I took my dad fishing yesterday at Pomona. We headed up into the 110 mile arm into the trees. It was my first trip there. We graphed some fish and tied up without much luck. Dad caught one as we were trolling to another tree...tried that for a while....Anyway, trolled a little longer and began seeing shad popping the surface everywhere...I got pretty excited, figured the crappie were really active in this area. However, on my dad's first cast, he hooked a monster gar. It was a thrill for him on 6 lb test and an ultralight. My question is this, will these gar push the crappie out of an area? We kept moving to get away from them, but they were boiling everywhere.....Fishing was kinda slow.

Not sure on your gar question...But I have fished Pomona several times in the past 2 years and have not seen any gar that I can remember. I doubt it would make much difference if they were on the surface.

However to your comment about catching one trolling from tree to tree I have found that productive of late. I wonder if it is because of all the water being pulled from the lakes??? Last week I was at Hillsdale. Could hardly get a fish to hit right on the tree, but I would mark many fish just out from the trees, so I started slow trolling in and out and caught most of my fish that way. Everything is about back down to normal and hopefully so will the fishing. Summer is my favorite time as I love to fish trees.

Anytime i see any Gar i always stop and fish the area. The Crappie will be there, sometimes you just have to fish around the Gar.

In my opinion I think a GAR will run crappie out of an area. That doesn't mean that you can't hang around and catch crappie.

We have caught hundreds of crappie this spring and early summer with scars all down there side that I think are gar wounds. We have been hooking into gar a great deal when fishing these areas. It seems to me that we catch more crappie when we aren't hooking GAR.

I guess that could be because hooking a gar means less time the minnow or jig is in the water too.

CB

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Hooking up every chance I get!

Last August at Toronto, the gar was everywhere. They were so thick, it looked like whites surfacing on shad. Did it affect the crappies??? Only when you hooked one Man those fish are like Northern Pike. Jump, rip line and if you wasn't lucky enough to pull loose,,, ya had to land it!! That's the ONLY problem I've had with them. Caught big crappies all around them. Now,,, white bass and hybirds will run them off. Something you might want to try,,,, FISH THE TOPS OF THE STUMPS!!!!! Not much more than 4ft down. Those shad are at the surface and the crappies are just under them. Done a show for Midwest Crappie on Pomona showing just that. You can view it on line. Search, Midwest Crappie. Click on MyOutdoor TV. On the right side type in Pomona in the search. ENJOY!!!! <*)}}}><

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You'll see the difference,,,on the end of your line!

If the weather is good Sunday I & a buddy will be at Pomona...The lake will be down to just 1 ft high at that time as long as a bunch of rain does not come in. I have not been on Pomona yet this year bc of the high water....Can't wait!!

I found your (Chatt's) show on myoutdoortv. That was awesome fishing! Say, does that technique work around docks too? I'm thinking of community lakes like Wabaunsee and Council Grove City Lake. I don't think either one's got too many trees in it, but they both have docks out the wazoo. Plus, docks are less likely to be submerged just under the water where they can bang up your boat.
Most all the ones I see have metal posts, no wood posts. Very few floating docks too, almost all of them are anchored to the lake bottom.
Anybody ever tried it on docks?

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Wally Marshal's latest video and the video from Ernest Paty are full of examples of shooting docks with jigs....don't know why it wouldn't work to pitch minows on jig heads the same way.
I will be back on the home lake, hillsdale, on Sunday. Hope to try Chat's technique arround the trees.. the wife and I slaughtered them a few years ago by casting minnow on bobbers up to limbs barely submerged in the lake. The crappie were so aggressive that day, I watched several jump over the limb to get to the minnow. That was a fun day!

Antioch I was on Hillsdale early last week fishing the trees. I use Chatt's technique all the time...That was my plan last week, but it was tough fishing. After about an hour of only a couple fish I really noticed that I was marking more fish as I went from tree to tree. Keep an eye on that. They were really scattered and it was right after a front. One coming through tonight. So I just started slow trolling KY rig minnows in an out of the tree lines I was fishing and caught a lot more fish that way. But as usual the number of 9 3/4" fish outweighed the keeper fish. I do really well at Hillsdale with bigger fish in the fall, winter and early spring before the spawn, but in the late spring/summer I cannot seem to get away from the smaller fish...Guess I need to explore the lake a little more. I am heading to Pomona on Sunday to hit the trees....Can't wait.

I will be at Pomona tomorrow in the trees. I will be in a Maroon and Pewter Triton with a Merc 150 on the back, come by and say hi if you see me. I hope to whack them good.