Fishing on 8/2/23 in Southern Tier of New York

[Kirtley Howe]

Got out yesterday for a few hours. It was the 3rd day after a large cold front moving through, with heavy rain. Yesterday was beautiful...air temperature was 74-85 degrees. Water was at average level, but heavily stained from the previous rain. Winds were light and variable and it was partly cloudy/sunny.

Started off with chatterbaits. Had 3 in a row cut off by Tiger Musky right as I was getting them near shore without landing any of them.  None of them were particularly large,,,about 18-22 inches I would guess. That was expensive with nothing to show for it. Switched to a ned rig. Caught 2 bluegill and a creek chub. No joy there. Tried a wacky worm, both weightless and weighted. Caught one small (9 ") smallmouth. Switched up to crankbaits.  Started with a squarebill in SexyShad color. Caught one small pike (14 "), and had a few other taps, but no hookups. Switched to a Silver and Black Big O. No takers. Threw a generic deep diver (12 Ft+) and caught a decent Smallmouth of about 1 3/4 lbs, and snagged a carp in the side....thought I had a new personal best bass on for a minute <G>.  Nothing else happening with that even though I tried several other sizes, styles, and colors. Tried a Carolina rig with a 10" grape "Old Monster" worm. One fish...turned out to be a small catfish. Tried a jerkbait...lots of taps, but no hookups or even a fully committed strike; Bluegill again probably. As evening came on, I tried topwaters. Devil Horse, Chug Bug, Zara Spook, and Berkley Choppo. Several follows and a blowup or two, but again, they would not really commit to striking the lures. Finished up with a Jitterbug at heavy dusk. Caught my best fish of the day...a 2 1/4 lbs Largemouth. Stayed another 1/2 hour but everything shut down. So...fishing from 4:30 pm to 9:30pm, I caught 9 fish total, but only 3 bass, and lost close to $20.00 in lures. Had fun, the weather was great, but it sure was an expensive day for what meager results I had. Oh, well, better days are ahead.

[Swamp Girl]

You interacted with tiger musky, bluegill, smallmouth, largemouth, pike, catfish, creek chub, and carp. I haven't had an eight species day like yours since I was a kid and fished holes in shallow streams. Thanks for the report. You have an amazing memory. 

[Kirtley Howe]

No, my memory is only average at best. But a small digital voice recorder never forgets. I sometimes voice record my day so I know what I tried and what did and did not work. I used to keep a paper journal, but found that impractical when shore fishing...plus it gets really messed up when you handle pike or musky.  As far as the verity...between the Susquehanna River, several small streams (creeks? cricks?) and some ponds all within close proximity to where I live, I can fish several different bodies of water in a single day, which ups the variety of fish over fishing just one type of water. 

[Swamp Girl]

23 hours ago, Kirtley Howe said:

But a small digital voice recorder never forgets.

 

Cool!

[Kirtley Howe]

I don't regularly record my fishing these days. But when I am trying new things, moving around a lot, or fishing more than one type water in a day, I like to record it so I can recall everything I tried and what or where did or did not work. If I tried to remember all that I would for sure forget important stuff and would not learn as much. Can you imagine trying to remember every lure you threw, the weather conditions, your location, time of day at that location, which type of presentation you used at each of those locations, etc for a 6 or 8 hour day? Not too hard to do if you are fishing one stretch of river with only a few presentations. But when covering several bodies of water and doing a lot of experimentation (which I really enjoy doing) it would be impossible for me. The old brain goo ain't what it used to be....