Awesome day at Pickwick 10-25-2013

[Alphahawk]

Alarm went off at 3:30 AM. Had some coffee and breakfast and headed to Pickwick. As I passed Roscoe Turner Airfield right outside of Pickwick Dam checked temp...it was 27 degrees. Arrived at dam and no one was around and no one would be around for the next 2 hours....what luck! The fish were busting all around me. Had on a 1/4 ounce jig head with a Killer Klatt Crappie Magnet and made about 5 casts and no hits...not good. Had one 1/4 ounce Kastmaster spoon left with the XCalibur dressed hook. After tying it on had a fish on first cast and just about every cast for the next three and a half hours. For the first 2 hours the fish were everywhere...in front of me....in the generator holes...in the boils.....on the wall. I know I mentioned yesterday how big these whites are but I will say it again...they are big. Got a couple of quick measurements and still running the 15 to 17 inch mark and some maybe even longer. But today was catching sows with eggs...hopefully you can tell from some of the pics I took. Many of these fish would have hit the 3 pound mark. After catching about 40 fish I was thinking as I cast that I better retie. Well a white hit it and it would have been the biggest one I had ever caught but never landed it. After one heck of a fight just as I was trying to get into the net the knot broke and off swam fish and my last Kastmaster with decent hooks. That fish was a 4 plus pound fish. I tied on the Kastmaster with factory hooks and all was the same until a striper hit and as I was fighting him the hooks pulled out. Those spoons come with little hooks...not really good for getting into some stripers. Got tired of dealing with treble hooks and remembered I had some BoJoLe Flutter Spoons. I tied one of them on and put a 1/4 ounce split shot about 18 inches above it and started using it. It worked great...no more mess getting trebles out. The sun was slowly creeping up over the dam and until about 9:00 AM everything from the boils back to the dam wall was in the shade. The more the sun came up the closer the whites moved to the wall on the dam. From 9:00 AM until 11:00 Am would cast down the line of the generator holes...outputs....past the 4th opening. If did not get a fish as soon as it hit water would get one before it got to the last opening...the one closest to me in the pic. I made 5 casts and did not get a hit...looked at the time and it was 11:15 AM. I figured they had either moved out...which they are prone to do...or went deep on account of the sun. Tied on a 1/3 ounce jig head and put a Killer Klatt Crappie Magnet on and threw it out and let it hit bottom and started jigging it back in...3 cast...3 fish...they had gone deep. By this time I was beat. Three more guys had shown up and they were going to turn the generators down at noon and crank back up full bore at 4:00 PM. I would imagine if one is there at four there will be plenty of whites still there and the stripers will start showing about five. The water temp had dropped to 57 degrees at 2 feet deep. The water was very clear. This was one of the best days I have ever had white bass fishing...I have had these kind of numbers many times but never caught such big ones consistently. I was surprised I did not get any Smallies. They usually like to hang around in that first generator hole. These fish wanted that twitch...twitch...and then a couple of seconds pause and they would hit it. Will hit it again next week. Life is good!




Regards

[creekcrappie]

Great report, Alpha

[Alphahawk]

Great report, Alpha

Thanks Isaac. I see they are releasing water at JPP. You going to try for some whites down there?





Regards

[creekcrappie]

I hope I get to soon.

[agelesssone]

Fantastic report Alpha. You musta paid SAMBOLIE, huh?

[SAMBOLIE]

Fantastic report Alpha. You musta paid SAMBOLIE, huh?

Alpha has invited my wife and me to Columbia's finest steak house on Riverside. I am sure glad he had a good day at Pickwick.

[Transplanted Sportsman]

Awsome Alpha!!, you are da man!!! such an early rise and taking the cold morning at strides, you Sir are hard core, me on the other hand languishing at work, hoping to one day have such outing!!

[tacklemake]

It sound like someone is stocking up for winter great report and pic's my friend thank you....................woody

[Alphahawk]

Awsome Alpha!!, you are da man!!! such an early rise and taking the cold morning at strides, you Sir are hard core, me on the other hand languishing at work, hoping to one day have such outing!!

Thanks......I don't know about me being the man but Pickwick is "Da Place"......LOL. It is such an awesome fishery. This fall run of whites tells me the spring run will be fantastic. Years ago the limit on whites was 30 fish. It took it's toll on the size.....always been lots of them but the size had dropped. I can now see what years of a decreased limit of 15 fish has done for size. Just never seen so many big whites as this year.




Regards

[TNtransplant08]

Awesome job Alpha, looks like you had a blast. My plan was to hit Priest this morning. But when I got up at 4:30 am, I saw that the temp was 28 degrees outside. I stepped outside and looked at my boat. Started thinking about the fact I have to gather all my tackle, take the cover off the boat, hitch it up to the car, etc. Than I thought about my wife, all nice and warm in bed. Decided to head back to bed and warmth. So yeah....I wussed out :D If I had everything ready to go the night before, I probably woulda went.

[Alphahawk]

Awesome job Alpha, looks like you had a blast. My plan was to hit Priest this morning. But when I got up at 4:30 am, I saw that the temp was 28 degrees outside. I stepped outside and looked at my boat. Started thinking about the fact I have to gather all my tackle, take the cover off the boat, hitch it up to the car, etc. Than I thought about my wife, all nice and warm in bed. Decided to head back to bed and warmth. So yeah....I wussed out :D If I had everything ready to go the night before, I probably woulda went.

Yeah it was cold this morning....but once I had that first fish on I didn't give it much attention....LOL. While I was the only nut on that catwalk for 2 hours...it stays in the shade for several hours as the sun comes up so no warmth hits it until about 11:00 AM and even though I did not venture to the lock side today I would bet a dozen people would have been over there trying for crappie before sun rise. Don't know if crappie are up in there yet but I am sure people are trying for them. I see it is going to warm back up next week.




Regards

[nomad60]

Just awesome, Alpha. Getting into fish like that is worth taking Sambolie to dinner, IMHO. LOL

[Alphahawk]

Just awesome, Alpha. Getting into fish like that is worth taking Sambolie to dinner, IMHO. LOL

Thanks....Well that couldn't cost too much...I don't think...LOL. He is as skinny as a rail......but then again maybe he has a high metabolism and burns it all off....then I would be out a lot of money.



Regards