Thread: Taking my son fishing on Wylie

My lovely bride surprised me by agreeing to buy a boat. Long story short I had envisioned a nice 18' jon with trolling motor..etc.. we ended up with a 17.5' bowrider . Anyway.. it floats but doesn't have a trolling motor. Improvise, overcome, adapt..

So my 16 yo son wants to go fishing (7 on a scale of 1-10). The kid has wanted to go fishing since he was small. Most of our trips were quality time drowning bait rather than catching anything.

We have rods/reels..etc but they haven't been used in a few years so we'll be replacing line..etc

questions:
1. what weight line? probably looking to catch crappie for eating.
2. where? will probably be anchored as we dont' have a trolling motor.
3. Baits? was thinking trying different colored crappie worms with the lead headed hooks. I think I read on here 1/8th oz?

Thank you in advance.
Jerry

I spend about an hour reading before posting..if I missed a thread with all this just link it and we're all good.
J

I started fishing Wylie with a bow rider that I got cheap and put a trolling motor on it. I used the Minkota powerdrive unit with the removable bracket so it could be removed while in family mode. PM me if you want any info on what I did to mount it.

catching fish out there isn't as easy as you might think. Plan on drifting in the deeper channels of creeks with minnows. a .5 oz weight would work. you'll get hung some so have plenty of extras. you might just pickup catfish , perch, maybe crappie,

depending on where you are on the lake will determine the best place to buy minnows,
also, minnows will die fast unless kept cool with ice in the bucket, when they hit the very warm water, they'll likey die then

Welcome to the board and congrats on your new boat. Won't take you long to get your boat set up the way you want it. Hope to see some reports about the fish you and your son catch. Can't help you any on fishing lake Wylie but you will find some help from others that fish that lake.

Welcome to the board.

welcome aboard Jermo. theres lots to be learned here and school is in session...:D

Originally Posted by rango

welcome aboard Jermo. theres lots to be learned here and school is in session...:D

Rango is the Headmaster!
(just dont even bring up the plastic doll thing)

Welcome to the board!! I use 6# test line for crappie.8# is a good all around line.
If you have a graph in your boat you can find some brush/structure and anchor over it.
Also look for fish stacked up in creek channel drop offs. Creek channel ledges with brush is a big plus. Try using minnows,jigs,tubes,and also jigs,tubes tipped with minnows. Not sure about Wylie (never fished it) but I'd stay in at least 20ft of water. Also I'd bring a cup or two of worms because if you had a hard time with the crappie you could put on a worm and mabey get a few brim or white perch just to keep things interesting. I hope ya'll get into em' and good luck to you.

Welcome to the boards Jermo. Congrats on your first boat. I hope you and your son find some biting fish. Stick around and participate all you can. There's a wealth of knowledge here on the SC forum and feel free to roam any and all of the boards.

Thanks folks, OH..I went to the Tega Cay wally world Monday 10Aug09, they had the shiney hineys in stock (read on another thread), so I picked up 6 packs. Son has to get a learners permit before SC will give him another fishing license since he's 16. At age 15 I can vouch for him and they'll give him any license.. he hits 16 and needs gov photo ID .
I don't want to drill holes for a trolling motor so we'll likely drift or anchor. Not sure on how to find brush on the fish finder yet. It shows the bottom, and it sometimes shows fish.. not sure on the rest. I'll keep playing with it. The weather is kind of bad right now so we have time .
Jerry