12/7-12/8 fishing report

[carl schenk]

Light winds, good water visibility and the full moon came together Wednesday to motivate me. I knew Tommy was planning to concentrate on Strawberry so I headed down the east river. One pass around the launch club failed to show me the expected bait schooling so I motored over to the west river and found enough life to keep me there. I was rewarded by a nice clean water measured 45” fish on my first turn through the area. Decided to remain there and 4 hours later I was ready to call it a night when my rod was slammed by a fish that felt heavy and fought hard and stayed deep throughout the fight. Net job went smoothly and I quickly decided that I wanted to bumpboard this one. I quickly put on the GoPro and grabbed the gillplate to lift the fish when I heard the camera shut off. Dead battery..damn. I put the fish on the board and was surprised to see it was only 46”, but the belly was extending beyond the bottom edge. Blimp! After putting the fish back in the net I just sat there drifting while taking in the shape. Finally dipped the net and watched her head back to the bottom. I wound up staying another hour trying for a hat trick but no luck. Returning to the same area Thursday night I saw that the area looked completely devoid of any of the bait schools that were there the night before. Searched around for hours but couldn’t find where they all went. Kind of think the wind shift made things reposition elsewhere. Thought about moving to Strawberry to finish the night but saw someone was there so went home. Didn’t empty the gas tank so I guess I’ll be back again..