08-29-2018, 10:43 PM
[#0000ff]Had a personal and weather schedule to juggle this week to try to get in some fishing. Tuesday looked good after the front, but couldn't break free. Then Wednesday shaped up to look pretty good so I jumped on it.[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]Hit the north marina at Willard. WOW. What a difference it makes when the rugrats are back in school. My car was the only one in the lot...almost. There was a guy launching a kayak right behind me as I headed out the channel. Saw him later but he was not Rocky. Not sociable at all.
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[#0000ff]Air temp at launch a brisk 52. Water temp 70...only rising a couple of degrees by noon departure. Some color in the water from the recent wind and weather, but have seen much worse. Surprisingly there was a lot of water coming in over the baffles as I stopped by the south marina later. More on that to come.[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]Did not bring any LHBE minnows today. Only brought crawlers and some perch meat harvested from Echo a couple of weeks ago. Fished each separately and caught a few on each...sporadically. About mid morning I tried combining the two...for a kinda "surf and turf"...a small piece of perch meat and 1/3 to 1/2 of a nightcrawler. DY-NO-MITE! Can't say whether the fish just turned on...or if I finally found the right zone...or if that "combo plate" meal was just what the fish wanted. At any rate I caught a lot more fish in the last two hours than I did the first two.[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]No wipers or walleyes were harmed on this trip, even though I really wanted some ABCs...anything besides cats. But the kitties came out to play and they were lotsa fun. Oh yeah, I did catch one small bullhead cat too. I used to catch them fairly often but since the wipers came to town I suspect that slower growing and smaller bullheads add to the menu during shadless months.[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]I tried the usual bait dragging thing...a large piece of perch meat trailing out behind the tube. Nary a whack. I caught all the cats today on fligs...with either or both crawler and perch meat...as described. Yeah, the surf and turf delivered.[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]While things were still slow in the early morning I spied a float tube with a bright orange back moving in my direction. Oh goodie. Here comes some "help", thought I. Turned out to be BFTer Burley. He wasn't swinging his sturgeon rods so he had to tell me who he was. I downloaded a few fligs for him to play with and he kicked off to other parts. I never got close enough to him again to find out how he did.[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]I guesstimate I caught somewhere around 20 cats all together. A couple were 2-footers and a couple more were only a couple inches shorter. Good sized kitties for Willard. And those bigger ones hit like a ton of bricks and peeled line off the drag. Then then circled way out away from the tube. I was sure I had wipers until I finally got them close enough to witness them change back into cats.[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]Everything I caught today was on fligs and bait. The fire tiger and pale perch colors were what I had on when I got there. And they both accounted for a lot of cats. Most of them were hooked in the corner of the mouth...just like circle hooks. But when one greedy kitty swallowed a pale perch flig I had to cut it off and I tied on a "purple fire". That one produced quite a few of the fish I caught after that.[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]I hadn't planned on keeping any cats today. But when another cat swallowed a flig and I also kept it for later removal at the cleaning station, I decided to go ahead and keep a few more for the smoker. My elderly neighbor has been none to diplomatic in reminding me that I haven't provided him any for a while. So, I had 5 in the basket and figured I needed about one more for a smoker full. Wouldn'tcha know it? A double when I got right outside the buoys at the channel. A fine finish.[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]Couldn't have asked for nicer weather today. Glass calm all morning, with only an occasional light ripple. No boils. But there were some shad or other small fish working bugs on the surface...and the terns made dive bombs here and there to reward the little tykes for their foolishness.[/#0000ff]
[#0000ff] [/#0000ff]
[#0000ff]When I returned to the ramp there were only a handful of boat trailers in the lot. Cool. But when I took my fish to the cleaning station, it was not cool. Some doofus had done what doofii do...and had stuffed the grinder with catfish before turning on the motor. Result? A grinder full of poorly filleted catfish and me having to drive south to the south marina...where the facilities were in fine working order.
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[signature]
[#0000ff] [/#0000ff]
[#0000ff]Hit the north marina at Willard. WOW. What a difference it makes when the rugrats are back in school. My car was the only one in the lot...almost. There was a guy launching a kayak right behind me as I headed out the channel. Saw him later but he was not Rocky. Not sociable at all.
[/#0000ff]
[#0000ff]Air temp at launch a brisk 52. Water temp 70...only rising a couple of degrees by noon departure. Some color in the water from the recent wind and weather, but have seen much worse. Surprisingly there was a lot of water coming in over the baffles as I stopped by the south marina later. More on that to come.[/#0000ff]
[#0000ff] [/#0000ff]
[#0000ff]Did not bring any LHBE minnows today. Only brought crawlers and some perch meat harvested from Echo a couple of weeks ago. Fished each separately and caught a few on each...sporadically. About mid morning I tried combining the two...for a kinda "surf and turf"...a small piece of perch meat and 1/3 to 1/2 of a nightcrawler. DY-NO-MITE! Can't say whether the fish just turned on...or if I finally found the right zone...or if that "combo plate" meal was just what the fish wanted. At any rate I caught a lot more fish in the last two hours than I did the first two.[/#0000ff]
[#0000ff] [/#0000ff]
[#0000ff]No wipers or walleyes were harmed on this trip, even though I really wanted some ABCs...anything besides cats. But the kitties came out to play and they were lotsa fun. Oh yeah, I did catch one small bullhead cat too. I used to catch them fairly often but since the wipers came to town I suspect that slower growing and smaller bullheads add to the menu during shadless months.[/#0000ff]
[#0000ff] [/#0000ff]
[#0000ff]I tried the usual bait dragging thing...a large piece of perch meat trailing out behind the tube. Nary a whack. I caught all the cats today on fligs...with either or both crawler and perch meat...as described. Yeah, the surf and turf delivered.[/#0000ff]
[#0000ff] [/#0000ff]
[#0000ff]While things were still slow in the early morning I spied a float tube with a bright orange back moving in my direction. Oh goodie. Here comes some "help", thought I. Turned out to be BFTer Burley. He wasn't swinging his sturgeon rods so he had to tell me who he was. I downloaded a few fligs for him to play with and he kicked off to other parts. I never got close enough to him again to find out how he did.[/#0000ff]
[#0000ff] [/#0000ff]
[#0000ff]I guesstimate I caught somewhere around 20 cats all together. A couple were 2-footers and a couple more were only a couple inches shorter. Good sized kitties for Willard. And those bigger ones hit like a ton of bricks and peeled line off the drag. Then then circled way out away from the tube. I was sure I had wipers until I finally got them close enough to witness them change back into cats.[/#0000ff]
[#0000ff] [/#0000ff]
[#0000ff]Everything I caught today was on fligs and bait. The fire tiger and pale perch colors were what I had on when I got there. And they both accounted for a lot of cats. Most of them were hooked in the corner of the mouth...just like circle hooks. But when one greedy kitty swallowed a pale perch flig I had to cut it off and I tied on a "purple fire". That one produced quite a few of the fish I caught after that.[/#0000ff]
[#0000ff] [/#0000ff]
[#0000ff]I hadn't planned on keeping any cats today. But when another cat swallowed a flig and I also kept it for later removal at the cleaning station, I decided to go ahead and keep a few more for the smoker. My elderly neighbor has been none to diplomatic in reminding me that I haven't provided him any for a while. So, I had 5 in the basket and figured I needed about one more for a smoker full. Wouldn'tcha know it? A double when I got right outside the buoys at the channel. A fine finish.[/#0000ff]
[#0000ff] [/#0000ff]
[#0000ff]Couldn't have asked for nicer weather today. Glass calm all morning, with only an occasional light ripple. No boils. But there were some shad or other small fish working bugs on the surface...and the terns made dive bombs here and there to reward the little tykes for their foolishness.[/#0000ff]
[#0000ff] [/#0000ff]
[#0000ff]When I returned to the ramp there were only a handful of boat trailers in the lot. Cool. But when I took my fish to the cleaning station, it was not cool. Some doofus had done what doofii do...and had stuffed the grinder with catfish before turning on the motor. Result? A grinder full of poorly filleted catfish and me having to drive south to the south marina...where the facilities were in fine working order.
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