Fish from the past few months

CG_Fishes · December 5, 2023

School has had me crazy busy the past few months, but I've made sure to get out and fish at least once a week, so I have quite the backlog of catches.

First, when we had the late October warm spell in the Northeast my friends and I were fishing hard, thinking it was going to be a fire bite. I had been out all week and all I had to show for it was a small tiger, some medium bass and an illegal in many states bait we termed the "mag-delier".

I decided to get out on my kayak the last day of this warm spell. It was super windy with a cold front rolling in and so the fish were stacked on one stretch of shoreline. Once I figured that out, with about an hour and a half of daylight left I sacked up 40 or so fish, mostly on the 5" magdraft with the biggest going just over 5. I was pretty stoked to finally have the day I had been hoping for all week.

My friend and I then took a trip out looking for some Pike and Musky. He had recently gotten an interest in Esox and was itching to get out. I had lots of action but could only connect with high teens, low 20s fish. Meanwhile he caught the fattest 32" fish I have ever seen. We counted 6 fish in the belly and a sucker in the gullet, and she still wanted the 8" magdraft. It was safe to say he was hooked shortly after this.

Shortly after this, @NickFish and I decided we couldn't let a 60° day go to waste and we got out on the boat one last time before it got winterized. I ended up with two twin 4.5s for the day on the 5" magdraft while he got a 3ish on a jig and snagged a big gizzard with a westin bait he received from a bait giveaway on here. I couldn't complain about fish that size just before thanksgiving!

Over thanksgiving break I was on a bit of a Walleye kick, really looking for that big fish I've been searching for. The first night I went out was the first night of frozen guides for the season, I assume there will be many more. I just down-right fished like ish. I got 15 or so bites and landed one fish. They were eating at my feet and just not hooking up. One of the strikes which I was able to see at last light was a 24-26" fish that I would've been very happy with.

I went out again the next night with 40s, pouring rain and winds heavy enough to warrent a sever weather warning. I ended up going 3 for 3, learning from my mistakes the day prior and downsizing. I didn't find the size I was looking for but I won't complain about 18-20" fish.

I got out a few more times before returning to school with nothing but 1 strike from a ~10" Walleye to show.

I was pretty defeated from my last trip home but my friend convinced me to get out for Pike yesterday on my rivers. He had just gotten a new kayak and wanted to get it out. Well, we braved the pouring rain and cool temps for the whole day just to get one strike from a small Pike. I was just happy to have connected and made it count after the poor luck I had been having recently.

The water is cooling down, sitting in the low 40s or high 30s depending on where you go now, but my season isn't over. There are still Walleye and maybe some Pike to be caught!