I got on the river at about 8pm Thursday night, launching out of Osborne and making the trip upriver to Ancarrows for bait. The river was in flood stage and full of trash, which made navigation tricky all night. I met up with Ralph (B8itup) who was already out fishing. He pointed me to some bait spots where I managed to net a few shad for the night. The current was so strong though that at one point my gillnet just took off downriver. I managed to retrieve it, but damn the current was ripping! It was actually dangerous to be out there in conditions like that. I set my net again and anchored up while I waited, and then had a hard time breaking my anchor free it was dug in so good because of the current. Ralph ended up losing his anchor due to the rope just sliding right through his hands from the strong current. I think we both had enough of that $hit. Ralph headed home and I ventured downriver to find some places to fish out of the current.
I literally had the river to myself all night. I fished all new spots, and found a great new bait hole where I loaded up with a ton of hickories and gizzards later in the night. All fish were caught on Hickory shad...not even a tap on the gizzard shad. Herring were getting alot of love as well, but I only had a few of them and being as fragile as they are, they didn't last long on the hook. I caught 3 of my 4 citations on 3-way swivels (hint hint cough cough)...I don't know how many times I can continue to extol the virtues of 3-way swivels in current. The fish were very hardy this night and all fought really hard. I fished spots along the main channel with enough of a current break from a point or small cove to break it up a little and keep me out of the majority of the trash. This tactic seemed to work well.
55#-43.5":
42.5#-41":
Believe me when I say I took a picture of this fish's good side. I gag just thinking about it, but it practically had no left side face remaining and most of its body on that side was rotting away. The smell was incredible, but I did my best to eek out a smile for the camera.
34.4#-39.5":
Bait was very easy!
I also added two 27 lbers to cap the night. Didn't do much when the sun came up so I took a lunch break and went to Portabellas for some delicious pizza. I then came back to Osborne and napped in the back of my truck for 3 hours to rest up for another night's fishing with Muzkrat joining me. I awoke to high winds and a revised $hitty forecast, so I got Muzkrat on the phone and we mutually decided to cancel that night's trip. So I headed home, satisfied.
