Well, we went to Guist. We were on the water in the late morning. The guy at the marina said the lake had risen 1.5 feet (I guess in the last day) and the temp was 47 degrees. The water was plenty muddy at the marina, but we went up the creek past the "no wake" buoys. There was quite a bit of water up into the brush, bushes and trees.
We just drifted awhile as we tied on various rigs. My son, Eli tied on a chartreuse and orange shad rap and caught a 18" striper on the first cast! He said he cranked about 4 times and the fish nailed it.
Unfortunately the "never catch a fish on the first cast" jinx went immediately into effect and we never got another bite. We fished crankbaits, shadraps, jigs, chatterbaits, and spinnerbaits until about 3 p.m. I even jigged a spoon on some electronic fish in about 30' of water. We went down to the dam and found much better looking water but just couldn't figure out how to find and catch 'em. Plus some of the gusts were pretty intense which made finese presentations pretty hard. We spoke to others on two different boats and both were skunked. One said he broke one off on the hookset while fishing a jig on the riprap near the dam.
It was a good day off from work, a balmy day for december, and the boat ran fine. The fish didn't cooperate, but I guess they need a holiday sometimes too.
We took pics of the striper (Eli's personal best) and let him go.
Thanks for the advice. One of the days we'll catch em at Guist. This was out third trip and it has to get better.
JWP
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