5-31-15 Cumberland Mixed Bag

[TNBronzeback]

Per the norm, i gear up and head out with 1 species for the target, yet i take everything i own with me as a precaution...lol. tried for some stripers butt crack early, had some blow-ups, a few chases and i yanked it clean out of ones mouth a few feet from the boat (that was pretty sweet to see though!!!) After that petered out i tried some bass, got a few, nothing big but fun on a crankbait no less. Ran into a small school of some chunky whites too, pure luck! found em sitting in 13' of water between 2 close humps. Been last fall since i got into em and ya forget how hard a river run white hits a bait.
The best catch of the day though was a good amount of toothy eaters! saugers, landed 10 and 8 were legit keepers, 18-20" fish, super fat. Got em trolling super light spoons in 22ft. Ofcourse like i mentioned earlier i had stripers on the brain, so i didnt even take a cooler with ice to keep em...figures right! lol. Sure is nice to fish some water without a bunch of traffic to contend with.

[Travis C.]

Good trip.

I got striped fish on the brain right now too.

[XxthejuicexX]

Sounds like a great trip. Were you able to keep the sauger?

[TNBronzeback]

i keep em on the brain too Travis, but i can only target them at certain seasons with my lack of live bait keep-ability. LOL. so i throw artificials and dunk the occasions small bluegill. I know the size bait they are chasing and my experience, as limited as it is, with stripers, if they are feeding on 5" threadfins and your using a 6"-8" bait, artificial or live...your just getting casting practice cause they aint gonna hook up. This is just solely MY experience so far the past few years. Once the summer settles in and skippies and gizzards and all schooled up in the system, then ive found my hook-ups go up.

Juice, i did not keep them. i keep some 80lb braid in the boat and was just about to make a engineered stringer, but thought, if i only catch one (which usually happens to me when im unprepared but try to keep fish) i have to drag this fish all around the river, in the boat, out of the boat, ect, then dirty my knife for 1 fish, find some place to dump the guts so they dont bake in the trash can for a week. just a hassle to me.
Rest assured, i wont be making THAT mistake again. lol

[ttitan27]

You should really consider getting some nav lights for your boat!:)

Im pretty sure I passed you at butt crack dawn and went upriver just a little ways. I was in my 16 ft aluminum 25hp with my 13 year old in the boat. It was still pretty dark.

[TNBronzeback]

Ive got some lights. i didnt plug em up though, ive got no excuses for that one. Im usually good about doing that. i did have my red head lamp on though, that should give me half credit.

[ttitan27]

Ive got some lights. i didnt plug em up though, ive got no excuses for that one. Im usually good about doing that. i did have my red head lamp on though, that should give me half credit.


Heck yea, I gave you credit for that. I saw when you flashed it. Did you see if that big center console did any good? My son hooked up and landed his first rockfish. 16 lbs. He fought it pretty well for a skinny 13 year old. Saw some others but no hookup.

[TNBronzeback]

I did see that. Talked to them for a minute at the ramp. The boat had South Carolina numbers. What i didnt see, was them wet a line. Now they did go further up river for a short time, but everytime i saw them they were just cruising. Thats awesome for him! great fighting size too!