Thread: Weekly Meetup - The search for new spots

Met up with my fishing buddy this morning a little before eleven.
We were in search mode , for new areas to fish off the boat ramps .

Also , since little guys have been dominating our catches lately , I took five combos with me today . I figured on catching five fish on a rod before switching to a different combo , to determine which one I thought was the most fun rod to catch small gills .
The rods were :
St Croix 4’6” Premier paired with a Shimano Soare XR500spg
St Croix 5’4” Trout Series paired with a Shimano Symetre 500
St Croix 5’6” Avid paired with a Shimano Soare XR500spg
Major Craft 5’4” Finetail Mt. Stream paired with a Shimano Symetre 500
Major Craft 4’10” Finetail Glass paired with a Shimano Soare BB 500spg
All were spooled with 2# Flouroclear .

The areas we concentrated on were picnic areas with water access.

The first was a large park with several areas we tried . Some were better than others .
One important factor in these new areas was some had SHADE ! Something we never had fishing the boat ramps . With a full sun day , the shade was welcomed .
I was able to make a full rotation of all of my rod combos and wound up catching 34 fish total .
Although most were small , I did catch a few nice ones in the mix .
After the rod trial , I picked my favorite to fish the last area we tried today .
The rod was the 5’4” Major Craft Finetail glass rod with the soare bb reel .
It was just fun with whatever size fish was on .
And at the last spot , it got put to test . I hooked something that took off like a rocket and almost spooled me two or three times .
The bank was about four feet above the water line , and I had no idea how I was going to land whatever was screaming the little Soare’s drag . It kept heading towards deep water .
I had it on for over ten minutes and the line went limp all of a sudden .
The line didn’t break . I think it was cut by the teeth the fish must have had .
The line was clean . No slime , so it wasn’t a catfish. I’m thinking a big spotted bass . Something in the 4-5# range or bigger . The big ones don’t jump like the couple pounders do .
Could have been a hybrid or striper , but I think the water is too warm for them to be in close to the bank .
Whatever it was , it was a lot fun just battling it while I had it on .
Most of the new area are mowed on a regular basis.
The short rods came in handy with overhanging limbs and for traveling through the woods the couple of times I did to check out new territory.
Fun day . I’m ready to go back !

Originally Posted by MCG1

Do you have many ticks there? Might want to take extra precautions now that you are scouting. Our river area is infested this year!

Why’d you have to go and mention those blood sucking creepy crawlers?
Found one on me this morning .
Hadn’t had one on me in a couple years at least . Until now .
Hate those things!