abkeenan

Thanks Don. When u are using these wake baits do u just keep reeling at a constant speed or do u stop and let it sit a second or two or give it a twitch/pause kinda action? -Brett

Hey guys thanks for the info. I think i am going to try a few of the different brands and when i get the chance to get down to the Rock (hopefully in the next couple of weekends) i will throw them and give my opinion on the baits. I am going to compare the river2sea jointed v minnow, buckeye and mikey jr i think. What colors do u guys prefer in topwater baits? Does it matter all that much since the fish are looking up and really only seeing the belley of the bait? Again thanks fellas for your input. -Brett

Hey since the topwater bite seems to be heating up or is just about to i was wondering about some alternatives to redfins. There has been a lot of talk about redfins and tinkering with them. I myself dont know how to do the tinkering so i am not even gonna try. That being said i have heard and read in other forum topics here in the past about the Jackall Mikey/Mikey Jr. If anyone here has used them are they worth the $ and if so what size do you prefer? The Sr (6.4 inch), Standard (5.5 inch) or Jr (3.8 inch)? The Sr. is around $35, Standard is $30 and the Jr. is $18. Also what color would u suggest as buying these things isnt cheap so i want to get the right size/color. The Aurora Black seems to me to be the best, most natural color but that just my hunch and i could be wrong. Ive seen the video of this bait and it seems to have great action and takes no TINKERING out of the box to get the desired WAKE EFFECT so that is why i am wanting to purchase one of these baits. Thanks for any info and all comments . Everyones suggestions are appreciated from all who wish to throw their 2 cents in. -Brett

Bittle. Nice mess of fish. I always just go perch fishing to load my trot line, keeping the bigger ones to eat and the medium to smaller ones for the bait. I havent ever tried gold fish so i was wondering how they compare to perch? I know sunfish die almost immediately when u use them on the trot line so i always just pitch them back in the lake after i catchem. Do the goldfish live for a while once they are on the line? Thanks in advance for any info. -Brett

I 2nd KC Troutfans question. I have never swam a grub before really, do u just reel keeping the rod in a fixed position or do u use the rod to pull the grub through the water reeling up the slack as u go? Thanks. -ABK

I appolize for the confusion. I ment to say 50 not 60. Water was 2 degrees or so warmer in that stained area than to surrounding clearer water. Oops! Doing these posts via blackberry as I don't have access to a computer with internet down here. Sorry if any of you ran to that spot to check it out. Abk

went out aroud 2 on friday and fished brushy creek with minimal success on the jerkbaits. Just 2 short kentuckys. Next we fished the bank that starts with the brushy creek resort dock towards that long bluff wall with the house above it there. Water was stained in that area for some reason and the water was 60 degrees and we caught about 10 along that bank but all shorts and 0 keepers. All on jerkbaits, specifically the chartruse mcstick. Today was totally different. 0 fish and tried the same location as friday. Was just brutal out there today. Anyone else have any luck today? If so where and on what? Certainly weren't in brushy. I'm down here now and would like to get on some keepers. Thanks for any help.

Joe- Thanks for the info. I will be headed down to TR late late this evening and arrive Friday morning early...hopefully with your info we can get on some fish as i only come about 3 times per year down from STL. Again thanks for sharing your expertise with, not only me, but the forum here. -Brett

Anyone fish the dam area lately? If so what have they been catching them on there and what do the water temps look like there as compared to the rest of the lake? Any info is much appreciated as i will be there on Friday morning. -ABK

Just wondering if anyone has used or has knowledge of how the St. Croix Mojo rods compare to the Premiers, Triumps or other brands of rods (Shimano, BPS, etc.) Are they any good? The price seems pretty fair and reasonable. -ABK

Back from Tr and heres what info i have. Im no pro by any means but maybe this will help some of you guys here. Fishing was tought to say the least. Fished Sat. morning in Beardsley on the point across the from the docks with the no ski bouy's. My father, uncle and i caught 2 nice Kentuckys on top water around 6 AM in about 8-20 ft. One on a spook and one on a prop bait. Had a fair amount of blow ups and a lot of misses. Then moved across to the other point on the same side as the docks and uncle caught 1 SM and 1 KT both keepers on a katlins clear salt and pepper grub around 8 AM. After that not much, as bites were tough to come by. Went to catch perch for trot line bait the rest of the day. Sunday and Monday morning started out at about between 5-6 AM, topwater was non existent. No fish blowing up anywhere and definately not after out baits. Uncle caught one nice crappie on a point across from the darn in about 15 ft of water at 5 AM on a zoom fat ablert grub in green. Fished until about 10-11 AM on Sun and Mon with no luck, if we had a bite it was few and far between. Dad caught one small SM on the redfin in 20-25 ft and that was all. I Tried Carolina Rig with fish doctor in green with no luck. Things picked up on Mon. night as we tried out hand near the 86 camp ground and picked up 5 fish, 1 nice 18 in. and about 3 lb. LM, rest 13-14 in. SM. Caught them all within a 100 yard stretch of the bank and all right after the sun went down between 8:30-9 PM. They were right up on the bank in about 5-10 ft. i guess just crusing and waiting for bait fish to ambush at the ledge drop off. Had to stop fishing at around 10 cause dad had to work today and had to leave at 8 AM so could get to work on time. But uncle and i went out today at 5:30 AM to the same point near the 86 campground and man were the fish blowing up. From about 6-7 fish blowing up on shad all over the point in all directions in various depths from 4 ft to 40 ft. Only had about an hour and a half to fish but caught 1 17 in. white bass on a spitin' image topwater lure looks just like a threadfin in about 20-25 ft. Then about 10 cast later caught a 19 in. SM that just crushed the same bait. Actually bent the treble hook he dug so hard. Caught him in only about 6 ft of water on the big flat point there. Uncle caught 1 Kt 14.5 in on a pop-r in chrome and black in around 8 ft. Thats the info i got this week hope it helps. Wish we would have found this point earlier in the vacation but atleast we did end up finding it. Had we had more time im sure we could have hauled or limits outta there. I would recomment finding chunk rock/pea gravel mix points thats has vast flats of water in 5-10 ft early AM looking for surfacing fish chasing shad. Hope this help u lucky guys that get to fish down there often and the rest of the week for vacationers. Good luck! ABK

thanks guys for the info. Will be headed to TR in about 3 hours and will give a report when i get back. Hopefully the weather will be nice and we can get on some fish of any species. Went to Bass Pro and shelled out 100 bucks in tackle. Hopefully one of the presentations will work for us. Will give u the details on Tues or Wed next week. Good luck fishing this Memorial Day to you all. ABK

i was down on TR in late March and caught some really nice crappy. Was wondering if anyone was still fishing for them and if they have been catching any. If so where, on what and at what depth? Will be down there all weekend mostly fishing for bass but would like to get some crappy if the bass arent cooperating and also to have a nice crappy fish fry. Thanks for any help fellas. ABK

when you guys speak of swimming a grub, i assume that you are using a 1/4, 1/8 oz jighead on that? Also, what size 3"-5"? any particular colors that they are preferring right now and at what depth are you swimming it? Might be headed there this weekend, the uncle is for sure and we didnt catch a single bass about a month ago although the crappie did comply. Thanks for the info fellas. BK

Leaving in a couple hours for TR......any help fellas.......?

Going to be headed down to TR to do a bit of fishing and was wondering if anyone has fished in or around the Beardsley Branch of the lake. Will be headed there on Thursday and should be out on the water about noonish. Was just seeing if anyone had a report, tips, pattern or what they are biting on in this area. I see that most guys here are using jerksbaits, jigs and wart to catch fish but not fishing those in Beardsley i assume. Will be fishing for mostly bass but crappy also. Most of the reports seem to be up in the river arms and not in the area where my grandparents live. Any help or info would be much appreciated. Thanks- Brett

Bill and Don- I dont want to give u the wrong idea that i salughter fish. Its the exact opposite actually. I am 100% with you guys on preservation of fish and natural resources in general. Most of the fish we eat are catfish and perch from trot lines with some bass. Also when a female is caught with eggs we keep her for a photo and release her unharmed to repopulate. I want to continue to catch fish on this lake so i definately dont want to hurt the population. So dont be affraid that i am a bass killer. Besides i never catch the darn things anyways they are completely safe! lol. But seriously we release of majority of the fish and only keep a couple and mainly when they are injured during the catch, swallowed hooks and bleeding real bad. But again i want to thank you guys for the info i really do appreciate it! I promise to leave some fish in teh lake this weekend for you guys to continue to make your "bread and butter" and make a living. Will give a full report on the trip on Sunday. Thanks again Brett

thanks a bunch Don and SKMO. I appreaciate you guys helping me out. Gonna stay down there about 4 days till sunday so a fish fry on Sunday afternoon would be great if we could get enough for that. One more question. I am not familiar with a "split shot rig". How is that rigged and what is involved in that? I do mostly Carolina and Texas rig and have never "drop shotted" or "split shotted". Are they the same thing? If you could describe how its used, rigged that would be great. Maybe there is a website or something that has a diagram u guys could shoot me or something. And Phil i will give a full report when i get back and let u know what did or for that matter didnt work for catchin' fish. Again thanks a bunch- Brett

I posted here a couple of weeks ago to see what was going on in the Beardley Branch of the lake and got a good answer with plenty of help. Its about a month later and my Father,Uncle,Brother and myself are all going to the TR on this Wed.-Sun. to visit my grandparents (just an excuse to go fishing). Just wanted to know what you guys down there have been using to catch fish? Still stickbaits like you mentioned? And if so what colors? and suspending rogues im assuming? Not floating? How long are u pausing the bait for? And what color exacly is PBJ? I hear a lot about that color from guys on this site and i guess its just purple with another lighter color? im not really sure. Im also hearing about white grubs swimmed through the cedars? Are u guys still catching fish on that as well? Havent ever done that before and i guess u just real slow through the trees? Also we dont ust fish finders so where to fish and depths where the fish are at would help a ton. Well any info on what they are biting on in or around the Beardley Branch would be much appreciated and would love to get on some fish. Couple of year back i had some really good luck in spinner baits slow rolled about theis time of year but last year i went around this time i caught 1 nice 16 inch Kentucky in about 20 hours on the water....yikes. Hopefully this year will be better? By the way while im on a rant do u guys think red hooks make that big of a difference? Thanks a bunch- Brett

My grandparents live in the Beardsley Branch and i was wondering if you guys had any maps charted for the good locations and banks to fish (for bass) in that general area and around point 2. Not all that familiar with anywhere other than around there because the old grandpa just has a couple of "go to" spots that he always fishes. He doesnt like to give anything a chance even with lures. Nothing but Katlins salt and pepper 5" grub and/or a zoom watermelon centipede no matter what the conditions or season. I might be heading to the Rock in the next couple of weeks and any advice,tips or areas to fish would be much appreciated. Thanks- Brett