10-10-11 Mon

10-10-2011 Mon
5:30 – 10:00 PM
H2O: 63 ˚, 4.83’ steady, 13.6 kcfs, clear
Weather: S 7, 68 ˚, clear, 29.96 falling (2153)
Location: Mississippi R. Pool 7, Lake Onalaska and deep water adjacent to main channel
Caught: Bait (bluegills 6 and 4 perch), 1 – 10lb flat head & 1 – 8lb channel cat
Partners: none

Comments

It was another unusual warm October day. I have really been wanting to flat head fish and tonight I was committed to catch bait and fish them. I have seen lots of fisherman targeting the dredge holes on the lake, so that is where I started. Unfortunately the first hour was a bust. I did figure out that most of the fisherman were fishing the deep water for crappies.
On one of my last moves I happened to spy a couple fisherman catching gills along a weed line that extended out into about five feet of water and dropped into ten feet of water. Well, it was a good thing I hit the jackpot, because darkness was trying to be the spoiler to my flat head fishing plans. In short order I had an ample supply of small gills and perch and I was off to put the smack down on some flat heads.
The first spot I fished was a very deep hole that bottomed out in forty to forty-five feet of water. I really did not want to fish that deep, but from where I was anchored it dropped very quickly and I did not want to be fishing on a very steep drop. I fished this spot about thirty minutes and had two hits. The first one was one quick bite and my bait was gone, and the other one was a very subtle bite, with the fish coming unglued almost immediately.
The next spot I fished was in about thirty feet of water in an area that had quite a few submerged trees close by. This is where I caught the flat and the channel cat. The channel cat hit with such ferocity that it almost took my pole and the rod holder board in the drink with it.
I fished one other close by spot in about twenty feet of water, but had no action here.

Observations:

It felt like a summer night: light wind and light shirt weather. The river flow is very low and if there is any wind at all it makes fishing in one spot very hard while anchored. In fact the current is not strong enough to hold the boat in position if even a light breeze is blowing against or perpendicular to the boat.
The trees are losing their leaves very fast and the woods have really opened up in the past few days. We are also at or very close to a full moon. I have also noticed more ducks around the last couple days, nothing fantastic but at least I have seen some.