Any steam plant reports from today?

[Dakota]

A buddy and I are headed to the steam plant tomorrow. Any reports from today? I have some minnows and always my cast net. Any skipjack moved in yet? I hope so love that for bait for the big stripers. Maybe to early for that but I am not fussy I'll take one or two.


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[thehick176]

Skipjack are in there. We had them swiping at our Crappie jigs last weekend. Thinking about heading out there in the morning myself.

[agelesssone]

Plenty of skipjacks off the first point on the left.
Saw guys catching them there Thursday.

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[agelesssone]

But no striper action to speak of.
Or sauger either.

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[Dakota]

Thanks fellas hopefully I'll be the guy to give a good striper report. Merv, any action at all when you were trying to catch Sauger??


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[agelesssone]

Me, skillet and TNBRONZEBACK fished all say at Rome, we each caught 2 fish, only one keeper out of the six caught.

[XxthejuicexX]

Me, skillet and TNBRONZEBACK fished all say at Rome, we each caught 2 fish, only one keeper out of the six caught.



You guys suck!

[agelesssone]

You guys suck!

EAT YOUR HEART OUT JUICE!

BTW, how many sauger did you catch yesterday?

[agelesssone]

John, Chris Bryant and another guy caught a couple nice stripers up at the barrier this morning.
Tagged you on FB.

[dhd123]

Any hints on how to rig a skipjack as bait for stripers at GSP? Freeline? Weighted? A few years back I hung a few live ones on circle hooks about 6 feet below birthday party balloons. Looked sort of silly, though one of them took off and never came back.


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[agelesssone]

Any hints on how to rig a skipjack as bait for stripers at GSP? Freeline? Weighted? A few years back I hung a few live ones on circle hooks about 6 feet below birthday party balloons. Looked sort of silly, though one of them took off and never came back.


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Just a thought.....next time, attach a line from a rod and reel to the skipjack that's attached to a birthday party balloon. You'll have a better chance at getting your balloon back.

[dhd123]

I'll try that! Thanks : )


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[XxthejuicexX]

EAT YOUR HEART OUT JUICE!

BTW, how many sauger did you catch yesterday?


Zero!!!!

[StriperFan]

Here is the rig I use for big baits. DIY project, but I hated seeing balloons drift off out of reach from time to time, and once made, this is just much easier. I've used this exact rig and another just like it for four or five years now. You can use it weighted like a downline or freeline, then attach to float via planer release, clip the snap swivel above the float (this allows the float to be retrieved as you real in the fish without having to backtrack to pick up the float) This is just a painted foam ball with a plastic sleeve inserted in a drilled hole through the center. Then run fishing line through the sleeve and tie the release in place, with another short line added for the swivel.

[dhd123]

Thanks. Paddled out to GSP Tuesday this week. Water was like glass and covered with fog. Beautiful and cold. Caught 40 - 50 skipjack in a couple of hours. Started out with 3 jigs to a line, but soon just started casting single jigs (white head 1/8 - 1/4 oz with white grub with yellow curly tail was their favorite). They like a very fast retrieve. Went back out same time yesterday (Thursday), and only caught 2 or 3 and a yellow-belly. Still a beautiful day to be fishing.

[Texas_Rig]

Caught my best striper monday at GSP. It took a lot of luck and a lil heartache. I had fished the canal earlier in the day and caught several bass, small striper, and white bass. Left for a while and came back in the afternoon. It was very cold out so there was only one other boat there. When i reached the barrier big stripers were schooling everywhere it seemed. I jumped up on the deck and dropped the trolling motor. Picked up my a rig and fired. Well my line was frozen in my guides and snapoed my line. Wanting my a rig back, i tied a 6xd on my square bill rod and tried to snag it. After a few dozen attempts i gave up and cast my crankbait in one of the areas beyond the barrier where they were schooling. As soon as my crankbait hit bottom I got bit. Now i know I have a very big fish and i know i also have 12lb mono. I loosened the drag a bit and held on. After about 5 minutes the fish swam under the barrier and i can do nothing but hold on. The fish gets about 75 yards behind my boat and am now staring at my backing knot. I think if that knot gets in my guides it game over. My solution is to try and get my rod under the barrier. As i reel tight to try, the fish starts seimming back and makes it all the way to the other side. After a few tense moments trying to land this fish I was overcome with joy when i got it in the boat. Sorry for the long read

[thehick176]

Wow! Good story and great fish!!

[notorious]

After a few tense moments trying to land this fish I was overcome with joy when i got it in the boat.


How about next time you turn around and show us the fish while we are cheering you on...:confused:

[Texas_Rig]

[lQUOTE=notorious;76119]How about next time you turn around and show us the fish while we are cheering you on...:confused:[/QUOTE]

Were u there? The only other boat i saw in there was more toward the entrance and i didnt think had a view of the shenanigans. Believe me if I thought u coukd see it I would have. Hell if i could have kept it alive, I would have paraded it around town. 😄

[Texas_Rig]

On a side note; another funny/heartbreaking thing happened after that. I had a friend with me that just started fishing. After I released that fish, I moved back up to the barrier to try again. My friend wanted in on the action and didnt have a big crankbait. I threw him one of mine to tie on. After a couple of casts he complained that it wasn't running straight. I grabbed his rod to tune the crankbait. Well on my first cast as soon as the crankbait hit bittom i got bit again. It's another big one. After a minute or so it sufaces about 40 yards from my boat. Now my friend is kinda jealous that ive hung another but on his rod. When this fish surfaced i see its jyst as big. Its facing away from me and i try to turn its head toward me. Well the line breaks. Bummer. I asked what size line he has and he tells me either 6 or 8 lb stren flourecent line. When we got back to my garage, I spooled him up something a lil stronger and bigger

[notorious]

LOL, No Texas, I'm on the other side of the barrier/fence generally way up on the top of the structure watching you guys have the time of your lives.

[Texas_Rig]

Gotcha

[Texas_Rig]

Wow! Good story and great fish!!

Thx hick

[commdd]

thats a great photo and story... congratulations!

[Tennoutdrsman]

LOVE IT!! Thanks for the story and Picture!

[Tennoutdrsman]

A pic of the crankbaits will help!:)

[Texas_Rig]

Here ya go. Caught the striper with one on left(citrus shad). Broke one off with the on righ(sexy herring). My dad lost a good one a cpl days later on the big strike king square bill. Its called and 8.5 or 8.0 i think. I would also suggest changing out the hooks on these baits. From my experience SK uses hooks that are sub par. But they make great baits so its worth a lil extra time and money to me. Good Luck and I hope this helps

[Tennoutdrsman]

thank you!
:)

[Saltwaterwalt]

Friday, the 30th, they were stacked up, boats that is ... 20 of them, and two kayaks when I was there. Everyone fishing the edges were catching tilapia. The striper guys fishing the channel, never saw them hook up with anything. A couple boats were boating quite a few tilapia, if they had the right spot, the rest filed in where they could and had slower action. Caught 14 tilapia, lots of bream, kept six big tilapia for dinner and went home. Tomorrow should be crazy. I'm sleeping in. :D

[Texas_Rig]

Fished the GSP this morning. Got there right before daylight and fished til about 12:30. Water temp was 65-66. Went there hoping for striper but it didnt happen. Never saw any schooling but did see several big ones surface chasing bait every now and then. Sadly they were all well beyond the barrier. Fished up and down the canal all morning and the fish were very active and feeding. I caught 1 smallmouth, 1 crappie, couple white bass, and a couple dozen largemouth. All fish were caught on a twin tail grub or squarebill

[XxthejuicexX]

How busy is it? I'm thinking about fishing Sunday morning and really don't want to be surrounded by 20 boats.

[TNBronzeback]

With this cold weather, that place should be killing it this weekend!

[XxthejuicexX]

With this cold weather, that place should be killing it this weekend!


That's what I am afraid of. Usually cold weather scares people off...... not at the steamplant.

[Texas_Rig]

I don't fish on the weekends usually unless im fishing a tournament; so I cant comment on weekends but during the week if its really cold or bad weather then you can easily fish there. Today there were only 2 other boats all morning. But, when there has been good weather the last couple weeks that canal has had at least 10-20 boats every time ive been by

[TNBronzeback]

That's what I am afraid of. Usually cold weather scares people off...... not at the steamplant.

Word on the river is eyes and saugers above Cordell Hull.
I might look into that....or go back and look for more hybrids. Lol