Dale Sat and Sun...

[elnutsmalljaws]

Had taken my boat to the shop for it would not start last Friday. Make a long story short, Mercury stood behind everything for it was still under warranty and even authorized changing out the entire trim system that was also giving me some trouble. Now on to fishing.

Went down Friday night to pre-fish for the Toyota tourney that folks have been talking about. Realized 2 hours into my 4 hour drive that I forgot to put back in my 2 depth finders that I took out before dropping boat off at the shop. Considered going back, but wife called and set it up that they could be next day aired to the lodge. She gets there and they had told her wrong. No depth finders but I had already pre-fished and knew where we were going. By buddy drove down after work friday night and got to the room around 4am. I launched Saturday morning at daylight and even met Geofisher at the marina by chance. I had decided to run the same course that I was going to run on Sunday as a trial. Went looking for Smallies first and landed a 15 1/2 and 15 3/4 (Perfect tourney sizes and both really fat) plus 3 more in the slot. Picked my buddy up at Noon and immediately headed for the same largemouth and spotted bass holes I had found fish on the previous week. Pulled up on a point that has a tree about 30 yards off it in about 20 feet of water. My buddy, nicknamed Clebo, makes the first cast with a Shaky Head jig with a Finesse Worm and BAM good 1 1/2 pound spot. I had made a cast with my FNF at the same time and BAM double, until mine spit the bit. Clebo loads up and fires again, BAM another spot that goes about 1 lb. We decide to get off this spot and try the others that I found. Pull up on spot #2 and first cast with FNF, small spot around 12 inches then Clebo pulls in another about the same size then I catch one that goes a solid 2 lb. We decide to get off this spot and move to #3. Not as much action until I pick up my spinning rod with a Tungsten rattling sinker, texas rigged, Baby Brush Hog that I removed the front legs and cast next to a tree. 6lb test with the drag pretty tight so I can get them out of cover and BAM, I set the hook and start to pull her out until she realizes she is hooked and back into the tree with drag strippin, snap crackle pop. Of course we will never know but I think she was a good one. We leave from here and make the final part of our day to try to catch the BIGUN. I catch one that went 4-10 on the fly on main lake bluff. In all 6 Smallies, 6 Spots, with best 6 going around 11 pounds. Feeling pretty good about our chances on Sunday..............Then cold front moves thru, wind blowing heavy out of every direction on the map and some that are not on the map to boot it seems for every HONEY HOLE I had was getting hammered. We ran all over the lake trying to find something. Even ran to try to get out of the wind and could not do that it seemed. Try to fish the fly when the bobber is bobbing up and down 12-20 inches at a time in the waves, good luck. North wind crashing into all our spots muddied the water to boot. NO FISH, NO BITES, NOTHING. Got so bad that Clebo ties on a Spinnerbait just to try out his new Loomis and then tells me that he is trying to "Foul Hook" one as he buzzes it across the surface. Did make me laugh and when he laid down completely stretched out in the bottom of my boat in between long runs really made me chuckle. (Promise Clebo, my next boat will have 2 consoles and the biggest motor possible.) Tourney ended at 4pm and I have no clue who won for we took out around 1 and I was well on my way back to Evansville. This make my record 2-2 in tourneys. Feast or Famine, won 2 and SKUNKED in 2. I would have bet everything that I owned we would have at least caught 1 keeper today and even took bets that we would have weighed in a 6 fish limit to boot. Whomever caught them today and won certainly earns my respect for he is a better fisherman than me, congrats to who ever you are.

My last trip to Dale for the FNF season, getting ready for KY Lake in the spring, first trip is March 16-20, bring on the BUCKETMOUTHS (But already counting the days until the first week of December 2006, when I will be rooting for 50 degree water temps to begin another FNF season looking for the 12 pounders)

Tight Lines

[thebassman30]

El~
Nice meeting you. Sun ~ We pulled off at noon.....3 fish 2 over 3....really slow. I'm sure it got better as the day progressed. The first two we caught were inactive on a bluff wall @ 8:30 a.m. practically right on top of each other......the last one came around 11:30 spitting up minnows and one 3 inch one in it's mouth....perfect size....just under the slot.

Saturday was so strong man.....like I said we should've had 8 over 4 easy. The bite was stellar. I'd like to pick the brain of any two man boat that caught 4 over 5....was that John Davis. We had 14 total smallies and it was my partner's maiden FNF trip. He caught 4 over 4 smallest was 4.4. He really carried us because I just seem to keep loosing fish on Sat 8^(

I usually don't start my KY/Barkley trips till April. Last April we smoked'em in the second week caught over 100 one day many in the the 3-5lb class that trip. We need to compare notes after your March trips. I usually stick with Dale until water temps hit 50.

Great meeting you....again....have a super week man!
Mark

[redneckshadrap]

Dang wish I could've runinto you guys. Would've like to have shook hands and BS'ed for a minute. We probably run by each other all day long.

Redneckshadrap
www.thecreekbank.com
[email protected]

[elnutsmalljaws]

I would have liked that myself. We ran about 30 miles in total Saturday and another COLD 30 or so around Sunday. Fished from Holly Creek to Illwill the entire 2 days, heck this the only areas that I fish at Dale period. Maybe we will get in touch someday to tell some fishing lies and maybe a truth or two. Tracker Deep V 17, 90 Merc, with some big ugly guy behind the wheel 95% of the time FNF from Dec to March.

Tight Lines

[redneckshadrap]

I was in Holly for a while at the start and the end. You weren't part of that group anhored over there at that point on Roberts were you???

LOL!!!

Billy


Redneckshadrap
www.thecreekbank.com
[email protected]

[elnutsmalljaws]

Wasn't us. We only fish Holly for a short time Sunday mid day. Never went there on Saturday at all.

Tight Lines

[cummins1]

it took over 15lb.to win the toyota tour. one was a 5.33 smallmouth that wasn,t even the big fish. It was a 5.54 largemouth, but it was cold and windy.

[elnutsmalljaws]

They are much better fishermen than me. As I stated earlier, we never got a sniff.

Tight Lines and congrats to whomever won, Good Job and well deserved on a day like yesterday.

[thebassman30]

Billy~
I think that was me and a buddy of mine. Our first 4 were over 4 and he started with a 4.9. He had never fish'd the FNF before this weekend so we were both on cloud nine as he was catching some of the biggest smallmouth he'd ever caught....kind of a big deal....so that's why we were getting so pumped up. We were on the bank just to the right of the point entering Roberts. Gray boat...Johnson 115. You can go to www.andrewpryor.com for a fantastic trip report. We weren't trying to be rude....just getting real excited.
Mark

[redneckshadrap]

Did you guys here that red boat with that loud engine

Billy


Redneckshadrap
www.thecreekbank.com
[email protected]

[thebassman30]

Yeah....I tried to figure out what make and model....Those guys got awfully close with that loud thing to my spot. I'm fairly certain we didn't get another smell after that.....then to add fuel to my fire we went down to the next point closer to Roberts and stuck several more landing two more over four.

It really bugs me when I'm on fish that will spook easily and people do that.....people do that at Barren as well.... right in the middle of big schools of fish in the jumps. We'll come to think of it....I've probably had that happen to me at KY/Barkley more than any other place. It's really no big deal any other time of the year unless it's really hot or really cold and of course really calm. These fish are use to all kinds of motor noise.

I do feel like a catch a ton more fish than the average weekend angler....specifically because I always keep my motor on as low a setting as possible and whenever possible continuous. I also like to drift if I can to be even more stealth. At Dale....boat position and good long casts can be the ONLY difference between a 20 fish day and no fish at all.

[thebassman30]

There were two boats...a white triton? glass boat and a green aluminum boat. The guys in the white glass boat hung around and the guys in the green boat ended up refishing our first spot for about an hour with no love.....like I said....I think those fish left for good after that loud boat came through. It looked like some kind of generic mail order engine from China....I couldn't tell what it was....and they were just out of reach of my longest possible FNF cast 8^)