Gonna finally take a day off work tomorrow and get back out on the lake with my bro in law (and best friend growing up)who’s down for a few days. I don’t have the time or want to put in effort to get my striper gear together, mess with bait etc… , so I’m thinking we’ll probably put in back in Ballentine and take a ride up to visit a friend who lives across from Big Man’s.
I am going to pick up a few small spoons after work today though and hope to find a school or 2 of perch and do a little jigging with some light tackle while we’re out there.
He’s recently gone over 2 weeks in the cold without any electric and is now living in a jammed packed house, since they took in my aunt and cousin/kids who are Sandy refugees right now. Temps are going to be upper 70s with light winds, so just being on the lake will be some nice relief, but I’d like to get him a few fish too.
I’ve never fished for these things before, so any advice on types of areas and depth to look would be much appreciated.
I caught 47 in the elbow area on Thanksgiving morning between 28’ and 38’ deep. Most hit the 1/2 ounce Berry (white with silver reflector} balance hit a 3/8 CC spoon in silver. They were scattered and seemed to be moving more than I like. The early bite was great but they seemed to fizzle out around 12:30. Also had a 27" striper eat the little spoon.
If all else fails throw a Caroline rigged green pumpkin worm in the backs of coves (same general area} for largemouth, just remember the 14" size limit.
Cranking for bass is great right now also! While your out throw a 1/16 oz weight and a senko worm around bank structure and you’ll probably pick up a couple bass. Jacpickeral are good too, throw red noisy small noisy lures… good luck!
Hunter P. Hames
11’ Tarpon 100
19’ Sea Fox 125 merc
Ditto on the half ounce Berry; however, my uncle and “uncle-inlaw” perch fished where Spoonmaster is speaking of but didn’t catch any on spoons. They did get 56 on crappie minnows! Water temp. is back up to 58 and therefore no shad is dying off. That’s when small spoons are really effective for perch.
I had a good day with the stripes waaaaaay up in very skinny water!
We had a hard time getting the perch to hit Saturday without the wind blowing. The perch is on the move and not holding. I always carry the medium size minnows for back up if not hitting spoons. I found out the bigger minnows the bigger the perch. We need a long period of cold weather for great perch jerking. Have fun it is a great sport and hell of a good eating fish.
So skinny I was churning mud with the troller!.. So skinny I didn’t know if I was hunting or fishing!.. So skinny I had to wipe the mud off their bellies to keep the cooler and boat clean!.. I can’t think of any more right now. Seriously, it was great fun with fish to 8 or so pounds and no bird chasers. However, the birds were working and the fish were running bait out to the banks. I had one decent fish go airbonre to slam a bait waking behind the planer! 1-6 feet is where I got most of my bites. I had it to myself and will try to keep it that way until after Saturday’s MSC tournament:sunglasses:
Thanks for the tips. Saturday night turned into a late night and we were up until about 3, so we didn’t make it out on the water until about 11 on Sunday and, by then, only had a few hours free to spend on the lake. We mostly rode around, but we did try to do a little jigging without any success. I never saw any real concentations of what I thought may be perch, so it was hard to stick with it long when we did try.
It was a beautiful day on the water though. I was really surprised how few boats were up the river. After hearing about so many boats being out there on some of the weekdays I thought it would be wall to wall boats up there on a weekend. Sounds like I have the right spoons now, so I’ll give it another try sometime when it gets a little colder.
What few perch I caught this weekend were between 36’ and 42’ deep. Again they were moving so fast I was lucky to be able to get the spoons to the bottom before they moved.
One really big striper hurt my feelings when it came off near the boat after a good fight. I’m guessing it was atleast a 15 or 20 pounder. I already had oversized hooks on the spoon, maybe I need to go to a “jumbo” sized trebble hook next time out. I’m definitely a believer in using red hooks on the spoons.
Lucky for me the largemouth were hungry on Saturday. I had a ball catching them on the C rig.
What few perch I caught this weekend were between 36’ and 42’ deep. Again they were moving so fast I was lucky to be able to get the spoons to the bottom before they moved.
One really big striper hurt my feelings when it came off near the boat after a good fight. I’m guessing it was atleast a 15 or 20 pounder. I already had oversized hooks on the spoon, maybe I need to go to a “jumbo” sized trebble hook next time out. I’m definitely a believer in using red hooks on the spoons.
Lucky for me the largemouth were hungry on Saturday. I had a ball catching them on the C rig.
Ouch! I’ve been there too many times to mention with big stripers! Sometimes you get em, but they find a way to come unbuttoned more often than not.