Saturday, 12/3 at Cape Fair

[Champ188]

Well, since I'm one who preaches that posting your failures helps the rest of us as much as reports of success, I'll take my own advice and tell you guys about what not to do in the Cape Fair area. At least it was a fine display of what not to do Saturday.

Donna and I launched around 8:00 at the marina and I lit out for Buzzard ... except I headed upstream instead of down. Don't know why but that channel bend there throws me every time. No biggie, I just picked out a nice transition right in a nice bend, threw down the troller and went to work. Spinnerbait  (War Eagle 3/8-oz in purple shad) and Luck-E-Strike RC STX (dang, I forgot the color) got the nod for me. Donna started with a finesse jig (of course) and Bandit 200 crank bait (custom paint brown splatter/chartreuse/orange). Fished that entire transition from bluff with wood to slab rock to chunk/gravel and finally plain gravel without a bite. And to avoid repeating that for the next several spots, we didn't get a single discernible bite for the first 5 hours we fished.

Two similar areas that have proven to hold fish pretty much without fail in the past produced the same results. Soooo, apparently it wasn't a main river deal. Fine. I'd rather catch em back in the creeks anyway. Next stop was the big timbered cut on the south side just below the 76 bridge. Don't know the name of it but I do know that Jim Eakins fishes it quite a bit. Blade, jerk bait, crank bait and jig again failed to impress, .

Onward to Peach Orchard, which upon entering I noticed one of the solo pro championship dudes fishing the left side, so we took the right. He was throwing a blade, too, so since he'd likely been on the water since practice opened Wednesday, I figured,S well, maybe I'm on the right track. You betcha. Donna and I pounded every inch of water in that entire pocket over the next 2 hours, again without a bite. She had replaced the Bandit with a Rock Crawler by this time, for all the good it did. I was getting more beligerent by the moment with the jerk bait, figuring if I wasn't gonna catch anything, I'd rather not catch them on a jerk bait than anything else. So I kept slinging it. Same bait. Same color. Coz I'm bullheaded like that.

Finally at 1 p.m., I hauled out our 10-6 crappie rods (spinning rods that double as float-n-fly rigs) and rigged one up with a pink/white Bobby Garland Baby Shad and the other with the same lure in purple/chartreuse. First frigging drop, I caught a just-barely-short crappie. Here we go, I thought. Uh huh. It was 45 minutes before we got the second bite and it was even smaller. Long story short, we crappie fished for 2 hours and caught one decent keeper.

Figuring 4 hours in Peach Orchard was quite enough, we headed downstream for Buzzard (going the right direction this time). Got in there about 2:30, just in time for the rain to start. Mind you, the temp at this time was 37. I don't think it broke 40 all day. Again, we fished and fished and fished (I'm still throwing the same jerkbait and wouldn't change for a million dollars now) without a single bite. Finally, back where the pocket bends to the right, Donna throws on a dock corner and I throw down the side and what happens? A double. Yeah, all day without a bass bite and we catch a double, and Donna's was a keeper. She had resigned herself to throwing a green pumpkin Ned rig by now and yes --- I was still throwing the RC STX. Did I mention being bullheaded about such things? 

So over the next 30 minutes we managed to catch 2-3 more shorts. All the while, the rain was increasing and at 4 p.m. we'd had enough.

So there's your blow-by-blow account of how to screw up what should've been a pretty good day of fall/early winter fishing on Table Rock.

[jim m]

great report even if the catching wasn't great. don't know what you could have done that would have worked any better.  was that rc stx the color you like so well, if so think I know which one it was

[m&m]

Champ, I looked up the word "determination " in the dictionary and there was a picture of you and Donna !! Thanks for the details. The double made the memory for the day. 

Mike

[Champ188]

Yes Jim, it was my stained water favorite purple green apple. And thanks Mike, we do stick it out.

[magicwormman]

You fished Buzzard without my permission! Shame, shame, shame! To make it even worse you didn;t stop in to say hi. Shame on you both. I had hot coffee/hot chocolate by the fireplace all ready for you. Oh by the way I've sore mouthed all the fish in this area, my advice would be aunts creek. Got that from a pretty reliable source.

[Champ188]

Tell you what, my friend, a cup of hot coffee would've been pretty darn good right about then. Sorry for intruding on your fish but I promise, we didn't hurt them much. LOL

 

[Quillback]

It's been a tough fall (except for spoon fish), I have had a couple of good days, but then next time out it will be tough.  I have one of those good days, and I think that this is it, the good bite is on, I found a pattern, I found where they are at, etc., but it just doesn't hold up.  How much longer until spring? 

 

[Macsimus]

If only you would've asked me beforehand. You should've hit Woolly. Caught the heck out of them in there a couple of years ago.

Seriously, what is it about making a bait change, getting a bite within the first or second cast and then nothing?? I can't tell you how many times that's happened to me. I believe they're decoy fish. They are chosen by their peers to divert us from the true pattern for the day.  

 

 

 

[Champ188]

7 minutes ago, Macsimus said:

If only you would've asked me beforehand. You should've hit Woolly. Caught the heck out of them in there a couple of years ago.

Seriously, what is it about making a bait change, getting a bite within the first or second cast and then nothing?? I can't tell you how many times that's happened to me. I believe they're decoy fish. They are chosen by their peers to divert us from the true pattern for the day.  

 

 

 

Funny you should mention Woolly. It dawned on me after I posted that we made a quick stop on those right-side docks going in as we were heading in from Buzzard. In fact, Donna caught her short Rock Crawler fish in between a couple of those docks. Didn't go very far back in there. Was starting to rain pretty good and we were worn out by then.

LOL about the decoy fish. I think you're right.

[Macsimus]

7 minutes ago, Champ188 said:

Funny you should mention Woolly. It dawned on me after I posted that we made a quick stop on those right-side docks going in as we were heading in from Buzzard. In fact, Donna caught her short Rock Crawler fish in between a couple of those docks. Didn't go very far back in there. Was starting to rain pretty good and we were worn out by then.

LOL about the decoy fish. I think you're right.

Props to both of you for hanging in there for a tough day. 37 is a bit nippy even for this tundra dweller. Even so, I'm still jealous.  

Great read, as always.