Hamilton Lake Rocks! Fishing with Darryl and Jerry

[barn dog]

Darryl when I get to crappie camp this spring I have to get some of the Hammilton way points from you. Congrats on the fishing and any one who fishes with you is all ways in for a good time when the fish are bitting or not. You are a first class guide and a First Class Person. Only 77 days till Camp.

[TJ Adams]

Looks like you guys had a great time! Hope you catch a bunch of crappie today!:D

[GRIZZ]

Hey Chris:

I keep Kastmaster spoons on four rods in my boat all the time in case we run into some breaking fish and we use them to vertical jig for crappie every now and then so that's what I got the light action Ugly Stiks for. I also got some medium action Ugly Stiks for trolling and they are working out real well too. I have Shakespeare Line Counter reels on them, which make it real handy for knowing how far out our lines are so we can keep them staggered.

I use Kastmasters on Lake Erie for steelhead and browns. What size and colors are you using for stripers and crappies, and how do you use em? For smallies on lake erie I cast them way out and let them flutter, jerk em up and drop/flutter. They hit on the drop/flutter. I've never used em for crappies. Is that what you used to get all the stripers with Ed?

[macdru]

There y'all are only 3 hours away from me and I can't get loose! Great fishin' Ed, Jerry, Darryl! Wish the heck I was there. My kind of "elbow bending"!:D

[Jerry Blake]

I use Kastmasters on Lake Erie for steelhead and browns. What size and colors are you using for stripers and crappies, and how do you use em? For smallies on lake erie I cast them way out and let them flutter, jerk em up and drop/flutter. They hit on the drop/flutter. I've never used em for crappies. Is that what you used to get all the stripers with Ed?

Hey GRIZZ:

I use either gold or silver 1/4-ounce Kastmasters. Yesterday we were using all silver - the gold ones have been hard to get lately. We were dropping them to the bottom and reeling up 1 to 6 turns of our reel handles depending on where the fish were. Each turn of the reel handle on my new Shakespeare Agility reels brings in about 3-feet of line so I would watch the graph to see what depth the fish were cruising through at and tell everyone the depth and/or how many turns to reel in after hitting the bottom. As we reel up and when we get to the desired depth we lift our rod tips about 3-feet and let them fall back down as fast as we could and still keep our lines fairly tight so we could feel the bites and set the hook.

When we fish over cover for crappie with spoons we mark our line so we can get down to the desired depth without having to drop down to the bottom and risk getting hung in the brush coming back up.

Kastmaster Spoons are about the most versatile lure around. You can rip and skip them right on the surface for breaking fish, cast and count down to a desired depth and use a steady retrieve so they wag through the water or do a stop and go retrieve to make them swim and flutter down like you mentioned and you can vertical jig with them. They are real hard to beat for any species of fish that are feeding on shad.

[CrappiePappy]

Kastmaster Spoons are about the most versatile lure around. You can rip and skip them right on the surface for breaking fish, cast and count down to a desired depth and use a steady retrieve so they wag through the water or do a stop and go retrieve to make them swim and flutter down like you mention and you can vertical jig with them. They are real hard to beat for any species of fish that are feeding on shad.

On Watts Bar, in the Fall ... when Shad schools are back in the back pockets of coves ... my fishing partners and I have wore ourselves out, catching Yellow Bass and the occasional LMB or SMB --- while casting Kastmasters.
On my home lake, Taylorsville ... Hybrid Stripers readily take them, using several different techniques.
And, the only time I've ever caught Rainbow Trout, below the dam at Lake Cumberland .... Kastmasters were the ticket !!

Plain, or with a bucktail on the treble, they're some serious fish catchers !!

.... cp

[GRIZZ]

Have you guys tried Cotton Cordell's CC spoons? I love em except that the finish wears off too easily. I ran across these at stamina, and plan on trying them. The price sure is right and I really like the shapes and finish. They have both nickel and gold finishes.

http://staminainc.com/spoon_blanks/hammered_jigspn.html

[Jerry Blake]

Have you guys tried Cotton Cordell's CC spoons? I love em except that the finish wears off too easily. I ran across these at stamina, and plan on trying them. The price sure is right and I really like the shapes and finish. They have both nickel and gold finishes.

http://staminainc.com/spoon_blanks/hammered_jigspn.html

Hey GRIZZ:

I've tried several different brands and types of spoons but I keep coming back to the Kastmasters.

[GRIZZ]

Tis true. They are excellent.

[Jerry Blake]

Tis true. They are excellent.

Hey GRIZZ:

Speaking of Cotton Cordell, Darryl and I had the opportunity to meet him a while back. He sold the Cotton Cordell lure company years ago but still makes fishing lures under another name just around the corner from Darryl's condo.

After visiting a while and listing to some of his great stories about hunting, fishing and the fishing lure business we invited him to go fishing with us sometime when we're just out fishing for fun and his reply was, "Well I would but I'm just not as mad at them as I used to be". He's a character!