Priest with the Wife 3/15

[JandSCattleCo]

Wife and I hit Priest this afternoon from 1200-400pm. Again put in at Fate Sanders and headed up Stewarts Creek. Was the ramp ever crowded today. Apparently there were two bass tournaments and a crappie tournament out of there today. Every truck and trailer spot, side of the road, ditch, anywhere a truck and trailer could go were full. Ended up parking in a ditch!

Stewart's Creek was packed as well. Folks fishing from the bank, fishing from kayaks, loaded down with boats. Tons of people. Air temp was 65-68 F and water temp was 55-56F.

Went to the far end and started setting up the spider rig. Carisa threw out a minnow and bobber and started floating it out the back. Then we tied up a jig head and body for her to start casting with. Got the spider rig set up and started moving along the bank. Several bass boats flew up past us rocking us something fierce. Start catching fish here and there and one goes sideways on me again. Tangled two lines so not that bad. Carisa had line run off the spool of her reel so we had to straighten that out. As we're working our way down, we come within 30 feet of a smaller boat and 50 feet of another, all crappie fishing. Here comes a bass boat, full on plane, and threads the needle between us. WAY TO CLOSE. Rocked us all so bad it was ridiculous. I'm sure he heard the other guys screaming at him. Pretty sure the old guy fishing by himself called him everything under the sun. Ended the day with 20 fish boated, 2 came off at the boat, and 5 keepers, 1 white and 4 blacks. Carisa's big fish of the day was a yellow bass about 9" long.

It was great having her out on the water with me. Here's to many more trips together my love!

[chaseasl]

Cool

[Heiny57]

Great day fishing. I had a couple idiots run past me yesturday waaay to close.

[Headhunter]

I put in at Fate Sanders and fished the same area. Limited on crappie in just over 2 hours. All of them in less than 4' of water. good day on priest. it is getting close. next couple days will slow it up but should be right toward the end of the week.

[JandSCattleCo]

Seems we were to deep then. We were in 8-10 FOW. We're you spider rigging or casting to the bank? There was a fella the other day going perfectly sideways in a deep v Lund dragging lines out the side in real shallow water. Any ideas on how he did that?

[Alphahawk]

Congrats on good day on the water.



Regards

[Headhunter]

Nothing against it but I never troll. I do not like to troll for any kind of fish.

[jad2t]

9-12 feet was the sweet spot for me Saturday. I thought the water had to warm up just a bit more for them to be in 4' but I guess I'm wrong. I was trolling in my kayak with one rod on each side, both double rigged with 1/16oz jigheads and curly tails. White, black/chartreuse, and pumpkin/chartreuse all were working great. I did catch a lot of shorts and had a lot of short strikes but caught plenty of Crappie.

[Transplanted Sportsman]

great report Josh!, glad you caught a few specially on a trip out with your wife! I'm there with you man, when the big boats come down flying past me too close for comfort it forces me to turn my bow towards the wake on my small Riverhwak otherways I will be swamped, I know they put less of a wake on a plane but please folks stay away from the smaller craft!!

[blink]

We were in our yaks in the water by the ramp at west fork saturday after floating from nices mill, when a big bass boat comes around the corner heading upstream at about 60mph and is headed right at us in our kayaks. i start waving my paddle in the air thinging they dont see us. they fly by us missing me by about 10 feet and they say, hey we see ya!

that was scary to say the least.
some of these people just dont give a crap about anyone else on the water. The river is barely 100 ft across right here and there are people trying to load and unload boats, bank fisherman, kayakers, etc.

[XxthejuicexX]

In his defense, you do not have much safe water to run in that far up. Should he have slowed down, maybe. It goes back to another subject brought up the other day is do you want a little wake and a faster drive by or slow down and catch 3' wake so he can idle by and He could have also been a jackass. I know that if you are fishing the main channel where I must run, you know the consequences of it. I own a kayak and a bass boat and if I am fishing the lake or main river off it I use the bass boat, much larger and handles the traffic better. I know not everyone has my option.

[TNBronzeback]

Some good crappie reports on here from the weekend! I plan on hitting my fish attrators this weekend, a fellow member on here sent me a screen shot of one of my attractors with some fish around it, so im looking forward to trying them and seeing how they produce in the coming weeks.


after last summer (yeah i know, summer boaters on the weekend, ect, ect) i carry a slingshot and glass marbles in the boat. havent had to use it since i got it, but came close.
Now, firing off glass marbles at moron boaters IS NOT the correct way to handle a bad boating situation, i completely know and understand that, but at the same time, if you run by me, close enough for me to read the brand of sunglasses you have on, thats WAY too close, no matter what size boats anybody is in and you CAN expect some flying glass marbles heading your way and coming in hot. There is no logical or rational excuse for people doing that, just no common sense or respect. You dont respect my 15ft aluminum flat bottom boat, i wont hessitate to pepper your $40,000 gel coat and i will gladly deal with any repurcussions and consequences that may come after.
Im sure ive made alot of guys mad with all that, and rightly so, but maybe, if your one of those guys that operates your boat like that, it will make you be a little more aware of whats around you on the water and take a little more caution when around other vessels and use good sense on wake and distance.
OK guys, let me hear it, tell me how you would all cave my head in if your boat ever got thumped with a marble....i fully expect some responses like that.

[blink]

Some good crappie reports on here from the weekend! I plan on hitting my fish attrators this weekend, a fellow member on here sent me a screen shot of one of my attractors with some fish around it, so im looking forward to trying them and seeing how they produce in the coming weeks.


after last summer (yeah i know, summer boaters on the weekend, ect, ect) i carry a slingshot and glass marbles in the boat. havent had to use it since i got it, but came close.
Now, firing off glass marbles at moron boaters IS NOT the correct way to handle a bad boating situation, i completely know and understand that, but at the same time, if you run by me, close enough for me to read the brand of sunglasses you have on, thats WAY too close, no matter what size boats anybody is in and you CAN expect some flying glass marbles heading your way and coming in hot. There is no logical or rational excuse for people doing that, just no common sense or respect. You dont respect my 15ft aluminum flat bottom boat, i wont hessitate to pepper your $40,000 gel coat and i will gladly deal with any repurcussions and consequences that may come after.
Im sure ive made alot of guys mad with all that, and rightly so, but maybe, if your one of those guys that operates your boat like that, it will make you be a little more aware of whats around you on the water and take a little more caution when around other vessels and use good sense on wake and distance.
OK guys, let me hear it, tell me how you would all cave my head in if your boat ever got thumped with a marble....i fully expect some responses like that.

There is a discussion on the TKA Facebook group and some other interesting methods have been mentioned, including heavy weighted treble hooks, flare guns ,etc.

and yeah i could read the brand of their sunglasses.

[XxthejuicexX]

I personally am not going to fly by a kayak or small boat haulin balls 10' away because I know that I am responsible for the wake of my boat. Now saying that, if you are fishing the main channel and are large enough that my wake will not flip you, I am not slowing down. I would not expect you to slow down, because I chose to fish in that location. Not if I am out of the way fishing and you are driving around having a good ole time bugging the crap out of me, we have issues but I would not fire anything at another boat no matter how they are acting because you never know about the people in the other boat. I happen to carry something that fires more than marbles on me because people are crazy. Oh, and I don't need holes the size of marbles in my boat, it takes on enough water as is :(. TN we should meet up sometime and fish, crappie are getting hot.

[TNBronzeback]

I personally am not going to fly by a kayak or small boat haulin balls 10' away because I know that I am responsible for the wake of my boat. Now saying that, if you are fishing the main channel and are large enough that my wake will not flip you, I am not slowing down. I would not expect you to slow down, because I chose to fish in that location. Not if I am out of the way fishing and you are driving around having a good ole time bugging the crap out of me, we have issues but I would not fire anything at another boat no matter how they are acting because you never know about the people in the other boat. I happen to carry something that fires more than marbles on me because people are crazy. Oh, and I don't need holes the size of marbles in my boat, it takes on enough water as is :(. TN we should meet up sometime and fish, crappie are getting hot.

ofcourse, there are just some times, in close quarters water ways that it will be best for the passing boat to hammer down and fly on by causing minal plane wake, and thats completely understandable and the best approach. But like you said, when your 20 yards off shore beating the bank and Mr. Ski boat come buzzing by within 40 ft, music cranked up, half throttle and pushing a 3ft wake, then thats where i have the problem.
Yeah i would much prefer NOT to have it come to flinging glass, but if i calmly make my case (or best i can to the boater) and they dont arrange thier cruising, then matters need to change once that first wake comes over the bow. Last year, almost every weekend, between long hunter and bryant grove, about a 20-22ft, red and black ski/board boat with the speakers and that chrom bar on top to hold the boards....every 15-20 minutes cruise within 40-50ft of me, all the while having a few hundred yards between me and the next shoreline, thats just ignorant.

Im with ya Juice, i carry something extra on me as well for the same reason, some shady characters hanging around boat ramps at night.
For sure lets meet up, crappie are getting good and hybrids im sure are hot as well!

[olddognewtrick]

Flying past a kayak, or other small craft, full out and within 50 feet, is like passing a cyclist in your vehicle without giving them some space, or like driving down the road with two wheels and a headlight over the center line. The other people cannot know what you are going to do, and they do not have the time/ability to get out of your way. They have no control over your vehicle.

Something I'll never forget happened to me when I was just 18 years old. It was in the early 80's and I had a pretty big car, Mercury Montego. I was driving down a small two lane road, speed limit of 40, and came upon a kid who popped out from a neighborhood side street and started riding his bike on the shoulder. The rest of this story happened in about 5 seconds time. I started to go around him but we were right at a blind curve, so I saw that I couldn't get in the other lane. Even at 18, I decided I should slow down and just take it easy until we got around the curve. So, my foot was on the brake and I was down to about 15 mph... when the kid's tire bumped the asphalt and he lost control. He wrecked and fell into the road, head and shoulders. I stopped and all was well. If I had not decided to lower the risk in that situation, I would have ran over that boy. Back then, I probably would not have been in a lot legal trouble, but my life would have been wrecked if I had killed or seriously hurt him. There is no place that has to be got to so quickly as to risk a life.

Accidents happen, but there is no reason to make them more likely to happen.
(just food for thought)

[XxthejuicexX]

When I was taking my Drivers test when I was 16 we were driving through a neighborhood and I am doing 30 down the street when a kid on roller blades comes out from a side street, wipes out and rolls out in front of the car. I could not believe it. No one hurt just a crazy thing to happen during your driving test.