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Bob and I met up just before 10a and after a quick boat cover fix, we were fishing by 10:30a.
It was chilly and humid but there was no wind.
The original plan was to run way up river but I decided to hop scotch so I wouldn't get cold. Bob sat behind me facing back so he was well protected.
The 1st stop was at John's walleye hole but we got no bites.
The next stop was at the rocks at Lansdowne. We fished every square inch and had no bites.
so...we took off up river and stopped at the cliff by the golf course.
Here, we soaked a lot of bait and right before we made a move, I scored with a 13.75"er on a purple hellgrammite.
Now my skunk is off but Bob kept saying that he was 0-2 the last 2 trips so we needed him to get one.
After we abused the spot, I decided to drift down a bit and was surprised that we had some nice depth. I remember seeing a report about someone catching fish here so I was relaying the story to Bob and all of the sudden, he has a fish on!
A nice 15.5"er in 6-8 ' of water!
As Bob was fighting it, he said for me to hit the spot lock but I had already decided to move (glad I didn't) so I had stowed the TM.
Now everything was OK so we headed on up river to fish more cliffs.
The 1st stretch produced nothing and I was headed down to where George pointed out last time (I got a nice one there). But plans change so I decided to hit the eddies at Harrison. Trouble was that the water needs to be near 5' for those eddies to work otherwise it's too shallow. Good for summer but not for cold water. I was about ready to move (had announced it) and Bob hooks up with a flying smallie! Finally, a spunky fish!
This one went 14.5".
On an underspin of all things!
We headed down to the cliffs and no bites but I could see there was little water. Last time there, the river was around 5'...today it was 3' at POR.
We fished some more and I looked to see what time it was and noted that it was 4p and that we should get going. Bob then said, "check again...it's after 5p"!
Well...I need to change the time on my TM remote!
Right before we go, I hook up to a very nice fish (blue tube w/ curly tail) on my M rod. I am winning the battle...Bob get ready to net it and says, "that's a big fish", and just like that...GONE! Did he spit the hook? Nope! I never really had him hooked. After I inspected the tube, the point was blunt. This was an old tube I had laying around and I never even thought to check the point. The fish just turned and swam away.
Was I disappointed? Ahhhh...YES!
Anyway, it was time to go so we made a few more casts and off we went.
We were pretty far up river so it took a while to get down. We spotted John and Emerson so we chatted for a minute.
I thought Emerson was a little kid. At least that's what I remember. He looked more like a high schooler now!
Nice day out...we were a little chilly at times but not so bad.
Now, they are predicting a 7' rise (we'll see how accurate they are) after tomorrow's rain.
Next week...shad time!
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Another fun day on the river with Ernie. He's understating the one that got away, that was a really big fish. I got a real good look at it as it made a broadside pass, looked to be at least a 20"er. That was just before the tube popped out of the water.
The heater in the truck felt good on the way home, and not even a slow down approaching the WW.
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I did forget to add that I lost my brand new LC Pointer (from Ollies) when I made too strong of a cast. We almost got it but it was suspending deep and I could not reach it. A few minutes later, me brand new Berkley SP goes snap off the line but we did find it.
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Great report!
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Glad to see you put Bob on some fish! Tough loss on the big one. Those keep you coming back.
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Fish in the boat, win!
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Looks like spring is starting out much better than fall ended!
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Ernie wrote:
Now, they are predicting a 7' rise (we'll see how accurate they are) after tomorrow's rain.
Pffft...the river is only gonna bump 1'. These NWS prognosticators average 75% wrong! But rising water means a good time to fish!
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Curly wrote:
Looks like spring is starting out much better than fall ended!
I have more hope now but there are still few fish to be had.
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drxfish wrote:
Tough loss on the big one.
Yep...Bill called me last night to harass me about it. I deserved it!
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Great report - sorry for the heart break
I think that sometimes the big girls are not hook. When they suck in the bait, they clamp down their mouth and the hook set pulls them forward because the clamp down on the line so hard. Then something causes them to open their mouth and spit out the hook & bait
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Could be. The fish was swimming downriver when the hook came out. Had not turned it yet. Trust me, this hook was dull. Wouldn't stick in my finger. I spend a couple of minutes sharpening it after the incident.
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Yeah, the mouths are harder to penetrate in the cold as well. Good to know there is a big one nearby!
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