I went out for 3 and a half days this week with Dale and Rhandy. As usual, I did full days with Dale, 6:30 am to 2:30 pm then half a day with Rhandy 3 pm to 7 or 7:30 pm. Dale was booked Thursday so Rhandy and I saved that for a half day crappie trip.
On the way out Sunday night I drove through heavy rain and storms, proving once again that I am the Lake Fork Rain God! I will fill that lake yet!
Dale and I headed out of Oak Ridge on Monday at 6:30 am and we were the first boat off the ramp there. We had a slow day pitching wacky worms, dead sticking flukes, and other techniques around a number of quality spots at the south end of the lake. We ended up with 5 fish for the day with Dale catching the one good one at about 7 pounds. We didn't have many more bites than that 5 that we caught. It was just slow. I think I caught 2 of the 5 and both those were in the morning.
Things didn't improve a lot with Rhandy in the afternoon as we tried some more proven spots with Carolina rigs. I did have one great bite where a fish just hammered my fluke, but somehow I missed him. Dark clouds and oncoming rain ended our day at 7 pm and a heavy shower arrived after we had gotten inside for our BBQ and beer. I am the Lake Fork Rain God!!!
Tuesday dawned with hope of better results and Dale and I headed off to new spots and switched to fishing lizards with a split shot in shallow water. We had a few more bites and missed more fish than we did on Monday, but still only ended up with 6 fish for the day. I had another whomper bite that broke me off when the fish tried to pull the rod out of my hand. I sure wish I had gotten a look at that fish. We saw lots of wildlife including a coon, banded water snakes, and a cotton mouth.
Rhandy and I headed back to our Monday spot and found some rat finks already fishing there. We fished a tree line nearby and Rhandy caught a couple of small ones. The finks were catching on our spot, so we eventually headed elsewhere. The wind slicked off and it got really warm there for the rest of the afternoon. Rhandy ended up with 5 fish for the afternoon but I never got a single bite. Drat! Not from a lack of trying, and we were on some very good spots. Both Rhandy and Dale were very frustrated by this point, but it never really bothers me as much as it bothers them. I have caught lots of nice fish with each of them and and I know that's just how it goes sometimes. I keep telling them not to fret about it, but they do anyway.
Wednesday Dale told me we were going to switch up tactics and try to find a big fish. We switched to big senkos and started out pitching at timber and the edge of some nice grass back in a pocket. We caught a few small ones and missed a few. One of them had some cool black spots, even on its tongue. We kept at it through the day, switching to Carolina rigs for a bit, but only ended up with 7 for the day. We did see a nice bald eagle along one bank.
Rhandy and I started out south of the 154 bridge but later moved to a spot we had fished the previous day with no success. We never got a bite there Tuesday, but shortly after pulling up my fluke got hammered by a 6 pound bass that fought like he was a 10 pounder. That was fun! After that I think I caught 2 more there, both with savage bites. The only thing different was there was a slight south wind. It's all about being in the right place at the right time and we were on Wednesday.
Thursday morning Rhandy and I trucked over to Lake Cypress Springs to try again at crappie. Rhandy had heard reports they were finally biting over there, but they were not on this day. We spent a couple of hours under the bridge, hit some brush piles, tried some shallow water along retaining walls, and only ended up with 4 crappie. Rhandy caught all of them, but I did catch one small Kentucky bass. They are bound to turn on there any day now, just not when I'm there! We went back to Rhandy's place where he cleaned up those 4 crappie for me with Bud's assistance. I'll be back for more soon.
No comments:
Post a Comment