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Again on this day I went fishing at Merritt with friends both in the morning and evening! We started by anchoring up in 5ft of water and cast 1/32 oz. jigs with ½ crawlers and leeches. Both morning and evening fishing worked well catching numerous small Walleye, Smallmouth Bass, Bluegill and Yellow Perch. Rigged up a dead rod/dead stick to dangle live bait just off the bottom. We caught some nice and some smaller Smallmouth and a nice mess of Bluegill using this technique, no keeper Walleye but we had fun. Never got the Walleye chop winds but a nice morning of fishing. Evening trip was cut short by rains and lots of lightning and of course, a good Walleye chop during the storm!
Very nice morning and evening trips with friends! We started by anchoring up in 5’ of water and casted 1/32 oz. jigs with ½ crawlers and leeches. Both morning and evening fishing catching numerous small Walleye, Smallmouth Bass, Drum, Bluegill and Yellow Perch. We casted jigs into shallow waters<5’ depths and jigged them back to the boat. Also placed a dead rod/dead stick in a rod holder to dangle live bait just off the bottom for the followers. We caught some nice Smallmouth Bass and a nice mess of Bluegill using this technique, no keeper size Walleye but we had fun. Never got the Walleye Chop winds but a nice morning of fishing at Merritt reservoir. Evening trip had some winds but not a good Walleye Chop, picked up one keeper Walleye to stink the skillet!
Cloudy and light rain evening trip to Merritt fishing from the boat! Trolled crankbaits exclusively covering miles of shoreline while contour trolling. Worked the 10-13’ contours as cloudy expecting the wally to be in shallow with the cloudy weather and wind chop! Caught 1 -17” Walleye on a drop-off while pulling a fire tiger shad rap.
Very nice evening trip Wednesday to Wanahoo with my lovely daughter Shanna Rose and the boat! We tested the trolling rods first as we hooked on a couple crankbaits, a # 5 Flicker shad and a #5 Rapala X-Rap. We spooled out 125’ of line on the line counter reels and pulled them in the 2.5- 2.7 mph range. We first hooked up with a small “hammer handle” northern pike right out of the gate! Poorly hooked as I lost him right at the boat which was great, I didn't have to handle that slimmy little guy! Next fish caught, Shanna hooked into a good fish, ended up being a big largemouth bass, she had fun tightening the drag as it made numerous head shakes. It stayed deep to the very end when eventually she got him to the boat. Very nice Wanahoo Bass measuring 19½”, great body condition likely scaled at 5 lbs, good looking bass. We finished up trolling the crankbaits with a 16.5” walleye, an eater, caught on the colorful flicker shad. Relaxed fishing- trolling crankbaits at Wanahoo!
Sun was dropping so we changed tactics and anchored up off a few trees, we finesse fished with the light, 5- 8 mph SE winds fishing with Satra special rigs tipped with Euro Nightcrawlers and used jigs tipped with leeches. Dipped in amongst the trees and off the points near deep water drop offs. Of course we used the ultralight rods and light line, we had some luck catching Bluegill to 8” and a few ugly Bullheads in mostly 10-12’ depths. Sun started to set so we packed up, we had fun catching fish at Lake Wanahoo. Nice Friday morning trip to Yankee Hill Lake with the boat. Busy place with boats and yakkers out enjoying fishing! Good morning to test out the trolling rods, research different crank-bait depths with #10/4 diameter braided Fireline at various boat speeds. Short stay trip - I trolled crank-baits extensively covering a lot of the lake pulling various sizes of crank-baits checking running depths, picked up one 14” Bass, no Wally. Switched to anchoring a top the rock shoals and fished slip bobbers, jigs, Satra special rig and leeches & Euro nightcrawlers. I fished 4’ to 7’ depths using ultralights, and I had luck catching Bluegill to 8.5” on the edges of the large rock and drop offs. I caught 14 nice Bluegill and kept 9 fish which I gave to a yak angler at the boat ramp. He didn't have any luck fishing and was looking forward to a few fresh fish to eat, I helped him out! Had fun catching the Bluegill on light tackle at Yankee Hill Lake.
This lake lacks anything for littoral zone habitat i.e. structure, lucky if you snag on something on the bottom of this lake, mainly open water fishing in the pelagic zone. Is and makes for a good Catfish lake. Abundant prey (small w. Perch) scattered everywhere in the water column for easy picking if you are a large predator fish like a blue or flathead catfish ! Winds never came up to the weather prediction magnitude, no Walleye chop!
Busy night catching fish for these 2 anglers - they caught and landed 90+fish - a very good bite! We caught lots of small Bluegill 5”-6.5” in size, and Green Sunfish from 4”-7” we found in 5’-12’ of water fishing with jigs, Satra Special rigs, and slip bobbers tipped with leeches and Euro nightcrawlers. The guys caught numerous Bass of all sizes, 11-12 fiddler Channel Cats and a handful of small Black Bullheads. Father and son had a great time catching fish and learning new techniques to catch fish. Nice evening of fishing with a light breeze. The rock breakwaters and drop offs to 8’ were “hot” late as the sun was setting. They kept a handful of fiddler Channel Catfish to stink the skillet! Otherwise Catch and Release the fish! It is always fun to explore the variety of aquatic habitats and structures that Conestoga has to offer!
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September 2020
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