Ryan great job. I don't think they are catching those big bags in the dam to kimberling area. That bite has been horrible with all of the shad kill. I think they have been getting those bags up the white or James and maybe into the start of long creek. Not for sure on that but that's just what I think.
Good job sholder. We fished it as well and had around 14.5 lbs. Had a 6.02 kicker with just some keepers to go along with it. We only had 5 keepers the whole day with lots of barley short fish. We caught all of ours on something other than the a-rig which made my day except the part of missing out on big bass and in the money lol. Needs to warm up so we can out those dang things away. I will be celebrating when that arig bite is over.
RPS I remember a while back you said you made your own Jika rigs. I forgot what size split rings you said works best though. Do you mind refreshing my memory?
Awesome job danger. I forgot to tell you that I did catch a couple fish on your jigs this past weekend. Didn't fish the jig very long though. From the pics above I would say it's a winner.
Bill I think the cold rain really shut them down for the most part on Sunday. Water temps were 2-3 degrees colder that morning. It seems right now the way things are you can go a really long time without a bite then bam you catch fish on consecutive cast. Really makes it hard to decide if you should wait it out for them to bite or move to another spot. Should be some good fishing coming with these warmer temps.
Hat off to the Fann boys again. Big sack with 2 brown fish mixed in. I really thought Busby had a shot at winning but then I seen the Fann's sack and knew it would be real close. We struggled most of the day. I lost a big one and that hurt pretty bad for a while. My mistake though. After you get hung up a lot with those arigs it's time to switch hooks is all I will say. We ended up with about 10 fish total for the day and only 3 keeps for a little over 7lbs. Let me just say I would really like to follow the fann boys some day and just watch haha
Thanks Champ. I luckily stumbled on that area that was close to where I was catching them before and found some active fish for about a hour and a half window. I only fished 2 locations all day.
Thanks Quillback. I practiced on Friday way up long creek and only managed 4 fish all day. Those bites only came when it started sleeting then it completely shut off. Caught them off of bluff walls in pole timber scrapping the tops of trees with the arig. I thought about running up the White on Saturday but I was boat 68 and all but 4 boats or so were headed that way so I went back up long creek. I went all the way to the 311 bridge this time looking for warmer water. I found 45-46 degree water. I was excited. There was 3 other boats and we were sharing the same water. I wanted to get them on a jig or jerkbait but I couldn't get anything going. All of the other boats were boating some fish. I was worried after 2 hrs of no fish or bites. I headed back past cricket creek marina to fish where I caught them the day before. On the way I seen a spot that looked pretty good. Went from bluff to tapering chunk rock with lots of pole timber. Caught a keeper on the first cast. My co angler and I started boating fish right and left on the a rig. Most of them 14 inches though. After weeding though some those I caught another squeaker keeper. Few cast later I caught a 5 1/2 After crashing into the trees. All these fish came off a chunk rock bank in about 15-20ft. I had my limit pretty quick after that stop. I had that big one and another decent fish and just couldn't not upgrade but a matter of oz's. I caught around 10 keepers and about 6 shorts. After the clouds came in though it killed everything. I was surprised when I weighed that I might get a check. I though they would of really caught them. Hats off to Mike with the big bag.
Abkeenan luckily I have some of those or I sure don't know how I could catch any fish right now haha. The fish better watch out the demon will be released haha
Yeah I felt bad for Edwin as well. He said in 15 mins he lost a 6 1/2, 5, and 4 1/2 pounders. Last year he lost the AOY on the final day of the elite series. He has just had bad luck in the clutch situations lately.
If you can afford it the stradic's are really nice. I have two of them and love them for all applications. For the money though, I really like the pflueger presidents which run about $60 and the supreme's. Really good reels for the money.
I like those darter heads with range weed guard. Do you Texas rig those or not? On the a-rig I try not the texas rig if I can get away with it and those look like you might be able to get away without Texas rigging.
Thanks for the info on the weedless hooks Bill. I will have the look at the chompers and give them a try for sure. It definitely gets pretty expensive when you are fishing the tree tops 25+ feet down without a weed guard. Another thing is I switched from the braid to only 15lb invisix because I was noticing more strikes this way. When it comes down to fishing that deep though it is probably a better trade off to fish with the braid.
Hats off to those guys. I lost 3 rigs doing the deal with the tree tops. Probably should of tried a weed less jig head and would of prevented losing them. I've yet to find one that I like on the rig though.
I did try going after some vertical with the spoon and had nada on that as well. The areas I marked fish just had tons of shad that were down there with them plus the ones that were dying off. Had a buffet in front of them so that was probably the problem.
No worries Bill. I know you are a busy guy with the guiding and the lodge you run. Sounds like to me the dam area is a pretty tough area right now from what I have heard. Probably should of went into one of the river arms and maybe would of had a little better luck. I tried everything. I was scraping the bottom with my A-rig off of the long flats into deep water off of the drop. Even was waiting so long on the jerker that the bill was making bottom contact in 15+ feet of water. Was throwing a mcstick and had added a small lead strip that was letting it sink ever so slowly. Varied the jerks and the pauses ever which way you could think of and had nothing to show for it until dark. My only fish at dark for the day really slammed it though. It came off of a gravel bay flat area that had a channel ditch that dropped to 35+ feet. I tied some similar areas yesterday in the morning and ended up with only one barley legal LM. Just super tough for us. Hope it shapes up better with the warming weather.