Sunday 2/14 Report - Norman

[cwright]

Talk about a cold day. Why not go fishing on the coldest day of the year? Met up with a new fishing buddy for a trip on Norman. Thanks a lot Russell for the invite. My first time on Norman so he gave me a nice tour and we tried a little striper fishing. Started about 7 and had the entire ramp to ourselves. Finally found the birds and managed one nice striper at about 7.4 lbs, a hybrid and 2 nice bass. Birds were just killing the shad, but we had problems getting the fish to bite. Russell has an enclosure or we would have never made it to 4. Had a few malfunctions. Reels would freeze up and we would have to take them in and thaw them out. Got back to the landing and we were still the only truck in the lot. lol. Thanks again Russell.

[Leudy1]

Tough day to be fishing. One little tip spray your reel in the line area with Reel Majic and it won't freeze.

[cwright]

Thanks for the info. The drag plates were actually freezing and the drill would act like it would not engage. No pressure when winding. Heated it up and worked fine. After a few hours outside, it did the same thing again.

[pete]

Been there, done that. Tough to fish leadcore with it all freezing!

[cwright]

Pete, we looked for you but didn't see you. We had one on lead core, two downriggers until one started acting up and three more just trolling farther back. Had a few of your rigs on. Every fish came on the same deep diving plug. Nothing on buck tails or A-rigs. Usually the other way around.

[pete]

I try to stay covert out there lately.....even from reelsmoke!

[cwright]

lol.

[love2fish]

You guys are tough!

[reelsmoke]

Yep it was some kind of tough, not really.... we went thru 5 -1lb bottles of propane, kept Mr. Heater on high all day. Craig brought a cooler to keep my beer from freezing. LOL here is Craig with the bigger Striper we did manage to get in the boat. Both were released to fight another day, the hybrid was 19" didn't make a photo of it. Craig it was my pleasure to have you on board, I look forward to doing another trip. I hope to pick up on some of your crappie tips.
Thanks Reelsmoke

[cwright]

You were not supposed to tell them we had heat. I was making us look much tougher. lol. I don't think I could have stayed out all day without it. See you on Hickory Sunday Reelsmoke if you make it down.