wylie thursday night..

[rango]

The beast barged up with martys boat last night in a new spot, me and jerry in my boat, marty and a newbie in his. we fished 31 ft of water, from dark to one am. Martys boat pulled out a little after midnight. The bite was again slow, but last night the area on the beast refered to as the dead sea was the hot spot. Its strange how one night the bite will be better in one spot on the boat and the next time out in a different one, with no changes made in the methods of fishing the spots. we wound up with 24 crappie, 13 of which was slabs, running around a lb and half. the rest was lifters, and several chips which we threw back. 5 catfish, three of which went around five lbs and no bass, which was also odd as we usually catch several bass each night.
This is the third night the bite has been slow for us so we are changing our tactics for a few outings to see if that improves our catch. The fish are there, but like the deep winter, its hard to find em schooled up so we gonna revert to the methods that paid off for us so well in the cold water. I still havent got me a minnow storage tank rigged up and we again dumped a lot of minnows before we left. what a waste...

[big "E"]

Rango , it was near the end of winter when I met and started learning from you.What exactly are the winter tactics you speak of , if you dont mind me asking.I know we were fishing warm water spots at that time , but that was leading up to the spawn.I too have had terrible luck the past two weeks out.I really need some help , or I'm gonna start catfishing for the summer.I probably need to practice my catting for this tournement in the fall anyway, but there are no more slabs in my freezer after last night's dinner and thats a bad thing.Good luck , Eric.

[rango]

Eric,we are gonna drift the channels using wind socks draggin minnows a ft or so off the bottom. the socks will slow the boats drift down enought so the weights will keep the bait on the bottom, and not strung out behind the boat just under the surface. Last winter, when we couldnt locate any fish schoolled up we would put a drift sock off each end of the boat, get upwind of the areas we wanted to fish and let the wind push us at an acceptable pace dragging minnows with 3/4 oz baits rigged drop shot style just a couple ft off the bottom. I dont know what happens but im a thinking the fish are hugging the bottom as close as they can and arent showing up on the lowrance, so we arent seeing them, but drifting over them draggin baits, we caught a lot of fish that wasnt supposed to be there cause they wasnt showing up on the sonar. extreme heat affects the fish like extreme cold, makes em hug the bottom so tight they dont show on sonar. the last three trips out has been frustrating. weve caught a fairly decent mess each time, but for the time spent we arent catching what we caught before the rains come a few weeks ago. It seems like everytime you get a decent pattern figgered out, the weather causes a change and suddenly you dont catch what you were catching. the only reason i havent tried drifting the minnows on the bottom is cause of the heat but ive got some umbrellas i can set up on the boat so we gonna fish the daylight a time or two and see what happens. at times it can make you pull your hair if you got any left, but again, if you can break the pattern, you gonna start catching fish again. If and when we break the patterns, ill tell you what works for us, so you can try it. Catfishing should be really good right now. we are catching a decent mess of cats at night chasing the crappie. they are a lot of fun on the ultralites, but a pain in the behind as far as tangling up with the other lines

[pete]

instead of umbrellas, i got an idea for a new addition to the beast......make a custom T-top......then the beast will really look serious :D .

[big "E"]

Thanks Rango , I appreciate the tips.Day fishing will be a problem more than likely , as I can only go on weekends.And we all know what that means on the lake.Maybe I can try some early morning action before the daytrippers come out.Still havent made the purchase on those socks so I may have to use the buckets that were described here before.A little short on funds due to a $1000 repair on the land rover I drive.The same one thats destined to be a trade in by the end of the month.Got to simplify a little , maybe a gmc or a dodge pickup.Thanks again.Eric.

[kunes]

"BigE"--Sunday mornings are you're best bet on the weekend. Traffic doesn't heat up 'til noon. I went out this am and did some scouting. Found a narrow cove where the water was alittle cooler and marked a ton of fish. Probably try that spot tonite.

[big "E"]

Thanks Kunes , I might get a chance next week.The ugly "W" word , you know.Eric.