Bittle

By the way, the catfish were full of eggs and pretty close to spawning. They are feeding up hard before the spawn so catch them while you can. Dad is going to set out a couple trot lines this weekend. I will report how it goes.

Tired of watching the rain come and go, my dad and I loaded the boat with our rain gear. We headed to bridgeport with some minnows. About this time of year we start catching catfish moving up to spawn. We started seeing shad in large schools on the surface. We started throwing the throw net and caught some shad for a trot line. The shad ended up getting wise to the game, so we let them roam free. We hit one of our catfish spots and I believe my third cast I hooked at channel. I caught a total of 4 channel cats before it started raining. During the rain we couldn't get bit. It stopped again and we started picking up some more bites. We were using our crappie rigs with a bobber set about 3 feet above a live minnow. Thrown in about 3-4 feet of water. If it drifted from the bank it wouldn't work. The second channel I caught was a good fight. It took me about 10 minutes to land on light tackle. I didn't weigh it but my guess was about 10-12 pounds. We only kept 3 catfish as the fourth one was too small. My dad caught a couple bluegill and a small bass. We decided we had enough and dinner was calling our names. We decided to work our way out of the cove casting swimming minnows and throwing minnows around trees. We picked up two crappie in short order, a 13 incher by my dad and a 11 incher by me. Both caught on minnows. One caught off a brush pile and the other off of pole timber. Both in about 25 feet of water. We ran out of minnows so we called it an evening. I believe that we could have picked up more crappie if we stayed after it but it was nice to get out while we could. Here is a pic of what we kept. I told my dad that I spanked him that day. So before we lined up the fish for the picture he had to pull out the shad he caught in the throw net. He said I may have won big fish but he won the number of fish for the day. Can't argue with that I guess! Good times, great company. Bittle

Slider I would love to catch you guys back up at Warsaw this spring. It should be getting good anytime now. I'll let you know when I get some time to run over and try it below the dam. As far as the brews, we had a couple warm brews in the boat we forgot to put ice on. After we caught the big catfish, we decided warm or not we needed one. It was one of the best warm brews I've ever had.

Me and some buddies take about a week each spring to try and chase either the crappie spawn or the white bass spawn. We usually always set some trot lines just to see what we come up with. Here is how it went. I fished before they arrived in town on the 15th to try to locate fish. It was a rough day as I tried to find the crappie and managed to find a couple shorts. I did find some bass in the backs of coves but they were small and I was looking for fish to eat. The next morning we loaded up and started setting trot lines on the James river arm of the lake. We primarily used gold fish but had a few worms and blue gill from the previous day. After getting some lines out we headed up the James to hopefully find the white bass running. And they were. It was by no means fast and furious for us but we saw Duckydoty tearing them up from the bank. We did end up with some decent size males and a few females for the table. One of my buddies, Chad caught a keeper largemouth from a brushpile crappie fishing. To my dismay he kept it, but its his fish so oh well. Here are some pics. The next morning we checked our trot lines and found that we had some decent fish on them. We ended up with 1 flathead about 10-12 pounds two channels in the 9 pound range and about a 3 and a 2 pound channel. We again headed back up to Taylor Shoals and started drifting throwing swimming minnows and grubs. The best producer by far was a solid silver swimming minnow. We caught another good amount of males and a few more females. See Pic The next morning we trecked out again and checked our trot lines. This time we were in for a little excitement. We started checking our lines and were finding fish on each line. The very last line we get to, I pick up and feel a slight tug. I tell them we may have a fish and Chad mans the net. Only to find the next hook I pull up to have a rock attached to it. So I unhook the rock and continued down the line and feel and good tug. That tug turns into a huge tug. As I get the fish close to the surface we see it is a huge flathead. Chad drops the net as it was not good to us anymore. As I'm looking at the fish I keep noticing something near the flatheads stomach. I then realize its another fish. A channel cat. So as the fish gets near Chad grabs the flathead by the mouth and yanks it into the boat. A flathead about 40 pounds. Then I get to looking at the trot line. There was also about a 3 pound channel attached to the same hook. I start looking and the flathead had attempted to eat the channel and somehow in the struggle, had also gotten hooked. You wouldn' t believe me so I took pictures. The first picture is of Chad holding the fish in the boat. If you notice toward his knee you can see the channel cat hanging from the line. You can also notice how white its tail is from being chewed on. These next few are to just see how big the fish is. I'm 6-2 175 pounds and it was as long as about half of me. After the excitement we headed back up to Taylor Shoals to chase the whites again. I was having a decend morning with the sows with a stringer of 7. Thats until I dropped the stringer over the side of the boat trying to drop the anchor. The stringer was tied on the same cleat as the anchor and away they drifted. I tried to snag the stringer but no luck. I didn't mind losing the meat, just the fact that I released them to almost certain death. Anyway we tried to catch a few crappie at a good brushpile I had found and only managed a few shorts. As the rain clouds moved in we decided that we needed to rebait our trot lines for the night bite. We were out of goldfish so I dropped them off to run up to the bait store. As the rain started coming down the boats were trying to get off the lake like mad so I pushed off and began drifting down the bank at Bridgeport. I picked up a black and pink slider and started casting to the rock bank and caught two nice keeper crappie and about a 14 inch largemouth. I hooked another good fish but it pulled off before getting a look at it. They returned to the boat and we had to hunker inside a dock for the heavy rain to pass through. After rebaiting the hooks we went to the house to start cleaning fish for a fish fry. Here are a few more pictures. These two are of the Flathead and its meal. Pretty amazing in my book. The next morning they had to leave halfway early so we decided to just run the lines. We ended up keeping two channels and another pretty good flathead. We ended up having a blast and my buddies love to eat fish. We had all we could eat one night and I believe that they took home almost 21 quarts of fish. We never did get an actual weight on the flathead as my fathers scale was too small for it. 40 pounds is a rough guess. Hope you enjoyed the story. It still gets me smiling to think about it. Bittle

I have gotten into rod building within the last year and it is addicting. Its pretty easy and there are several forums that are loads of help. I'm really wanting to start building bamboo rods. Good luck.

Not sure about the fishing but if your a scuba diver, cozumel is an oasis for underwater recreation. I would have liked to have gone fishing while I was there but was only there for one day on a cruise. Good Luck

I just tried to look at these maps but it said webpage cannot be found. Any ideas?

what time will he be in the store

Looking to get in some fall crappie filets. Anybody been doing anygood here.

Are they still running quite a bit of water up there. I'm thinking about running up there on Friday and I wonder if I need the boat or will the bank be alright?

I'm looking to do some canoeing and want to take the wife. She however, is a fair water canoer. I was wondering if the water levels are tough, fast, etc.. Let me know. Thanks. Bittle

I was wondering if anybody had been fishing the tailrace lately. I was looking to come over and give it a shot. Any updates would be appreciated. Thanks

Hows fishing at the tailrace? Are the floodgates still open?

Me and friend fished below the dam on the rocky side of the river. The fish seemed to still be deep. We didn't get to the water until just before 10am. First cast, a keeper white bass. I thought that was too easy. And it was. I caught 5 crappie before we broke for lunch. Mostly on slab hunters, but also on sliders. After lunch we saw a guy catching from the bank consistantly. He had 10 when a boat moved in about 30 feet in front of him and started fishing. Afterwards he caught nothing. Then another boat moved in almost 10 feet from them. The first boat started catching fish nearly every cast. They were throwing two lures at once and even catching 2 at a time. They fished there keeping who knows how many before moving. After they left and right before dark we started catching crappie. We ended up cleaning 21. People fishing from the boats were catching very consistantly. The fished seem to be stacked in the old turbine channel. I just wish the boat fisherman would not invade just because they can. Makes me want to carry a gun.

Where exactly is this dam? A buddy and myself might make the trip if we can find it. Thanks

I was wondering how much rain they got up there? I was hoping the flood gates would stay shut for awhile but if they got another round of heavy stuff then I'm guess they will stay open. Anybody know?

Took the annual fishing trip to Table Rock lake with my roommates from college. We always laugh because it never fails that the weather always goes to crap when we plan fishing trips. Here is the report. 4-22 I went down a day early and decided to try and find fish before my buddies arrived. I put in a Bridgeport, barely, and headed up the james. I drove all the way up to the bridge in Galena and started throwing swimming minnows. Hooked a small LM, then a couple sow whites. Rain moved in and I was a long way from the truck. I put my rain gear on and decided to fish it out. Started flipping just before the rain came and the bite turned on. At one point I guess I caught 10 fish on 10 casts. Small males and females, good eaters. Rain got too heavy so I ducked under Railey Creek bridge to wait it out. Rain moved and so did I. Fished my way back to the truck throwing a spinnerbait in some areas. Caught one small spot in the brush near the Cape Fair Bridge. That night my dad and brother decided to try the whites out. We put in at Galena bridge and again threw some swimming minnows. We ended up with 5 keepers. I did catch a huge female, probably close to 5 pounds. Saw several people catching but the fish were scattered up there. I hooked about a 30 pound paddlefish on 4lb line. It was fun for awhile but the hook pulled before I could even get close to landing it. All the fish cleaned still had eggs. Some were real bloody, some where not. 4-23 Got up early to try the white bass. Went outside and forgot to plug the trolling motor battery into the charger. No fishing that morning. That evening one of my friends arrived so we headed back to Galena. Ended up with 4 small whites and two sows. Saw people catching quite a few fish on rebels and Vibraspins. The people down there were keeping everything. No matter how big they were. And believe me, some where not worth filleting. Water had turned dirty from the rains the day before which had the bite down a bit. 4-24 Got up and headed back to Galena. Didn't catch much that morning, probably 4-5 that kept. Water was really dingy and lots of debris. Fish still had eggs. That afternoon my other friend arrived. We loaded the boat and headed to Cape Fair. Put in at Bridgeport and set up 6 trot lines in the area. We tried fishing for bass and throwing lures for crappie, but no luck. 4-25 Got up and headed to check the lines. First line we had two fish, a small channel and about a 12 pound channel. My buddy tried to swing it into the boat and the larger channel had other plans. Spun off and away he went. We ended up with 4 Catfish, 3 channels and about a 3-4 pound flathead. Fished some more trying to find something to tug on a line but only found a couple small bass. Like 6 inchers. Dunked minnows in some trees but couldn't find the crappie. 4-26 Again checked the lines and found another 3-4 catfish on the lines. Nothing huge but good eaters. Returned home early for breakfast and a nap. Afternoon rolled around and decided to set a couple more lines. Grabbed some goldfish and headed back out. Found one small channel while rebaiting the lines. I then decided I was going to try to find the crappie. We had some minnows so I went to a proven spot for me. Dropped the minnow and bang. Crappie within 10 seconds. A nice 12 incher. Flipped minnows around for awhile and didn't catch another one there. Started draggin minnows around the outside edge of the treeline and my buddy hooked another 12 inch crappie. Drug the minnows toward another good spot and dropped my minnow next to a tree. Bang another 11-12 inch crappie. It was getting late so we decided to head in for dinner. During dinner I decided to try some night fishing under the lights. Good thing I did. We ended up with 9 crappie and 4 white bass. A very pleaseant evening, no wind and great friends and fish. I caught a huge 15 inch crappie with a bucket mouth. Had a blast. We left at 130am because we were heading home the next day and had to sleep before driving. I finally found the fish but couldn't believe how deep they were. Caught most of out fish in 25-35 feet still. I would have guess that they would have moved up and would be in the brush spawning by now. They all were full of eggs. The whites and catfish had eggs in them also. 4-27 We got up and ran out lines again catching another 4 fish with a decent 4 pound channel and 4 pound flathead. Even caught a 12 inch crappie on the trot line that morning. Picked up our lines and headed home. Wasn't the best fishing ever but we had a good time anyway. The night fishing picked our spirits up nicely. That and we then knew we had a few crappie fillets to take home. Hopefully the crappie will move up some and start spawning. Water temps were anywhere from 64-67.5 degrees. Not sure what they are waiting on but who knows. I have pictures but it may be awhile before I can get it attached. Good luck.

Me and my roommates from college will be down this week. I figured with the high water and its color, we will try the catfish thing with some trot lines. And then try and search for some crappie. Not sure how we will do, but I will post our success or lack there of. Either way looks like a good week just to get out of the house and away from work.

Returned last night from the tailrace. My buddy and I fished Sunday night and pretty much all day saturday. Sunday night we saw several people catching small hybrids and white bass. A few crappie here and there. we were fishing below the handicap dock. Threw jigs for awhile with no luck. finally caught one small male white bass and a small 2lb channel cat. My friend ended up hooking about a 5 pound hybrid on a rooster tail. After dark we moved above the dock and he hooked about a 6-7 pound walleye. She was bursting with eggs. She must have been running up to lay them since most people we talked to said they had been moving out. Saturday we moved down to some slower water and fished for crappie. Caught 8 legals on plastics in an all day battle. The fish are in there in droves, just need the water and weather and they will take off. On monday at one point I counted 21 boats in the slackwater crappie fishing. People were catching keepers they were moving alot to find them though. They weren't real schooled up yet. Good luck.

Are they still dumping water through the flood gates there?

myself and a buddy were going to attempt the trip on sunday to see what we could hang into. Hope something bites. Good luck. Oh and I believe the station carries several of the slab hunter baits. Stop in and i'm sure they will set you up.

makes me think a big swimbait would be the ticket if you knew where the bigens are hanging out

Hey thanks for the info. Very good report. I really appreciate it.

Are they running the floodgates up there too. if so how many?

Of course from a boat. I was thinking about taking out the barrel and putting in at state park and making the trip to taney. Might be a nice ride!