TR through the weekend.

[BilletHead]

2 hours ago, Johnsfolly said:

Finally got to editing the photos that JestersHK took while he and I were fishing last Sat. I caught the smallmouth and walleye on a stickbait and the sucker on a 1/8 oz marabou zig jig.

Smallmouth - since I was hoping for a brown trout this was the wrong brown fish for Sat night but a nice fighting fish.

My PB walleye (ok only my second walleye ever) - estimated 19 to 20"

This fish fought so hard that I was convinced that it was a brown trout, but it wasn't. It's likely a white sucker, but I know a guy that knows about these fishes. So hopefully he will confirm the id of this fish. By the way, JestersHK's grip didn't taste so good . What can you do when night fishing?

No pictures of the procession of rainbows. Did catch a few with some serious shoulders. Seemed to fight harder at night. I hope to get down there again soon. JHK put us on the fish!

          More good shots of yours and Jesters trip. Well done fellows. John what time of the evening or wee hours of the morning was that last picture with the sucker taken? Looks like you were ready to go to sleep

BilletHead

[Johnsfolly]

2 minutes ago, BilletHead said:

John what time of the evening or wee hours of the morning was that last picture with the sucker taken?

Between 12:30 and 12:45 am. Not as young as I used to be.

[Johnsfolly]

I also do want to say that I was fishing Wilson's creek at 6:30 am Sat morning and then the Delaware access of the James river. No fish at Wilson's creek, but did catch this 14" smallmouth at 9:30 am in the James.

Then a day spent with the family touring the Smallin Civil War cave and Relics Antique mall before meeting JHK at 9:15 pm down at Taney. So I don't look near as bad as I probably felt at the time. Good thing we were catching fish to keep me awake .

[JestersHK]

Haha, we were waiting for the infamous 1:00am bite.  For some reason the fish turn on at 1.  You can really lose all sense of time out there at night.  Many times I'll fish right up to dawn not even realizing it...

John we'll have to plan a marathon weekend with just the boys.  Get some day fishing in too, and see the lake from a boat.  Hopefully less flow and we can get the fly rods wet.

I'm back home now... Back to the grind... I already miss it as this was an excellent trip despite only being able to fish at night.  

John's day sounded like mine.  Lots of family stuff, but I'm thankful for it and I then have evening fishing to look forward to, I know one thing, I'll sleep good tonight.

 

[Seth]

17 hours ago, Haris122 said:

Seth, what did you guys catch the white suckers on the best over the years?

Half of a nightcrawler caught the majority of them, but we also caught some on corn. We never put air in our worms so they would lay on the bottom for the suckers and still caught quite a few trout. We hooked several of our biggest trout doing that without injecting the worms with air. When I was younger and didn't have a boat, I would spend hours walking around on the dock looking for white suckers with a half of a nightcrawler and a piece of corn (for visibility) and sight fish for them. When I saw one, I could ease the bait down to the bottom and get it a few inches in from of their nose and they would suck it in nearly everytime. We introduced several people during our stays down there to freshly caught fried suckers. Most preferred them over the trout.

[snagged in outlet 3]

14 minutes ago, Seth said:

Most preferred them over the trout.

Amen there brother.

[grizwilson]

16 hours ago, Johnsfolly said:

I also do want to say that I was fishing Wilson's creek at 6:30 am Sat morning and then the Delaware access of the James river. No fish at Wilson's creek, but did catch this 14" smallmouth at 9:30 am in the James.

Then a day spent with the family touring the Smallin Civil War cave and Relics Antique mall before meeting JHK at 9:15 pm down at Taney. So I don't look near as bad as I probably felt at the time. Good thing we were catching fish to keep me awake .

I thought I recognized your tracks in my backyard....my pet smallies need some exercise while I am down, thanks for helping out. You are standing near where the guy got the cotton mouth to bite him a couple years ago. Some good fish above and below. Glad you had a good trip!

[Johnsfolly]

2 hours ago, grizwilson said:

I thought I recognized your tracks in my backyard....my pet smallies need some exercise while I am down, thanks for helping out

Griz

Glad to help out with their exercise program. This one was good and healthy, You must feeding them right as well . Would love to see someone sweep that area for old fishing line. Lost the bait that caught this smallie on an old line. While travelling to the Smallin cave, I actually did mention your name and that you and I had met at Jigfest last Dec and that you lived in that area.

[JestersHK]

Ugh... Man work stinks LOL.  Final tally from this weekend.  What a great multi-species trip.  11 different species in one location is pretty awesome.  Night bite was on, not quite on fire, but at times you were getting bumped just about every cast. I crimp all my trebles on my sticks and I lost prolly 3-4 fish per night who popped off before I could tell what they were.  Most nights we fished from about 9-10pm till 2-4am.  We threw floating 2 hook rapallas in various colors, and also some of the bigger 2 hook x raps in various colors.  I also caught a few on a trout pattern rooster tail.  I jigged a bit too and used 1/8 sculpin, white, yellow / red,  and white / grey maribou.  Used 10lb braid on sticks and rolled the dice with 4lb maxima for jigging.

Rainbows - I personally Caught 21 Bows, biggest being a fat little 16incher.  My BIL and John both had a few nice Bows as well.  One night we didn't catch a single trout though LOL.  Most of the bows had full tails and looked like they had been there a while.  Only 1 or 2 little dink stockers

Brown Trout - BIL caught 2 brown trout.  A small 13-14 incher and then a nice 16incher who had just some amazing spot patterns on him.

White Bass -  White Bass galore... Honestly not sure how many we caught but it was a bunch.  I probably caught over a dozen easy with the biggest going about 3lbs with a huge broad back on him.  BIL and John both caught them too.  They are a solid fish and man do they put up a great fight.

Small Mouth - John had the one and only smallie.

Large Mouth - I caught just one and he was a little guy

Kentucky - Same thing just one little guy who was pretty beat up from taking the plunge I guess

Crappie - Had 2 smaller crappie, with one barely longer than my x rap

Green Sunfish - I saw a guy on Thursday catching these and John was able to land one.

Drum - Not sure how I hooked this guy on a rooster tail but somehow he was mouth hooked

White Sucker - Johns big sucker was a drag peeler and I was hoping he had a big Brown on...

Walleyes - Walleye stole the show.  Some big mean ones too with 3 being right at and just above 23 inches.  Smallest was maybe 18- 19 incher.  They fought harder than some of the other walters I've caught down there before.  I think the final tally for all of us was 15 or 16 of them.  There's 4 less in there now as we had an awesome fish fry saturday.

Good times indeed.  Until next time!