techniques / Butla

[Eagle 1]

did anyone jig the grass ? figured most pulled cranks or spider rigged .

[BigBlue]

Pole fished the grass for 3 days.. Actually had a decent day Thursday, they just wouldn't bite Saturday... We pole fished grass all day Saturday for one bite

[Rees Guide]

We never even concidered it, just not fimiliar with the lake that good. Pulled cranks Thursday according to a little info, which didnt pan out, and some scouting done with the maps. Started in Muskconey or whatever and made a couple of rounds in there, toward the ramp at the north end of the dam and then along the dam, no crappie. Hit the river channel and went out into the lake, no crappie, turned and headed toward the gravel pit to make a loop. During this loop when picked up 3 crappie in a hundred yard stretch, marked a couple of brush piles and never turned back as Bird Down was on the levy watching us so we just headed out of there to do some more searching. Went back out to the river and put an arse whooping on the goo!!!!! We did pick up a crappie on the river channel headed back toward Henando point.
With a front coming in and 3 fesh in a hundred yard stretch we knew where we would start and with the wind prediction where we would most likely stay. Friday morning we made the decision to get some minners and put the slow trolling poles in, made perfect sense, a front and 3 fesh in a hundred yard stretch on Thursday.
Saturday morning we head to the pit, only saw one other boat that we knew was fishing with us. DF marking all kinds of fesh and we cant wait to get the minners on the hooks. 7 oclock comes and its baits in the water, the baby largemouths kept us from being bored but at 10am we had only caught 1 short crappie and a bunch of bass and a few cats. Time to change gears and dig the cranks out. Cranks in the water we hit a fish pretty quick, think we caught 5 more but 3 of them were short. Got down to almost being in a steady turn just making a circle to keep going back over our fesh. We caught our last keeper at 1245 and made 2 more loops before it was time to head in.
Headed in we had no idea we had what would prove to be a winning catch on a very tuff day, learned a couple of lessons and finished out a very tuff day that literally 1 bite could have changed the whole outcome.
Had a blast guys and gals and look foward to Sardis in November, always good to see ole friends and make some new ones. Will say this and quit boing yall, 3 years ago my boat would have been on the trailer long before we caught our last fesh, would have given up. The FJs have helped me to learn patience and made Goodtime and I better fisherman, couldnt ask for a better partner.

[bird down]

I prefished on Sep 5th and sep 13th. The very first place I went was back up in the river where the grass becomes visible on both banks. I tried single poling and also pushed minnows very shallow. I felt like there were fish back in there but I only had a short time to cover a lot of water so I left. I think Big blue ended up fishing relatively close to the same area. He was also lucky enough to meet a local legend as far as butla single poling goes. After I tried the backwater grass I went to cane and tried the grass for a minute and then pushed minnows in the mouth. There was a lot of bait in the mouth of the creek and so were the bass. I left there as it was getting dark and rode over to kellys crossing and when I crossed the river out from kellys I saw multitudes of fish around the river. I did not fish it because of the wind but had plans to fish it when I came back. When I came back the day before the tournament I could not fish it because of the wind so I tried back in the creek and did nothing. I broke down back in there as well so I had to limp back to the boat ramp. What a bust! Before the tournament I decided to fish 3 spots and If I caught a fish I was not going to move. The first spot we fished was the south side of the island between cane and musc. We drifted minnows over the top of stake beds and brush tops. We caught a nice fish in the first hr but he was just a hair short. In he next hr we caught another good fish that was close to 14 inches. We spent the rest of the time right there.

[MrGoodtime]

Rg, i would'nt want another partner, nothing better than a day in the boat with a great friend.