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Thank you for the pointers.
I considered tossing out a fancy marker, but that would mean a retrieval would be needed. For this reason I usually just toss out a water bottle, and then if I never go back no harm no foul.
Just kidding. I bought the kind that has a bright plastic buoy, string wrapped around and a lead weight to spin it. I will give it a try and see how that goes.
Yesterday I was able to make tight 90 degree turns without fouling my lines. The trolling sinkers seemed to work out well. I had several fish strike those rigs, and it kept the line in close to the boat and out of the way of me landing fish a lot better. So four lines will have sinkers from now on.
This new rig shall be a three way swivel from main line, a leader and a clip to attach and unattach sinkers. I make Bell shaped sinkers with a bronze eye in small sizes up to 2 ounce. I originally bought the mold because I was Spider Rigging and hadn’t used any sinkers since switching over to long lining. Now they will play a prominent role once again. I watched each swim, the trolling and the Bell and each seemed to do the same thing at the speeds I like to go- 1.0-1.2 mph.
The Bucktail jigs were equal to the plastics as the results were about the same. The bucktails landed a few more of the smaller fish though. I had nine keepers but tossed back over a dozen little ones. The lures swam very sleekly and held up to the damage, however I noticed that the weeds seemed to stick to the “hair” and almost refused to turn loose. Brown goo looking stuff.
I started with ten all the same jigs and when things were slow swapped out a few for plastics and nothing much different happened. So I am going with the idea that they are indeed equal, which is good for me financially as I was going broke buying all those plastics. LOL
Next experiment will involve 2” curly tail grubs and I want to test them. I have used them in the past, but next trip I will try a little harder to see if they make the grade. My guess is that results will be similar again. I suspect it really doesn’t much matter what swims by, just so long as it can be located, tracked and attacked. So the size needs to be right, a good profile, and the colors bright.
I remembered what Skip said about casting and how he rides with a single rod. I was jigging one of the rods for a bit but it didn’t do anything because the bite was slow. I will try again. However, I noticed something about this whole mess. I have been pulling at the lines and releasing to trigger strikes, and did so several times yesterday, however I went to pluck a line and found a fish already there. Nice medium, plump and feisty. I grabbed the line to pull and he was there. He had hooked himself and was swimming along until I pulled, Then the rod bowed. Funny how they choose to just swim along. I have seen this before and wondered why. The plucked lines that triggered strikes did not have fish attached already as i would have felt the resistance.
The fish yesterday were fighting hard. Usually they surface quickly and I water ski them to the boat. Yesterday they were staying down and thrashing about. I also noticed they flopped less once landed. Even though the live well would work due to cooler conditions, I prefer the freezing cold salted ice water slurry bath in the cooler as it shuts them down fast. I have had crappie still flopping about after being left on the cutting board for a long time. Slurried devils are cold cold cold and no worry about butchering a live animal. In fact it is hard to hold them they get so cold due to that rock salt.
Air temp was 45 degrees to start and ended at 70 degrees. Water was 62-64 degrees. Winds very light and sunny skies. I saw the minnow trollers catch a few smallish fish, and keep them. Trying to ensure a return on the price they paid out for minnows no doubt. Had I kept little fish I would have had pretty close to a limit.
So next trip out will have me fishing like I did yesterday, probably same lake, probably same results. I guess i will just have to keep plugging along until the fish decide to start hitting again. The Moon is starting to get brighter and that might encourage them some. They are already fat so they might have slowed down on feeding due to having reached their headed-into-Winter weight.
I have a new phone now so will start to take pictures again. I know everyone likes pictures of the action and reports seem silly without those. I see large flocks of ducks perched atop the hydrilla and they just seem to sit there. I breeze past yelling at them like John Wayne and they just look at me. When done for the day, they are still sitting there in the same spots. I can only imagine they are eating the hydrilla. If I was an alligator……
Long lining seems so easy to do, but once you get involved the intricacies multiply pretty quickly. I feel the more complicated things get the closer I am pushed towards the simple. Like a giant circle right back to what is stupid simple. Learning the whole way though and that is what will make the difference in the long run. Who knew that dumb old bucktail jigs would be just as viable as a fancy plastic wiggler thingie ?
