frozenfire
Moderator
- Joined
- Sep 19, 2006
- Messages
- 1,869
Finally. Feels good to have something fighting back on the end of your line!
My buddy called me up after I just got back from school and he wanted to give Bradford another try. So we headed up to see that the river was now much calmer, and had cleared up quite a bit. Big change in just a few days. We geared up and starting casting our lines into the water. This was around 7-7:30. Sun was setting and looked like prime time, similar to what I'd expect for early morning fishing.
We fished around the canal rd/pumphouse rd bridge with no luck. However, we noticed that there were a whole fleet of boats cramped into this little bay. We headed over there, only to find about 10ish cars parked there with the shoreline all littered with fishermen. I had no clue that people fished here!
We went over, and saw that it was packed with nowhere to fish. One older gentleman was leaving and told us that "there are no fish here, they are out where the current was stronger". We looked over at the boats that were in the current and sure enough, they were landing crappie after crappie. He left and we gladly took over his spot on the shoreline. We started casting into this slop of floating vegetation/algae/poop. There was so much debris collected here that it was near impossible to float fish.
We continued on anyways and as the sun was going down, float goes down and fish on. They were small at first. About 7 or so inches. We tossed a few back. Even had a perch too, which we released as well. As it got darker, the big ones starting to come in and smack our tubes. Everyone seemed to be catching a few fish, but not as much as us for some reason. Stopped fishing and called it a day at about 9ish.
On the map, I have noted where the boats were landing so many crappie and the shore spots that had success as well. Keep in mind that these spots are towered by large trees, so you'll ahve difficulty casting. If you forget or cast too high, you'll lose your stuff! :shock:
I kept 5 of the decent sized ones for a yummy dinner. Biggest was about 10-11 inches.
MIKEYMIKEY!!! This is for you!
My set-up is as follows (yours may differ, it's all preference):
5'6" ultralight shimano clarus
shimano sedona 1500 spinning reel
4 lb test p-line
blue fox firefly lighted slip float
1/16th oz black jig head
1.5" sparkled pink tube with silver/white tentacles (my buddy used chartreuse)
Technique:
Everyone has their own style, but this is what I prefer. I cast out, let the float and lure settle, I then wait a couple seconds and give it a twitch or couple of twitches. I then let it settle again. Repeat until you have to cast again. Always keep your eye on your float. These fish are currently hitting very lightly, and your float may not even move or go down, if you see it go left or right, or opposing the current, there is a fish holding your lure. Set the hook! Don't yank too hard though, cause crappie have very thin mouths and the harder you set the hook, the more fish you'll lose due to ripping their mouth right through. Once again, this is what I prefer, and you may think different. What's important is that you go out, give it a shot and develop your own style. You can see what other people do out there as well.
Some people (especially on a boat) prefer not to use a float, but just a jig and rely on sensitivity of the rod and line to detect hits. It's all in your style.
My buddy called me up after I just got back from school and he wanted to give Bradford another try. So we headed up to see that the river was now much calmer, and had cleared up quite a bit. Big change in just a few days. We geared up and starting casting our lines into the water. This was around 7-7:30. Sun was setting and looked like prime time, similar to what I'd expect for early morning fishing.
We fished around the canal rd/pumphouse rd bridge with no luck. However, we noticed that there were a whole fleet of boats cramped into this little bay. We headed over there, only to find about 10ish cars parked there with the shoreline all littered with fishermen. I had no clue that people fished here!
We went over, and saw that it was packed with nowhere to fish. One older gentleman was leaving and told us that "there are no fish here, they are out where the current was stronger". We looked over at the boats that were in the current and sure enough, they were landing crappie after crappie. He left and we gladly took over his spot on the shoreline. We started casting into this slop of floating vegetation/algae/poop. There was so much debris collected here that it was near impossible to float fish.
We continued on anyways and as the sun was going down, float goes down and fish on. They were small at first. About 7 or so inches. We tossed a few back. Even had a perch too, which we released as well. As it got darker, the big ones starting to come in and smack our tubes. Everyone seemed to be catching a few fish, but not as much as us for some reason. Stopped fishing and called it a day at about 9ish.
On the map, I have noted where the boats were landing so many crappie and the shore spots that had success as well. Keep in mind that these spots are towered by large trees, so you'll ahve difficulty casting. If you forget or cast too high, you'll lose your stuff! :shock:
I kept 5 of the decent sized ones for a yummy dinner. Biggest was about 10-11 inches.
MIKEYMIKEY!!! This is for you!
My set-up is as follows (yours may differ, it's all preference):
5'6" ultralight shimano clarus
shimano sedona 1500 spinning reel
4 lb test p-line
blue fox firefly lighted slip float
1/16th oz black jig head
1.5" sparkled pink tube with silver/white tentacles (my buddy used chartreuse)
Technique:
Everyone has their own style, but this is what I prefer. I cast out, let the float and lure settle, I then wait a couple seconds and give it a twitch or couple of twitches. I then let it settle again. Repeat until you have to cast again. Always keep your eye on your float. These fish are currently hitting very lightly, and your float may not even move or go down, if you see it go left or right, or opposing the current, there is a fish holding your lure. Set the hook! Don't yank too hard though, cause crappie have very thin mouths and the harder you set the hook, the more fish you'll lose due to ripping their mouth right through. Once again, this is what I prefer, and you may think different. What's important is that you go out, give it a shot and develop your own style. You can see what other people do out there as well.
Some people (especially on a boat) prefer not to use a float, but just a jig and rely on sensitivity of the rod and line to detect hits. It's all in your style.
April 8th/08
