Wateree 5-6-08

I never did hook up with Rango Sunday, I see he was out late fishing. It's a good thing, because he didn't want to be there. I got set up in the honeyhole about 6:00 a.m. Put out ten nice bait and if it weren't for the perch and little cats, I could have taken a nap. I fished the honeyhole until 9:00 with NO pulldowns. I was marking what I thought were stripers, but maybe not.:( I moved up lake and caught one 4-5 lb. fish. Pretty sorry day for the first week in May. I fished until 11:30 and called it a day. Final tally was one striper, 13 big perch, and three small cats. I can't complain, I had fresh fish for supper. I just thought the stripers would have been there already. Maybe next weekend. P.S. The perch sure are getting big down there, I had several that would go a pound or better. I don't know if that's good or bad.....

when i come in sunday i pretty well died i was so tired. I was sorta hoping you wouldnt call so i wouldnt have two days in a row of wateree. sorry to hear you had a bad day as far as striper went. you aint wrong about them perch gettin big. when we was set up in the river run sunday, i fixed a rig up with a smaller hook and small slices of shad and fished straight over the side. there for about an hour it was one after another of big hand sized perch. they was a lot of fun and keep me busy and my mind of the nonexistant striper bite. i talked to a game warden down at mcconnels sunday when i pulled in that store for a break. he was gettin gas and he asked me if wed had any luck with crappie. i told him wed been at cc striper fishing and struck out but did do pretty good on the perch and catfish, which led to more questions on my part. i asked him if hed heard of any striper action at cc and he said its been quiet down there, but those foolish enough to go in the santuary are catching em. he said theyd been citing folks in there. i asked about the fine, and it was $200.00 bucks. i asked about the people fishing on the rocks throwing into the santuary and he said it had been banned but they couldnt keep em out all the time as it would take a full time warden stationed there to do it. he also felt the rockers was raping the striper by catching so many. when we was in cc sunday the rocks was covered with people. he said they done a sweep down there awhile back and cited over 75 for being on the rocks. at 200 bucks a whack, thats some pretty hefty fining. he said most of em was mexicans and those that had it paid on the spot to keep from going to court. i guess they dint wanna be shipped back to mexico. he also said anchoring at the santuary line and throwing into the santuary was illegal and youd be cited if they caught you at it.

If they have to, they should put somebody down there full time. All of the hunting seasons are out now, so what else are they doing? I called you up to about 7:30 and I've been coming in early so I went to bed. 3:00 a.m. comes early. We'll get them in the next couple of weeks I hope. I think this crazy weather has them all screwed up.

i wonder if that extreme dry year last year had anything to do with the bite this spring. i may try it down lake sometime this week. (unless kim twists my arm and forces me back to cedar creek to try for another hog. :))

I think the spawn run is over. The one striper I caught in CC was a male full of sperm milk. That was 5 weeks ago this Friday. I think the water warmed up early and the run is over. I think they are once again scattered until the lake warms even more then they will head to the deep pools(honey hole) till it gets to hot even there. Thats my take on the spring run in CC. Its done happended and that it was late March early April. Water temps were already in the high 50's and low 60's and they done it early. The run is over on Hickory too. When we see he first 70 plus water temp the HH should be spot on. Could be wrong, wish I am, since we really caught them last year and I was counting on the same this spring.

Why is that a sanctuary? Is there something there that makes it easier to catch fish? What draws the fish in there? i had never been that far up in there until last week and didn't know it was a sanctuary until then.

i think its cause fish migrate upstream to spawn from the lakes and the dam is as far as they can go so they tend to congregrate there and do their spawning before moving back down stream.