Kim City - another tagged LM and vertical vs horizontal bite

[Dock-in-it]

Started out this morning in the fog and finally made it to my destination. The fishing has been tough for me this week. Could find some fish but nothing bunched up. But this morning was excellent, the fish where bugging the shad on top and throughout the water column. In the first few minutes I caught another tagged LM. This time I studied the tag and seen a tag number and website. Fishtagger.com. The fish weighed 4lbs 7oz. I looked up the tag online and another person caught the same tag# in 2014 and mentioned the fish weighed 4.8 lbs. I sent the guy an email and hopefully he will respond. I caught the fish on a ice jig in about 60 foot of water. I caught more on the ice jig and lost a few good ones. I was on a bunch of fish and they were ignoring my jig. There were fish chasing shad on top and I thought they were small. I picked up my spinning rod rigged for vertical fishing with 6lbs line and a 3/8 jig head with 4" yamamoto smoke red flake grub. I started casting to see if a horizonal presentation would work and started catching fish routinely. All three species. I caught a 6lbs 2 oz LM that I netted and the hook never penetrated and fell out in the net. The tagged LM was caught 200 yds from the last one i caught in December. I noticed Mill Creek ramp had about 5 bassboat rigs in the parking lot. If they used an A-rig they probably did well. I did try a 3" plain swimbait and a under-spin, but they preferred the c-tail yamamoto. The kastmaster spoon fished horizontal will catch a few, but they seem to get wise to it after a few catches.

[Devan S.]

Interesting that a fish over 4 years didn't effectively gain any weight(assuming some discrepancy in measurement systems). What time of the year did he catch the fish? Is he the tagger?

[Dock-in-it]

Sorry, my mistake. He caught the fish on 7/14/2018. The date was displayed as 2018-7-14 and I looked at 14 as the yr since it was the last number. He may be the tagger since his entry is the only one for the tag#.

[Quillback]

Some great fish, congrats!

[Devan S.]

4 hours ago, Dock-in-it said:

Sorry, my mistake. He caught the fish on 7/14/2018. The date was displayed as 2018-7-14 and I looked at 14 as the yr since it was the last number. He may be the tagger since his entry is the only one for the tag#.

Ahhh interesting though that you have managed to catch 2 now.

[fishinwrench]

That yellow parasite hanging off his shoulders is not gonna make him very attractive to the ladies come Spring.   

Would you wanna date anyone with a house arrest bracelet ?   

[Bill Babler]

Dock, that is a fantastic detailed report.  Cannot tell you how much we appreciate it.  Congrats on being one of the brave ones that got out yesterday early, it really paid off for you.

Be interesting to know how many fish this dude tagged.

At 7:30 this morning in the rain boats were running here at the mouth of Long Creek, and I did hear my duck hunters for one volley about 8.  You all are a super dedicated bunch and we appreciate any of this fantastic info in the Winter.

Thanks much.

[bobby b.]

3 minutes ago, Bill Babler said:

At 7:30 this morning in the rain boats were running here at the mouth of Long Creek, and I did hear my duck hunters for one volley about 8.

Bill, it sounds like you know the duck hunters.  Can you tell me about where they setup?  Just curious.  Thanks

[Bill Babler]

Don't know them, but have kind of claimed them as they have hunted EVERYDAY for about a month straight.  it is just amazing how dedicated these guys are.  I guess they are now goose hunting.  I don't know what seasons are still open, but they are blasting every morning, sleet, ice, cold, fog, rain or shine.

I bet they go to bed before I do and I did not think that was possible.

They are hunting the High Dive Island and the Clevenger Island both right out in front of the Lodge.  Seems like one day one island and the next day the other

They seem to always right at daylight give a barrage, and then about 8 we will hear them shoot another volley.

Night before last we were enjoying the hot tube and there were just hundreds of geese on the lake all from Clevenger to the Long Creek Bridge and lots flying and honking right at sunset.  It was very cool to see all those birds.  Earlier there were some mallards but have not seen any ducks of late.

[Dock-in-it]

The person that tagged the fish responded to my email. He mentioned tagging about 18 fish last year. Based on a general understanding of the release area, the two fish I caught migrated about 1/3 of a mile.