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When nothing works

Posted By: Catfish Tim

When nothing works - 11/04/22 01:38 PM

So yesterday was a day I'd been waiting for for a long time. My brother came down from up home for a couple days of fishing. I had taken two days off of work and we were going to spend Thursday and Friday hoisting big blues over the gunnels...

I set out yesterday morning in the dark with ice, a thermos of hot coffee and a load of skipjack. Got to the marina and headed out just as we were starting to see a little light in the East. We did a little scanning and decided where we wanted to start. We marked fish, not a ton of them but we were going to drift so I decided to start soaking baits with the thought that we would run over some more as we worked our way North and West. Started slow, and then got into the dinks shredding our baits. As the day went on, we would go from dinks; not catching them mind you, just feeding them - back to nothing and then start over. We ran several drifts and we spot locked over a big pile of fish we saw in 22 feet of water, twice and we got bupkus! We went until 1:00 in the afternoon before we got the skunk out and that 8 pound skunk buster was our last fish in addition to being our first fish.

To sum it up, the blues had a bad case of lock jaw and the day was a complete turd sandwich. And to top it off, this morning I'm sitting at my desk instead of in my boat. The wind and the weather forecast kept me off the lake entirely today. Not much of a trip for my brother. We may try tomorrow morning for a bit as we have other plans in the middle of the day but, so far it's nothing but a swing and a miss...

Nuts!
Posted By: Skeeter Temp

Re: When nothing works - 11/04/22 01:42 PM

Oh that bites brother... Think we all have been there for sure. Just enjoy spending time
Posted By: Bluecat Bob

Re: When nothing works - 11/04/22 06:53 PM

I am sat at home today watching the trees bend and the water gushing off the roof of our deck, and knowing that sooner or later (hopefully sooner), those big cats will be chowing down once again...

You know if CFT aint catching it has to be bad right now.

I guess now it's a case of 'great expectations...'.

I hope y'all get some action in the am, Tim.
Posted By: jippedgenes

Re: When nothing works - 11/04/22 07:22 PM

Well I am glad I was not the only one.
Posted By: Catfish Tim

Re: When nothing works - 11/06/22 11:52 AM

Y'all, it's days like that that are why we call it fishing and not catching. We were doing everything right and we just couldn't buy a decent bite. I would have liked to get out there yesterday afternoon but I was not able to. Now we are looking at another front and a full moon coming up. Maybe next weekend... The good news is Lavon is up over a foot now from it's low point. It's not climbing fast but it is climbing. I hope we can stay in the cycle of storm systems rolling through every few days to keep filling it up. On 10/23 we were at 485.22 and this morning we are at 486.3...

An acre-foot of water is about 326,000 gallons so to raise Lavon a foot at it's current surface area of 16,981 acres, it takes about 5.6 billion gallons of water. 1 lake, 1 foot, 5.6 billion... Amazing...
Posted By: skeetmaster

Re: When nothing works - 11/07/22 02:44 PM

Every time I go out and have a great day and catch a ton of fish, I can't wait to get back out. But when I go out and get blanked, that feeling of getting back out there and trying again doubles! I have a feeling the next trip out Tim, you're going to murder them! And, you'll be calling your brother and giving him the bad news lol.
Posted By: Nickbyrd

Re: When nothing works - 11/09/22 11:51 PM

A glass of whiskey will salvage those days .
Posted By: Bluecat Bob

Re: When nothing works - 11/18/22 07:04 PM

I went out yesterday myself and got skunked.

Started out in a misty 30F air temp, seemed arctic cold after this summer, but warmed up to 55F in clear blue skies when it heated up... yes, a bluebird day. Water temp was way down to 56F which I took as a good sign, and like Tim I spotted fish everywhere. Could I get a bite? Nope.

One drift was in a light breeze at 0.5mph drifting 4 baits up towards the end of a big creek, and nothing until it shallowed out to 15 feet and a couple of nibbles but no take downs. I decided maybe it was a time issue, so went back and drifted the same route again but an hour later....again nothing.

I tried suspended baits in deep water as a last resort but again nada.

Posted By: Bluecat Bob

Re: When nothing works - 11/18/22 07:08 PM

Originally Posted by Nickbyrd
A glass of whiskey will salvage those days .


And amen to that, and to confirm it did indeed work like a charm!
Posted By: Catfish Tim

Re: When nothing works - 11/18/22 07:48 PM

Going to give it a go in the morning. Calling for cloudy skies and north wind. We'll see what the feel like...
Posted By: Bluecat Bob

Re: When nothing works - 11/18/22 09:47 PM

Originally Posted by Catfish Tim
Going to give it a go in the morning. Calling for cloudy skies and north wind. We'll see what the feel like...


Good luck!

I will also be at Lake Lavon swimming in a dry suit. True story lol!
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