Sandy 6-10 am

[FISHINMAN]

Hit the water with the Jax man in his boat about 6:15am. Went out to 60ft to look and see what kind of picture and temp we had. We had a few marks and a surface temp of 57 degrees with a down temp at 30ft of 57 degrees :shock: dropped it down 10 more feet and it was all the way down to 56.5 degrees :shock: :shock: . So we decided to do a NW

troll out towards deeper water to look for some sort of temp break. Well we got out to 250ft and it was a whopping 52-53 degrees down to 50 - 70 feet. fought off the rain showers and continued to fish.

We lost a rip on the wire at about 100ft then landed a small steelie on the inline planer back 200ft. Found some more marks out in the 180 -210ft range and got a few to fire. Did fish on the riggers down 35-45ft, the inline boards both with 2 colors and straight mono with about 1/2 ounce of split shot took a couple more and the wire back 180 took the last fish. Sticks and spoons both took fish.

We ended up 6 for 8 with 4 of them being steelies (10#, 2# and two in the 4# range) and 2 kings 5# and about 8#.

Can't remember what all the lures were we took fish on but one was a $2 Walmart stick in purple, one was a copper watermelon.

But the biggest catch of the day ended up being what would have been worth 285pts in the pro-am, that's right one catch worth 285pts! That would be ME :!: Well when Jeremy went to grab the wire he dropped the pole he was getting ready to set, so I picked it up and placed it in a rod holder then went to grab the stick bait he dropped so we didn't step on it and get it caught in out shoes and as I stood up the last treble caught on the bottom of the seat and embedded into my middle finger way past the barb right at the first knuckle :shock: :x Didn't hurt much but was going to be a bit of trouble to try and help catch or net fish. We were gonna try the "hook removing" kit he had on board but decided that when he tried it out on someone else first then he could do my finger. We cut it off and left a piece sticking out :shock: :x So I decided to go in and have it removed at the hospital. Well 1 hour after I got there, 4 shots of novocain, 1 tetnis shot (which I am sure will feel worse than the hook in my finger did by tomorrow) and a $50 co-pay I was on my way :x :x :x :x :x :x :x :x :x :x and a good day of fishing was over.

Seemed like the fish liked it a little faster closer to the 2.8 - 3mph speed.

One of the craziest things was the bugs in his boat. Yes the flies were bad but the carpenter ants chopping at the wood and leaving a pile of saw dust was just nuts. Never heard of this in a boat, especially a fiberglass boat :shock:

Think I found out the problem with my sub troll too. brought my probe along to try it out on his boat and it worked fine and what we figured out was that I have my Scotty style antenna strapped to the metal extension arm of my downrigger with zip ties and apparently they can't touch the metal or they ground out :? :shock: :?:

Hope to be out this Sunday/Monday as the MRS is going out of town for a few days

To view a couple of the fish and my finger go to the Pics page.

[Silverbullet]

Thanks for the report. Thinking of fishing tomorrow. Will let everyone know how it is.

[Legacy]

hey tom,

i saw you guys coming into the creek as i went over the bridge.

is it always an adventure fishing with you?

[Absolut40]

I know what you mean about the tetnis shots.I stuck a hook in my thumb a few years back and the tetnis shot hurt more than the hook.

[IRISH56]

Jeez Fishinman, my buddy sunk a treble in his finger (point underneath the fingernail :shock: ) last year @ 0700 amidst a triple. He managed to suck it up until about 2100 that night.

Just teasin', that sucks!

DAN

[FISHINMAN]

No Rob it's usually not :!: I just tell you all the crazy stuff that I'm sure not everyone tells about in the trips. I have fished a lot by myself over the years without to many problems :shock:

Dan I would have stayed, but I need these hands to work with and I didn't want it to get infected or something like that.

It was really a fluke deal I was shocked the way it even happened :shock: :roll:

When I was at Park Ridge Unity Health Hospital the lady that removed the hook had done one over the weekend too :shock: . It was probably one of you guys that doesn't want to come clean about it

[ray koziatek]

285 pts that would put your weight at ......no wonder my little barge wouldnt pull up on plane. Hmm you just about have enuf material to wright a book called toms adventures.Guess well just have to save it for next winters adventures.(cabin feaver days).Keep the material comming in next time take a pic with the lure hanging out it looks better someone suggested that to Billy with some of his pics a while back.Thank goodness you got your IQ finger and not your picking finger.At least jax is teaching you the basics of setting the hook , now heal up there and set the hook in a fish next time.

[bspicer]

Thanks for the report. Thinking of fishing tomorrow. Will let everyone know how it is.

I was wondering if someone could tell me how to find my ball speed compared to the speed on my lowrance

[FISHINMAN]

bspicer you need to get a speed and temp. unit that hangs above your downrigger ball. There are a few models you can buy, Sub Troll, Cannon Fish Hawk and Depth Raider to name a few. Price wise I think they are all in the same ball park of around $400.00 but if you look up in the search on this site there was a discussion on which ones people prefer. I have a Sub troll and have been on a boat that (Ray K) that uses a Fish Hawk. The temp part of the unit is great to have to find temp breaks in the water.

There were times yesterday when our gps speed almost matched our down speed and times were they weren't close because of the tricky currents in the lake. It's a great thing to have on your boat. Good luck with it.