Finally all ready to start fishing again and started off right before dusk last eve throwing plugs and flukes. Only picked up one short fish before dark, then decided to troll a bit.
Picked up 7, mostly shorts, between 9 and 11 pm, with my first keeper this season being an 11 lb fatty caught before I had my other rod out. The only other keeper was another fatty that was 8 lbs.
They seemed to be super aggressive when they hit.
I did put some attractant on the lures, which seemed to help.
One of the smallest I’ve ever picked up trolling a 7" plug.
Before I moved back to SC, I was close to Smith Mountain Lake which had tons of Alewives, which looks like a small herring. In May and early June the Alewives come up on the shoals to spawn at night. It’s pretty wild because they all come up in mass and wildly flitter their tails as they sit in one spot. It sounds like a water fall. Then in about 30 minutes you will start to hear explosions like bowling balls being dropped in the water. Stripers, largemouth, smallmouth and catfish get up mega shallow feeding on them. Seeing your big Rapala’s made me think about those trips. Even though the alewives were just a little bigger than a threadin, it took big baits to draw strikes from every size fish. I think they just stood out compared to the millions of smaller baits. I really have considered trying to throw plugs at night onto he clay shoals where the blue backs spawn. Not sure how it would work but I have a feeling it could be productive. We always wanted a calm night to really smoke them, and I’m sure it would be the same here.
Before I moved back to SC, I was close to Smith Mountain Lake which had tons of Alewives, which looks like a small herring. In May and early June the Alewives come up on the shoals to spawn at night. It’s pretty wild because they all come up in mass and wildly flitter their tails as they sit in one spot. It sounds like a water fall. Then in about 30 minutes you will start to hear explosions like bowling balls being dropped in the water. Stripers, largemouth, smallmouth and catfish get up mega shallow feeding on them. Seeing your big Rapala’s made me think about those trips. Even though the alewives were just a little bigger than a threadin, it took big baits to draw strikes from every size fish. I think they just stood out compared to the millions of smaller baits. I really have considered trying to throw plugs at night onto he clay shoals where the blue backs spawn. Not sure how it would work but I have a feeling it could be productive. We always wanted a calm night to really smoke them, and I’m sure it would be the same here.
91, yes casting around points shallow at night this time of year can be productive on Murray too. That was my plan the other night, but I stopped to troll after a while due to a recent minor injury to my shoulder that was hurting.
I looked up a report I remembered posting about this time of year doing just that. Turns out it was one year ago to the day.
That’s great information about the shallow fishing at night here in SC. I may have to look for a windless night and do a marathon trip, fishing last two hours before dark, all night and first 3 hours after daylight. I fished Clarks Hill this weekend and finally saw a good bit of shallow topwater activity. I had a novice with me so I stuck with pullling herring but I was able to get 6 hybrids throwing plugs in between keeping lines baited.
We found on the night fishing that extremly slow steady retrieves worked the best. Large Vampire colored Rapala’s, Thundersticks fished as a surface wake bait, Yozouri Crystal minnows and for a little deeper water long bill rattling rogues were all very productive.
I rigged a super high anchor light to keep the light out of my eyes while casting the banks. We also had to put tape over the lights on the trolling motor, they will really blind you.
In 3 weeks I will be down in Islamorada drifting crabs and casting plugs at night for the tarpon. Now thats a strike that will wake you right up.
Tuesday afternoon around three off north tip of pine island I sat and watched my grandson nail four for four casting a Rapala using light tackle he had a ball.
Tuesday afternoon around three off north tip of pine island I sat and watched my grandson nail four for four casting a Rapala using light tackle he had a ball.
Nice! I’m curious how the cooling surface temp over the last couple of days has affected the shallow/top water bite.
Gonna be beautiful tomorrow evening. I plan on finding out.
