Late - McSwain Thanksgiving AM Report

First time skunked at this lake.     First skunk from the kayak. 

Trolled everything under the sun - rapalas, shad raps, rebels, flashers, micro flashers, dodgers, and mini dodgers.

Probably trolling to fast.  Oh well, better luck next time.

Michael

Sorry to hear about the skunk.

I took the yaks out on Friday. There were a lot of people there so I wasn't able to fish from where I like to hang out at so we fished the point right between the store and the swimming area.

I ended up taking my neice, nephew, and son so I didn't get to spend much time in the yak.  My brother had a couple of good hookups but ended up skuned on the yak.  Caught a couple from shore though.

Glad to hear that all NCKAers weren't skunked!   

In my 5 hours on the lake, I saw 2 separate boat anglers each land a fish, saw one on a stringer of a bank angler, and was told of 2 more caught - pretty slow for McSwain.  I chalked up my failure to trolling speed - way too fast.

I wasn't able to fish from where I like to hang out at

Any chance you might divulge that spot? 

I know that I like to troll from Gilligan's Island to the second fence post but that is not exactly top secret.  I have also had success fishing the little waterfall that is halfway to the McClure dam.  In addition, I've gone up to the dam and just drifted worms until the current won't carry you any further.

Michael

It's not a secret spot    Once you pay and head towards the lake, rather than turn right at the paved road towards the store/launch keep heading down the road until you come to the first curve in the road. There you turn right onto the dirt road and head down the hill.  There is a bathroom and plenty of shade.  Seems to be a somewhat productive area but my reason for likeing to hang out there is that I can back the truck up to the waterline...makes it easy to load/unload the yaks (I'm lazy) and I can just relax in the bed of the truck with the tunes and some beer.

From there I usually get in the yak and go pretty much straight across to the opposite side of the lake...you'll see two coves, I almost always catch fish in the one on the right (as you face the opposite side of the lake from where you parked).  I've dived there a few times and seen quite a few trout in there.

I don't know the names of any of the spots there.

Night crawlers with a  green garlic marshmellow do pretty well but I personally like to cast KastMasters, the small ones in the pink (trout?) pattern.  I also do pretty well with the shad rap (SR5).  Only tried minnows there a couple of times and never had any luck with them.

Ah, so that is how you get there.  I spent a half hour trying to figure out how to get there because you recommended it, but I finally gave up and just launched from the ramp.

Yeah, I think they call the piece of land that is between the two coves Gilligan's Island.  Not sure why because it is not an island, but whatcha gonna do?   

I've caught trout trolling across the cove that you dive in.  Never stopped to exclusively fish it though, will have to give it a go next time if you don't mind.

When you dive, are you wearing a wetsuit?  The water is pretty cold.  Although I guess if your diving during the summer, the air temp. does get hotter than balls.  Are you snorkeling or diving with a tank?  That would be pretty fun, but another expensive hobby.

Oddly enough, I've never caught anything using minnows either.  Kinda weird.

What is the bass population like in that lake?  I know there are some, but rarely hear of them caught.  Have you ever seen any while diving?

Michael

Yeah, one time I went out I was just wearing my 3mil farmer john (the one I use for yaking in the ocean).  It was a pretty warm day but once you get down to about 10 feet of water it gets pretty cold.  I was out there just trying to figure out if I really wanted to try freediving before I went out and bought all of my gear.

Now that I've taken a few classes and bought all of my gear, including a full wet suit, I've been out freediving a few times and am really glad I decided to go forward with the new experience.  Soon I'll go back out there to the lake and take a better look at what's going on down there.

McSwain doesn't seem to have a bass population...I'm sure there are a few but I've never caught one myself and haven't seen any while diving.  Everyone who targets them goes to McClure.