Thread: Ran the Gamut

So decided to give Jesup a break & fish an old haunt to see how things are doing @ Harney. The gamut would turn out to be: lake, creek, river, sun, cold, wind, current, specks 3"-14", (4) mud fish, couple nice keeper war mouth, & (1) big ole shell cracker. Launched @ 8am, 1st pass trolling lake 10 fish no keepers, but good sign=their biting, however, upon seeing the sites ahead, realize there is 4 boats in the only area I've consistently caught fish this yr @ Harney.....soooo get grumpy or seek a new opportunity??? Chose the later & always look for signs to make decisions, this 1 was wind, which was starting to make rollers by10:30, so let's check-out Deep creek. Switched over to float/jig set-up & wouldn't be long before buttoning up w/a healthy 12"er, went on down the shore & only picked up 1 more keeper, but to my surprise didn't see many other boats of people getting out of the wind, so thought I haven't trolled Deep creek in some time, let's give it a go. Set out the short poles & @ dead middle of the day made about 5 runs 1pm-3pm & yielded 6 more keeper specks, including a beefy 14"er. W/fight of the mud fish & the occasional war mouth, was going to call it a so-so afternoon in hopes the wind has subsided a little to cross the lake, NOPE, crawled back as you can see the wave slap in pic below. Got to the St. John's part of the run to ramp & realized I had 8 fish in the box. Stopped to release the fish & some "LUCK" would present itself as I was distracted by fish busting the surface near the shoreline, didn't know what they were, other than know they weren't gar as they were rolling instead of needle nose snipping. Well gotta check this out, w/perfect spot to drive the boat onto the bank into a fixed position. Good current rolling into a back eddy that musta trapped bait fish. Deployed the CDC rod, Thanks Slab, picked up @ last Slabfest, teamed it w/cigar weighted float & 4ft leader 1/16 jig, dressed w/Mo-glow BG baby shad. Excitement through the roof when the 1st fish runs hard sideways & it's a stud 10" shelly, thinking 10 of these & I'm keeping today's catch. But not to be...& it gets even better as the next 20 fish in about a hrs time is 1 speck after another & 10 more for the box out of the lot.....Can't think of a more awesome way to end the day on a flurry like that, tight lines & final report note, parrot color was the best trolling color....

good day. you had to work at it a little , but you made it into a good day. Thanks for taking us along for the ride.

Man, Jeffrey, did you do a long, time-consuming post!!...I already know- I resemble that remark Nice read, and great segue from running the gamut-escaping the gauntlet-ending @outlet(electric knife plug-in thingy)
Enjoyed your Harney Hoorah!!

Doug

Awesome job, awesome scouting that paid off well. Great pics, thanks for sharing.

Fight the wind, catch the fish. Way to go Jeff!!

Nice Job

Good job Jeff, but you usually do put in more time than some of us do and get the reward. That cracker is a stud, I’d take those any day. I too get beat up in the chop, hard in a flat bottom rig. Glad all went well at the end.

Originally Posted by skeetbum

Good job Jeff, but you usually do put in more time than some of us do and get the reward. That cracker is a stud, I’d take those any day. I too get beat up in the chop, hard in a flat bottom rig. Glad all went well at the end.

Tim I'm sorry to hear of your experiences w/your flat bottom boat....I have nothing but praise for my small skiff, it satisfies every aspect it was build to do for me reliably & thank the Lord every second spent in his creation chasing some kind of fish ideally something w/spec's

Sent from my moto e5 go using Crappie.com Fishing mobile app

Originally Posted by Speck Detector

Tim I'm sorry to hear of your experiences w/your flat bottom boat....I have nothing but praise for my small skiff, it satisfies every aspect it was build to do for me reliably & thank the Lord every second spent in his creation chasing some kind of fish ideally something w/spec's

Sent from my moto e5 go using Crappie.com Fishing mobile app

I think I’m misunderstood, my boat does most everything I ask of it. You have to remember what I came out of, a heavy fiberglass V hull. Completely different ride with a lot of forgiveness in choppy conditions. The flat bottom is totally different with no hull down in the water to slow down the effect of wind, another plus of the V. When I come over or off of a wave and the boat hits, it goes bang, sometimes hard if I’m going too fast. Just the result of the design of the boat. Part of a trade off that I can go places in this that I could never get in the other woman.

Great report. Thanks for sharing your trip. Harney used to be a great speck factory. Not sure why it has slowed.