Kelly Point 1/01

[WaterDog]

What a shag-nasty day to be on the river. The wind blew, the rain poured, and it was COOOOLD! I guess that's why there was only a few boats out there today. Got soaked tring to hook the light biters. Ended up with a dozen shakers and a 46" keeper. Saw a few other keepers taken as well.

The cold water sure has them in slow mode......

[Bait O' Eggs]

<blockquote><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><hr> shag-nasty day <hr></blockquote>

Where I was they didnt have the little lights flashing, but they did have one flag flying. It was a nasty day to be on the water.

[WaterDog]

OK Pilar, lets talk about this. :smile:

I’ve only been chasing gators for 4 years now. I catch my share but I’m spotty at best. Maybe I’m off base but here is my observations. In the fall and late spring I find the fishing better in the flats with good current where I think they are actively feeding and moving around. In the winter I have found I have to fish the deeper holes to get into them and smelt is the only bait to use. Two days this week I watched boats nail fish outside of the current in deep holes. The boats in the current did nothing. From the reports I have seen here and my observations that says the fish are laying low expending the least amount of energy. They are not moving around much. I noticed a spot where the water eddies and boils and a boat wags all over the place. The boats that fished this spot were into the fish in a big way. That leads to my less current is better theory for this time of year. If the fish want the bait they will chase it. Sometimes if I get a light biter, I’ll pull the bait away and more often than not BAM the fish will nail it. So a moving bait is not that bad.

Scent is obviously important. Once I started injecting the smelt with wd and a good dose of Craw/anise oil my bites went up. When yesterday’s keeper was cleaned, a little investigating was done on stomach contents. Found crawdads in there.

I’m not fishing the hole you do since it’s a little too crowded for my liking so I seek out other area’s. If you think I’m all wet go ahead and say so. There is more to it than just pitching out a chunk of bait and waiting. :rolleyes: :whazzup:

[Tilla]

And while we are at it on the mysteries of the Sturgeon: How come in the estuary during the warmer time of the year do the fish bite only when the tide is moving and during this time of year is the fishing better when the tide is slowing down and the boat is hardly holding straight and wagging around.
And I'm with Waterdog on that honeyhole that Pilar likes, I am allergic to channel anchoring or is that two channels, and the verbal tug warnings and the whooomp, whoooomp, whooomp, whoooomp, whooomp! :wink:

[Pilar]

Hey Waterdog. I don't buy the cold water thing. I catch these gators in Jan. and Feb. at water temps of 38 or sometimes even lower. Its 42 right now. I think your boat was moving around in the wind.

I have a very hard time sturgeon fishing in the wind. The boat won't stay in the right line and the bait won't stay where I put it. The fish sure won't chase it either.

Good job bagging a nice one and testing your new license.