09/05/2010 0530 Good morning trip to Lake Norfork

[James and Kathy Acerra]

Howdy Y’all

Well this day trip started out spooky with fog due to air temperature low 50’s and lake temp of the 70’s. The fog rolled across the bar from the lake pushed by a light breeze maybe 2 mph.

We set up in a flat rocky area on the bar which due to the lakes lowering water level it’s changed by at least 20’ where we have caught fish before is now the upper shelf that we walk on.

Kat and I set out cat rig’s with our hotdog bait and started working the gills, Kat worked the close area in water depths of 3’ to 5’ and a shoaling flat with rocks and stick structure and soft bottom.

I worked further down off a shelf that stretched out maybe 5’ at a depth of 3’ then dropped off to 6’ out to maybe 15’ with deeper water beyond.

Not much action early except pecker fish (I’m sure most of y’all know what they are but for the new fisherman it’s the 2” to 6” fish that have little meat on them and steal your bait) with a mix of greens and Longear.

About 0900 the bite began with Kathy bringing in a nice 8” BG I stated off with a 8” turtle but my cat fish rig was getting moved all around with large chucks of hotdog nibbled off , I moved my cat rig down a ways and started working the same area with the gill rig bringing in 3 fish in the 7” and 8” size all the fish tapped the baits but when hooked fought hard, One even pulled drag and I’m using 10 lb Cajun (red) line!!

The rest of the day was spent fighting the wind as well as boat waves but we both we’re able to bring in more fish with 1 9” and a mix of 3 8” and one more 7”.

We just had to stop due to boat wave action and wind you couldn’t work the rocks without losing tackle.

Dandy day with a great catch with the cooler filled with water and the two minnow buckets of fish dumped in we had another Tub O’ Gills.

Had to pull iron (little rascal swallowed the hook past the snap) out of one during cleaning and no hide peeled off but they were really oozeie.

Had 1 Female and 8 Males the girl had spewed her eggs and some males had fertilized as well.

Yours in service

James and Kathy