Lake Wylie Report 1/29/16 and 1/30/16

It was a couple of great days of fishing for us on Lake Wylie. It's always nice to get a change of scenery and Lake Wylie is a beautiful lake with plenty of big houses to admire when the fish aren't cooperating.

We started our weekend on Friday and left the house at 4:30 AM heading up to practice. It was smooth sailing on the trip up and we were fishing by 7:30 AM. The wind was rough Friday for us. Not only was it cold, it made boat control a issue. Even with the wind we caught fish long line trolling. The fish we caught came from Little Allison, Big Allison, Crowder, and Torrence. I didn't keep up with a total count but I'd guess we caught around 40 crappie. We kept 25 crappie, 5 black bass, and some nice perch. The problem with our practice day was we never found any tournament fish.

Saturday morning I was back up at 3:30 AM and we left my house at 4:15 AM. We fished Crowder to start with and finished up in Torrence. Same pattern as Friday with virtually the same results. No big fish. There were a couple weighers caught around us and we knew we were in the right areas but just couldn't get the big bites that you need on tournament day. We caught around 40 crappie again Saturday. Fish we were targeting were about 20 foot down in 25-40 FOW. The creek mouths were the place to be from our experiences. Best colors were red/chart, blue, pink, and orange.

It was a fun two days of fishing with some good folks in SCCA. Congrats again to Eddy and Amanda on finding and catching the big girls! Looking forward to trying it again at Greenwood in a few weeks.

Sunrise Saturday morning. We were sure thankful the wind wasn't whipping!
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Friday's cooler shot of crappie
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ThAnks for the details and congrats on the catch

You were in the right spots. Sorry the big ones were hiding for us to catch later this week. LOL Glad you came up but wished we could have met up for a couple of pointers of other areas. Good report and thanks for speaking highly about our crappie hole.:highfive

Can't win them all, but if you can't win you want to have a good day catching. Seems to be the case here. Congrats on your catch and results.

Sounds like two good day Derek, just not the big ones you needed. Man that 3 AM stuff is too much for me. I started just getting a hotel room in Rock Hill. Split with my buddy so about $35 each, not too bad, especially if I did not have to get up at 3. I can still do it, just don't want to any more. Part of getting older I guess.

Thanks for sharing and glad that you caught fish. Maybe next tournament will result in better results.

congrats on a nice catch C B
I'm with Ray on that getting up at 3 am
I can still do it but I don't have to LOL

Thanks for the report and glad y'all had a good time.

Good report Derek. Congrats on the 5th place finish.

Nice report and thanks for sharing. This time of the year you are longlinning. You use a 1/4 ounce weight to get it down. I am just learning this stuff. I am shamefully begging from a real pro.

Crappie Kidd,
Thanks for asking and don't feel bad about begging.
I recommend hanging a 2oz. weight off the bottom with a strong 50 Lb leader.
You may notice it bouncing on the bottom but that's how you know yer on the bottom.
and THATS where the fish are so get 2 or more oz on your trolling rods, AND HANG ON

Quote:

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Originally Posted by CrappieKidd

Nice report and thanks for sharing. This time of the year you are longlinning. You use a 1/4 ounce weight to get it down. I am just learning this stuff. I am shamefully begging from a real pro.

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A real pro is far, far, far from what I am. Especially when it concerns long line trolling. I'm a single poler, dock shooter, and tightliner that is learning this whole trolling deal from my tournament fishing partner. His bread and butter is long lining.

We fish several back rods with no additional weight other than the jig, and a couple rods that we call "down rods." The down rods are especially tightline setups with 1/2-3/4 oz weights above a swivel and the bait below with a leader. Depending on our speed and the angle of the line i guesstimate how many pulls I need to make to get down to fish I see on the graph. I play with the depth until I start catching fish.

In order to get the baits on the back rods down we just troll really slow. Like tightline speeds (0.3-0.5 mph)... It's a little more difficult than spring time trolling because your speed has to be slow and any tail wind will speed you up.

Some folks run heavier jig heads 1/8-1/4 and some folks use split shot above their jigs and run faster. It's a matter of preference and I reckon the main thing is to play around with whatever setup you use so you know how deep your baits are running. Best way to do that is to find a hump somewhere and trial and error with different baits and different speeds to see when you start hitting bottom.

Sounds like Wylie was on fire Saturday for the tourney. So many times this early in the year the weather is terrible, the fish have lockjaw, etc., etc. Atleast you guys were catching both days and had a good time. When it boils down to it that is really what matters. Maybe the next tourney puts you on top. All you can do is give it a try. Congrats on the two days of fishing and thanks for the post and pics.:)

Glad y'all had a good time and that y'all caught fish both days. Congratulations to you both for 5th place! Thanks for the report and pics.