fishing below G'ville Dam 1/6

[mikeymercboy]

launched around 7:30 this morn, bite was slow around the locks, managed a few small white bass, and one big fat one around 2lbs. lock was busy today, couldn't fish the wall due to barge and big fancy yacht coming through one by one. headed down to painted bluffs and caught a couple whites and a blue cat. wind was picking up and current was strong so we headed to bluffs across from paint rock river where I had found some crappie before. caught a bunch of stripes, bluegill, and about a 4lb largemouth. no crappie tho! went and fished the mouth of paint rock and caught more stripes, and my buddy Tim caught one black crappie. headed back to fish locks before dark and fished with minnows and jigs. caught two spotted bass and a channel cat. my buddy Tim, that joker caught a nice thick 16" sauger. I kept it, but since they are scarce, I'm not keeping any more of them they are going back in even if they are ginormous.....I have a camera for memories lol

[Spaceman]

Sounds like a long, busy, fun day. Glad you got a sauger that measures! Maybe the others that are keeping shorts will return those to the river to grow.

[mikeymercboy]

they won't Spaceman, until the game warden starts busting their ***es. A guy caught a nice keeper yesterday too, from the bank. I felt kinda bad when I was filleting it, since they are still kinda scarce, the bigger ones so to speak. Call me a tree hugger lol, but I'd rather release them now until they start showing up in good numbers again. I remember not too long ago catching several keepers on the walls any given day.