rates of catch and release fish during the summer so that is why we have the 5 and done rule. They don’t all die immediately, some will die a slow death as they can’t get back down to suffice O2 levels. You are better off giving them away because it it very unlikely they will survive.
I really wish there was a way to get o2 lines like at Modoc on Clark’s Hill on Murray. Those fish do not need much reviving when released. The 10+ pounders will about break your wrist when you set them back before darting back to the depths. SCE&G does not have the resources of the Army Corps; so we’re not likely to see anything comparable on Murray.
