Mead 8-15-13

[wolfs4evr]

One of the extremely rare times I am able to hit the water mid week. Was SILLLLY nice. Only two of us launched at sun up and when I came back I had the ramp and parking lot more or less to myself. Madi didn't go so I was solo. She is trying to get back into a "school" routine and getting up at 3 wasn't fitting in. lol Now that she is a "teenager" dunno how much longer I am even going to have a fishing partner...

Anyways fishing is hot. Nothing big but between 6am and noon I averaged 10 fish a hour. Not a bad day. Only caught a couple after 12. Was out scouting new areas and they were not productive. Back at the marina and loaded by 4 and the Stripers I kept for the smoker were all cleaned up by 430. Home at a decent time.

It is all about moving baits right now. They are on the prowel. The worm rod and jig rod got zero tugs on them today but the crank rods were off the hook. Squarebills down to 6XD 20 foot diving cranks. Old faithful dropshot got a little work out plus swimming grubs on the other spinning rod.

I even pulled a decent smallie out of 40+ foot water with a shallow depth jerk bait. It moves they will come for it!

Got into the Stripers too. 2 hours of more or less every cast fish on. From shallow running cranks to the 6XD crank it didn't matter. I left after getting bored with them with graph screen still clobered with Stripers.



Some other pics of the day.

Dropshot:


Squarebill:


Jerkbait:


Yama Grub:


Rapalla Scatter Rap:


And then... The real fun of the day. One of the very few times I have been out there alone and I needed a third hand bad! It was the monkey (*&#$ a football comic to the "T".

So here I am catching Striper after Striper as fast as possible. I want a dozen "decent" sized ones for the smoker tomorrow before the boil goes away. If they are small I just lift them out of the water by the line and grab the crank. Then grap the treble with the needle nose and give them a shake off. Simple enough. Been doing it for years... Dunno what this stucker did but one good shake and now we are both hooked. One treble in me and one in him. I get him under control and grab his lips with the needle nose to keep him from shaking around and have my other hand tied up with a hook in it. This is where the third hand would of been super nice. I must of stood there for 5 minutes thinking now what. How in the heck am I going to keep him from bouncing and get a hook out of him then me. Finally it dawned on me to pin him between my legs and the rear deck. He didn't move. I was able to get the hook out of him then onto me.

I would of never imagined human skin is that darn tough. What a bear to get that sucker out. I tried to pinch the barb and it wasn't coming out so I cut the end of the hook off and even that it was a 100% bear to push it back through. Finally succeeded and back to fishing.

That fish, though it was on the small side, went into the livewell as a matter of principal!



I kept a dozen Stripers... All seasoned up and will be ready for the smoker in the morning!


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[Jellywjorm2]

Man, would have been nice. Sorry 'bout the thumb. Just wish I could have been out there.





Fish On
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[Erawk]

Thanks for the report, Wolf. As I scrolled through I was thinking what a nice day on the water, then....... OUCH! I've impaled myself a time or two. Oh the horror of having a flopping fish attached to it. I'm glad you managed to sort out the situation on your own. Did the hook enter and exit when you got stuck, or did you have to push it through to get at the barb?

Great pics and report as usual.
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[wolfs4evr]

"Luckily" it was all the way through. That was a major relief to see once I had the flopping fish under control. Just a matter of snipping the tip/barb off and removal.
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[07yzryder]

sounds like 98% awesome day! never seen a finder look like that lol i imagine at that point they'll probably hit a bare hook lol. I need to get out there on my kayak and find some boils and some fish.

If you ever need a partner to fish with I got nothing but time right and can pitch in some fuel and snacks/beverages
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[wolfs4evr]

I think I could of caught one on a bare hook! There was so many fish. Didn't matter what direction I casted or what I casted for hours. Shallow cranks to 20 foot divers. Almost every cast a fish. I even caught my first double Striper on one crank. I lost one of them as I was swinging them over the side so no picture of that catch. Strike King 6XD crank.
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[NVFishin]

Great report and ouch!
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[TT600]

Sounds like the fishing is much better on lake mead in the summer time. my next trip to Mead however will probably be Dec 30. Powell is 100 miles closer to my house.
were you catching your fish in clear water or stained? nearly all boats I saw last winter were fishing up in the cloudy water.
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[wolfs4evr]

Crystal clear water. Really only the extreme north end of the lake is stained from the river flowing in.
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[wolfs4evr]

I went again on Saturday the 17th. Madi was mad that she didn't go Thursday since the weather was soooo nice. Anyways, go figure another tournament happening. Two Saturdays in a row with that luck. So I avoided them and hit other spots. Fishing was ~. The weather just straight up sucked! I swear the humidity was pegged at 100% at 5:30am. Plus it was like 85 already. I was sweating so bad my vision was blurred before my first cast/sunrise.

Caught just shy of 40. Nothing special at all. Worked hard for them. Spent a good part of the day swimming and doing our best to stay cool and alive. Multiple dips to cool off.

My trolling motor got hot on me or at least something did. Popped the fuse/breaker for it. Not so sure it was just the air temp. I'm betting the combo of the water temp (mid 80s) plus air temp that caused that overload. Plus I was tooling around on full power sight fishing. I have ran on full power for looooong hauls before when bed fishing (way cooler weather overall) and never a issue. I wasn't on it all that long before this issue hit this instance. Sure hope that is the case and nothing is wrong elsewhere. Re-set the fuse and went for a swim. It was fine the rest of the day but I took it easy on the power from then on out the rest of the day.

Not doing the 113 thing again. 10 degrees higher than our "normal" that day. Too dam HOT! Should of reloaded the boat up for trout fishing and headed to the Utah mountain lakes.

I also went down to check on the sunken B29. Couldn't see it for shiot. Dunno what is up with that. Last time I checked it out I got a ton of good Down Imaging pictures of it. Dunno if my transducer is showing it's age or the little I messed with settings for something that deep where not it. Maybe some of the last updates for my 898 changed things around. Dunno. I knew it was there just because but couldn't make squat out like last time.
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