Fishin'ReportsPlease...

[NightTrain]

Hey Boys,
Been really busy for a while,and came for the"2cool"fix,and it was GONE.Thanks go to Mont and whoever assisted him in the task that HAD to be a bite!!
On to the business @ hand...Fishin'.
A guy that lives 1/2mi. up-river from me caught the lake record striper this past week...40lb.4oz. Ironically,the same guy was the topic of alot of conversations around here recently for landin' a 30lb.and 31 1/2lb.stripers on consecutive mornings.Just goes to prove that ya can't catch fish sittin' on yo butt talkin' 'bout 'em.
I on the other hand,got to test out several of the severe weather theories we were talkin' about.:D Fog,lightning,thunder,wind,BIG RAINDROPS,etc.They've been runnin' alot water through,which is good(except I lost 2 anchors).
The stripers and the blues are tearin' it up and I've snagged my share of both:D .BUT,no big boys this week...need to put some more time on the water in!
SOMEBODY HAS,THOUGH...TALK TO ME...FISHIN' REPORTS,PLEEZE!!

[MUDHOLE KID]

So Far It's Me And You Train ,talk To Ya Later .good To See You Made It Back .later Man....................lets Go Fishin

[Hawkeye]

I went Saturday and caught a few croakers for striper bait, but didn't boat anything to brag about... no catfishing on almost a week... boat's still a bomb... ssdd

[mudd_catt]

Fishin is slow this week here too, Think they are all spawning. But still biting a little.

Glad to see everybody making it back.

[NightTrain]

Soooo...didja git to use them croakers for striper bait?

[Bob]

I went this past monday and stayed on the river until wed. I only caught two flatheads(8 and 12lbs) but I had one that felt heavy. It ended up pulling the knot at the hook. I did catch about 20 channels during the day(up to 20 inches long) and enough bream and redbreast to go through 100 crickets and two boxes of worms. stayed on the boat the whole time and didn't see another boat until coming back to the landing. it was great...

[Hawkeye]

Soooo...didja git to use them croakers for striper bait?Yeah... we tried live-lining over the Monitor/Merrimac tube... lots of action, but I think the hooks (7/0) were too little... the fish would take the bait, but I couldn't get hooked up... kept pulling the croakers out of their mouth. I lost three "storms" to the bluefish... sawed 'em right in half... then I had "something" (probably another bluefish) saw my 50lb. spider wire in half without so much as a click out of the reel....the line just went limp... we did boat two undersized striped bass that had to be returned to the river, and had a lot of action, but nothing to brag about... I'm ordering some bigger hooks (12-13/0) to see if I can remedy the failure to hook-up problem, and I'm getting two nets from Wendell, which I hope to WEAR OUT in the coming months...

[Nikonos]

I haven't been out on the water for a couple weeks because I got suckered into building a deck around our pool here at the house. But I have stripped all the mono off my rigs and am respooling them all tomorrow. Next weekend I'm heading out for the river friday night and won't see home until monday morning. I'm going to give the cats a hard time anyway...

[NightTrain]

Bob,where do ya go,especially this time of year,that is boat-free this time of year?Dats a cool trick in itself.

Nikonos,good to see ya made it back.

Hawkeye,what?you gone"saltydog" on us sweetwater boys?:D Just kiddin'.The monitor/merrimac tube...is that the HamptonRoadsTunnel,right @ the Hampton Bar?Good spot.
I don't know how you're hookin' them croakies,but,hookin' them closer to the head,helps with predator-type fishes,such as stripers.The bite-offs with the taylor blues is common.Those little bastids will attack swivels and even knots,and,like you said,sometimes will just run into the line:( .Maddening...
I remember as a teen,my dad would take us trollin' for big chopper blues along the Chesapeake Bay Bridge-Tunnel.This was the mid-70's and the bluefish averaged 12-14lb.s ea.They would break off lg.trebles on "Cisco Kids"or simply snap them off.Ahhh,the days...

[Hawkeye]

Hawkeye,what?you gone"saltydog" on us sweetwater boys?:D Just kiddin'.The monitor/merrimac tube...is that the HamptonRoadsTunnel,right @ the Hampton Bar?Good spot.Yes... I hooked 'em through the lips and didn't have enough hook exposed to get the striper hooked up without pulling the bait right out of their mouths... The bluefish are a joy to have around. They make sure you keep fresh baits tied on by completely destroying the one you currently have in the water without paying the ultimate price for messing with a sharp hook. Most of the Bluefish are little now. I read they are on a 40 year cycle with the bigger ones making a come-back any time now, but there just doesn't seem to be the large schools and they don't blitz like the old days of summer.... 2-3 pounds is about all you see now, with an occasional 36" fish thrown in for good measure.... and they can still bite through anything you can toss on or in the water...
I fish where the boat goes.... just thought I'd clear that one up.

[Nikonos]

Well I can't manage to catch any bait this week. I want at least a couple dozen pumpinseeds for my trip this weekend but I can't get any of them to take a bait...red worms, wax worms, crappie jigs...nothing is seeming to work. If all else fails I guess the seine will have to come out thursday if the thunderstorms hold off and I will have to get drenched just to catch those stupid little buggers. Oh the joys of catfishing...

[NightTrain]

I generally use shad,which,thank the Lord,have been plentiful this year.But, on the bream subject,I went down to the dock @ home,and saw a few ''potatoechip''Bream in the shallows...through the net once and caught 10.Used 'em that night.Go to a bed,back in a cove,somewhere,Nikonos.This time of yr. they orta not be too hard to net.

[Hawkeye]

I was thinking that they might hit poppers on top... or what we used to call "Michigan Spiders" (foam bodied sinking or floating spider looking flies) fished on top of the beds with fly rod... I don't know what size bream a man would want for bait, but if you're fishing for big fish, one-pounders might be just the ticket... If they won't hit a wax-worm, then that's lock-jaw of the worst kind....

[medulla762]

Jugged Lake Houston Friday night and jugged Lake Conroe Saturday night.

Some pos stole ten of our jugs about 3:00am Saturday morning. I hope they get one of them 5/0 circle hooks threaded into their hand.


Didn't get limits but caught quality fish. cpr'd one over 20# retained one over 20# that died on us and caught several over 15# and a few over 10#.

[TXPalerider]

Medulla:

Them Blues still got eggs in em?

[medulla762]

None of these but about a third of what we cleaned had eggs.

[Nikonos]

Tornadoes/mudslides in the area and more than two inches of rain the last hour. So much for fishing the river this weekend...

[Hawkeye]

I Hope no one has been injured...
I fished for two hours last night after work. It was very slow... three blue cats, two-three pounds each, caught and released.

[NightTrain]

In order to avoid the Memorial Day crowd,I went upriver on Gaston for awhile on Thursday night.They'd been runnin'alot of water and were this night,too.I set up on the edge of abig flats area,where it drops into abend in the old river channel.Only fished a couple of hours,caught a 15.lb.blue,24in.striper,4lb.walleye,and the icing on the cake...a 4' eel that was bigger around than a summersausage...went back to the house, filleted the walleye,cut the eel in 3 pieces,froze it for bait(excellent,tough)and said a prayer for the fishin' to pick up.Stripers are supposedly slayin'topwaters in the am's/pm's...might give that my attention.

[mudd_catt]

I noticed this weekend that the stripes were starting to gang up behind Pickwick dam already. Several people were catching some nice fish. The biggest one, though, was about 16-18 inches. Plenty of them for the person that knew what they were doing. One guy was catching about every other cast on Plastic Shad.

[NightTrain]

and some wierd news.
The water continues to be kept at higher than normal levels,here...lots of current...more like a river than a lake.Went "juggin'"with a friend thursday night from 8:30 pm till 4 am(got "runnoft"by a T-storm).Snagged 2 in the 15 lb. class,and a world of "eaters"(3-5 lb'ers.)Kinda slow the last 2-3 weeks....
On a different note,the owner of the marina,here said that 200 dead stripers were found a few days ago,about a mile below the tailrace to Kerr Dam on Gaston.Haven't heard the reason,yet,although theories abound.Will keep ya'll abreast,if I hear something.