11/19 Report

[Vinsott]

Dragged some brooders and jigged a spoon around the islands and prairie creek.  Must have been a Sunday tournament because they all came roaring past me between 3:30 and 4.  Caught small whites on spoons.  Small I mean between 8-10". A spot , small striper and a nice white on brooders and that was it.  It was beautiful though and enjoyed the late afternoon outing. The striper was too small to count as a striper catch. I'll get em next time.

[Stump bumper]

I was down around horseshoe and about the same results. Water was really off color could not see shad to net so had to throw at flipping shad. Drug two shad all afternoon and no stripper. I did get some bigger spots and large mouth by throwing a ned rig at surfacing fish. Lots of bass boats running around, some wrapped.

Found some shad balls but no big wall of shad or active feeding fish. Water temp 58.

[Alumacraft190]

Ill chime in with what hardly qualifies as a report given the results. Came in Thursday night and fished Fri Sat and this morning until 12:15.  Friday was a windy day which kept us from hitting the islands around PC hard.  Did mark a few fish around the islands but saw more activity into PC.  Fri at sunset we got into the whites and one 8.5 lb striper on topwater, they were busting surface.  Saturday was miserable, fished 645-2:30 when we had finally had enough.  We fished mostly PC before the front rolled in and then moved around the bluff to the east toward coose and the water inlet with no success.  Scouted between the islands out of the wind and it was a blank screen.  Moved to the south bluff on deer island and marked some fish with less bait, we made 4-5 passes tight to the bluff and didnt pick anything up.  By then we were pretty miserable with the weather and called it quits.  Sunday we got a bit later start and put in at Horseshoe and went south.  All I can say is bait bait bait and more bait.  PC had a lot of bait, but nothing compared to what we saw down south.  We did pick up 1 striper on a freeline, but too small to take credit for.

All said tough 3 days of fishing.  Even tougher weather.  Ill be back though and get them next time.  A special thanks to Dan for taking the time to hang out with a few out of staters, really enjoyed it despite the weather and less than ideal success.

[Fish Hound]

I was further south in the War Eagle arm Sunday and could not net any shad. The color there was more stained than previous, not bad but more than before. Maybe the wind on Friday and Saturday stirred it up? Ended up trolling cranks and jigged a spoon under a shad ball I saw on the locator but only a few small whites. A couple of times would see some small surface activity and would cast to it with a curly tail but no takers. My little lowrance elite 4 doesn't have a temp sensor so only would be a guesstimate on water temp.

[Alumacraft190]

Water temp at Hickory was 57, didnt go further south than that.  With the low temps Saturday into Sunday I would imagine the temps at PC to be about same as I saw between HB and HC

[Stump bumper]

Seems they have to go below 50 to get the shad moving back into the creeks in droves and that is when the stripers are easier to find. Won't be long.