Thread: Quick Report

nice going crataegus. tried a hump myself saturday morning. remembering your post was what made me give it a second look. circled around and spied a few hanging around. helped us through a slow morning. congrats on the big one.

Simpleman...So you caught a few off the hump? Which lake?

Originally Posted by crataegus

Simpleman...So you caught a few off the hump? Which lake?

"HIGH ROCK"

had the great pleasure to fish along side of captain crataegus today, and he was puttin a hurtin on those poor fish. He leaves a trail of sore mouths every where he goes around that lake. I learned a great deal in the short time we fished together and all the advice is much appreciated. As soon as you left a small fish tangled my lines as i was picking up, the two lines then got caught in the trolling motor prop! Boy, what a mess. I was having another one of those days today. The lake was FOGGY as all get out this morning and made for a challenging trip to the swamp for a quick hunt. Ended up with 1 wood duck and around 12 crappie, most were small. (until i met crataegus) Seems like i couldnt get the hook set on them today!

Saturday on a "Raleigh Parks" lake:

2:30pm-6:45pm (best fishing between 4:00pm and 5:00pm)
17 crappie 10.50" to 12.75"
***Homemade minnow rig
Chartreuse tubejig w/out minnow


#6 Vanish Transition Line
3'-8' in 8-10'
Water Temp: 74F

***big fish of the day caught on this bait

As WhomusCat mentioned, we met today on the lake. What a nice guy...and he's got a great girlfriend (she enjoys fishing so that's a given). Like last Sunday, the fish found their way into the boat one keeper at a time--and again, the keepers averaged 11.75." 16 out of 17 keepers were 11"+ and I caught exactly 20 fish. I lost several again today. I had another 8-10 heavy fish on, but they chose not to be counted with the others. No big fish pics this time.
My tackle is getting so torn up! I broke one of my 10' ProAnglerTackle.com rods last week on Jordan Lake, plus I'm down an 8'er as well. I've got to reline my reels since 6# vanish transition DEFINATELY has a lifespan once it's off the spool. I'm almost out of #2 aberdeens, and 1/16th's, and chart tubes. My tackle pouch is a total mess--with 6#, 8#, and 50# line conglomerating into one useless braid. Plus, I only have enough components to assemble one more homemade rig--so it's back to tying.

I didn't catch any more fish after 5:00pm or so. Instead of trying a couple unfished spots, I chose to refish the productive spots after they rested. Nothing. They'll be back tomorrow, and I hope to be as well.

Sunday on a "Raleigh Parks" lake:

1:30pm-5:20pm (best fishing between 4:00pm and 4:30pm)
10 crappie 10.00" to 13.25" (13.25"=1 lb 6.25 oz)
***Homemade minnow rig
Chartreuse tubejig w/out minnow


#6 Vanish Transition Line
2'-8' in 8-10'
Water Temp: 75F

***big fish of the day caught on this bait

Slow.

Nevertheless, I ended up with 10 keepers (about one every 20 minutes on average) I kept the biggest 7 fish and they averaged 12" each. The fish were extremely selective when it came to presentation. I got very few bites unless the bait was moving about 1/3mph into the light breeze--and about 1/3 of the keepers just swam along with the bait in their mouths without signaling a bite.

I caught more little ones than usual. My theory on that corelates to the slow bite--the big fish were not as aggressive and also not as territorial. I don't know, that is just a guess. I usually catch a higher ratio of small fish when the big bite is slow.

Saturday on a "Raleigh Parks" lake:

1:40pm-6:20pm (best fishing between 4:00pm and 5:15pm)
13 crappie 10.25" to 15.75" (15.75"=2 lb 6.25 oz; 14.25"=1 lb 13.50 oz)
***Homemade minnow rig
Chartreuse tubejig w/out minnow


#6 Vanish Transition Line
4'-8' in 8-10'
Water Temp: 70F

***big fish of the day caught on this bait

Today, the fish presented a strange pattern (if that word applies). PG24 and I caught only one 10.25" fish in the first 2+ hours. Then we fished the hump. I was encouraged to see a few archs on the Lowrance. They were 6' or on the bottom atop the 7-10' hump. I caught my only jig fish of the day-a 12.5" on the bottom. Then PG24 caught one the same size on a minnow at 6'. The hump yielded one or two more decent crappie. Now what? I decided to return to our first spot of the day. We didn't even get a bite there the first time around...so it could only get better. It did. PG24 lost a 13-14" crappie at the boat, then I caught 2 at once on the homemade rig (12.5"; 11.5"). After a few more 12" to 12.5" fish here and there, PG24 hooked a 1.84 lb fish (an improvement upon the one that got away). One of the next fish was my 2.39 lb slab. It was one of those memorable fish that revealed its full weight at hookset. I'll post it on Big Fish Pics in the next few days. The 15.75" potbellied pomoxis was released, and in the words of PG24, the other twelve will soon receive a "bubble bath."

No fishing tomorrow...I've got to give a landscape design proposal and work around my own yard
Oh well, next week I'll be fishing with some of you on the rock.

"2.39 lb slab" Doesn't surprise me a bit, congrats on the big fish guys, glad yall had a good day!