I know this is about like picking lottery numbers... and weather forecast will probably change 4 times in 5 days... but:

Wish I could fish and hunt every day, but that is just not in the cards yet.

So

Looks like Thursday the 5th is going to be another short cold snap, then clearing and cold in the morning on Friday, but sunny and warming up with SE wind 10-15. Saturday calling for light rain and S wind, then Sunday winds go N-NW and cooling off again.

IF you could fish on Friday, is that a better call than Saturday? Guessing Sunday with wind change/weather change would not be a "first choice". What day or days would you fish, if you had your choice and work & other stuff did not interfere?

Know this is kind of hypothetical but interested in what the Guru's say!

thanks all
Ken

Friday looks to be a Toad Day Ken. My pick was Saturday but they dropped a rain storm which complicates things. I’m still going to be on the water somewhere Saturday. That rain could make em go nuts or could make fishing in it unpleasant depending on the severity. I’m betting both those days will be good fishing and a good chance of catching something big. Just gotta get the right bait in the right spot at the right time! I hope you get em buddy!🍀

I am going to give it a go Friday Ken. Blue Cat Bob and I are gonna hit Lavon at daybreak. Hoping it is in fact one of those toad days!

Friday looks like the best conditions for me, I'll fish whenever I can. And if I ever go to a boat besides this pontoon, it will be a lot more often. It's just tough to control a billboard in conditions windier than 10-15. Even then, I still prefer 5-10. Hoping the water temps on Eagle Mountain have dropped enough to get the shad to congregate.

Just checked my updated forecast and it’s 25 at sunrise on Friday with a wind change from NE to SE so my pick is Saturday. 25 is a little too cold for my 6 yr old and I don’t like wind changes. Saturday it’s overcast 11 mph S-SE wind and 44 at sunrise. For me that is almost perfect Trophy Weather.

For you guys fishing Friday, hope y’all got some Glacier Gloves for throwing the cast net. Getting bait in that cold and then clipping on and off planer boards is a different ballgame in 25.

Ken, I don't feel like I even deserve to throw my two cents in with that guru reference in there. Me and a buddy are hitting Lewisville Friday morning. It's gonna be 24 degrees. Wear your life jackets and EVERY bit of clothing you own if you're going out. Oh man, 60 mph in 24 degrees?! Full face mask time for sure!

I trust Chris' call on Friday. I'm curious if the afternoon bite will be better than the morning. I think Saturday could be pretty good as well except for the wind. I don't know though, My own recent experience is the day before a front and two days after seem to be the best for me. I fished the morning this big front came in this past weekend and caught one fish. Granted, I'm kinda like like a blind squirrel out there but I thought I would've done well. Here's a screenshot of my side scan from that mrning. Unless I'm misinterpreting it, I felt like I was gonna do some damage.




Ken, I've been wanting a pontoon for a while but now that I've been drifiting, I'm not sure I still do. I'm guessing you use wind socks. I would think you would have to have a couple of huge ones to slow that thing down. We want to be able to fish more comfortably with more than two people in the boat. What kind of drift speed do you get on a 20mph day? Any input you have here will be much appreciated. I'm gonna make a change this year just don't know what to do yet. We still do a lot of crappie fishing so, I gotta figure it out.

I would have thrown down on that graph in a heartbeat! While some of those look longer, there are a lot of big round returns also. Catfish heads show round returns - correct? Side scan people... am I looking at the right things?


Pontoon... I really wanted a big aluminum center console to fish and hunt with, but wife wanted pontoon to relax and play with the kids. My 18' bass tracker was just not big enough to be safe on Cedar Creek, and we started looking two years ago. Boats were hard to find, but we took our time, and found what we thought we wanted. Bought the used low hours 24' tritoon with the 200 SHO engine, and I have been really happy with it overall. Lot of room, good storage, and fishes much better than I expected. Not a dedicated center console, but works well, and wife is happy. Mine has the two rear fishing seats, and I was not sure I would like that or not. Turns out that for drifting for blues, it works great. We have the ski bar and I made a rod holder from aluminum angle, and can put it on and off fairly easy. Can still use the ski bar with rod holder there, so I leave it on most of the time. See picture.

I have three drift socks - Cabela's 56" models. I have fished 20 mph and big rollers, and with rope out on the socks, keep it down in the .5-.6 range. Gust will move it some, but manageable. I have a 36 volt Motor Guide with spot lock, and it holds it well in the wind, for crappie fishing, etc. I can put 5 or 6 people in the boat - rated for 12 I think, and have lot of room. Can only get about 3 back at the back safely with rods with fish on at one time, but normally we just take turns reeling in fish, and usually not more than one fish at a time. I have put a few rod holders around the boat, and for spring anchor fishing, plenty of room.

I like to crappie fish, but did not do much of that last year, due to chasing blues. I just bought a live scope setup, and plan to do a little more crappie, along with the blues, this year. Thinking I am going to build a mobile setup so I can use is at front, back or console. Or in my 16' flat bottom if I want to... have a couple of places real shallow I like to go to. But pontoon has been really nice for crappie fishing what little I have done with it, other than dock shooting. Not great for that. I can spot lock on upwind side of brush piles and fish off back very comfortable - 3 people. I would love to have had fishing seats at the front and back, but did not find anything like that when we were looking, that the wife was interested in. She likes big couch seats to lay out on... lol.

Overall I would do the Tritoon again. Make sure to find a tritoon, not just a pontoon. Handles the rough water much better!

You are welcome to come down to Cedar Creek and fish with me if you want to spend a little time on a toon, and see what you think. Cant promise we will catch anything, but we will try! I do not have a trailer for my tritoon... bought it from a guy that had it delivered to him new on Livingston. I had it delivered to me at Cedar Creek. Boat has only seen two lakes so far. I will eventually find a trailer for it, but just keep it in my dock at Cedar Creek for now.

Ken, Catfish on side image will have a conical shape like above if they are stationary but they are often in a movement like they are grazing which will stretch out the return making them look similar to a Gar return. They also tend to move out from under the boat when you go over them do when the transducer pings them they are often moving away from the boat. The difference between a Gar and a big catfish is that the catfish will have a softer return on side image while a Gar will be bright. I have a side image shot of the the 39 we caught Monday I will post. I was videoing the side image when the rod got smoked.

This was the 39 we caught Ken. No large big head like you would think but we caught this fish.

Thanks for sharing and explaining Chris. Makes sense. So looking at Skeet's graph, there are several fish on there that could be nice cats...?

Ken

Looks good to me Ken. I would fish it. To get a good representation of fish size on your side image you must match the graph speed to the boat speed so that the algorithm is calculating properly. If your drifting set it at 1 and when side scanning at 5mph adjust the graph speed to 5. This will give you an accurate representation of fish size. Skeet looks like he is somewhat shallow so those fish will look a little bigger on the graph than they do out in deeper water. If you use the grid feature like both Skeet and I have set up on our side image it not only tells you how far out to the side of the boat the fish are but will also give you an idea of how long the fish is. A mark that is by itself or with 1 or 2 other fish and is 4 ft long is often a big cat.

Saturday looks better to me, which is also when I'm going.

Skeeter, I would have thrown down on that as well tbh.

I've had very tough days to fish the past 2 outings, both days were the day the front hit, both days had winds 30+. Both days I was looking fish in the face on side scan and both days they looked back at me and gave me the bird for the most part. I only managed a few small box fish and a light teen combined from both trips out.

I feel your pain Trent except I went for several months fishing the day the front hit or bluebird east wind days. I had to eventually take off work just so I could fish better conditions. Hopefully I’m back on track and I can make up some ground.

I have 3 tourneys this month. I better figure something out... fast. lol

Man you guys are awesome. Ken, thank you for the best info on the boat. My wife and yours sound like they're related. I was leaning in that direction to begin with. If it was just me, I would definitely be looking for a heavy bay with a center console. Chris has what I really want but, you know, gotta keep the missus happy! I would definitely like to take you up on the offer at CC. Thank you for that.

Chris, once again, your knowledge helps me tremendously and I so appreciate your willingness to share. You are right, It was 16' deep when I saw those fish. I got the same bird that Trent got that day though. Thanks for everything and if you ever need anything don't hesitate to ask!

Finally, I can't wait for the second annual get-together in the spring!!