FISHINGTRIPS2006-1

FISHING TRIPS 2006 page 1

April 11-13, 2006: Lake Cumberland KY.

For our first trip of the year Tim and I went to Lake Cumberland to learn how to catch Stripped Bass. The lake is long and deep and is noted for its big 20-40 pound “Stripers”. They pull hard and will strip line off of your reel while making long runs. We hired a guide on Wednesday and met him at the marina at 6:45 a.m. He had a bait tank of alewives in his boat which he had caught by tossing a cast net around the break wall at the marina earlier in the morning.

He took us to spot along a bank that tapered down to about 30-35 feet before dropping steeply into a creek channel. He explained that the Stripers cruise along the shoreline looking for baitfish. His technique for fishing this situation was to pound two 10-foot aluminum poles into the shoreline and tie up his boat to them. He then would cast out a Carolina rig with a ½ oz. sinker and about a 3-4 foot leader using 20 lb. test line. He used a small stainless steel octopus hook which he hooked through the alewives lips from the bottom up. He would leave the rig on the bottom until a fish took the bait.

At times he would use a balloon rig which is a balloon tied around a loop in the line. This rig allows the baitfish to swim around freely. When a Striper takes the bait he swims off and pulls the loop out of the balloon while feeling little resistance. He also tried slow trolling with the live bait at various depths. He would put out a few rods with planer boards and a couple straight down at various depths. We marked fish on the depth finder but we could not entice any to bite. We tried these techniques at a few spots throughout the day and only managed to catch a few drum and a catfish.

Thursday we went out with Al Bertke and his nephew Chris. The guide had netted some baitfish for us and let us use his poles. By the time we got to our first spot and tied up most of the baitfish had died. Soon a rod near Chris started peeling off line. Chris grabbed the rod and set the hook and landed about a 5 pound Striper. A little later a rod near me showed signs of a bite and I managed to reel in a 7 pound Striper. After a short time all the baitfish had died in the tank and that was it for the Striper fishing. We then fished a few hours for bass and Al caught a Spotted bass. We then called it quits, packed up, and headed home.

June 1-8, 2006: Lake St. Clair

Tim, Dan, Jeff, Heavy and I spent the first week of June fishing the clear waters of Lake St. Clair. The weather was in the upper 60’ and 70’s all week with little wind or rain. The Smallmouth were scattered everywhere from 3 feet to 12 feet. The area around grassy was the best and St. Patrick’s produced a few good size fish. About everyone caught fish over 4 pounds and Heavy’s 5 pounder was the biggest of the week. We caught a few ‘Eyes’ as well as a Pike or two while no Muskies were landed. The best baits were Senko type worms, Strike Kings ‘Zulu’, Fluke type lures and tubes.

June 18-20, 2006
By John Corley

On Father’s Day, June 18th, my Uncle Tim, Dad and I went on a fishing trip to Lake St. Clair. It took us five hours to drive to a cottage that was on a canal that went out to the lake. When we got there we didn’t get to fish right away because we had to unpack and put my Uncle’s boat in the water. When we finally got out on the lake the wind was very strong making it hard to fish. Since it was windy we decided to drift fish for Walleye, but we didn’t have any luck. We then tried for Bass and eventually caught 8-10 more Smallmouths. Then it was time to head in to eat at a restaurant called Bob & Buoy’s. After dinner we went to talk to a friend of my uncles and dad, Pip, who has a trailer at the lake. Later we went back to our place and watch the movie Hardball before going to bed.

The next morning we ate breakfast and went back out on the lake and tried for Walleye again for a little bit, but we still didn’t have any luck. We did catch a couple of Rock Bass, Sunfish and a small Perch. Then we went back to our place and had some lunch and went back out. Soon my Uncle Tim had a bite. We waited to see what it was. It was a Walleye! That made us more confident but unfortunately we didn’t catch any more.

We then fished for bass and my dad caught a 4 pound Smallmouth. We fished for some more bass until we saw lighting so we headed in, ate dinner, and waited for the rain to stop. When it finally did we went back out and caught a couple more Smallmouths before the end of the day. When we went back in we watched the Stanley Cup hockey finals.

The next day we were back out on the lake at about 8:00. We caught about 15 Smallmouth before it started to rain. We then went back in and waited for the rain to quit. After dinner e finally got back out on the lake and we caught about 12 more Smallmouth. We then headed back in and watched the movie Glory Road.

The next morning it was time to go home. We packed our things and took my Uncle’s boat out of the water and headed home. It was a lot of fun and I can’t wait until next time.

July 27-29, 2006

I made the trip this year to Lake St. Clair for a little summertime fishing with Tim, Al Bertke, Dan and two of his kids, 12 year old John and 10 year old Anna. The weather was hot with a little breeze making the fishing somewhat bearable. We caught Smallmouth bass and Rock bass on tubes and Senko’s with the Weed Stake being our best spot. The Killpecker in the Johnson River also produced an occasional Smallmouth. John and Anna landed the biggest Smallmouth of the trip with a couple of 3 ½ pounders.