# Hoover Kayak fishing (plus Bald Eagle sighted)



## reyangelo (May 28, 2014)

I continue hitting Hoover twice a week on my Kayak and for the most part been catching alot of Catfish (been trying to find Saugeyes but keep finding schools of Crappies and Catfish). Today (8/22) headed out from 0930-1300ET with winds from 5-9mph, Water Temps from 76-80F, and Air Temps were from 65-75F.

While I was setting up some last items in my Kayak at the beach side before launching, I happen to watch a beautiful Bald Eagle glide in front of me and dive down to catch a topwater fish then fly away. I took some mobile pics but impossible to capture it since it happen so fast. I have seen it before but this time watching it so close it just made my morning that much better. I could almost hear the Pledge of Allegiance of the United States of America whispering in the air.

Back to fishing business. I had been viewing some schools of fish several times on my scouting ventures. I plotted some points on my mobile map and took to one of the spots ~38FOW. I used 2 rigs: UltraLight Rod/Reel rig with tandem 1/16 jig head on minnows and Medium-Light rig with bobber. I was marking fish from ~5-10FOW and ~18-23FOW. I set the bobber rig to drop at 20FOW while I was casting my UltraLight to hit the shallower fish. To my surprise I was catching Crappies on the deep end (bobber rig) and Catfish on the top portion slowly reeling in the jigheads/minnow with rod at about 10 o'clock position.

It was great catching the Catfish on the Ultralight rig, each occurrence took ~5min+ except the 23in'r. The big'un took almost 10 min as I caught it when the jig barely hit the water. My bail was still in the open position as I saw the line started taking off fast. I quickly closed it and the sound of reel was cranking loud (hook basically set itself). This Blue made at least 5 runs after getting near my Kayak, each time taking at least ~5yrds+ back. I had a tandem jig running and when I almost had it in, it tossed around enough to get the hook of the first jig on my finger..Ouch!!! Once I felt the hook inserting I tightly grabbed the line with my other hand to make sure the hook didn't insert further in. In the end, I was able to get the Blue and get the hook off my finger (yes it hurt, but Fish On!). Overall good day to include 11 cats (18-23") plus some Crappies (3 Cats harvested for my buddy who wants a taste of Hoover Cats).


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## Duck391 (Oct 2, 2011)

Nice fishing again, the blues looks really healthy. I love living by hoover with the not only the fishing but the birds. The Eagles and osprey are always fishing in the morning and it's so cool to watch. The osprey have even been making it down into the southern pool a bit recently, I usually see both the Eagles and osprey spending a lot more time on the northern end.


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## reyangelo (May 28, 2014)

8/23 hit Hoover from 1000-1220ET with conditions as prior day (Water ~80F, Winds ~5mph, and Air Temps ~75F). I scouted around for 30 minutes and then went to a spot I had marked before but haven't fished
Sure enough there were fish marking at different depths. I had no luck with the jigheads today but my bobber rig was plenty busy. For the most part caught several Perch from 7-9", Crappies ~9", and a couple Channels 18-20". All were caught at the same depth of 12-15FOW at a location which bottom was at 20ft.

No Blues or Saugeyes 

Overall still a good day


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## reyangelo (May 28, 2014)

Forgot couple pics


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## kfi (Nov 11, 2013)

Nice job. Looks like you are making the most of your kayak rig and sounds like you are getting along just fine with your electronics and finding some fish


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## RiparianRanger (Nov 18, 2015)

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## Bow-man (Apr 18, 2013)

That last cat looks like a Flattie??


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## tsh4425 (Apr 11, 2014)

Hey Rey, we met at the Dutchman a couple weeks back. We need to meet up for some yakking some time. Good to see the Hoov is treating you well. The catfish have been on fire lately, nice pics


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## reyangelo (May 28, 2014)

Bow-man said:


> That last cat looks like a Flattie??


Bow-man, I get these mixed sometimes but your right looking at the tail and coloration. My quick assumption was Channel...it was a hot day, so I will blame my error on weather


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## reyangelo (May 28, 2014)

tsh4425 said:


> Hey Rey, we met at the Dutchman a couple weeks back. We need to meet up for some yakking some time. Good to see the Hoov is treating you well. The catfish have been on fire lately, nice pics


tsh4425, definetly. Just PM me so we can get an idea on availability. I can usually get out Sunday thru Tuesday on the Kayak. The catfish have been very active past month. I usually like catching Saugeyes (been skunking on them) but the Cats have made fishing fun especially when I get them on my UltraLight rig.


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## reyangelo (May 28, 2014)

kfi said:


> Nice job. Looks like you are making the most of your kayak rig and sounds like you are getting along just fine with your electronics and finding some fish


I am really enjoying this Kayak, plus its a good workout. Reading has helped learn how to operate my Fishfinder plus OGF forums/YouTube. Forecasting to purchase a boat in 2018 so hope to learn this well by then.


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## Deazl666 (Mar 30, 2012)

Nice blue Rey!


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## Saugeyefisher (Jul 19, 2010)

Great reports as usual Rey! And the eagle sightings never get old. Seen one last week on 670 looking down on the river. A few weeks ago seen my first osprey south of Greenlawn flying down river.
Cool stuff!


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## ShoreFshrman (Sep 25, 2014)

Nice fish!!!


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## 1basshunter (Mar 27, 2011)

Great job, Ray way to get after them!!!


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## polebender (Oct 29, 2011)

Nice little flattie! You don't hear much about the flatheads in Hoover anymore. I would imagine there has to be a few giants in there! But I'm also pretty sure in just a few short years we'll be seeing some pretty big blues! Nice job!


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## Bimmer (Aug 12, 2011)

Hoover seems to have more flatheads. Just last night bass fishing we caught 3. 

Years ago, we never get any bass fishing.


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## homepiece (May 11, 2007)

I have been really struggling to catch bass at hoover since they have started drawing it down. I have caught quite a few catfish on crankbaits though.


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## reyangelo (May 28, 2014)

9/12 Update: Haven't hit the water with the Kayak since 8/23. I had originally planned to be in the water by 0700ET, but temps were ~55F chilly. Finally, after some chow and looking at the forecast went ~0830ET. I was in the water at first spot ~0930ET with temps ~65F, water temp was still fairly warm/stained with ~5mph winds.

I hit 3 spots: one spot I could not catch a cold eventhough it had fish marking everywhere. The other 2 spots produced good results, each area transitioning to deeper depths. Both spots I found schools of fish at 2 different depths marking at ~5-8FOW and the others marking at ~17-27FOW. Each seem to have fish passing by in groups, so decided to try out several swims first with no luck. I put that away and decided to go with what has worked previously: black jighead with silver/black swim tandem rig (running at ~5FOW) plus a bobber/minnow rig (dropped to ~25FOW).

I was busy once I got started, at one point I had both rigs hit with total of 3 fish (2 fish at once on my tandem rig) plus had a fish on my bobber. I was catching Crappies and WB on the jig/swim rig slowly reeling in after a 5 second drop. At one point, I was messing around casting out odd lures (testing them out) but was limited as I kept catching Blues every 5+ minutes (all cats caught on bobber/minnow rig). In the end, I ended up with 14 Blue Catfish (17-23"), 13 WB (7-9"), and 11 Crappies (~9"). All fish released - no Saugeyes yet.

Goodluck and TightLines.


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## polebender (Oct 29, 2011)

Sounds like another great outing for you! Those blue cats are really clean looking fish! Great job! Congrats!


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## reyangelo (May 28, 2014)

polebender said:


> Sounds like another great outing for you! Those blue cats are really clean looking fish! Great job! Congrats!


Thanks polebender. I have had the Saugeye blues for some time, but these Blue Cats have filled some of that void. These Blues are fun to catch, especially if they hit my UltraLight rig.


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## RiparianRanger (Nov 18, 2015)

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## steelshep (Feb 16, 2011)

Nice work and great report Rey. Keep casting bro.


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## kayakmac (Aug 4, 2013)

Those blue cats in Hoover are so pretty and strong, congrats on a great outing!


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## ErieEye (Jul 16, 2007)

reyangelo said:


> Thanks polebender. I have had the Saugeye blues for some time, but these Blue Cats have filled some of that void. These Blues are fun to catch, especially if they hit my UltraLight rig.


If you're looking for saugeyes you might need to make an after dark trip.


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## reyangelo (May 28, 2014)

ErieEye said:


> If you're looking for saugeyes you might need to make an after dark trip.


I agree, I usually find them at night and in different areas. Summers are usually difficult for me to learn their patterns since the main reason I do not fish many summer nights is these darn mosquitos (useless bugs). Fall is around the corner and I will be out late nights again


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## reyangelo (May 28, 2014)

9/14 Update: Hit Hoover ~1000ET to 1130ET with beautiful temperature and slight wind in the beginning. I will explain lack of stats in a sec.

Anyways, after launching I decided to paddle around some areas and look for patterns. I had found some fish and started scouting. It took about 10 minutes or so of observation on certain spots and I had found a traffic hub. It was beautiful, I had fish marking everywhere. As soon as 1 group was getting out of range of the fish finder, the next was already coming in. If I recall, there were fish at 2 depths: one at ~2-7FOW and the other at 11-15FOW. I had instances of catching 2 fish at once again running my tandem. I could not keep up with my bobber rig as well. Overall I caught ~20 Crappies including some nice keepers plus a 12"r. Only issue I had at the moment was winds picked up to 10mph+ and my kayak was slowly drifting off marker at ~0.3mph, so every 5-7 minutes I had to paddle back (I really should have replaced my 3lb anchor with a 10 or 15 by now). This resulted in a loss (reason I didn't catch a lot more fish).

As I was paddling back on one of the instances, I had placed my phone in front of my fish finder. I was placing my paddle away, it barely tapped the top of the phone. In a perfect Olympic style movement, my phone bounces off the crate, off my shoe, and off the edge of the Kayak into the water....Argh!!! 

Discouraged and upset, I eventually left. I think it's more the loss of some pictures I didn't backup than the device loss that upsets me. Hence, lack of stats and pictures for this update as well. Lessons learned: daily automatic backup sync of pictures/videos (I have everything else already running daily sync's) and phone casing attachment that floats (may be overkill or big, but at least my phone will not hopefully end up on the bottom).

Funny part is I was still able to connect to my phone (waterproof S6 Active) via my Gear S2 watch...but no possible way to get the pictures off it. Again, lessons learned. Almost wanted to put the Kayak away for the year, but my good wife said "he'll no, get back out there next week, enjoy it, and be careful with the phone"...loving it.

Goodluck and TightLines!


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## steelshep (Feb 16, 2011)

Damn that sucks Rey. I've been there though. 3 or 4 years back I was out on the pontoon and just pulled in the dock and tied off my mooring lines when I got a call on my Samsung Galaxy (only a year old at the time). When I tried to answer it, I fumbled the phone in my hands and it fell in a 2-3 inch space between my boat and the dock. Didn't even hit the sides just straight into the water. For what it's worth whenever I take a picture I don't want to risk losing I immediately e-mail it to myself. 
Don't let it get you down though.Theres a lot of year left and some of the best fishing may be just ahead. Get back out there and keep casting.


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## reyangelo (May 28, 2014)

steelshep said:


> Damn that sucks Rey. I've been there though. 3 or 4 years back I was out on the pontoon and just pulled in the dock and tied off my mooring lines when I got a call on my Samsung Galaxy (only a year old at the time). When I tried to answer it, I fumbled the phone in my hands and it fell in a 2-3 inch space between my boat and the dock. Didn't even hit the sides just straight into the water. For what it's worth whenever I take a picture I don't want to risk losing I immediately e-mail it to myself.
> Don't let it get you down though.Theres a lot of year left and some of the best fishing may be just ahead. Get back out there and keep casting.


Well you do know the feeling then. Sucks but I just dealt with it and took the family out to celebrate life plus good lessons learned.

I hope to hit the banks for Saugeyes/Bass once before Sunday and back in Kayak Monday...those Crappies are just waiting in that hub.

I am shopping for a phone float now, never leave the shore without it.


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## 1basshunter (Mar 27, 2011)

Great job Ray you killed them


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## reyangelo (May 28, 2014)

9/19 Update: Headed out mid-day until about 1630ET. Wind was ~5mph, water temp was from 78-81F. I started off on same area I lost my phone. Sure enough, the schools were no longer present but I kept seeing plenty of fish pass thru at ~5FOW and ~10FOW.

I set my first rig out with the bobber ~5FOW. First cast out and was getting ready to get my swim rig out, when the line starts pulling. Fish On! I was able to pull in a nice 9" Crappie and could tell it was going to be good day.

I started working my Ultralight rig running tandem swims (shad) in different colors, but after so many casts and lures nothing was hitting. I swapped over to my ML 7ft rig running tandem swims (different color combos) but no luck either...I looked at the water which looked stained but the sun was glaring strong. So decided to go with a newly acquired Skippy Jighead head (green with eye) and used Joshy 3.25 Green Anti-Freeze plus a Lime 3.25. A couple casts in I felt a quick pull but missed the hook set. I decided to loosen the drag just a tad bit more and slow my retrieve. This seemed to have work because I started to catch the Crappies on this, but only on the Green Skippy Jighead with the Joshy 3.25 Green Anti-Freeze. I decided to run the set up in tandem and was catching Crappies going forward. The few slabs I caught were nice and heavy, I decided to keep a few but the action was on/off a couple times. When the action slowed down some, I would just move over to my bobber rig to give it some action.

Overall, I ended up catching 40+ Crappies mostly on the swim rig. The 6 I kept were couple 11's, couple 12's, a 13" and a 13.5" (ended giving them to an older gentleman fishing nearby). Can't wait until Monday comes around to get back out there.


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## ML1187 (Mar 13, 2012)

Rey- I use a chums camera float attached to my waterproof box for my cell phone. Floats it just fine and you can attach the float to your kayak with a carabiner for instant access ! You can but it at Meijer for about $7. Nice slabs from the Jackson !


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## foton (Nov 25, 2012)

Dang I gotta get out y there before rey catches all the fish!


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