fishing 10-15-17

[merc1997 Bo]

fished three days.  spent thursday cover a good portion of the lake scouting.  ended up with 12 keepers.  took linda fishing friday and saturday afternoon.  friday, we had 15 keepers and saturday 9 keepers.

bulk of them came from 15 to 20 ft. deep.  upper lake best areas.  attached are a few pics from friday.

 

bo

[Quillback]

Good stuff!

[m&m]

Bo, sounds like a fun couple of days. Nice pictures of some healthy LMs. I guess I am going to have to learn the upper end if I want to catch a jag of LMs.  Down by the dam area it has been mostly SMs this year for me.

Mike

[Champ188]

Looks like the Kings bite is on. Will find out Friday.

[abkeenan]

Bo, sounds like a fun couple of days. Nice pictures of some healthy LMs. I guess I am going to have to learn the upper end if I want to catch a jag of LMs.  Down by the dam area it has been mostly SMs this year for me.

Mike

Get used to it. It's a rarity to hook into a largie in these parts at the dam. But when you do actually get into one it's almost always a keeper. As rare as LMs are for me around the dam it's even more rare to boat a sub legal LM for whatever reason. Only time I get them is them I am fishing for 'black perch" with a tiny tube and lindy spinner set up. Not complaining as you can get all 3 species (4th meanmouth) near the dam whereas up the rivers it's probably harder to do that as smallies don't venture into that dingy/muddy water typically.

[merc1997 Bo]

Get used to it. It's a rarity to hook into a largie in these parts at the dam. But when you do actually get into one it's almost always a keeper. As rare as LMs are for me around the dam it's even more rare to boat a sub legal LM for whatever reason. Only time I get them is them I am fishing for 'black perch" with a tiny tube and lindy spinner set up. Not complaining as you can get all 3 species (4th meanmouth) near the dam whereas up the rivers it's probably harder to do that as smallies don't venture into that dingy/muddy water typically.

the lmg population got totally wiped out back when we had the virus that did so much damage.  the smallmouth and the kentucky population really came on, but there just were not enough lmgs to get a start to repopulate.  those better ones that you are catching is because of all the tournaments on the lower end that go to the james or up the white and bring them back to weigh-in.  this is exactly why the tournament scene needs to have the take off points from different areas of the lake and not the same place everytime.  when you start moving a sand pile from one place and empty in it in the same place each trip soon you have the same sand pile in the new spot and the old spot is empty.  just the way it is.

 

bo

[BearFisher10]

Sounds like a couple solid days. That's about the depth I've been catching them in the James. Judging by your pictures the bottom composition is similar but mine are coming from different types of areas than that. 

[Alex Heitman]

I think I've figured something out about the LM in the dam area the last few times I have been down. I've caught mostly all LM with some SM mixed in. Next time I am down we will see if this hold true but I am excited and still think there are many to be caught with the right techniques. By the way good job Bo and thanks for the report. 

[merc1997 Bo]

i will have to tell that linda caught 10 of the 15 keepers we had on friday.  luckily, i caught all the bigger ones.  my fishing help is going to be drying up with her, as i hate getting beat.  once she gets the casting part down, she will be able to catch fish with anyone.  she definitely had the right "pull" friday.  there is a very good lesson to be learned here, and it is the fact that most of the time, you have to be fishing the right speed at the right depth to trigger a strike.  don't keep fishing your cast the same way each time unless you are catching them.  change your speed of retrieve, fall rate, drag or hop it ect. until you start catching them, then remember exactly what you did that got the strike.

 

bo

[Bass Enforcer]

All this fishing and me not getting to do any is driving me insane.  Kiddos are just too busy and my wife simply can't be in two places at the same time. At least it is bow season to help me keep my sanity. The only thing is all I think about is fishing. Such as now, here I am sitting in my tree stand and I am looking at the fishing forum. Good luck to all and thanks for the fine reading material. Oh yeah and great job Bo and Linda.