12-08-23 weekly meetup

I met up with my fishing buddy this morning around 11 at lake West Point .
It was partly cloudy and a cool 51 , with a slight breeze , which made it comfortable with what sun was peaking out .
The creek arm we started in was slightly stained and the water level was the lowest so far this season.
An increase in the winter draw down to allow work on the dam .
I took four rods and five reels with me , but really only fished with two of them . A 6”6” St Croix Avid with a Shimano Soare XR 500spg , and a 6’3” Abu Garcia MB3 with a KastKing Zephyr SFS1000 reel .
I started off catching three spotted bass between 11” and almost 14” . I lost four , three that came unhinged, and one that I had my knot fail . The last one felt really nice .
After about an hour we moved to another ramp where the water was crystal clear and had a nice southern wind blowing from left to my right .
I caught two “ Mack Daddy” shellcrackers . Both were right at 12” and thick !
The last ramp we visited I caught two small gills and a 9” shellcracker that would have been a nice one , but I’d already been spoiled with the 12 inchers.
When I hooked the big shellcrackers I thought I had a hybrid stripe bass on . They both had several nice drag creaming runs before I could ease them in and beach them .
My fishing buddy did do as good . He landed a small spotted bass to keep the skunk off , but that was all .
All of mine were caught on 2# Floroclear using my Tungsten bead micro jigs tipped with mini Trout Magnets .

Good catches

Very nice. Awesome day. Beautiful catches. Thanks for sharing

Those are some really good catches !

This was how clear the water was where I caught the shellcrackers .
Notice the mussel shells at the bottom.
Could be why they were in the area .
I just can’t believe they were that close to shore this time of year .

Nice outing. Those are some serious shell cracker! You know every body of water I have ever caught shell cracker from has muscle shells…except this lake I’ve been fishing since moving here. Not seen the first shell in the lake and I find that odd. The shell cracker I’ve caught are quality fish. Just makes me wonder what their main food source is.

Regards


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Super nice catches! Congratulations and thanks for sharing

More pics of the two big ones.

Those ears are massive, certainly have been on the feed. Haven't caught any like those in a few years, quite an accomplishment on ultralight tackle. Redear like to eat crayfish and that shallow flat in the one picture should hold some of those.