Catching Another Bag Potato Chips To the North, No Dogs

Just Little Guys Again Tonight

1st Cast and Only Fish at the GOMH Tonight

 5:00-5:30PM GOMH NE 

6:00-8:30PM Double Cane to NW Juice

50-54℉, PC, 3-10mph NNE

I went to the GOMH first. A couple trucks were just leaving as I got there. I called mom for Mothers Day but mostly talked to Dad. I started on the NE side and got a jumper on the first cast with the Panfish Chatter. Didn't get another bite and left quickly after fishing both sides.

I headed North where in theory I should have been protected, but the wind was everywhere. I caught a bunch of small sunfish between Double Cane and Big Bass Point. No sign of dogfish, but there was plenty of pike. After sunset, I went to NW Juice and got a few more small sunnies, pike, and some bass. No dogfish here either.

I mapped from 8:45-10:15PM.

Catching Fish On the NW Juice Tonight

Caught a Full Bag Of Potato Chips

4.76lbs, not quite 19-inches

6:15-8:30PM NW Juice Platte Lake

40-53℉, PC, 0-5mph NW

I wasn't in a giant hurry to get out tonight because the wind was blowing 10-15mph out of the NW for most of the late afternoon. It finally started to settle down around 6PM when I headed out. I did some mapping on my way to the NW Juice. There was loon activity, baitfish activity, and fish activity. Between 6:30-8:00PM, it was pretty much bite after bite with small sunfish, pike, and bass. Whenever it slicked off I could see baitfish activity all around me on the surface. For whatever reason, the bite basically quit at 8PM. I went to mapping by 8:40 and did that until about 10:30 or so. The water level is really starting to get low. I missed the boat lane a bit to the left on my first try. I had to push it out and do it again.

Good Night Out Front In the Trophy

7.5" Pumpkinseed

7" Bluegill Out front

Hogtied

Loon checking things out

 4:30-5:00PM GOMH NE SE 

5:45-8:30PM Out front in the Trophy

8:40-10:30PM Mapping 

I decided to hit the GOMH first. One guy was there on the SW side. I got a 14-inch jumper on the NE side and missed a couple of bites. I then went down on the SE side. The guy got a jumper. I didn't get any bites and quickly left.

I noticed a sunfish skitter off as I was pulling out, so I shut it down and threw out a cast. The pike attacked the bobber and hogtied itself. Not even close to hooking it. I then started catching and seeing sunfish activity.  I caught a 14-inch bass and promptly got my line stuck in the stroller when I went to adjust the boat. It wasn't wrapped too bad, but I did need to pull the prop. I anchored and got that done. I then got a bunch of sunfish while anchored. Eventually, that settled down. I went to West point, but nothing was going on, so I started back to our place. Caught several fish out of the reed bed between us and Sherman's, then worked my way down to Jenny's reeds. Nothing was going on there except for a visit by a couple of loons. I decided to do so mapping and wound up doing that until after 10:30PM. Found something interesting in our bay and marked it.

I stopped at the GOMH. No one was there. I saw a couple bass on the Northside, possibly a small pike as well.

47 Sunnies

1 Jump

4 Bass

1 Pike 

Not Much Fishing On A Cool Late April Day

15" THE Jig/minnow

17.5" Storm Swim Shad

An Accidental Shot @ Rock Lake

I stopped at Rock Dock, Bulldog, and GOMH on my way to feed Kaylee this morning. It was cloudy and cool all day. I got the one pike off of the Rock Dock on the 2" Storm Swim Shad. Nothing at Bulldog or the GOMH.

In the afternoon, I elected to do some mapping in our bay with the Garmin Striker 7sv. I made the mistake of putting the transducer at the back of the boat. If it was on the front of the boat, I wouldn't have run at full speed with the transducer arm down in the water. I broke a rivet, but it could have been much worse. The arm is still useable, provided I don't go above 3.5mph. I also botched the turning the Traxxis Trolling Motor head in the morning, so I'm going to have to take it to Prince's to get that trainwreck figured out. I should have just asked them to do it for me when I bought it, doh.

I went out on the Trophy again in the evening and did some mapping at Reeds Across and F Flat. It was calm on F Flat, so I did some fishing there and caught the one bass. The only bite I got. There were some shiners around.

 

2 Trips, 2 Small Pike

17.5" THE JIg/Wax

The bridge S to North

It was in the mid to high 30's with rain for a good part of the morning and afternoon. Water temps dropped into to low 40's. The rain finally quit at 4PM. I hit the GOMH and Rock on my way back up to feed Mac. Nothing at the GOMH. I did get a small pike at Rock. I headed to the lake place at about 5:15PM.  I got Mac all taken care of by 6:20PM, so I headed down to take the Trophy out. I should have just went out and played with the Striker 7SV to get myself dialed in on how it works. Instead, I fished and couldn't figure out out to make the waypoint stick for the big deadhead in the SPRO. I did get a pike at the River Mouth. I think it's the same 17.5" I caught the last time I was there.  On my way back, I took the pic on my way back under the bridge. From what I can tell, it reads about 6 feet ahead of the boat at that depth. The first time through the tunnel, I was shocked that the images appeared before entering the tunnel. Just wish I would have thought to narrow the range to 25 feet when I went back through and took the picture. I did so a little scanning around the deep hole as well. I might have been marking some fish on the side scan out there, but I'm not totally positive. I checked at the GOMH on my way to check on Kaylee. Nobody there.

Slow Saturday Trophy Trip

 7:00-9:00PM Intersection, River Mouth, GOMH, F Flat 

40-46℉, Sunny, 3-10mph WNW

I watched the Lake Fork weigh-in while I was getting my Garmin 7sv put together. Had a little complication with the mounting bracket and had to hunt down the right size bolt and nut because the one that came with the unit was too short. I then headed over to Steve's and got Mac taken care of. I got headed down to the lake around 6:20PM. I was surprised to learn the Brocraft and Scotty Mounts are compatible. Had I known that I would have had the Garmin 7 on the boat much sooner, Captain Procrastination was in no hurry to switch out the mounting brackets. I went over to F-Flat and took a couple passes, looking at things with side-imaging. I was able to make out very little of what I was looking at. I did a little fishing at the juice and didn't mark anything, so I bounced fast.  I then went to the Intersection, hoping to connect with more gills. All I got was the one perch. At sunset, I went to the River Mouth and caught a pike. I was headed in by 8:40, but no one was at the GOMH, so I stopped and fished. Didn't get a bite. Shined a bass on each side of the bridge (SW, NE), and there were shiners all over, but not a ton of them.

Bass Pundit: Platte Open And My Tackle Warehouse Open As Well

Bass Pundit: Platte Open And My Tackle Warehouse Open As Well: It got to the mid 70's today. 2:30 Today Public Access Whitecaps were blowing across the lake as far as the eye could see to the North. ...

I stopped and fished briefly at the bridge on my way home from the lake place.

Skunked Because I Got Bit Off

 I went up to Baxter today to pick up my new Garmin Striker 7SV. It just so happened that Frabill Minnow Buckets were on sale, so I picked up a new one. I also got a Kalin's Tickle Tail and B-Fish-N swimbait to try out. Watched a video yesterday of a guy whacking eyes on the Tickle Tail. It is supposed to be a cold water smasher, as is the B-Fish-N. For some reason, I had never tried a B-Fish-N lure even though they have a cult following among walleye fisherman. Talked with Snatcher Chuck on my way home. The rents went up to the Brothers for dinner. I got into the Garmin unit and read the instruction that I needed an SD card to download the latest software. So I wasted a bunch of time trying to figure out a way to do that. Turns out those instructions are obsolete; it doesn't take SD cards. I found that out after I got back from fishing.

I got to the GOMH a bit later than I wanted with all the screwing around. Fatso was up in the tree again. It looked like things were open to the south shore of the Big Island. It was getting dark, and I wanted to hit the NE side, so I made what was going to be my last cast on the SW side.  As I was bringing my bobber slowly in, I thought to myself, I've got fish in this exact situation before. About 5-seconds later, the bobber went under. I set the hook, and my line broke. It could have been because I didn't re-tie from the other night, but I think it was probably a toothy. I then fished another 20-minutes or so on the SW side with the lighted bobber, nothing. I thought I saw an eyeball swimming along the SE side when I was headed in. I fished until about 8:20PM. A nice bright full moon showed up around 8PM.