| Well, I'm back (sigh) and while there are no HAWGs to register,
I didn't do too badly. I fished 3 mornings and 3 evenings and the
best fish was caught at 5:30 on wednesday morning; a smallmouth that
the deliar put at just under 4 pounds. In addition, there were
quite a few smaller fish landed; smallmouth, largemouth, one
baby hammerhandle pike and a load of panfish. My initial attempts
met with little success... I was trying for HAWGs and used only
the largest spinnerbaits and deepest crankbaits. After 2 fishless
outings, I switched to a 6" blue worm (no brand, bought by the pound
at the outdoor show) and the fish started striking. Unfortunately,
I only had 4 blue worms and when they were ragged, I switched to
purple with a noticeable decline in success. What made Lake George
so interesting to fish was the remarkable water clarity; I could
see my (bright orange) anchor on the bottom in 15 feet of water.
I also saw at least half of the fish I caught as they hit the lure.
I also saw a lot of fish that I didn't catch.... the best was a
largemouth I would estimate at 7-8 pounds that was lounging beside
a dock in the shade of a diving board. When I spotted him, I headed
out into deeper water and cast to him rather erratically; the first
three casts weren't within 6 feet of his position, on the fourth
cast, I hit the metal diving board with a 1/2 oz spinnerbait (quite
the clangggggggggggg) and send him into deep water never to be seen
(by me) again. Best producing lures were the blue worm and a yellow
spinnerbait. Couldn't buy a hit on my favorite in-line spinners,
Mepps and Blue Fox (in clear water, the fish are more attuned to
finding food by sight than sound). Next time, I'm gonna try shiners
or crawfish and I'm gonna learn how to cast under a diving board.
The lake itself was gorgeous beyond description, 30X2 miles huge,
surrounded by the Adirondacks and surprisingly not too crowded (until
the holiday weekend), loaded with islands and coves. If anyone
would like to borrow them, I have a full set of charts I can
lend. You need them, I got lost going from the launchramp to the
dock I rented and ended up hugging the shore (stretched a 20 minute
ride into over an hour).
Any comments on fishing clear water ?
Steve
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| Just a comment on fishing clear water....
Although I don't particularly care for fishing in water that clear,
I've read that lure color is much more critical. A couple of articles
I read said that your standard color lures appear far too obtrusive
and, in fact, tend to scare bass off. One lure choice is the clear
plastic bodied lure. There are several lure manufacturers that
make them, for example, I've seen (and have) a Tiny Torpedo top
water plug.
The second color that, at first, seems totally contrary to abiding
by the color scheme for clear water is a CHROME plated lure/plug.
Not to be confused with silver! As the article stated, chrome lures
tend to REFRACT light, not REFLECT light, which makes them less
obvious (hummm....ok, if you say so).
Because of my preference for stained waters, I really can't attest
to the above colors actually working, so maybe someone that has
had experience fishing clear waters can confirm/deny/add to it.
-Hj-(who_likes_mud_holes_better)
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