May 1, Lower End

[Quillback]

Launched at 0600 and fished most of the morning, left at 1030.  

The 2.8 Keitech was my best bait, fish were a bit off the bank, most were in 10 FOW.  Also caught a couple on the ned, a couple on a 3/16 oz jig, and a couple on top.

There was some top water activity to include stripers early.  Did not connect with any stripers but caught a spot and a smallie out there over 75 FOW.  Wind got up a bit and that sent the fish down.

I have started using plastic grippers to hold fish that I catch on lures that have multiple sets of trebles, I'm tired of getting stuck and with old age comes a certain loss of reaction time - in other words I ain't as fast as I used to be.

Biggest smallie was 18".  Spawned out fish, fought like an old shoe.  All the 14 inchers I caught today fought much harder than that fish.

I caught 21 total, 4 were bigger than 15".

Did not see any MLF boats.

WT 67

 

[snagged in outlet 3]

Nice!    I use 9” needle nose pliers and a net.   Nothing worse than treble hooks when you’re fishing alone.   

[breeves2245]

I hear ya on the gripper. I got that and needle nose pliers. If I discovered at the launch that I somehow had neither I think I'd just go home. 

[Bill Babler]

I’ve tried those grippers. Becky bought me two sizes and I cannot hold a fighting fish with them. 
what grippers are you using and does it work well?

[Quillback]

56 minutes ago, Bill Babler said:

I’ve tried those grippers. Becky bought me two sizes and I cannot hold a fighting fish with them. 
what grippers are you using and does it work well?

The one I have is a Spro.  It looks like they stopped making them.  Rapala looks to have something similar.  They are cheap plastic, but they have a lock down feature which really helps to hold the fish.  Only place I can find them on the web is here:

SPRO 9 Inch Fish Gripper — Discount Tackle

[Bill Babler]

I have 2 sizes of the Rapala’s and they won’t even think about holding a squirming fish. 

[Quillback]

1 hour ago, Bill Babler said:

I have 2 sizes of the Rapala’s and they won’t even think about holding a squirming fish. 

Done some more looking around, Amazon has a Mossy Oak 10.5 gripper that has the locking feature.  The Spor one i have, you have to put the business end inside the fishes mouth then lock it down.  If you try and lip them with it, they will squirm out.  

[rps]

If you look at my avatar, you will see me holding a toothy walleye with my Boga grip. After an infamous incident with an angry bass and a spook, I spent the money. It was worth it. It went with the boat when I sold it.

If you spring for that kind of money, knot one end of a small diameter rope. Slide a washer down to the knot. Slide an 18 inch piece of a pool noodle down to the washer. Run the other end of the rope through the tools handle hole and knot it at what ever length you like. Eased my mind about dropping the darn thing overboard.