critter
01-20-2011, 11:24 AM
Went to Spray on Monday, and had one of the best days ever. I had ordered a bunch of new lures online and they finally arrived, so i went to test em out. They worked... It was unusually warm, and for once, everything seemed to be going my way from the start. Minus all the snow. I ventured off the beaten path about 50 minutes, and finally slogged it through over a foot of snow and another 4 inches of floodwater to get to my favourite spot. It was snowing lightly all day, but was above zero, so very pleasant. Got started around 11:30, as i simply slept through my alarm in the morning haha. Landed about 15 fish from 11:30-4:30. A few around the standard 8-10 inches, some a bit larger from 12-15 inches, and a few nice ones around 15-20 inches that woulda pushed 2 pounds. Was sgteady all day, perhaps due to the low light conditions.
I should add that after about 10 minutes of fishing, i hooked into a tank. For spray that is. I was lucky enough to get most of the fight on video. I was fishing on the shallow side of a very steep dropoff. 30 feet from me in the video it is over 100 feet deep, and i am in about 40 - 60 feet of water. My big one last year hammered the jig on the drop and nearly yanked my rod in the water and broke me off, but i got lucky and had ther drag set just loose enough that some line came out. (a reminder to always have ur drag decently loose, as it is common to tighten it right up to set hooks while jigging on smaller fish, that one strike you want will surprise you) Anyway, this one bit differently. The line went slack on the drop, so i reeled slowly until the rod bent alittle, gave him another second of slack to engulf the jig, and hammered him 3-4 times. This thing took off like you wouldnt beleive. Peeled over 80 feet of line right after the hookset, (i meant to say feet, not yards in the video) and then slowly came to the hole. I got my first glimpse of the fish, and they always seem to look bigger in the water. This is where the fight just began. We looked each other in the eyes and she made an epic run. The video tells the rest of the story. I was pretty excited and overestimate the weight at the end, but i think this fish was between 7-9 pounds. At around 72 cm long, and a nice thick back and belly on her, she was unusually heavy. She had 2 old whitefish in her, one fairly fresh and pretty big. The big one last year had 5 whitefish in her, all that size. Amazing what they can eat. Enjoy the video! There are nice fish in this lake if you know where to go and what to use. All other fish were released, this one was kept, and fed the 2 of us for 3 meals. Cheers! :sHa_shakeshout:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CJ_jV1l19IQ
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y7EEWBvh9HA
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v491/coyote005/IMG_3568.jpg?t=1295548411
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v491/coyote005/IMG_3574.jpg?t=1295548290
I should add that after about 10 minutes of fishing, i hooked into a tank. For spray that is. I was lucky enough to get most of the fight on video. I was fishing on the shallow side of a very steep dropoff. 30 feet from me in the video it is over 100 feet deep, and i am in about 40 - 60 feet of water. My big one last year hammered the jig on the drop and nearly yanked my rod in the water and broke me off, but i got lucky and had ther drag set just loose enough that some line came out. (a reminder to always have ur drag decently loose, as it is common to tighten it right up to set hooks while jigging on smaller fish, that one strike you want will surprise you) Anyway, this one bit differently. The line went slack on the drop, so i reeled slowly until the rod bent alittle, gave him another second of slack to engulf the jig, and hammered him 3-4 times. This thing took off like you wouldnt beleive. Peeled over 80 feet of line right after the hookset, (i meant to say feet, not yards in the video) and then slowly came to the hole. I got my first glimpse of the fish, and they always seem to look bigger in the water. This is where the fight just began. We looked each other in the eyes and she made an epic run. The video tells the rest of the story. I was pretty excited and overestimate the weight at the end, but i think this fish was between 7-9 pounds. At around 72 cm long, and a nice thick back and belly on her, she was unusually heavy. She had 2 old whitefish in her, one fairly fresh and pretty big. The big one last year had 5 whitefish in her, all that size. Amazing what they can eat. Enjoy the video! There are nice fish in this lake if you know where to go and what to use. All other fish were released, this one was kept, and fed the 2 of us for 3 meals. Cheers! :sHa_shakeshout:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CJ_jV1l19IQ
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y7EEWBvh9HA
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v491/coyote005/IMG_3568.jpg?t=1295548411
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v491/coyote005/IMG_3574.jpg?t=1295548290