Johnsfolly

I found that the swimming action of that bait helped a couple of trout over the investigation phase to I got to eat that bait before it gets away. As I mentioned, it swam too close to the cover and I didn't recover the bait. Water was only 46 deg at the time.

A couple of years ago I had a Lucky craft bait that was jointed almost the entire length of the bait. The current Lucky craft live pointer doesn't have as many joints as I remember on this other bait. The swimming motion was fantastic, but I lost it on a root wad in about 6' of water. Anyone recognize that bait or was it really just the Live pointer?

BB were you catching the walleye from a boat or bank? What were you using for bait if you don't mind telling?

Seems like folsk got you covered. I'm a big Rapala fan and would have included the ones already discussed, the original floating (F9 or F11), the husky jerk, and the X-rap.

Rob, I also live in Columbia. See my posts about Little Dixie crappie fishing this April. The fish aren't big, but they make it up in volume. Turkey Farm Lake is a bit of a walk, but you can get into nice fish. I've caught10-11" redear and 9+" bluegill. I never had much luck for any large bass, only 1-2 pounders. I have not fished Ashland because you need a boat to get into the lake. I have fished many of the pits/ponds/lakes in Rocky Forks CA, but not any of the Finger Lakes. Caught nice bass, catfish and crappie. The fishing is tough due to the lack of bank access. I bought a machete to use out there. I once caught a 6+lb channel catfish on a Gulp jerkminnow. I thought I had an 8 lb bass. As I was holding the catfish, I looked up the 12' cliff I would have to throw the fish over and then climb to get out of this spot and then released the fish. I'm more than willing to show you some spots for a trip out for spoonbill.

Thanks for the advice. I drive in from Columbia and its been easier to get my wife to let me out early in the morning. I would love to be out in the evening sometime soon.

Awesome double. Pretty amazing especially in regards to the hook issue that you mentioned for the rear treble.

A worm snake would have been my guess. We found one in our yard a couple of years ago. Pretty cool little critter. Nice morel. I have been skunked so far this year.

I was out there Sat morning and several guys were picking up alot of whites and hybrids using walk the dog topwaters. I ended up with only one white, but I just didn't have the lure or the location these other guys had. It was my first white bass and the first time fishing that area. I will try to get back out there in the next couple of days. This time with a different bait selection.

Great report. I don't know about you, but my wife may outfish me or catch bigger fish on a given trip. I love putting her in a position to catch more fish. If she likes it, I get to go more often. good luck on your next outing.

I used to fish a lot of the sloughs around Jupiter Farms, Florida when I lived there in the 90's. I nearly stepped on a gator one evening after work when I was going down the bank to fish. It ended up chewing on my Sluggo. When it opened its mouth I tried to flip the bait out but ended up setting the hook into its tongue. The gator was about 4' in length. It came in to the bank like pulling in a beach towel. Once I got it near shore, I reeled down so the rod tip was as close to its mouth as possible and then snapped the rod up to break the line. I still cringe thinking about how much that might have hurt. The worse gators were those that would go after every fish that you caught. Once that started happening you just have to move on to a new location. There was a guy fishing that was cited for feeding the alligators every time he released a fish adn they would eat it once it hit the water. I guess they flet he didn't do enough to scare off the gators beofre releasing the fish.

Sound like a great time! Thanks for sharing your lure selection.

Clay, in terms of lifetime totals you're well ahead of me. I only have 89 different freshwater and saltwater species that I can remember. It's killing me not to break 100. There are three on your list for this year that I have never caught, cutthroat trout, walleye, and white bass. I hope to change some of that this year. I did catch an easy species on Thursday. The longear sunfish. I haven't even tried for these guys yet this year, but now its number 18 for 2015.

Clay or Phil, Can you TAG a fish if you only have a photo that does not have the tape measure? I caught a 25" pink salmon, but only have this single photo of the fish.

thanks for the information.

Awesome brown trout.

When I first responded to this thread, it hadn't occurred to me that I fish the original floating Rapalas all the time. I buy the black/silver and hand paint them. I didn't even consider a bait developed in the 30's as an "old time" bait, because I catch a lot of fish with them. I am noticing that it's getting harder to find outlets still selling the original floating baits. In a lot of circumstances, I just don't like the noise from the rattle chambers in most of the new plastic baits.

I caught another 30 crappie this evening again using the float and jig combination. I did keep about a dozen for a fish fry,. Only a couple were larger than 8" in length. I also caught a small channel catfish using worms off the bottom. Seems like the crappie bite will continue for a while longer. Many of the females had undeveloped eggs that would seem to indicate that the spawning is not over.

Ended up catching a channel catfish this evening. Now I'm up to 17 species for 2015.

I never got into jitterbugs, but love to fish hula poppers at night.

Did some small creek fishing today using small pieces of worms. I had heard that this creek held white suckers. I caught a bunch of creek chubs including this spawning male. I didn't catch a white sucker, but did land a new species for 2015. I believe it is a common shiner and have one I will key out at work tomorrow. I'll have to take out my daughter, since she has not either of these species. They were definitely not shy. I caught over two dozen fish in a couple of hours.

Is the walleye spawn done? If folks are catching them, what are they using and how are they fishing them? Thanks for the information.

I've been fishing the bank along the dam and the boat dock this April. Fishing has been best near dusk. The females were loaded with eggs early this week, but not so much last night. Seem to be spawning at this time. It was really windy yesterday and the the water was more colored than I have seen this spring. The chop had the fish close to the bank. We were getting bit within 8 feet from shore and less. A couple of fish just got lifted once they bit. No reeling required. We fished small jigs and minnows with about 12 to 20" of line between bait and float. Once the wind died down the lake got flat and fish were breaking the surface all along the dam. That's when we started to really get a deeper bite on longer casts and larger fish. There were several larger fish cruising within 4 feet of the bank. These were either large carp or possibly lake sturgeon. They were three to four feet in length. None of us got close to a bite from them. By the time it was too dark to see the float, caught over two dozen crappie, several bluegill and one crappie over 12" in length. None of use wanted to clean fish. So it was all catch and release.

Thansk again for the warmouth information. I have been doing some more research and will try to find some and hopefully get one on the line this year. Good luck and keep a wet line.

Thanks for the information. This is a speices that I have not considered until I saw your post. Was that a private pond?