FISH CATCHING TRAVEL

“SAVE OUR WATERS”

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The Wade Right Fishing Belt

Brought to you by

The Best Wading System on the  Planet.

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Have a Happy Thanksgiving and have a safe holiday.

The Boss is working the holiday as usual, which for me means fishing.  Fishing the Thanksgiving and Christmas holiday has been a staple for years, and back to when we were on the ambulance, decades.  It is usually cooler and the traffic is light on both those days and I always enjoy the quiet.  I never forget how lucky I am.  So thanks Nancy, you are the bomb!

As I prepare this today the weather is looking like we just might get a few showers. which is not going to stop me from heading to the lake in the morning.  After fighting the blog yesterday I need to have a rod in my hand so it will be up and gone in the morning.  Time to make sure the boat and tackle is ready to go and get out the rain suit.  (See Todd below.)  And as I said on Facebook, I want to be home in time to see the Cowboys floundering around like a trout flopping on the deck.  It is back to real life and we shall see how the day goes.

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The new Knockin Tail Lures are coming soon.  Now I am really excited.

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And speaking of Controlled Descent they have received what is the “last” pre-production mold on the new Knockin Tail Lure and I can not wait to get my hands on some.  Michael reports he caught some good trout on the prototype the other day and they were hammering it.  We are trying to work out a day of fishing together to give them a good go.  It is going to catch fish, end of story.

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Weather

72/66.  Mostly cloudy with a 64% chance of a few showers.  Wind NNE 10 – 15 mph.

Lake Level

Today  94.62 msl.   17 days ago  94.92 msl.  (It keeps on dropping, the ramp is headed to interesting.)

Solunar Times

Major 1:18 pm to 3:18 pm.   Minor 7:54 am to 8:54 am.

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A dreary day – Perfect!

It was raining pretty good at daylight so I hung out and watched the radar.  Finally about 8:00 the big stuff was gone so I headed to the lake.  This is the kind of day where you catch fish, cloudy, drizzle, and a 15 mph wind.  The ramp is definitely lower but still ok as long as you don’t back in over 25 feet.

The water temp was 66 at the ramp, 69 near the discharge cove, and 66 over most of the lake.  The water color is clear at the lower end with some color up river.  Which of course is my usual starting place.  Spinnerbait was first up and while not fast by any means the ones that did bite were stopping it.

The 2 best on spinnerbait out of 6.

I probably stuck with it to long but it is still the all time favorite.  Running right below the surface making a wake, the spinnerbait has to run exactly level, generates some of the best strikes in bass fishing.  I generally threw it on flatter banks with cover, harder to get them to bite buzzing it if the bank is to steep, the bite window is a lot smaller.  It seemed like a big one was coming on the next cast, but it just did not happen.  So time for favorite technique number 2, swim jig.

They were thumping the bluegill color 1/4 ounce swim jig with a Rage Craw.

While fishing the spinnerbait was getting bites it was time for a little deeper bank and the swim jig.  It only took about an hour until I hit one steep bank and caught 5 in nothing flat slow rolling it.  They were still near cover but I guess with the falling water they want some protection of deep water nearby.  The bites were those nice thumps that says they have it.  After that time to point hop down lake and see if one would eat a Bang O Lure.

Until I quit about 2:00 to watch the game it was slow “pickens”.  A small one did finally hit the Bang O Lure on top, but down lake it was just a hair to windy.  A couple more jumped on the spinnerbait on a windy bank with stumps, and I did not have another bite on anything else.  It seemed like they just slowed down, but I did not get to several spots that have been consistent as I tried to get a feel for what they are doing.  Of course the discharge can be really good this time of year, just not my thing.

For a 5 hour trip I will take it.  And the best thing about today is I just might have a clue so tomorrow is looking good.  Not even going to unhitch the boat.  The plan will be to throw the swim jig a lot more, it improves the big fish possibility by a good bit.  Can’t wait to see how it goes.

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I did miss my buddy Todd at POC last weekend but he sent along these pictures.

After his run to Conte he had it all to himself and he sent this picture on his arrival.  Take a close look at what might be missing.  Shit happens!  He ended up pulling the day out with a nice limit of reds so all was not lost.

That will work!

Of course it reminds me of a story.  On the way back from Florida the Boss and I stopped at a motel in Jasper Alabama.  The next morning we left and got about an hour and a half away and remembered I left more than a dozen rods behind the door.  Nice way to start a 10 hour drive back to Arkansas.  Having done things like this more times than I care to remember I now take a second and make sure I have my stuff together.  Sometimes the lure of just getting on the water is to strong, we are a bunch of kids once the boat comes out.  It happens to the best of us.

And last but not least on his weekend.

Pork is what’s for dinner.

Those of you who have followed this blog know about Todd and his cooking.  He is a great cook and fishing trips with him always include some serious eats.  Sorry I missed him!

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Hope you have a great day whatever you are doing.  Mine is going great, let us see how those Cowboys do.  As long as it is not just flat pouring it will be gone at daylight with the weather looking perfect.  I can feel a big fish coming.  So keep stopping in and thanks for reading my stuff.

Good Luck and Tight Lines