Well after a not so great Saturday on the South end I decided to go back north where I have lived the past month. Janet and I had 3 early and then it kinda went slow. We then went back into a midlake crk and found the fish on a straight flat in between two points. The thing was we couldn't get them to bite and most of them were coming off the bottom from 36' to 40' and we were hanging at 20' and 25' which has been working most of the time.

After being shopped till I dropped! I then realized our bait was kicking the bucket soon after the drop. Many times this is the way I get them started feeding, by dropping right into them and then reeling it up fairly fast in 5' increments. Well this was not working because the o2 was not right for life.

So here was my salvation...lol I then took out a jigging spoon and worked it the same way, by rapidly ripping it up and down in 5' incrememnts and we kept our lines in exactly 16' of water, which was the lowest we could drop and keep our bait healthy. So I would stop right at our depth and wella this started them feeding. Three times I had to do this but we ended up with 12 stripers and lost 4 or 5 more.

I also had to go to 4' leaders with 10# floro and a # 2 hook this all combined led to way more hits today. (Sure wish I would have thought of this yesterday)...LOL

Good thinking Dan! What was the problem with the bait? I don't understand. Was it a thermo thing?........My goal is to go out pretty soon to get on a school and use artificial jigging.

Yes I guess the oxygen level just wasn't good at that depth. It might be because of the rain and the heat combined, but we lost a dozen straight before I could put a finger on it. This is not something I usually come accross this time of year...lol

We did very nice today up north after a crummy Saturday on the south side as well. Can't believe the water temp was 82 up there. We saw you(Dan) today up north about mid afternoon. we were in the yellow pontoon. Glad to hear your day went as well as ours. I'm with lil bill, can't wait until its time for some vertical jigging action in the main channel! That is by far the best way to catch stripes. Soon, very soon!

Great report Dan, Way to go changing your rigs and figuring out a way to make those window shoppers take the bait and keep em alive.

By the by, a couple of ?'s. I figure you were using BB's, how did you have them rigged before the change and how many doz are you taking.
Were you using a longer/heavier leader? Just wondered.

Sometimes like in hunting, you just have to change the decoy set or move that stand. It takes some drive, it's easy for me to get bogged down. A report like this reminds us to get off the keester and make those changes even when you are doing what "has been" working.

I think our buddy Tom said it's those little details that sometimes make the difference in a good and a great day. Good luck

I am glad you were brain dead on Saturday LOL .Congrats on your catch Sunday

My neighbor and I took our two 7 year olds fishing yesterday. We were in a midlake creek and we couldn't bait the lines fast enough in the early morning. We were getting a mix of spots and stripers, weighted more on the side of stripers. The kids had a ball.

But I noticed something for the 2nd trip in a row that has me confused.

2 weeks ago, my boy and I were planing at 30mph and a freaking tick landed on his pants. This was in the middle of the water near Old Federal on the way home. I think it got blown off the bow. Hard to imagine a tick surfing the wind.

Then yesterday, my neighbor found 2 on his clothes while we were spot locked 20 yards from a point.

Have you guys seen anything like that? The only thing I can figure is that they are dropping onto the boat when we are close to land, or they are floating and climbing onto the boat.

10/4 on the brain dead thing Don! I just couldn't put it together Saturday. Sometimes to much info on too many spots is the kiss of death. Regardless congrats on your new club record for a 2 fish length weigh in of 70 1/2" that is some really nice fish for latter May.

I figure the ticks are getting on your boat when/where ever you park it - i.e your home. I had a guy ask me one time on my boat "hey, look.....how in the hell did this spider get on the boat". LOL

It's parked in my garage inside the perimeter. It never touches my yard, but my yard has so many pesticides that it should be on an EPA list of some kind. I doubt there are ticks in my garage.

In fact, I don't think the boat ever comes into contact with brush of any kind. Maybe there is a little on the tight turn into Old Federal, but I don't think so.

You've got all the trees that are now covering the road and I think you have a pontoon. So, I bet when your cruising through there you're stirring the trees around and then they fall. I know my guide poles hit trees if there is another vehicle passing in the opposite direction.

They need to trim the trees back from the road through there anyway.

The ticks are pretty bad this year. Even my dog who is on the flea and tick stuff ended up with 8 ticks from last weekend. Too bad they don't have tick repellent for your boat...

How big are these ticks? they could be seed ticks which come from a spider web looking ball. This could have easily been picked up on a branch that you clipped and despersed in the boat. Once they are disturbed they go everywhere, but they are usually very small ticks.

The trees are definitely low over the road this year. I have an 8' rod that I had a redfin tied onto...sitting in the rod holder on top of my center console. I just had a bad feeling after driving under some trees and decided to pull over and check.

My rod was still there, in good shape, but my reel was completely spooled and no redfin in site!!! I had just replaced the hooks on that $%&^ redfin with Gamakatsu hooks, and just put new line on the reel.......

Oh well, Lesson learned...rods are laying in the boat till I get to the ramp from now on

[quote=big daddy]

By the by, a couple of ?'s. I figure you were using BB's, how did you have them rigged before the change and how many doz are you taking.
Were you using a longer/heavier leader? Just wondered.

Sometimes like in hunting, you just have to change the decoy set or move that stand. It takes some drive, it's easy for me to get bogged down. A report like this reminds us to get off the keester and make those changes even when you are doing what "has been" working.

I think our buddy Tom said it's those little details that sometimes make the difference in a good and a great day. Good luck [/quote

Big Daddy, I usually use 17# Floro leader in the spring when I am fishing for big fish. Right now the fish have bunched up but for the most part are much smaller fish than I have been catching for months. So 10# or 12# leader will be the staple until the big fish gather back up on the down bite. I then will go back to 16 or 17# again winching these hawgs out of the trees...lol.

Yes Blue backs is what I was using, and I am carring from 3 to 4 doz depending on how long I will be out. While these fish bunch up you can go thru 5 or 6 doz when you are on them good.

Good luck my friend!!! and yes the small details is everything sometimes.

The NY man. LIke the Mets. Finally got some. good stuff. nice meeting you Sat night in Buford. Lt. Smash too. Was he with you.

Vertical stuff- Leadcore trolling should get good too.

Nick NY man, If you saw me you should have come over and said hello! I am glad you got them to pay, and I look forward to some power reeling deep jigs for the big ones. Give me a ring and we will hit the pond together sometime.

If you are looking for information on ticks go to bugspray.com
Any bug they got it and can help


see ya

marleymoo, just like the mets, Lt. Smash and I crushed it on Sunday. It was great meeting you on Saturday too. You gotta break out the ugly stick from the trunk for a trip soon!

Agreed, bugspray.com can help

I was out there today for an all day trip and I stopped for a bit on an island to let my customers take a break. When they fot back on the boat I noticed ticks on them and the started taking off their shirts and checking for ticks since we thought they all came from the woods. Well I am here to tell you they did not come from the woods. When I went to drop them off at Lake Lanier Islands i got out of the boat and walked over to the pontoons on the dock only to find the ticks were all over them as well. It was crazy. I met Bob at Jim Crow and Mcever to give him the Oakwood shirts and he saw them all over my boat. I'm heading to Cape Cod and get away from those blood thirsty varmits.

Yea, we caught a few... I forgot what a striper looked liked. We had a double and for a while the action was non stop.

NY Boy owes me for puttin him on fish

OK so I just went and did a little research....I still can not pinpoint what the bugs are but everything I read says ticks can not fly. I watched these fly so maybe they aren't ticks? I wish I would have gotten some pictures of them.

I think I know what you are talking about Bill! these look like ticks except almost look like a snapping turtle head and fly. I don't know what they are but have seen them before.

I have been hunting all my life and I do know ticks very well and they suck (I mean really suck)...LOL

What I have been seeing looks like a standard 2-3mm shiny black tick.

My boat is a 16' flats boat (key west) and is real low. I really doubt it's hitting any branches at Old Federal on the drive in.

On top of that, my boy had the tick land on him at 4PM and we started fishing at 7AM. It is difficult to imagine a tick landing on my deck at Old Federal around 6:45AM, then hanging out on my little (and I mean real little) deck for 9 hours, then getting blown by the wind onto the boy.

I had them all over my boat today as well. The ones on my boat looked like some type of beetle on close inspection. Last year was the first time I have ever seen them. I guess I will be doing some bug collecting tomorrow.

Its crazy! I saw Bills boat. It was literally peppered with these tick-like insects. Hundreds of them. A wild and crazy hatch is happening.

If you happen to have some ladies on the boat, here is what comes to mind:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3tiPndMqxLQ

I noticed large swarms (schools?flocks?prides?) of some small black insects on the surface of the water in numerous places on sunday; can't imagine they were ticks, but were probably some sort of tiny beetle. Maybe running thru them splashes them up the side of the boat and they crawled up on the deck.

This doesn't 'splain the ticks-- I'm pretty sure everyone knows what a tick looks like!

Or if you dont have any ladies...anymore

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WwRrKaq0IyY&feature=related

If no ladies anymore, you might want to give some of this a try:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q3zkkLckeyM

I had the same 'ticks' last year so I went and got a killer spray for boats. It's almost odorless but the beauty of it is that it doesn't go on wet. It comes in a can and I use it on my boat all the time to keep off the spiders. A light treatment 1-2 a month is all I need to do and it hasn't affected the finish in any way. You can see it here:

http://www.bugspray.com/item/phantom_aerosol.html

I'd say a can should treat your boat at least twice. I like to spray it up under my bimini and around the railing, up under the swim platform and anywhere the webs form.

$30.00 a can or 4/$100.00, yikes. But it may be worth it to keep the spider crap off my boat. Thx fo rthe tip.

I hate spiders on our boat and with kids and a dog this stuff looks perfect since its really safe and does the job well

Since we are talking spiders. I have found the wonder spray for spiders. Great on your dock/boat/house or whatever. Its called SpiderNot. Its about $9 per can. I spray my whole dock with one can. It usually keeps it clean for about 1 month.

http://www.spidernot.net/

I was out Tuesday Evening May 25th...... Saw the same thing.... atleast 5 ticks crawling inside my boat. 2 or 3 on my arms. Not sure what that was about.

Ferguson

2012 man.....