trolled wylie today

went trolling in big allison today with one of my daughters. we fished from the allison creek bridge (the highway bridge,, not the nuke) down a little past the first cove on the right. it was a exciting day as we had fish on one rod or another most of the time we was there. we started at nine am and quit around 1:30 pm. wound up with 72 keeper crappie and caught four channels,, the biggest channel about ten lbs the other three was from about five to eight. we turned back all the channels after i got a few pics of my kid with em.. the crappie,, that was a different story. we threw back a good many tater chips which we dint keep a count of (dint see gary or his bucket around for some payback) and kept the rest. id say about ten of em was slabs,, with several real heavy weights. the rest was average sized, good eating. we was pulling eight lines, 6lb test,, 16th oz jig heads covered with sliders and tripple ripple auger tails. we was pulling all this stuff with the little 5 hp honda troller. the dark headed jigs with chartoose tails was the fav today.. the light colored jigs dint draw a hit. the water was a little dingy up that way . the jigs was runnning about 9 ft deep, and occasionally id let em go to the bottom so they could show off in front of the bottom huggers.. my neighbor inherited the job of cleaning the fish minus about ten i kept to use for bait down at wateree wednesday if i get to go. the fish was really active today, probably cause it was overcast and this front moving in.

Looks like the beast was makin up for lost time. Probably afraid it would get shackled in the yard again if it didn't perform. Great to hear you got out and great to hear you had a good day. Those cats musta given ya some fun. Been checking your private messages lately?

the cats was awsome on the light rigs we was trolling with.. the daughter had to fight em as she was the rodman today. the ten pounder forced me to get in all the rigs so theyd be out of the way and then it took quite a while for her to get it played down and into the net. i volunteereed to bring the big cat in but she wouldnt have none of that... she did let me get the hook out its mouth and untangled from the net and then return it to the deep..i got yore message and have responded. the beast was as happy as a junebug in a pile of cow manure she got to part the waters of wylie today..she told me if id just get her on the lake shed lead me to the fish,, and by golly she did,,, good old gal,, that beast.

hey robert, i got some blue back herring in my freezer. next time we meet up, ill give you some great catfish bait.

thats what i use for striper bait.

thanks pete, i appreciate that. last time i tried to catch some shad down at wateree i come up short and had to use some old brim id caught several days before i went. shad dont freeze good at all so i dont try to freeze it for future use. I got the crappie i caught yesterday to take and i hope to be able to catch some shad down there. Ive got some tips from several guys on the catfish board and i think there may be several of em down there tomorrow so if i run into any of them i may can get a few baits from them also. if i cant, at least ill have some fresh bait to use and crappie makes great catfish bait. let me know whats the next day you can go other than this coming saturday and well try to hook up and give em a try if it aint too late. Ive had so much going on and the the truck was out of comission for a week that i havent had a chance to do any good fishing since my trip to atlanta. looks like things is gettin to where i can go now.

Now you got my mouth watering again rango. :p

if you want to target stripers, we would have to go this next week sometime. my classes are almost over with i believe Tuesday being the last day. the striper run is starting to taper off however i still bagged a quick limit this morning :confused: . right now, the ones that are being caught are really nice ones.

and yes I do catch mr. whiskers out there on a regular basis. when the stripers are not there, the big blues keep us busy.

let me know if you still want to give it a go

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Originally Posted by rango

went trolling in big allison today with one of my daughters. we fished from the allison creek bridge (the highway bridge,, not the nuke) down a little past the first cove on the right. it was a exciting day as we had fish on one rod or another most of the time we was there. we started at nine am and quit around 1:30 pm. wound up with 72 keeper crappie and caught four channels,, the biggest channel about ten lbs the other three was from about five to eight. we turned back all the channels after i got a few pics of my kid with em.. the crappie,, that was a different story. we threw back a good many tater chips which we dint keep a count of (dint see gary or his bucket around for some payback) and kept the rest. id say about ten of em was slabs,, with several real heavy weights. the rest was average sized, good eating. we was pulling eight lines, 6lb test,, 16th oz jig heads covered with sliders and tripple ripple auger tails. we was pulling all this stuff with the little 5 hp honda troller. the dark headed jigs with chartoose tails was the fav today.. the light colored jigs dint draw a hit. the water was a little dingy up that way . the jigs was runnning about 9 ft deep, and occasionally id let em go to the bottom so they could show off in front of the bottom huggers.. my neighbor inherited the job of cleaning the fish minus about ten i kept to use for bait down at wateree wednesday if i get to go. the fish was really active today, probably cause it was overcast and this front moving in.

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You ran the jigs about 9' over how much water? How far back were the jigs runnin? I have a 5hp yamaha kicker motor and I thought I might try trollin. I don't want to go to grindin down the prop just yet... thought I'd see if I like trollin first. I can throw a coupla 5 gal buckets over the side if I gotta. I was thinkin of runnin small diving plugs or jigs off a leader behind a keel weight to get the lure down. I think I'll save the downriggers til they move deep or the state stocks salmon in the lake.

i try to keep the boat in 10 to 15 ft of water.. they are probably running about 25 yards or so behind the boat. the buckets should do it. this motor was bought specifically to pull jigs and i had to keep grinding the prop to where i got the speed down where i wanted it at just above idle speed so i had no problem with grindin the prop off to get it runnin where i wanted it.. trolling with a gas motor is a lot of fun, but its tough if you are alone as you got to control the boat and man the rods to.. I usually pull eight lines with a rodman, but if im alone, i keep it to four. its a different way to attack the critters and other than spring and fall when they are fairly shallow i dont do it, but its a hell of a way when they are in shallow water,, that meaning about 15 ft or less. after they go deep its easier to drift with the heavy weights like we been doing. its expensive to set up to do it, but after you get the stuff you need, its not so bad. weve trolled tiny crankbaits for em and had fairly good results. but crankbaits are better in open water. you dont wanna pull through some tree tops with a bunch of four dollar baits on as you gonna weep if you do.. if you want the jigs or crankbaits to run deeper, just clamp a split shot or two on the line a foot or so above the bait and it will get down there. i had orginally planned on going down to wateree catfishing tomorrow but my daughter wants to go with me again tomorrow trolling so me, her and jerry will be down there pullin lines. depends on how they hittin as to where ill be pulling, but im gonna start there where we was catching them yesterday,, below the allison creek bridge. this cold snap will probably put em on the bottom

Thanks Rango, that'll help me alot. I'm an old hand at trollin with an outboard by myself. I always try to go with the wind as that helps keep the boat goin straight and if ya gotta cut power while playin a fish the boat keeps movin alittle with the wind and keeps your lures straight behind you. I'm probably gonna use alittle more weight to get down and go alittle faster. I think those fish will hit a faster movin lure just as good and ya can seine out alot of water when you're movin along at good clip. Then after a coupla hours of not catchin anything I'll throw the buckets out and do it your way. plannin to hit 'em tonite. Good luck trollin today.