Laurel Lake Report....

[elnutsmalljaws]

My report is that it is visiually the best lake I ever been on and that is the report. See ya on the water and be safe......


My fishing report is Slow to Very Slow down right border line on extinction. If I had not actually seen a few fish, I would question whether any swam in the waters at all. Put in at 5pm on Tuesday for my first venture to new water and sure am glad "A Day on the Lake" was not with me for they would have ran out of all video tape and battery power awaiting for some quality fish catching. Ran a part of the lake to see it and lay down some tracks on the GPS. Tried several spots that looked good on the map and probably are pretty good but I don't think a stick of TNT could have gotten any fish on this trip. Caught a couple of small Greenfish, one on a T rigged lizard and the other on a crankbait around the flooded timber. Picked up DC Basser, Mike, at the Holly Bay ramp at 8pm and let the Walley action begin. Went to a few of his honey walleye homes early and he had one come off mid fight and another smack it pretty good but then nothing, very little shad activity and even fewer actual Walleye bust behind them. Fog came rolling in thicker than pea soup and with me not knowing the lake at all, new moon, and as tight as Laurel is to begin with, I was not comfortable in running too fast, even with GPS. Basically idled between spots and I did manage to get one good 3 1/2-4 pounder to commit fishicide around 4am and that was it. We stayed until about 7am and then took out. COLD, BRRRRRRRRR, the temp guage on my Explorer said 31 degrees but officially it was 33 in London which broke the record set in 1988 for the lowest temp ever recorded on that date, which is pretty much par for the course for me. After 14 hours on the water on about 3 hours of sleep, I was exhausted so off to the motel, in the bed by 8:30am, asleep by 8:30:45 am, and WIDE awake by 11:30am. If I am awake then I must be fishing so off to the lake I go. Launch around 1pm and do some prospecting of spots that I liked on the map with my depth finder and C Rigged 1oz sinker minus the hook to feel the bottom. Checked about 40-50 spots, some good stayed on the map, others bad got eliminated. Checked night spots plus FNF spots for future trips. Caught a couple of Ky's, couple of Smallies and Couple of Greenies (no size to any of them). Did find one particular cove that I never saw so many Ky's in my life. They were everywhere but none would bite anything. I tried lizards, finesse worms, flukes, drop shot, wacky rig, spinnerbaits and cranks and probably stuff that I forgot. I found myself sitting right above 2 large Ky's on the bed doing the "Boy Fish / Girl Fish Shuffle" I bet I watched them for a half hour. Pretty cool for I had not seen this before especially in this clear of water. I never tried to catch either of these two but right next to them was an undercut limestone bank that probably went a good 10-12 feet back under. I skipped flukes under and watched the Ky's come from every direction to investigate but no takers. There was maybe 50-100 fish in my line of vision for almost an hour in total and I just watched them react to different baits I tried. Some presentations would make the fish swim right up to and look, while others scared them away. I got to see some pretty neat stuff plus a pack of about 20, I guess wild dogs came to the edge to drink. Found a bunch of map errors, such of a gross error in that this cove is full of flooded timber and that cove is not versus what the map says. Found 5 different coves like this and marked them on my map. Makes me wonder just how accurate the river channel is on some maps as well as the one in my GPS. Picked up Mike at the ramp around 7pm and off we go. We talked about map reading and other fishing stuff just floating around for a while and never really wet a line until 8:30 or so. Ran to some of his honey holes and even less shad activity than the night before, which I never thought would have been the case. MANY other boats Walleye fishing as well and NOBODY was catching anything. Between midnight and 2am, it was take a number at Holly Bay to get out. Off the water at 2am back in Georgetown by 3:45 and that was that. Gone from the house about 37 hours total - 2 hours down, 2 hours back, 3 hours asleep, 1 hour shower and lunch, and 2 hours misc plus 27 hours on the water. Beautiful lake, gin clear water, temps go as low as 60.1 on Tuesday night to a high of 65 when I put in Tuesday afternoon. A week and a half ago, Mike said they were 69 and of course the shad were busting better as was the bite. Spent 2 good nights in the boat with Mike for the first time and spent some water time with a guy that I call a friend. Looking forward to doing it again and hopefully the 2nd week of May after I get back from Ky, I will travel down for 2 more nights of hunting Walleye. Good thing that Walleye taste good for they don't fight worth a crap and are just downright UGLY to look at. Felt like I was pulling in a 4lb straight piece of lumber with the occasional head shake and that was the fight. They should change the name to "Beastly Pre-Historic Eye" instead of Walleye. I will have to study up and try it again for when they are not hitting the shallow bite will have to do something different. Later

[dcbasser]

I too enjoyed the past two nights with you elwood. Your a heck of a guy and just wish more fish were involved. maybe in a couple of weeks things will pick up a little and we will have a little better luck. I consider you a friend and have a lot of admiration for the knowledge you have and the way you pass it on here to help others out. Already had the laurel map out and using what you showed me to help improve my smallie techniques. look forward to being in the boat again soon.

[elnutsmalljaws]

Plan on coming back Mon-Tue-Wed nights the 12th - 14th. I know you are off work those days so depending on the weather hopefully we will get into them then. If you can't go then I will be heading down by myself or try to get someone to tag along. Later

[mhall]

Thanks for the report, you'll get'em next time.