Quick trip

[Dan the fisherman]

I had a short window to fish today and took the opportunity.   I got on the water at 3pm sharp.  Drove out to the spot and immediately seen some fish rolling on the surface.  I threw the top water plug and hooked up.  Landed the fish threw it back and threw again, another hook up.  Unfortunately the fish went down after that.  So I started to troll some brooders I brought along, since I didn't have time to catch bait. I marked fish under me but the wouldn't hit the minnows.  I seen some shad near the surface on my graph and threw the cast net and got me some.  I continued to troll the freshly caught shad and hooked up to a small keeper stripers.  The fishing seemed to cool off as I didn't mark n e after that.  It was just about dark and was going to pull lines when I saw my rod tip down.   It wasn't a striper and thought it could have been a cat.  I fought it in, and lordy behold it was a super nice walleye.  I measured it and his tail touched the 25in mark.  I had released all the stripers but kept this beaut!  2nd walleye caught this year but first keeper eye. 

[nomolites]

That's a good one; you'll soon be throwing rocks at the stripes you keep catching walleye like that...

Mike

 

 

 

[Quillback]

Really nice 'eye.  Congrats!

[Dan the fisherman]

Do do love me some walleye.  But rarely catch them. 

[Guest]

Good job!

Were gonna fish from HC to HSB tomorrow, it should be interesting. We're gonna launch as soon as the heavy rain lets up, hpoefully about 10am. Fish till dark

Im hunting runoff, gonna run every cut & finger that has any sorta flow. 

[Vinsott]

Looks like a twin to the walleye I caught  not too long ago. Beauty.  I have not had any luck netting shad yet with my new cast net.  Are they good size shad you are netting? I have thrown about 15-20 times on schools that were down about 20ft and see the net on the sonar going through the bait but nothing to show. I bought 5/8 inch mesh with 1.5 lbs of lead per foot to get it to sink faster. Its an 8 ft. net. Maybe the bait I have thrown into are very small shad that are swimming through it????? I need to find some bait schools in shallower water perhaps.

[Lance34]

Sweet Danny! Nice eye!

[Stump bumper]

50 minutes ago, Vinsott said:

Looks like a twin to the walleye I caught  not too long ago. Beauty.  I have not had any luck netting shad yet with my new cast net.  Are they good size shad you are netting? I have thrown about 15-20 times on schools that were down about 20ft and see the net on the sonar going through the bait but nothing to show. I bought 5/8 inch mesh with 1.5 lbs of lead per foot to get it to sink faster. Its an 8 ft. net. Maybe the bait I have thrown into are very small shad that are swimming through it????? I need to find some bait schools in shallower water perhaps.

You need to be shallow enough your net will get to the bottom or see the shad flipping on top of the water. If you want good size gizzard shad it is best to be where you can see the bottom then throw on them as they run by. Throwing at a school on the screen is really hit or miss and 20 feet down they will see the net coming for days. I have thrown at Gizzards in 5 feet of water and they all escaped before the net got them.

Some days you may have to set in the creek mouth for an hour to get the right size bait to run by, sometimes it just starts flipping around you as soon as you get there. But the key is you have to see it in or out of the water with your eyes to get the right bait. If you get a net full of threadfin don't bother keeping more than what you have poles they die that fast in the live well, maybe enough to re bait once or you will just have to clean dead shad out of the live well.

One more tip is that Gizzards feed in mud, not rocks.

[Vinsott]

Thanks for the info. Most appreciated.

[J-Doc]

I've thrown anot 8ft net in only 2-30ft of water and STILL had those slippery boogers get out from beneath the net before it hits bottom! Cast in front of them if you can. Chances of a full net increase.  Only lately, they are so fast, it's all you can do to reach them.  OnCe you see them, you're too late so be ready.  Silent slow movements and trolling motor as slow as you can.  Stay off of it if possible.