He without bait, cast the first net.

[Agitated88]

Team Agitated decided to try our luck down at Lake Konawa on Saturday. Talking to a friend of mine who guides on the lake he has told me the fishing continues to be slow, these constant 100+ degree temp's are really giving the fish lock jaw. Oh well, fishing's a lot slower when the boat sits on the trailer, so we decided to give it a try. Joining me were my two oldest JV and Trini...and off course Hooper. My friend had also mentioned that I need to load up on Shad for bait and that he's usually on the lake around 0300 filling up his bait tank. Poor kids...I activated Team Agitated at 0200 for the 90+ minute drive down to the lake. Got down to the lake and had the boat launched by 0400...let the fun begin. I have very limited experience with a cast net...back home, it's peelers, cut Spot, or artificials, but, when in Rome. So, we motored around for a while, got about 50 yards from the shoreline and we saw all kind of bait flashing under the spot light. I jumped up on the bow and made a very below average cast my first throw...let it drop to the bottom and started pulling. Much to my amazment, net felt very heavy, and I saw tons of silver flashing in the water. As I heaved the net over the side and started dumping its contents I heard a big "thud" hit the deck.
Amongst the hundreds of Shad was this very perturbed 12lb Carp...



Ok, so technically, there would be no skunk on the boat today. Few more throws of the cast net and we had the bait well stuffed with bait. I've been to this lake 5-6 times in the past, but, never this early, so we took our time and motored towards the dam. The plan was to set up on the south end of the dam, and do a slow northerly drift parallel to the dam. We set out the lines and begin our drift, marking tons of fish, but no early takers.
About 30 minutes into the drift, my rod bows up and I get the 1st fish of the day as we netted this nice Drum


Even though we saw fish, we just couldn't get them to bite. And if that wasn't bad enough, the bait was dying...fast. Not sure whether I had too much bait in the tank, too hot, or what, but, we had lost 90% within the first hour?!?! Well, we decided now to try a differen spot since the sun was coming up.

One of clt_capt's custom rod's he made for my daughter


We headed over to the electric plant...the waters of Konawa are used to keep the plant cooled off, so we tried the "intake" side...it was a beautiful morning, wind was almost non-existant.

JV and his clt_capt rod


We tried the intake for about a hour without any luck. By now, all the bait is belly up, i even added a frozen water bottle in hopes of lowering the temps, no luck. Time to change up the game plan. We were marking fish anywhere from 6'-15', hanging out in the middle of the water column, so, I took two rods and attached some long lipped crankbaits, and began sloooooow trolling across the lake heading to the little Catfish honeyhole Tommy and I found a couple week prior.

About 10 minutes into the troll we catch this bigger Drum



As we near the spot I want to anchor up and try for Catfish, I tell the kids to reel in the rods so we can do some bottom fishing.

JV reels in this monster...I should have taken another better picture with the bait in it's mouth...the lure was 1/2" shorter than the fish.


We get anchored up, put out the rods and hoped the Catfish were in the same spot I found them a couple weeks ago. We'd been there for about 15 minutes when Trini's rod doubles over.

Another 1st for Trini and the boat...nice Flathead catfish.


After about another 30 minutes, JV's rod goes off and he lands this nice Channel catfish.


Temp's start pushing almost 100 by noon and we pack it up for the day. Again, not a great day productivity wise, and I still have not caught the elusive Hybrid Striper this lake is known for...BUT...I got to spend the day doing what I love with two GREAT kids, I call that a really good day!!

[clt_capt]

I learned a long time ago that fish don't care how pretty your cast net opens up - just as long as you get it open a bit.

Glad to see you getting some time to fish finally - couldn't ask for a better team to fish with.

Your reports are getting better and better - Cool - What did Hooper catch?

[Agitated88]

Fred...I'll figure the cast net out, eventually. It's probably bigger than I need, it's 6 1/2', probably should have went with the smaller version, but, it's all I could find out here. Still a bit surprised to dump that Carp out during the 1st cast. Reports are always better when there's actual fishing to report. As far as Hooper goes...poor guy goes nuts as soon as he even thinks I'm headed out, but, when temp's are like this, I hate keeping him out in the sun too much. He did get to do a little swimming, but, most of the time he's either laying down under the shade of the T-Top or between someone's legs. Hopefully, more reports to follow, if we could just get the temp's down a bit...heck, on the way home tonight it felt a bit chilly, I looked at the thermometer and it read 92 and it felt good. Btw...the rods continue working great, the camera phone doesn't do them justice.

[gottaflylee]

Wow, looks like you guys had a great day. Just spending time with your kids is a great day in my eyes. Congrats to you all!

[HOLWACHAGOT]

Cool report! Never heard of a freshwater drum. Interesting stuff. Thanks!
Holwachagot

[Agitated88]

Wow, looks like you guys had a great day. Just spending time with your kids is a great day in my eyes. Congrats to you all!

Thanks Lee, your right, there isn't anything better than hanging out with the kids.

Cool report! Never heard of a freshwater drum. Interesting stuff. Thanks!
Holwachagot

Hopefully I can eventually catch a few of the "Hybrid" Stripers they have stocked in this lake. They have taken a male Striper and mixed it with a female White Bass and created this...1. White Bass, 2. Striper, 3. Hybrid.


I'll be happy once I figure them out, but, from what I'm hearing from the local guides, the Hybrids, and the regular Stripers have been hit and miss all summer.