Fayette 5-18-2020

Fished Fayette yesterday from daybreak until 5 pm. Conditions...bluebird skies / little wind /water level full pool / water temp mid 80s / lots of boats (fishermen / pleasure craft / cast netters). Had the pleasure of meeting BILLS2006 on the water & also ran into TomRom as well. The morning bite was slower than normal, but things heated up in the pm. Caught around 30 before noon & 50-60 after noon. More fish are starting to show up in the reed beds, but nothing like the past 2 years. Got a few decent action hookset photos yesterday, plus got to break in a new St Croix rod. In the 1st photo that is BILLS2006 in the background boat, and the second photo shows TomRom in the background.

It was good meeting you, just be aware I will follow you all over the lake! There is an art to presenting the Gulp, and with the swivel drop shot hooks an are to setting the hook.

Nice. I like the stripes on the fish in the 2nd pic. I get striped ones in Athens every once in a while. I'm needing to do some thumping myself!

Vogey I had a good day as well yesterday. Thanks for sharing some of your spots with me. I caught good numbers but I did not have one bass hook up. Last week I caught over 20 bass and at least half of them were on my blue gill rig. I did notice a lot more short strikes yesterday than the last couple of times I was out. There was a fellow that had his two 8 yr old granddaughters with him that I invited to join me. I was already parked where he wanted to go. It was fun watching his granddaughters catch them. One thing I have noticed about most guys fishing for blue gill is they will share the water. Unlike most bass fisherman, blue gill guys don't appear to always fishing for fame and fortune.

I have fished for both species quite a bit, and there is a massive difference. Bluegill tend to congregate in very large numbers densely packed in a small area compared to bass, so there are a lot more fish to share on any given spot. Yes, bass do at times gather in large schools, but not really at the "standard practice" level of bluegill. That has a lot to do with what's considered crowding; I guess you just wanted to take a stab at bass fishermen?

That's as true as it gets. Everyone is invited to fish right beside me at any time. I fish for fun and food, no competition in me. So if I'm fishing, "come on over"....just be ready to talk!

The "Master of Fayette" strikes again. A very solid post with some very solid fish. Good job Vogey!



Side Note: You need to frame picture #3.

Thanks guys...Tom...Will you quit stirrin up trouble

Gitter...When I set up the Go Proto to take a shot every 5 seconds you never know what you will get. Out of the 800 photos it took yesterday, I kept around 10...those were the 2 best. Yesterday was not an ideal photo day with the bluebird skies.

Nope, not at all, just making an observation of fishing that lake the last 17 years. I have always shared the water whether fishing for bass or blue gill. I have never had a problem telling people what I have been catching them on etc. It's such a small lake. Now don't get me wrong, I do try to give people their space. If I came across a little ruff on the bass guys sorry about that, because I still fish for bass a lot as well..

Steve what else is there to say. "You are living the dream"! Your pictures say it all.



Side Note: As already mentioned above picture #3 is a "Wall Hanger"!

That picture has the Fafyette Land Mark in it's background. "The Power Plant". Again a super picture made for framing! Looking forward to seeing many more!

It should be your signature picture Steve! Again as always super post and pictures.

Can you tell us more about the new rod? Also what reel and line are you using?

JMo737...The rod is a St Croix Legend Elite Panfish rod & the reel is a Pflueger Supreme SUPSP25. It is the best feeling ultra lite rod I have ever used. The only drawback is that it is pricey. As far as the line goes I use Stren 6 lb test fluorocarbon. I have played around with different lines, but keep coming back to this one. No matter what you read they ALL seem to develop twists & loops to some degree. About a month ago I tried soaking the new spool in water for 5-7 days before using. I have only used the "water treated" line once, on the last trip, & it worked great. Smoother casting & no line twists. Got the tip from a Richard Gene the Fishin Machine you tube video. If you try this you need to make sure and peel the label off the new spool of line, and clean of ALL the adhesive left from the label before you submerge in water. Hope this helps...

Great stuff Vogey. Glad to hear at least a few are moving shallow. I'll have to give it a try the next calm weekend day.

Great to hear the water treating seems to be working. I gave up on spinning rods due to the twist. I would stretch the line but still got twist.

I use Stren 6 lb fluorocarbon on my fly rod. I can catch white bass in clear water with it so I never worried about it working on bluegill as white bass are extremely line shy at times. It is limp enough to allow great action on the fly. I love it. The only problem is it is not abrasion resistant at all. If I get broke off I replace the entire 3 ft section of tippet. If I don't, I'll lose another fly the next fish I hook. Took me lots of lost flies and fish to figure that out

Another super post! Good job Vogey! Love your pictures and as already been said picture #3 needs to be framed. Again super post and super fish. Nicely done.

Agree with several others: some really neat pics

That St. Croix panfish series sure are nice rods. I got the basic panfish rod set up with a Diawa reel. Really sweet too. But I did not go for the Legend Elite. It was a little more than I wanted to spend for just the rod. The Daiwa KAGE Ultra lite rod and KAGE reel was what I opted for my upper end set up. Pricey as well and I was able to keep rod and reel under my upper end limit. I only have two rods for bluegill. As far as line, the Tackle Trap where I buy most of my stuff recommended spooling the reels with YGK G-Soul 7.5 lb sinking braid. Its $30 for a 164 yd spool so I put it on my KAGE reel. It has the diameter of 2lb test. Really hard for these old eyes to see. Anyway it will cast the same bait twice as far as the St. Croix setup which has 6 lb fluorocarbon. The St.Croix panfish rod is a real quality rod and I have a very good Daiwa reel on it as well. So I I'm pretty sure its the line that is giving me the distance. I got another spool of it ordered so I will find out.

Thanks for the rod and reel info.