Turkey Day Fishing

[Koz]

Well, it was kind of a weird holiday for me, but still a good one. Normally I work on Thanksgiving and give members of my team the day off. But this year my birthday falls on that day, so I wanted to take a day for me. 

 

My son is out of town, so it was just me and the dog today but that was just fine. I got some work done around the house, then set up ,y kayak for an afternoon on the lake. My house is on a large cove with mostly deep water (12-35 feet) but it does have some shallow areas. Since I moved in just a moth ago, I haven't done a lot of fishing there. I've skirted the banks a few times to fish but haven't really explored the area. But today I had some time.

 

My first stop was a big hump out in the cove. The hump is about 10 feet down and drops to just over 30 feet. The water temp was 63 degrees, and in these parts that's a bit cold for our southern bass. I get out there and my electronics show absolutely nothing. I had passed over some bait balls along the way, but not a predator in sight. 

 

So I headed to shallower water to fish some rip rap and some grass lines, but I still wasn't seeing any fish but I finally got a strike on an underspin, missed the hookset, and it shook off.

 

Next, I decided to hit a secondary point. I was slow dragging an underspin along the bottom, bouncing off some rocks and branches when I got a good bite. This time I didn't miss the hookset. I fish with braid and I keep my drag a little tight, but when I got the bass close to the kayak it started pulling drag. Cool. That's a good sign. I bumped the drag and even then we had a good little fight before I managed to grab it with my grippers.

 

I grabbed my scale in she weighed in at just over 6 pounds. That was the only one I caught today in just over 2 hours on the lake, but it was worth it.

 

While I was out there floating around and beating the banks, one of my neighbors came out too introduce herself and wish me a Happy Thanksgiving.  She said she had been watching me for half an hour and it looked so relaxing out there. It was. Not another boat in site, calm waters, and very little wind with partly cloudy skies. That made it easy to track, drift, and fish. It was just about perfect out there except for the chilly weather.

 

On the way back in my sonar it up like a Christmas tree and beeped like crazy when a school of decent sized fish passed, but by the time I grabbed a rod they were gone. I casted around to no avail. It also started getting cold so I left them for another day. My pedal drive also started making noise, so I'll have to address that before I head out again.

 

So although I didn't have family around today, it was still a great day. I got some much needed lake time to relax and clear my head and I caught a decent fish. I'd call that a good day. But it's back to work tomorrow.

[bloom]

happy belated birthday, and congrats on a great day on the water.

[TnRiver46]

Congrats on that 6 and happy birthday. Biggest fish in the kayak??

[Swamp Girl]

No photo, @Koz? You're killin' me, man! However, post a photo and this will be me:

 

[Koz]

14 hours ago, TnRiver46 said:

Congrats on that 6 and happy birthday. Biggest fish in the kayak??

It was the biggest bass on my kayak for sure. But I previously caught a 25 pound flathead on the yak. I'm thankful that I lipped it, other wise I probably would have had to cut the line or drag it to shore to get the hook out.

9 hours ago, ol'crickety said:

No photo, @Koz? You're killin' me, man! However, post a photo and this will be me:

 

I keep my phone in my dry bag and stow the bag behind my crate. It's a pain to get to, and if get a phone call I can answer it on my watch. I definitely would be "that guy" that drops his iPhone in the lake.

 

I do have some Go Pro type action cameras somewhere that I should dig out, but I haven't finished unpacking from my move. What I should do is buy some Gear Trac and mount the cameras on my kayak.

[Alex from GA]

I carry a digital camera in a water proof dive housing in my kayak vest.  If there's room a GoPro is the thing to have.

[A-Jay]

18 hours ago, ol'crickety said:

No photo, @Koz? You're killin' me, man!

 

Perhaps you two can do a Secret Santa -

You send him a camera and he can send you a SCALE !

One that you keep in the boat & remember to take with you, and use. 

Oh, but I guess that wouldn't really be a secret now would it ?

A-Jay