Lake Gaston Fishing Reports

[Richard Cooper]

Fished Lake Gaston wed.-friday and during a tournament on sunday, prefishing was good for the way i like to fish, and i felt i had a pattern that most wouldnt be on, not to mention i was making a 25 min run first thing.  I fished on the main lake on wed and thursday hitting rip rap, points, shelves, stump flats, and hydrilla humps and breaks.  I caught fish, but keepers were a rarity on the main lake the first two days, i caught plenty of 12 inchers that werent going to help me any.  Friday i decided to fill the boat up with gas and run all the way up the river.  The river was around 6-8 degrees cooler than the main lake, and the fishing was a little slower, but all fish caught were keepers.  I decided that the river was my best bet, but between friday morning and sat. morning a front came in and brought cold rain to cool down the main lake.  Turns out that the main lake turned on over night, and everyone fishing main lake patterns had a limit as well as atleast one kicker fish.  I fished up river all day on sat. for small keepers and ended up with a 5 fish limit going around 7lbs.  I was sort of dissapointed, but i guess there is next time.

[Mike Cork]

It's getting to be that time when a cold front will completely ruin a game plan. At least you caught a limit, sounds like you were only a kicker fish away Thanks for the update. Any word on the winning patterns, other than main lake

[Creel Limit Zero]

Pre-Fished Lake Gaston - 04/07/2006

Water temp 57-59
Clarity 4-6 feet
Wind - 15 MPH, and up to 25 later in the afternoon with gusts to 35
Temp - 45-65
Mostly sunny

Fishing was slow for most of the morning on Gaston.  We did manage one nice 18 incher on a -1 crank bait on one of the very first casts of the day.  After that, the fish seemed to shut down.  We fished alot of the docks towards the lower end of the lake, pitching and skipping tubes.  We focused on the docks where the ends were in at least 10 feet of water.  We did manage a few bites, but nothing significant.  We then fished some points even further down towards the dam, used C-rigged lizards and drop-shot some worms.  That didn't produce any action.  Around 1:30, we decided to head back for some lunch.

Hit the water again around 3:00, and headed up lake.  That was a rough ride over the main middle of the lake, with the cross wind, we seemed to get airborne several times.     I never like that, but it was worth it.  We found a flats area  that averaged around 12 feet, with the weeds growing up about 5-6 feet from the bottom.  We threw some C-rigged lizards and managed some nice bites.  Boater managed a nice one on a crank bait by ripping it through the weeds.  It was a hard battle with the wind though, I almost wanted to be strapped in my seat so I wouldn't fall in the water. 

We then got out of the wind and headed over to one of the creeks.  The boater managed to hook what appeared to be a 5 pound bass, but lost it boat side.     Better to lose the fish today, then to do it tomorrow during the tourney...

All in all, pre fishing didn't go so well.  We found some productive docks, and got an idea of what kind of docks to focus on.  Found a good weed bed, but it certainly didn't fair as well as we would have liked.

[Creel Limit Zero]

Fished club tourney at Lake Gaston - 04/08/2006

Water temp 57-63
Clarity 4-8, real clear in some coves, not so much in others with all the pollen on the water
Wind - 10-15 MPH
Temp 45-75
Mostly cloudy - with a few moments of 
Also had a major thunderstorm roll through taking us out of commission for an hour or so

Started fishing some of the coves towards the bottom half of the lake.  First cast I made of the day, I hit a 2 pounder on an ugly otter.  I was excited to land one for the tourney right away.     We continued to pitch tubes and creatures to docks, also skipped a Yum dinger underneath some of the docks.  This managed the boater a couple of 13 inch keepers, but nothing over 14 for him, so he couldn't take any more under 14 for the day.  After doing this for 3 hours or so, and only managing one bite in the last 2, the  and thunder came.  We fished a little too long before it came, and made the run to one of the bridges through some hard rain.  Boy, I sure wanted one of those Fish Hedz then, that rain hurts when you are rolling at 60 MPH.   

Stayed under the bridge for what seemed like forever, and then the  came out and it was game time.  We made the run up lake to the weed flat we found the day before.  C-rigging those creatures for about 60 minutes didn't seem to produce and any action.  Perhaps it was all that wind we had the day before that the fish were hiding in the weeds getting relief that produced the bites.  We decided to go back to pitching to some docks.  The boater landed a nice 3 pounder then on a tube.  I managed to catch a bunch of dinks, but nothing I could keep.   

We ran back to the docks just in time for weigh ins, to find out everyone else struggled too.  We had alot of folks come in with nothing, and not one person had a limit.  For the first day, 7-14 was top weight for our club, I only managed 1 at 1-14.     I was down by 6 pounds.  Lunker for the day was 4-13.  I had some work to do.

[Creel Limit Zero]

Fished Day 2 of club tourney at Lake Gaston 04/09/2006

Water temp 53-57
Clarity 3-5
Wind 10-20
Temp 34-50
Mostly sunny

Cold front rolled in after those thunderstorm the day before, which we all seemed sure was going to shut the fish down.  And we all struggled the day before, so we were expecting the worst. 

Started picthing a jig, and just letting it sit forever, before finally bouncing it.  This did nothing.  Boater, who was different than Day 1, was pitching a senko in blue fleck.  He was in second from the day before, and caught the most fish, but nothing big.  I think switched to a suspending crank bait, that I changed the retrieve up for about 30 minutes.  I went jerk - jerk - pause - 5 seconds, nothing.  Jerk - pause 5 seconds, nothing, jerk pause 10 seconds, nothing.  Jerk - pause 20 seconds nothing.  Well, this was getting irritating, so I decided to downsize even more, and fish even slower. 

I switched to a 1/16 ounce jig head, and a 4 inch Kinami Cut tail worm.  The thing is like a pencil worm, with the tinest little paddle tail on the end.  You can barely cast it anywhere, as the whole right couldn't weight much more than the 1/16 ounce.  Well, we got to some docks the boater seemed insistent on pitching too, because he said he knew they held fish.  Only thing he did was switch up colors on his senko to green pumpkin, then watermelon seed, then I don't know.  He threw ever color he had, nothing.  When we would get to the docks, I pitched out my cut tail worm, and let it sit there while he fished the entire dock.  He was fishing fast, so he would pitch to the sections of the docks he liked, so it was about 90 seconds sitting there.  I had that worm sitting there on the ground for 90 seconds, made one tiny little twitch to move it up off the ground the smallest amount possible, bang, 4 pounder inhaled it.   

I did this for the rest of the day, dead sticking this tiny worm, with the smallest of movements.  At one point I did not get a bite for about an hour, realized I started twitching to early.  Went back to no movement, and started catching them again.  Managed to catch about 8 fish, boater only got one.  He was too insistent on throwing that senko.  I think the profile was too big for the fish this day.  Of the 8, only could bring three back to the docks, as 5 of them were around 11 inches.  I felt good though, because we saw a few other club guys during the day, and no one had anything yet. 

Weigh-ins, I had 5-14, far best for the day.  Over half the club had nothing, lunker was my fish at 3-13.  That ended up getting my entry fees back.   

Final 2 day I got third with 7-12, 2nd was 8-4, first was just 10-8 I think. 

[LoonyToon]

  Well Composed, and Nothing but the Truth 

Those  can make U very UnHappy, especially on that water---Thanks Creel and I'm doing it again in 2 weeks ABA

[Creel Limit Zero]

    All right Okuma, good luck to you.  Gaston sures can be humbling, as many of our club didn't even get one fish either day.  That's not fun, 2 full day tourneys and not one keeper.     That hurts.