[Crawdad 1]

My brother and I had planned this date several months ago. His son Josh, 12 years old was looking forward to the trip for a long time. The weather report of 21 degrees in the morning did not look good but he would not let us off the hook. We loaded everything up and headed to the lake. We caught all of our bait in Sandy creek. With the front of boat covered in ice from throwing the net and a tank full of bait we went looking for some fun. We looked for the birds but they where just sitting on the water in front of the marina cove. We marked all kinds of bait under them so we started fishing. We managed to pick up the first fish for the day up out of that school. We started heading toward the old bridge and got out of the school. I think that we went the wrong way. We ended up fishing the riprap up by Uppy’s when Little Boy Blue called us over to the new bridge where he had found the school again. We reeled everything in and moved. That school stayed in that one place for a couple of hours and so did we. Josh had the time of his life. I think Josh ended up landing about 10 fish out of that school with the one keeper for the day, and one nice ~15 pound catfish. There was even a triple header in the mix. Thanks for the call Little Boy Blue.

Have a good Thanksgiving!
Crawdad

 

[LittleBoyBlue]

Hey, no problem Crawdad...I'm just glad we found the school. The cold weather prevented just about everybody from being on the lake…I wasn’t even scared to call you over on ole 68. If it wasn't for Looseties, I would have rode right past that school. We were headed up toward PP again and Looseties called me on the radio from over by the amphitheater. He asked about the birds over between the new bridge and the cliffs as I was riding near-by. I was so busy thinking about what the wind chill was while running 35 mph, that I didn't even see the birds 50 yards from me.
We ended up with 12 for the day with one 30 incher, the rest were the good ole 23-25 inch specials. I did get to land a couple with the ultra light rod using 8 lb test. That is so much fun!!! I managed to get a picture of cast net water freezing to my jacket, and one of a fish on the ultra light rod. Good luck to all!!!

 

[benjiwhite]

googd ics Scott! That had to be fun on 8 lb test!
Benji

 

[benjiwhite]

I can't type....I meant pics!!

 

[lannyp]

Nice thing about the new board is you can go back and edit your typo's:yes:

I can't type....I meant pics!!

 

[lannyp]

Thanks for the report guys:rockingreport:

 

[Looseties]

Ok, I have to jump in here. Thanks to Little Boy Blue and the offering of bait, I was able to fish longer than I would have with the bait I caught. Also, it was nice to be able to talk to Crawdad and LLB while on the water. With every trip, you learn a little more and I would like to share a little of this. First, when hooking up your trailer, make sure your hitch captures the ball....minor set back and thank goodness no damage (first time that ever happened to me), but this was discovered in front of the house. Secondly, when throwing your net (still amateur status here), make sure your line is tightly connected to something.....anything. Let me say that again, make sure your line is connected to something. Yep, at temperatures in the low 20's, it is sometimes hard to feel the line slipping off your arm. The last thing I saw was the arm loop flying through the air. Lastly, always carry a lure with large treble hooks. I picked up a Hopkins a week or two ago and although never caught a fish on it I found that it works very well in dragging the bottom for about 20 minutes and finally catching a piece of the net's rope. All in all, it was a good day on the lake, but cold. Put two in the boat, one 29" and one at about 20". I missed about four take downs while messing with my new fish finder. One caught on a down line in 25' water and one on a cork, 7 pulls and a medium split shot near the new bridge. Will try again this week and see what I can learn. Also rode down to Grassy and did not see any birds working that distance, but did see lots of them floating near junkman's curve.....marked allot of bait and fish.