I’ll share what was/was not working for me this past weekend as I pre-fished Thursday for the FYB then what happened on Saturday.
I pre-fished Thursday with a guy who was also fishing the FYB, just not in my boat. Based on where I’ve been catching fish all winter, I didn’t feel like I was fishing any where secret!!
Thursday was mild with virtually no-wind, we fished plastics from 10-2 and caught absolutely nothing. We pitched, dragged, vertical, etc. We did not have bait in the boat and we were watching guys pull in fish after fish after fish around us. Some of them decent sized (saw a few pictures taken)!!
So at 2 we hit Everts, put some fatheads in the boat and went back at it. From here on out it was game on. Nothing fancy, jig and minnow, hairjigs slightly outperformed but not drastically. 25-29 FOW, fish anywhere from shorts to 19″. Could get by with 1/8 oz jigs.
With this, I felt 100% confident that come Saturday, I could put 5 decent fish in the boat within first two hours, then go elsewhere and try to upgrade. Started hearing reports late Friday that the fishing had slowed tremendously but still couldn’t believe I would not put 5 in box early.
Saturday we were greeted with 15-25 mph winds. Had to run 1/4 oz minimum to stay vertical. Once I got boat control down, the fish were still there, but…..could not box the 5th fish and at 10:30 we pulled out of there to try other techniques with 4 in box. With our hands and fingers numb from the cold, we did miss a few.
We ended up pulling bottom bouncers and stick baits or SSR’s in 07 and 09 sizes. More so because this allowed us to put our rods in the rod holders and get a firm grip on our hand warmers!
About noon, we hit two keeper fish with this method, one hitting 22″ and that was our day. We kept at it until 1:15, tried to jig shallow in hopes of upgrading, but no more fish to the boat. We were pulling in 10′ – 18′ in and around the Y.
So that’s my report for the weekend. Don’t know if that helps anyone or not. Saturday was extremely tough with the wind and I spent alot of time driving the boat, even with the new Ipilot. Extreme wind will do that to ya.
Good luck out there. Warmer temps on the way.
ET