East of Kelly's today 7/8/2017

Well, I fought the breeze and the water in my face and made it over the Kelly's at sunrise. The water was not the friendliest for my 18 ft. craft, but outside of getting a wet face and shirt I made it over just fine. I pretty much had the same event heading back to Mazuricks this evening but not quite as bad.

I spent most of the day on the East side of Kelly's out far enough that I was in 42 fow. By the end of the day my chart was a mess of lines. I spent most of the time due East and did not fish past the North point nor the South. I ended up getting my 6 and they are on ice right now. I lost two at the net. Of those that I kept the shortest is 18 but I landed 3 very nice fish around 22 inches I'd say, and one brute that I will have to measure in the morning but it has to be at least 27. That is pretty good, 4 out of the 6 were well over 20 inches!!

I caught the large one on a "Wakina" style crawler harness I put together. They work great! It was mostly purple with some pink beads too. I caught two on a black/silver 3inch count down rapala, which I towed behind a #2 tadpole at 55ft back. The rest I caught on stinger spoons (Monkey Puke) it seemed that 50-60 back was the ticket for #2 tadpoles.

I caught many shorts, and lots of huge gaspargoo's. And one big cat... I lost a very nice smallmouth too. it hit the stinger spoon bright and early in some shallower water. Perhaps tomorrow I will have a couple pics.. I was by myself and I'm not to good on the selfie stuff while I am bouncing around.

I don't think your fishing deep enough, we were out east of the island sat with 3 boats, 2 got all there limits, and our came in early due to a few ppl not handling to rougher water too well we has early that morning. We are 90 to 100 back on 40tt,

We pulled 8 nice fish first slide, made it 3/4th the way through the second slide, finished with 20 we the plug was pulled, I know 1 more slide would had finished the boat limit. We ran worm harness

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Originally Posted by branhamautomotive

I don't think your fishing deep enough, we were out east of the island sat with 3 boats, 2 got all there limits, and our came in early due to a few ppl not handling to rougher water too well we has early that morning. We are 90 to 100 back on 40tt,

We pulled 8 nice fish first slide, made it 3/4th the way through the second slide, finished with 20 we the plug was pulled, I know 1 more slide would had finished the boat limit. We ran worm harness

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I tried every segment of the water depth 18ft. on down. . This was where I caught them. I marked fish from 20 ft. to the bottom in 42 fow. The biters I found were at 55 back on a # 2 tadpole. That should put my lure at about 22 ft. I figured. I tried deeper most of the day with only a few, and a couple perch I might add.. I moved up and it was game on the rest of the day. My largest fish went 27.5 on purple crawler harness. I probably released 20 that could have been kept.

55 back @ 2.5 mph would put you 16', according to precision trolling. 55 back @ 1.5 mph would be 22''.

I was at 1.5 most of the time at least as far as GPS reflected. I have the charts from "Offshore" I was rolling around pretty good most of the day. In fact I was rolling around at home most of the next day.. lol


On a side note I have the # 3 tadpoles too.. Them suckers really plow! You almost need big boards for them I think.

If you got your limit and all nice fish, I would say you were "just right".

GF

Yes, I can't remember how to attach photos or I would show a couple. :)

we fished same area 7/7 and was running harnesses on #2 tadpole on 2 lines and 2 dipseys.Ran from 1.7-2.1mph.Caught fish on harnesses at 37,45,52 and 60.Dipseys from 40-55 at 3 setting.Probably handled 40 fish with half being keepers.Our 12 weight was 31lbs.