Thread: Kaw Lake Report 2018

I have a "sort of spider rig". Its a 4 pole holder attached to a board I wedge into the front of the boat. It sort of works. I have 1 12 foot rod and the rest are 10 footers. They are really too short to avoid spooking the fish unless you are covering water. My experiences with spooky fish this year are starting to convince me I need to get the real deal, or at least some 14 + foot rods. Not my favorite way to fish but it would come in handy pre and post spawn with the scattered, moving fish, and with spooky winter fish. Might work well in fall also for fish chasing shad. I could use some recommendations of which poles are suitable for the purpose.

You are gonna hear a 1000 different opinions on rods Fishers. I have been spider rigging for a long time and I personally use 12 footers 95% of the time because I'm usually rigging in water over 15 ft deep. I will switch to 14 footers in shallower water from 6 or 7 ft deep and shallower. After a lot of days on the water I can't catch any more fish on the 14's than I can catch on the 12's plus I can control the 12's better when fishing 15 to 25 fow. Biggest thing I have figured out is go with like a 1 ounce weight fishing deep. This will keep your lines apart when moving and turning. On the poles that's a personal preference. The best rods I have used have a really soft tip and enough backbone for a good hookset. I also like a pole with a hi vis tip along with hi vis line. Been running Vicious hi vis 8 lb on all my spider rigs for a long time. I've tried about every rod out there and my number 1 rod is a Shakespeare crappie hunter in the 12 ft model. You can get a heck of a deal through Grizzly Jig when you by 3 or more (under 30.00.) Whatever brand you choose a very soft tip is a must in the winter. I will run drop shot rigs all winter because I like to push the baits into the cover when the fish are buried in it.

Fishers, not my favorite way to fish because I prefer to feel the thump but I will do it when necessary. As Tim says, you will hear 1000 opinions on rods. My boat is setup where I can use three on each side but normally I only use two 12 footers on each side. Sometimes I will add a 14 out to the front. I don't fish much in the Winter because I'm by myself but I like to use the setup in pre and post spawn. I prefer to use a heavier rod. My favorite is the B&M Pro Staff Trolling rod. I own four 12s and two 14s. The reason I prefer them is I can fish faster. I like to power troll jigs or push crankbaits and those rods are excellent for that. They also work pretty good with a Kentucky rig when fishing slower with minnows or jigs. I think that is the same rig that Tim is calling a drop shot. I learned it as a Kentucky rig about 40 years ago. I do not like the Capps and Coleman rigs as I prefer to change weights frequently and it's easier with the Kentucky. Also the ones I tie up can be stored easier on pieces of noodles. I also use 8 or 10lb Vicious hi-vis line but tie my droppers on Trilene fluorocarbon. They are below the water line anyway so seeing them isn't necessary. I use old baitcast reels I mostly got off Ebay. All of them have a flipping switch so all I have to do to let out line is press the thumbar and then release it. That way I don't have to re-engage with the handle. My favorite use of this is power trolling large jigs. I used to call it strolling and hand held two rods. With this setup I can fish four (or six) rods at almost 1 mph (with appropriate weight.) Anyway, that's my take on it. I would like to hear about other persons setups.
Floyd

Realized this morning I was high jacking the Kaw thread. Should of started a new thread. Odie, feel free to delete my posts.

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Thanks guys! IkenI, its probably appropriate due to the current skittish nature of the fish on Kaw.

Ike, not enough of a hijack to move. Good info on how to catch spooky crappie. I appreciate you, Chris and Tim sharing ways to combat the fish, when the water is clear enough to spook them. I have even experienced the fish being spooky on Oologah this year, due to it being uncharacteristicly clear. As long as it is beneficial to all I don’t mind a little hijacking.

Odie

Originally Posted by Fishers

Attachment 287490Attachment 287491Attachment 287492 A odd day out Saturday. The fish I found on my last trip had moved out. The first two fish were 25 lb blues. Could catch little crappie in many places, but I was not interested in dinks. My big fish places were only spotty, the piles I checked seemed to only have little ones so I went on the prowl and checked out a new part of the lake for me. I was very impressed, Kaw continues to please. I didnt catch many fish but marked a bunch of new stuff that had great fish on them (included a sample pic). Problem yesterday was that they just would not tolerate the boat shadow at all! The next pass over those fish in the first pic had only 3 fish left! I really think the big Blues are tearing into the crappie right now and any large shadow have the crappie high-tailing it out of there. I have never seen fish this boat shy before, they were even like that in 10 inch vis water. I started throwing markers and coming back an hour or two later and keeping the boat shadow away from them. Next time I am going to get minnows and slip bobber them from a distance after I throw markers using side scan from a distance instead of driving over them and marking with down scan. How I wish I could have fished those stumps without spooking the fish off. From the image all the fish looked to be that size. Oh, ended up with 15 good fish, largest right at 2lbs.

Think some of this due to all the post on here about how good Kaw is and every Tom dick and Harry loading up their livewells at Kaw.


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dstreet

I wasn't up there last year. But in years past, there would be retirees(several from Kansas, some OK) that would camp there all spring summer fall and catch all the crappie and blues they could every day. I've seen and reported vans showing up at night to haul off frozen fish by the freezer full, to no avail. I was told to mind my own business. They were bragging about feeding the whole town fish fries two or three times a year. It just sss me off. That HAS to have a major effect on the populations. That is like another lake on hybrids, stripers, and blues. Me and friends keep it real quiet on what we catch, and turn loose. We will keep just enough for a meal, at the most once a week. I know there is a group posting "Look at me videos: on a couple websites that definitely doesn't help either. It's a shame when people exploit to the max when something is good instead of nurturing it and making it even better.