Forbay Sat. 3/26

Well nothing gigantic but every fish I caught to day was a keeper. Best day as far as quality goes for me on the Forebay.

I launched around 8am at Ken and Josephs camp. Allen was there as well and was already in the water. The water was about 4" higher than last weekend which ment the flats and weed beds where in about 6" of water.

I launched and started trolling right away. I made my way out to the channel and hung a right. I passed up a little floating weed bed then my rod went bendo. The fish hit then got tangled up in some weeds. After wrenching him out (as much as I could with 8# test) he gave me a pretty good fight. I landed him and weighed him, 3.7 my biggest striper yet!





I released him and continued trolling. I hooked up again pretty quickly with another fish that was only a touch smaller than the first. I called everyone on the radio to come over. Ken showed up and hooked up and landed a nice one.



We continued to troll and I picked up about 3 more fish, all between 20-22 inches. I decided to head back in to get a drink and take a break. On the way in I hooked up and landed another fish. To this point I had been releasing but I decided to keep this on. I paddled a bit more and look over at Ken and he has a double hook up, then I get bent . I am watching Ken trying to deal with his double and trying to take a pic of his crazy situation when my fish gets off. I cast back out and I get hooked up again! This on put up a nice fight and I fought it for about 10 minutes. I hauled it in and weighed it, 3.9 topping my previous best of the day.



I let my other fish go (he was still in good shape) and paddled in. Ken let me hold his fish as a stand in.



Great day on the Forebay! I landed 7 fish, all keepers. Now I am ready for some hogs!

And while Bill was landing 7 keepers, it was my day to catch the little ones.  I ended the day releasing 6 of them.  Bill used some secret mojo today.

Awesome sunrise this morning.  Lots of color and to the west the full moon was setting.

-Allen

"Hot-Stick-Bill" does it again    So, do you mind sharing your "secret" lure" ?  

I was using my modified smithwick rogue. Here is how I modified it:

1. Remove front treble. It is only there to tangle your net and/or hook into your thumb.

2. Replace the rear hook with my home made tinsel teaser. Red #4 treble hook with red tinsel.

This is the best picture I have of it right now.

Great idea on that modification - looks edible to me   / thanks for the tip!

I'm thinking of just putting a single hook on the rear and tying a silver and red tinsel.

Another interesting thing I have noticed with this mod installed is that I have yet to catch an undersize fish on it. Maybe 1 out of ~15 fish I have landed on it so far was under 18".

I have tied a 2/0 single hook with tinsel as well, I don't think it looks as good, not enough bling.

I should be tying some more this week, if anyone wants to test some out drop me a PM and I will tie you some free samples.

where do you get the tinsel? Hobby shops?

Perhaps the bigger profiles deters the smaller ones.

Hmmm ... I wonder how the mods affect the action of the lures.  I'm guessing removing the top hooks makes the lure have more action, but the tail counteracts this much like a kite tail add stability.  Probably a wash with both mods.  Bill, next time run 1 with the mods and 1 without and see what happens.

-Allen

Bill,
Nice fish!!  
I noticed from the pict of your "hot lure" that it looks like you tied the line direct with a hard knot.  A lot of guys will tie the lure with either "loop" type knot or use a small snap.  It's supposed to give the lure a little bit more action on the wiggle.  

In your case, it didn't seem to matter!!

Stuart

I get the tinsel at Michaels hobby shop, Josh turned me on to it. It is located in the gift wrapping section.

Stuart,

I have always direct tied my lures. I hate those swivel snap things, I seem to catch less fish when I use them. I might try the loop type knots, the only one I know is a surgeons loop though. What knot would you recommend?

I use the perfection loop.  There are a different ways to tie it.  One involves slipping the lure through a loop, which obviously is problematic with a big lure with a bunch of trebles on it.  The other ties the same knot without the hassles.  I don't have a link to a diagram right now.  If you can't find one on the net, I'll show you the next time out.

-Allen

I also use a Perfection Loop.  It's great for live bait hooks too.

Yup ... that's the way I tie it.  Thanks ChuckE.

-Allen

Bill,

I don't know the name of the knot, but basically, I double up the line, thread it through the lure, put 1 twist and put the lure back through the loop.  It will look like a figure "8", just before you pull tight.

It is sort of a paint to put the lure with trebles back through the loop though.

BTW, this is SUPPOSED to give the lure better action, with the hard knot diminishing from it somewhat.

If your catching fish, stick with what works.  

If you start having one of those day's when every one around you is catching fish, but your not, then its time to apply the little changes that may make a difference.

Stuart

Chuck,
What was Ricky doing on Sat?  Did I mention, I did not get a bite!!!!!  

PS, sinking rattle traps go too deep in 3-4 ft of water.  I kept bumping bottom.  The only thing I could do was speed up the troll or keep the lure basically in the backwash of the prop.  I wish I had a bobber and some live jacksmelt.  That would have been a lot of fun.

Stuart

Stu, that knot you described sounds like a Palomar knot.

Ricky was trolling my same suspending ghost Rapala X-Rap.  I told him to keep an eye on the rod tip.  If it was bumping bottom, just reel in a bit until it was off the bottom.  As long as the rod tip was vibrating nicely, the lure was in the zone.

Also, there was something magical about those feather (or bucktail) trebles.  Just ask Steve.  He wasn't catching much until he replaced his lure's tail hook with one.