etaggart
09-19-2011, 08:54 AM
Sorry all, no pix - on top of everything else the camera batteries were dead.
Got up for a nice three-day long weekend in Big Bear Lake - primed for some early morning fishing now that all the boaters are dealing with their kids in school and the weather's still warm.
Water temp is about 68 - weather was as beautiful as it gets - barely any wind.
Launched early Saturday - decided to park near the Grout Bay jetty and walk a little bit to launch right where I wanted to start fishing. Picked up two 1lb small mouth bass on an old tiger-stripe colored rattling crank bait - and then picked up a baby that was about the same size as the crank! Worked my way around the jetty not getting any hits on the south side of it. Cut across the mouth of the bay to Windy Point and picked up a nice 1.5lb trout on the fly while kicking across. Also a mess of crappie - but that's getting old-hat :Wink:
Worked Windy Point for a while with the crank, plastics, fly, etc.. Two other bass boaters were working the same area and picking up a nice number of SMB and LMB - nothing huge, but they were picking up a lot of them. I think they were mainly using cranks - looked like red-colored deep divers. I wasn't getting nearly the love they were - I'm sure it's just bad technique - but I'm going to blame my crank :Envious: Since I sorta crashed their party, I was being nice and giving them access whereever they seemed to want to fish.
They eventually moved off and started working the area a little harder. I was getting plenty of crappie, but couldn't find the SMB I was hitting last weekend.
Noticed the left-bladder in my tube was getting low a few times - not too surprising, had been patched many times before. I'd simply move to shore, give a few blows, then get back at it - knowing where this was leading. Thinking I had to get back across the bay, I decided to kick back across about 11. Picked up another small trout on the way - and some crappie.
Worked the jetty some more, but no hits and the tube was listing badly - time to go home.
Tries numerous repairs and let it sit overnight with a major glue-job. Woke early Sunday, went to the same spot before I inflated hoping to give it extra time to set. Inflated and major fail - oh well. Shore fished along the jetty with the crank. It was about 7am when I finally started - picked up 2 barely 1lb bass and 1 baby. Stopped at about 9 to call it a day.
Tried again for repairs, but that old bladder just wouldn't hold-up any more. Packed it up to see if I can return/replace (FishCat4 - go figure). We'll see.
If I can't get it replace quickly, I may be getting an early Christmas present for myself - What the heck - it's my birthday coming up - I'll just call it a birthday present!
Cheers to all - keep those reports coming!!!!! I really want to hear where else on this great lake people are catching!
Eric
Got up for a nice three-day long weekend in Big Bear Lake - primed for some early morning fishing now that all the boaters are dealing with their kids in school and the weather's still warm.
Water temp is about 68 - weather was as beautiful as it gets - barely any wind.
Launched early Saturday - decided to park near the Grout Bay jetty and walk a little bit to launch right where I wanted to start fishing. Picked up two 1lb small mouth bass on an old tiger-stripe colored rattling crank bait - and then picked up a baby that was about the same size as the crank! Worked my way around the jetty not getting any hits on the south side of it. Cut across the mouth of the bay to Windy Point and picked up a nice 1.5lb trout on the fly while kicking across. Also a mess of crappie - but that's getting old-hat :Wink:
Worked Windy Point for a while with the crank, plastics, fly, etc.. Two other bass boaters were working the same area and picking up a nice number of SMB and LMB - nothing huge, but they were picking up a lot of them. I think they were mainly using cranks - looked like red-colored deep divers. I wasn't getting nearly the love they were - I'm sure it's just bad technique - but I'm going to blame my crank :Envious: Since I sorta crashed their party, I was being nice and giving them access whereever they seemed to want to fish.
They eventually moved off and started working the area a little harder. I was getting plenty of crappie, but couldn't find the SMB I was hitting last weekend.
Noticed the left-bladder in my tube was getting low a few times - not too surprising, had been patched many times before. I'd simply move to shore, give a few blows, then get back at it - knowing where this was leading. Thinking I had to get back across the bay, I decided to kick back across about 11. Picked up another small trout on the way - and some crappie.
Worked the jetty some more, but no hits and the tube was listing badly - time to go home.
Tries numerous repairs and let it sit overnight with a major glue-job. Woke early Sunday, went to the same spot before I inflated hoping to give it extra time to set. Inflated and major fail - oh well. Shore fished along the jetty with the crank. It was about 7am when I finally started - picked up 2 barely 1lb bass and 1 baby. Stopped at about 9 to call it a day.
Tried again for repairs, but that old bladder just wouldn't hold-up any more. Packed it up to see if I can return/replace (FishCat4 - go figure). We'll see.
If I can't get it replace quickly, I may be getting an early Christmas present for myself - What the heck - it's my birthday coming up - I'll just call it a birthday present!
Cheers to all - keep those reports coming!!!!! I really want to hear where else on this great lake people are catching!
Eric