10-15-11 Skunk

[Fysher]

First time out there, and all I can say is dam, this place is huge, took us about 15-20 minutes to get to the buoy line in a rental (gotta invest in a bass boat =0) ) it was packed when we got there so we anchored about 100 ft away from the pack. Threw the fish finder (new to using a fish finder, still learning) out and metered a few fish in about 80ft threw sardines, anchovies and chicken liver for a big fat nothing. The fish finder start to go off and looks like a school is cruising in around the area, same thing, nothing, no bites or nibbles. So we pull up anchor (dam, it's a biatch to pull up a 35lb anchor using a 1/4" thick nylon rope that was 130 ft deep) Gotta get some thicker rope for my next trip out there. Back to the report. So we decide to hit a different spot. Ended up anchor in about 100 ft of water by a point (4 other boats fishing that area) see a guy pull up a schoolie striper and was thinking to myself, let's give this a try. Anchored up, fish finder out and the thing goes crazy, it reading a school of large and medium fish in 90 feet. So since my fish finder is reading (lower range is 100ft) and the fish are at 90ft, i drop sardine all the way to the bottom and crank up a bit, nothing, anchovies same thing, try dropshotting fluke same result nothing. Oh well, that's fishing. I'm still getting used to figuring out my fish finder and all. Well, that's it for now. I will be back and try to get some of those darn stripers that everyone is catching. I guess that it seems true about the bait thing. Got to get myself some fresh sardines next time out.

[dixoncider]

sounds brutal...one observation..it may work better to meter the fish and than anchor instead of the other way around..?

[Fishbreath]

It will take you some time to get used to your sonar. Remember fish look different when you are anchored than they do when you are moving. Not much in the way of those classic arches when you are anchored. I have to wonder if maybe you aren't metering your anchor rope. Depending the angle of your rope and the width of your beam, 80 to 90 feet may be about where they intersect. I usually turn off those little fishy pictures on the sonar, but you may want to leave them on while you are learning. Good luck out there!

.............................
Old fishermen never die. They just smell that way.
The Best of Fishbreath

[Fysher]

dixon - I forgot to put in that I did put the finder out first metered some fish, drop the anchor and put the finder out again to see if they were still around haha yeah, that would suck if I dropped anchor and then fish finder and no fish, and had to pull up 200ft of rope. I think I just have to find some better/fresher bait or try to dip some shad.