Report 7/25/04

[Bill2]

Got out this morning at a northern lake that is natural but only has a maximum depth of 23 feet. Water temp was 76 degrees, north wind, chilly, and spitting rain early.

Trolled in 8 foot of water 4 foot down with 2 inch curly tails and ended up with 15 over 10 inches. Missed a bunch...lost a bunch...and put the small ones back. Not a bad day for summer but the weather stunk. Those fish were all suspended towards the break to deeper water and were not relating to any cover whatsoever. Once we found them though we had action.

Bill

[Indy-Travis]

Bill! Remember when I bugged you about finding summer fish? We have finally settled in on some productive patterns, at least on one lake. I fished both mornings this weekend, and we probably caught 15 Saturday, and about 20 Sunday, only kept 10-12" fish, so we kept 8 on the first trip and 11 on the second. We also found adding a spinner to the curly tail got the bluegills hitting as well, and caught 11 keepers on Sat. and 15 keepers on Sunday (kept all 8"+ gills). The lake we are fishing sounds quiet different from yours, it is a natural lake with a large amount of weeds to the breakline. It breaks form 5-6' to 14-16', with spots in the middle around 25'. Last few times out we found the active crappie in the 12-16' water, suspended over the break, and striking best when the jig was trolled just a few feet below the surface. This weekend they still wanted it running pretty high, but we litterally caught fish suspended all over the open water, from the breakline to across the deepest water. We are now going to try to figure out some trolling patterns on some other lakes we catch crappie through the ice on. Thanks for the tips earlier, now I have something more to do in the summer than dunk a worm or fix deer stands!

[Bill2]

We also found adding a spinner to the curly tail got the bluegills hitting as well, and caught 11 keepers on Sat. and 15 keepers on Sunday (kept all 8"+ gills).

Great Travis...now it's your turn to help me. We constantly have bluegills "peck" at the trolled curly tails and we NEVER hook one. And we lose a fair amount of tails. What type of spinner, how did it help on the gills, or do you think the spinner just enticed them as you weren't getting them to hit before?

The lake we fished this week-end is completely different than what we normally fish. We normally fish the type like you described so it was good to hear your report.

And don't you love this trolling technique...amazing it works so well. We tried casting and live bait but trolling always produces more and bigger ones in the summer.

Bill

[Indy-Travis]

Yeah on the trolling, a few weeks ago, I tried casting the same jig, throught the same water, trying to duplicate depth and speed, and not a bump in a couple dozen casts. Turned around and trolled the spot twice and caught a fish each pass.

I still lose a lot of tails, I expect the the gills, but though I cant explain it, they seem to hook up a lot better now when adding the spinner. We also found that using a Southern Pro minnow tube or one of the rubber "minow" bodies we found at Walmart produce pretty much the same amount of hits (when using the spinner) and both are much more durrable than the grubs. Infact, My Dad fished for three hours and never changed his minnow tube once. I went through 7 grubs in the same span, I think. Another buddy was using the rubber minnow body and only had to change once. Without the spinner to add flash and action, the crappie prefer the twister tail, I imagine because it has more action, than the other bodies. By adding the spinner arm and balde, we went from just the gills pecking and ruining grubs, and maybe hooking one or snagging one in the head, to now catching more gills than crappie, and the seem to have the bait in their mouth, usually almost the whole plactic body is their mouth. I can't explain it, but it seemed to workout that way both days.

[Moose1am]

The bluegills have such tiny mouth opening as compared to the crappie that they often don't get the big curely tail jigs totally inside their mouth where you can hook them. I like the hydra shaped Southern Pro type soft hollow bodies jigs with the tenticle tails best. That is what the Bass Pro Shops Squirmin Squirts look like. Only the Squirmin Squirts White Lightning's have sparkles embedded in the plastic jig. The blue, gold and silver sparkles reflect the sunlight and appear as minnow scales to the crappie. They have outfished the Southern Pro crappie jigs at the Crappie USA Crappie Tournament last Spring and the Spring before that ie 2003 and 2002. Brian Estridge and Frank Ison fished these Squirmin Squirts to win the Crappie USA Patoka Spring Crappie Tournament two years in a row. They only fished the Spring tournment where the big females were caught on the Squirmin Squirts. The second place team and the other teams mostly used the Southern Pro type jigs and they were only a few ounces behind the first place guys. So both brands will catch crappie. Almost all the guys are slow trolling the drops at Patoka except for the two time winners who fished with slip floats in deep timber that was too thick to troll. They cast the slip bobbers rigs out and set the depth for about 8ft in 10 to 12ft of water. This was in April before the lake was up to summer pool. Early in April the lake is down to around 532 ft ASL. By the end of April the lake is normally back up to summer pool at 536ft asl.

Slowly retrieving the slip bobber rigs is almost the same as slow trolling in a way. If you can get the jig moving though the water at about 1/4mph then you can attract some nice slabs.

Yeah on the trolling, a few weeks ago, I tried casting the same jig, throught the same water, trying to duplicate depth and speed, and not a bump in a couple dozen casts. Turned around and trolled the spot twice and caught a fish each pass.

I still lose a lot of tails, I expect the the gills, but though I cant explain it, they seem to hook up a lot better now when adding the spinner. We also found that using a Southern Pro minnow tube or one of the rubber "minow" bodies we found at Walmart produce pretty much the same amount of hits (when using the spinner) and both are much more durrable than the grubs. Infact, My Dad fished for three hours and never changed his minnow tube once. I went through 7 grubs in the same span, I think. Another buddy was using the rubber minnow body and only had to change once. Without the spinner to add flash and action, the crappie prefer the twister tail, I imagine because it has more action, than the other bodies. By adding the spinner arm and balde, we went from just the gills pecking and ruining grubs, and maybe hooking one or snagging one in the head, to now catching more gills than crappie, and the seem to have the bait in their mouth, usually almost the whole plactic body is their mouth. I can't explain it, but it seemed to workout that way both days.

[Indy-Travis]

Moose, down at Patoka in the spring, my most productive tube was a red glitter with pearl "legs", cheap Creme tubes I bought at Walmart. The couple days we fished, red seemed to outfish the other colors, and the red glitter outfished the plain red at least 2 to 1. Since, I have been sold on glitter in the bodies when I can find them in the colors that work best on some waters. The lake I have been fishing this summer is a blue/white and pink/white place, and I can find plenty of blue/wht with sparkles, but no pink/wht with any. I will check the Bass Pro and see if they have that combo.

[Bill2]

Okay...I'm off tomorrow at noon and be back Sunday night. I'm going to try the spinner combo that Travis suggested. I'm too cheap to order from Bass Pro so will continue to use Wally World's curly tails. I'll put a spinner on the jig. We catch the gills with live bait (PM me for a "hot" tip Travis) but I want to try to catch those that hit when we troll.

Got the jon boat all ready so will be fishing some of the lakes in the Wolflake area. Probably try trolling in "our" lake on the pontoon too. Might hit Tri-County. Let you know how I did when I get back.

Bill

[Moose1am]

I got some 50 pks of jigs from BPS and ordered the wrong kind. They were squirmin Squirts 1.5" but they were not the White Lighting #18's that I wanted. So I went to Hobby Lobby and got some glitter sparkles and plan to glue them onto the baits. That way they will have the sparkle colors (gold, blue and silver) that I wanted in the first place. I wish that the Squirmin Squirts White Lightings came in 50pks but they only come in 20 pks.

Contrasting colors seem to work best for some reason. I bet it's because they are more visible even in stained water. Blue/white southern Pros were used at Patoka last spring and didi well for a number of teams.

Moose, down at Patoka in the spring, my most productive tube was a red glitter with pearl "legs", cheap Creme tubes I bought at Walmart. The couple days we fished, red seemed to outfish the other colors, and the red glitter outfished the plain red at least 2 to 1. Since, I have been sold on glitter in the bodies when I can find them in the colors that work best on some waters. The lake I have been fishing this summer is a blue/white and pink/white place, and I can find plenty of blue/wht with sparkles, but no pink/wht with any. I will check the Bass Pro and see if they have that combo.