Gsp 1/25

[Tmdilbeck]

Went to the steam plant both mornings this weekend. Only 4 boats were out Saturday at dawn but the bite was slow. I caught one schoolie on a swim bait. 2 more fish were landed by other boats.

Sunday morning was much busier and the bite was equally slow. I got lucky and caught a 32 inch fish on a swim bait. I saw Chris catch a few in his kayak but no one else seemed to have much luck. It got even more crowded after dawn so I left around 8.

On Saturday the water in the main lake was in the mid 50s. That's got to have something to do with the slow bite.

[agelesssone]

[QUOTE=Tmdilbeck;60744

On Saturday the water in the main lake was in the mid 50s. That's got to have something to do with the slow bite.[/QUOTE]

I was out Saturday afternoon and I only found 46 degree water in the main lake/river channel.

The water in the discharge was 55 degrees.

There was a ton of threadfin shad in the discharge. I threw one cast with the castnet and caught over 50 threadies.

I know because they were all dead in my bait tank this morning. I've been having no luck with my new (new this fall) Sunshine Grayline bait tank. I haven't been able to keep more than 10 baits alive for more than 24 hours yet. This new filtering design doesn't filter the scales out of the water very well.

And here is my recipe in the water....2 oz of the blue stuff that bait shops use, one cup of rock salt, 1/2 cup of shad keeper, a few drops of defoamer.

I can see I'm going to have to modify it somehow to make the filtering more efficient.

The old Blue Water tank I borrowed from JK Travecca works a lot better at filtering.

[Tmdilbeck]

My fish finder was having some problems yesterday. I couldn't use it at all today. 46 makes more sense than my read of 55.

Hope you had some luck, agelessone

[agelesssone]

Not much.

We caught one 17 inch largemouth and one 17 in striper.

Only saw one other small striper caught out of the 8 boats and two kayaks fishing there Saturday afternoon. Not much surface activity either. Saw four blowups (more like large swirls) all afternoon. We left at 6 PM.

[SalmonDaze]

Went to the steam plant both mornings this weekend. Only 4 boats were out Saturday at dawn but the bite was slow. I caught one schoolie on a swim bait. 2 more fish were landed by other boats.

Sunday morning was much busier and the bite was equally slow. I got lucky and caught a 32 inch fish on a swim bait. I saw Chris catch a few in his kayak but no one else seemed to have much luck. It got even more crowded after dawn so I left around 8.

On Saturday the water in the main lake was in the mid 50s. That's got to have something to do with the slow bite.

That was a nice one you had on the far end of the barrier. That was me right next to Chris. He had 3 nice ones and a small one to start the morning. Really frustrating to watch 12 lines all throwing the same fluke and only one guy catching. A testament to Chris' skills. He did have one long follow on a pencil popper, but nothing was blowing up and we didn't see any catches on topwater.

[Travis C.]

That was me right next to Chris. He had 3 nice ones and a small one to start the morning. Really frustrating to watch 12 lines all throwing the same fluke and only one guy catching.

Where have I heard that before. :)

[SalmonDaze]

Where have I heard that before. :)

Not sure where you've heard it; but if you follow me around a bit, you can SEE it on many, MANY fishing trips. :D

[JKTrevecca]

Hey Merv... we need to talk about your gray line bait tank. I've kept 20-30 Threadfin alive for several days in the middle of the summer in mine. The first two hours are the most crucial. I use 1 cup of salt for every 10 gallons of water or 3 cups for a full tank, chlorine remover (if using city water), and 1 cap full of shad keeper. For the first 2 hours after catching them I change or clean the filters frequently. After a couple hours the fish 're establish their slime coat and settle down which keeps the water clean. I also "purge" my baits by putting them in a holding bucket that has lake water in it for the first 5 to 10 minutes. This is when the shad poop and puke the most, right after they come out of the net. This initial bit of waste produces a lot of ammonia which contaminates the bait tank. After 5 to 10 minutes in the holding bucket I transfer the baits into the bait tank. If I am going to keep the baits overnight I do a partial water change every 8-12 hours replacing about 20 gallons of water and adding 2 cups of salt per the original formula.

I know this sounds like a lot of maintenance and in some respects it is. You are absolutely correct that the filter system on the blue water is superior but you should be getting very similar results with the gray line with more frequent filter cleaning/replacement.

Bait is high maintenance but oh so important and valuable. There is nothing quite like a 10 inch gizzard shad with a lot of life in him taunting a big ole water zebra. They just can't resist. It's worth every bit of effort.

And.... you should be able to keep gizzards much longer and with less maintenance than than Threadfin.

That's all I have to say about that. I have the itch to fish REALLY bad right now. Here fishy fishy....

Sent from my KFSOWI using Tapatalk

[agelesssone]

Hey Merv... we need to talk about your gray line bait tank. I've kept 20-30 Threadfin alive for several days in the middle of the summer in mine. The first two hours are the most crucial. I use 1 cup of salt for every 10 gallons of water or 3 cups for a full tank, chlorine remover (if using city water), and 1 cap full of shad keeper. For the first 2 hours after catching them I change or clean the filters frequently. After a couple hours the fish 're establish their slime coat and settle down which keeps the water clean. I also "purge" my baits by putting them in a holding bucket that has lake water in it for the first 5 to 10 minutes. This is when the shad poop and puke the most, right after they come out of the net. This initial bit of waste produces a lot of ammonia which contaminates the bait tank. After 5 to 10 minutes in the holding bucket I transfer the baits into the bait tank. If I am going to keep the baits overnight I do a partial water change every 8-12 hours replacing about 20 gallons of water and adding 2 cups of salt per the original formula.

I know this sounds like a lot of maintenance and in some respects it is. You are absolutely correct that the filter system on the blue water is superior but you should be getting very similar results with the gray line with more frequent filter cleaning/replacement.

Bait is high maintenance but oh so important and valuable. There is nothing quite like a 10 inch gizzard shad with a lot of life in him taunting a big ole water zebra. They just can't resist. It's worth every bit of effort.

And.... you should be able to keep gizzards much longer and with less maintenance than than Threadfin.

That's all I have to say about that. I have the itch to fish REALLY bad right now. Here fishy fishy....

Sent from my KFSOWI using Tapatalk
I believe I outlined my tank techniques. 1 cup of salt 2 oz of G Juice (bluestuff, water treatment, used lake water from the canal, 1/4 cup shad keeper.

The filtering system on my bait tank didn't even get dirty event though I had about 70 threadfins in there. Did not realize how many I had until I had to clean them out and drain the 30 gal tank. This was from one throw of the cast net.

The tank has two pumps. The lower one circulates the water and (supposedly) injects air from a tube coming in from the top of the tank. NOT! The tube connecting the metering valve on the outside of the tank to the water injection nozzle on the lower pump always comes disconnected.

The upper pump is supposed to draw water from the bottom of the tank and spew it out the top and over into the filter box. It does not pick up the scales and deliver them to the filter. My filters aren't even dirty enough to require cleaning after running overnite. Poor filtering system on this new tank.

Aero has come up with a new/different filtering system on his tank. I'll see how it works on his tank and maybe try that.

[Cranky]

Not sure where you've heard it; but if you follow me around a bit, you can SEE it on many, MANY fishing trips. :D

Hang in there salmonpatti. keep it in the water. you know what they say about the blind squirrel.