NebSchmidty

I third the turd (worm) today. GP worked well around sportsman's before lunch. Similar pattern -- secondary points and inside. Hug a 16-18' contour, cast to shore and use a slow methodical retrieve. Dinner was a family pizza party on the boat. Went up north indian and it was as if nature remembered there were fish in the lake. All sorts of shad chasers showing up on the graph, suspended 6-12'ish over 15-20 depth. Couldn't buy a bite on the swimmer... but the extra poles aboard allowed for some experimentation on turd worm colors. GP/red came back as another option with the lower light conditions. Also repeated this down in sportsman's with similar results. Much better keeper to short ratio today. Hard to believe Sunday was a day to simply be happy you brought a just few back to the boat.

And an app to run the thing via bluetooth from your phone. Chuck it overboard, push button, expensive lure returns with big fish.

Giddy-up. Add me to next week's tally... albeit with much less glitter on my sled. Indian point +/- a mile or two, depending on motivation. Prefer the troller over big motor, so I'll keep out of most's way.

For those of us not familiar that area, what sort of lake level does that imply for flooding to be an official concern there?

Right off the bat -- refer to what Bill's recent post suggests if you want to target future fish. I hate tracking bait fish spread over miles, and drop shotting in trees... so I'm useless for reference if there's a regime change in baits. If I were a lawyer, this post is probably for historical, documentary purposes only. Wednesday's outing started around 7, got lame by 10, and was finally terminated in favor of lunch prior to 11. Boat in 18-20 depending on incline, cast in front of trees (or submerged bushes), slow retrieve, and wait for bite. Main lake points were best, but could scrape a few off of secondaries close to the same spawning pockets. 21 bass, greater than 2/3 were keepers, plus another >10" goggle eye in an entirely different spot. All on ned. Bite was good morning and evening. Today was work. Started by heading to a near creek point with adjacent spawning pocket. I was drawn into the pocket by a few sporadic blow-ups, but had zero luck on towpater (surge shad and plooper). I got one via a keitech by casting near a blow up. The next 4 came on the ned, followed by one on a tube, boat in 15-20, casting to the shore. Standing on the trolling motor throttle @ 50% just to stay still is what finally encouraged me to throw in the towel and get lunch. We all went back out for about 45 minutes prior to this evening's rain -- one ned fish to show for our efforts. All in, neither swimming presentations, nor the ned, produced many fish today. Pics to follow...

Well past it's expiration date... 😁

I launched and docked Saturday, but have seen boats going in/out since then... so I'd assume there's enough angle in the lot there to still get your trailer deep enough to launch. If anything, you may have to deal with some wet toes if the lake level comes up too much overnight and the courtesy dock gets submerged. I've seen a few guys using it in that condition early morning, before marina staff can get around to re-adjusting it.

And dual, master-angler goggle-eye in the same afternoon... for good measure. A fitting homage to my wife's late grandfather who was the one to get me hooked on fishing, once upon a time. "Rockies" were always a bonus catch when targeting crappie and gills in MN.

Made our 10th annual spring trip (a month late) down in record time, thanks to minimal traffic and almost zero road construction. Got out Saturday evening and then again in 1-3 hour spurts, twice a day since then -- kids have their limits/priorities which seem to be limiting my fishing time a lot more these days. Been out scavenging within a couple minute ride from the marina in either direction. I've tried a few different presentations with minimal luck... so have pretty much resorted exclusively to my confidence bait, given the post-frontal cool, stiff north wind, and rising water. If it's sunny, you want your 1/8oz ned to be some sort of light and natural color, but with a slight variation (dirt). If there's clouds, you want red flake and a darker body (gp/red or cali craw). Your ned rig in aforementioned size/color will usually prefer a slow, methodolical drag... often shining the brightest when you've parked your pole to help one of the three co-anglers in your boat to retrieve their fish, get a snack, or do something else that doesn't allow you the opportunity to remove your own lure from outside of the day's strike zone. Most bites I'd estimate are coming from 6-16' depth, with boat in 15-22'ish, depending on time of day, temp, and sunlight. Just outside the trees, or inside usual "old bank line" range seems to be somewhat of a loose marker of where I've been casting as a starting point. If you're a regular, you'll know what sort of terrain is the best target right now. If you're not a regular, find some gravel flats on/near points. Most of my pics are on mobile, so I'll have a few pieces of documentary evidence appearing soon.

Unless it's calm enough that I can keep the boat pretty stationary and feel my way through any limbs, I tend to get a lot of hangups fishing an open drop shot hook within submerged trees. YMMV. One thing I'll use up here if I'm targeting fish suspended in thicker timber is a senko on of those weighted wacky rig jigs w/ a weedguard. You can keep it a fairly vertical presentation and it seems to roll over limbs reasonably well. For whatever reason, I generally have better luck with a 4" than a 5" worm when rigged this way. Or maybe a weighted, t-rigged fluke if you need more of a swimming presentation?

Somewhat related question: how's the access/availability of restaurants down that way? Have most places stayed open for at least some form of take-out service? Any signs of "shortage" showing up in their offerings? Not looking to mess with dine-in... but still hoping to patronize a few of our regular stops while we're there the week after next. Indian Point area.

Might be overkill for you, might not... but another option I'd throw out is to run a dedicated starting battery and then a separate deep cycle to power your gizmos. Depending on your power needs and usage, it may allow you to get by with "cheaper" batteries by having one appropriately spec'd for starting and letting the other deal with the continuous drawdown from graphs/radio/etc. Of course you'll require the space for the additional battery, and probably an additional charger for it as well. Just a thought.

Thanks for the update. Looks like Fin & Feather just posted on their FB page this AM that they plan on re-opening to walk-in traffic on May 4th... just don't forget your mask, apparently. Keep us (or at least me 😁) updated on the jig status, or if you would decide to ship orders direct. We're aiming to make the trek down on the 16th and stay for a week, and my ned-jig supply is looking a little thin right now.

@dtrs5kprs - are you still selling the jigs directly, or just through retailers now? Not to highjack the thread... just couldn't get the site to send you a PM.

Good googly-moogly, what a troot. Congrats!

We were down the week before last and fished out of the Indian Point area. It was certainly a grind for me to come up with 5-10 fish each morning. After a few days, I pretty much gave up on wasting early light on topwater, throwing a keitech into the random surface blips, or trying to coax something from the abyss with a dropshot worm. Instead, I'd go straight to fishing for shallower 10-15' fish off the bottom before they backed out with increasing daylight. Depending on cloud cover (or lack thereof) you could still work a bottom bite out 15-25'ish towards 7-730... but by 8 you were on borrowed time before they moved out and suspended deeper. Areas were mainlake points -- seemed better on the point or just on the downstream edge of it before you would hit submerged timber leading back into the creek/cove. They were definitely munching on craws in the areas with some chunkier rock present. Best two baits were a 3.5" tube on a 3/16 head (GP/orange flake in low light, WM candy after) and a GP/orange flk ultravibe speed craw on a 3/16oz head. Hope that might help some.

Something I've used successfully in my murkier waters here at home is to use a worm with a small curl tail, rather than just the stereotypical straight or shad shape worm. I'll use it when I'm drifting through certain depth or trying to keep my worm suspended slightly above the gunk as I drag across the bottom. Seems like the extra vibration can sometimes help them find it better. Maybe that could translate well to a night fishing scenario on TR?

Depending on how your preferred rod manufacturer rates their powers, I wouldn't shy away from considering something in the light category as well. It's been my experience that some medium or even M/L rods rated for up to 1/2 or 5/8oz can still be a bit much of a stick for a chewed up chunk of elaztec on a 1/16oz head, especially when dealing with wind or when trying to land a big fish on 6lb FC. IMO, something in that 1/16-3/8 or 1/4 oz weight and a 4-8 or 10 lb line rating seems to be about the ideal zone for working those 1/16 or 1/8 oz turd worms across rock and gravel structure. As for a specific model recommendation... I may be a fanboy (no jerseys), but I absolutely love my Dobyns DX701SF finesse. Paired with a 2500 size Daiwa and 6lb FC, it's a real hoot when hooked up to an angry smallmouth.

PS. If you see these ducks, they're stalkers. Do not acknowledge, no matter how many times they fly out to see you. Most certainly, do not allow your children to feed them puffcorn.

Tonight was docks, keitechs, and a slow methodical retrieve. My working theory is that with the water clarity, they're either out just chasing forage... or "sheltering" amongst whatever timber, dock, or wind-chopped surface is available. Hardly a sign of them where I caught on a tube this morning... but the bank wasn't being abused by the same amount of wind as it was earlier. Went to the back of a cove where I'd seen bass busting shad earlier in the week, and caught 7 off the docks furthest back. My wife will interject here to note that she caught 5 to my 2. And neither of mine were the two which were keeper size. By this time, it was about the same time as the bass extravaganza from the prior night, so back to the marina we went. There were a few blowups, but pretty mundane... thinking because of the lack of the wind. Managed a couple more, plus the nice smallie below. Taking a pause from fishing in the morning to celebrate and reflect upon the resurrection of our Lord and Savior. What better location to do so, than a little slice of heaven on earth. Will maybe have one afternoon report before packing up to head back home Monday AM. This post has been promoted to an article

Battled the wind and cold for about 2 hours yesterday morning. I noticed fish showing up in areas I hadn't seen earlier in the week. Specifically, on one gravel point I usually fish this time of year, I marked quite a few suspending over 20-30' deep. However, the wind made boat and cast control pretty much impossible here. Ducked out of the wind and found one keeper, one short on a 2.8 keitech, just inside a pocket near docks. Went back out in the evening, but didn't even need to fire up the boat. Found fish blowing up shad again in the back of a cove near docks. Had seen this a little bit earlier this week, but not on this scale. One of those deals you stumble into where you're simply catching, not fishing. 3 fish on first five casts into the madness. At one point, I'd fish one side of the dock for spots and go to the other for smallies. Ended up with 19 fish in a little over an hour. Having too much fun to bother with measurements, but at least 5 legit keepers for sure. Had a few shredded keitech 2.8 and 3" bps speed shads afterwards. A cold one again this morning, but thankfully less wind. Started the day out right with a quick pair on the edge of a point where it transitions back into a cove by docks, boat in about 25-30 on keitech. No love on the front of the point, so I move to another similar spot. Had one chaser that wouldn't bite, but caught two as I moved into the pocket, closer two a dock. Nothing past 1/3 of the way in. Moved again and headed towards the transition to another, larger cove. Not much for docks nearby, but did mark fish closer to where I'd expect them to be in the spring. 16-22' seemed to be the range, and they seemed to like the 3/16 watermelon candy tube. 2 nice keepers here plus 3 shorts. Came back in for early lunch. Heading back out for the evening to see what we can find. This post has been promoted to an article