Nathan Shaw

Glad to hear it! Joe, is one of the best preachers around in my book! Nathan

Good to hear you getting out with your pops and hopefully your son next week. I'd give the back of coves another look. If you catch one, hit it over and over. We fished 1 spot the size of a truck bed this past Monday from 2-5pm. Fished shallow water with minnows and did well. We picked up a few goodns (13"+) for the first time this year. All males. I hope you get into them with your son! Nathan Shaw

I put in at Highpoint around 4pm and met up with a couple of friends on the water. I fished the same area and similar pattern yesterday and today but focused on banks primarily and caught most of our fish on minnows. We did catch a few on jigs of various colors. I would say that 4 out of 5 we caught where keepers. It sure would be nice if this weather would hold for a week or so. Hopefully the rain in the forecast won't mess things up too bad. I think it is still a little ways away for it to be "on". All but one of the fish I cleaned tonight where males. She was still a little ways off from being ready to drop em. Nathan

I use Coleman lanterns. I prefer the camp fuel lanterns. They put off a different light and are more quiet than the propane ones. The objective is to draw in bugs which draws in minnows which draws in fish. I usually set up close to or over top of a brush pile or pole timber (more often than not in deeper water, 20ish). It's a good relaxing time. I recommend it!

This may not apply to you, but I use Berkley NanoFil on all my spinning gear and tie on leaders. Granted I'm primarily pan fishing, but I am super happy with that set up. I have 6lb and 8lb NanoFil with 4lb and 2lb floro. If I decide to troll I'll just tie onto main line. Nathan

Just short of the old iron bridge

Thought I would share a couple pics of my hero's!

Well ended up going Monday and Tuesday in the pm's. As far as getting into the river, it gets shallow (1-2ft) in a couple places but manageable with a smaller boat. Although yesterday I did see a Z7 up in the river. Up in the river we found water temps in the low-mid 50's. On Monday three of us in the boat caught 49-50 fish. A couple bass, whites, and the majority being crappie. We ended up bringing home 20 or so. On Tuesday it slowed down a ton. We probably caught 20+/- and brought home 8. The majority of those where caught right before dark between 7 and 7:30. We primarily used crappie magnets with some kind of chartreuse in them. We did catch several with minnows and a float Tuesday. Good luck go you if you go out!

Agreed! On days I'm struggling to catch fish, three rods get rigged up with flickershad (at least one being a purple tiger stripe) and off we go. Its almost cheating. If I wasn't so stuck in my ways or hard headed I would probably be better off just to start trolling them right from the get go. Nathan

I was curious if the river is a accessible by boat yet. I've not been up there since this last rain and was hoping it raised the water level up a tad more. May try and give it a go this evening. Thanks! Nathan

Not much of a winter fisherman, but any other time I target crappie I use minnows or 1/8-1/16 heads with crappie magnet bodies. Usually lean towards anything with purple in it.

Hwy CC (Greenfield Access)

I went down there last year on opening weekend of snagging season......never again! It was stressful just getting to where I wanted to fish dodging all the boats. Just my .02 worth. Not the place to be if your looking for a care free outing, while that circus is in town.

Great report DD! I do have a couple questions for those that have/are chasing BS eyes. I don't have a dog in this fight as I won't be going down there to chase them, this year anyway. Just curious. Are you folks graphing fish and then targeting those fish? If you are working an area slowly with the boat in 30ish foot of water and catching the biggest percentage of the fish behind the boat, I would assume you would see a couple on the graph. If the above is not the case, are you working the jerk bait so slow it has only moved a short distance towards the boat but you may have drifted 50 ft past where you made your cast? Thanks for your input! My focus is going to be on Stockton this year and hope to apply some new techniques for early eyes where I can up there. Nathan

I miss his reports as well!

Also, I would assume that the majority of the anglers will be up towards the dam. Any thought on where the masses may be concentrated?

I'm by no means a tournament fisherman, but I am interested in learning more about fishing for eyes in the early-late spring on Stockton. What is the protocol for following/watching these fellows that do it for a living? I do not want to be a hindrance at all, just looking to pick up a technique or two. Thanks! Nathan

Once again, a fine report!

Awesome!

They look great for sure!

Great report! It's nice to see someone in this area is on 'em.

It's been "off" for me as well. Hang in there, the best is yet to come..........I hope. Shoot'n is definitely part of it, but now why we do it. Enjoy your time out in God's country with like minded folks and that good looking pup!

Yessir

I couldn't agree more with your frustration. Public land is what it is, but a friend should have more respect for you and themselves than to "rape your hole". Especially when you specifically asked them to give you a heads up. Im sure most decent folks have had similar situations. it's disappointing on several levels. I hope you find a new honey hole!

I'll also add, if your anything like me, it will never be good enough. At this point I probably could have bought 2 pre-frabbed blinds for what I have invested in mine. What fun is that though!