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Time on water: 0900-1530
Air Temp: 63-75
Water Temp: 68-70
Weather: Foggy/cloudy to start transition into sunny
A friend and I launched with some fog and cloud cover and made our way up river. There was a fair amount of activity among the spatterdock and the main channel all the way back to where we stopped to fish. Now begins hours of picking apart shoreline cut ins and areas of cover. I threw topwater frogs into all of the thick stuff and into the shoreline hidey-holes. Using a buzzbait or a paddle tail swimbait on the weed lines. Nothing on the buzzbait or the paddle tail. The frog got a couple of short strikes and a blow up or two that missed. Finally at around 1400 I got one that took the frog and I was able to successfully land that thing. It was back in between a patch of spatterdock and the bank. Depth of about 1’ of water. Working the frog slowly. Think quick couple tugs and 10 second pause. Repeat. The strike came after the second or third round of pausing. I don’t know enough about these fish to speak intelligently on where they were in the spawn. But, there was a fair amount of activity without a lot of striking lures. This seemed to be the consensus of the other paddlers that we passed on the water. So, maybe they were hunkered down or maybe we just weren’t presenting the right thing.
This is the first time I’ve landed one of these things, and have really only gone out after them 3 or 4 times so far. I’ve seen a lot of vids on these things, but experiencing it first hand is something else. They are bananas. Oh, and waiting to set the hook is quite possibly the hardest 2 to 3 seconds of anything I’ve had to do. They hit so hard, but there is definitely a different feel when they finally have, and take the bait. You 100% have to wait for that and then set.
00100lrPORTRAIT_00100_BURST20200526140838109_COVER.jpg
It was just under 22” and it did come home with me. Fish and chips is on the menu Thursday evening. Hope everyone is staying well and safe out there!
Air Temp: 63-75
Water Temp: 68-70
Weather: Foggy/cloudy to start transition into sunny
A friend and I launched with some fog and cloud cover and made our way up river. There was a fair amount of activity among the spatterdock and the main channel all the way back to where we stopped to fish. Now begins hours of picking apart shoreline cut ins and areas of cover. I threw topwater frogs into all of the thick stuff and into the shoreline hidey-holes. Using a buzzbait or a paddle tail swimbait on the weed lines. Nothing on the buzzbait or the paddle tail. The frog got a couple of short strikes and a blow up or two that missed. Finally at around 1400 I got one that took the frog and I was able to successfully land that thing. It was back in between a patch of spatterdock and the bank. Depth of about 1’ of water. Working the frog slowly. Think quick couple tugs and 10 second pause. Repeat. The strike came after the second or third round of pausing. I don’t know enough about these fish to speak intelligently on where they were in the spawn. But, there was a fair amount of activity without a lot of striking lures. This seemed to be the consensus of the other paddlers that we passed on the water. So, maybe they were hunkered down or maybe we just weren’t presenting the right thing.
This is the first time I’ve landed one of these things, and have really only gone out after them 3 or 4 times so far. I’ve seen a lot of vids on these things, but experiencing it first hand is something else. They are bananas. Oh, and waiting to set the hook is quite possibly the hardest 2 to 3 seconds of anything I’ve had to do. They hit so hard, but there is definitely a different feel when they finally have, and take the bait. You 100% have to wait for that and then set.
00100lrPORTRAIT_00100_BURST20200526140838109_COVER.jpg
It was just under 22” and it did come home with me. Fish and chips is on the menu Thursday evening. Hope everyone is staying well and safe out there!
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