Ämp

let it fall until rod and line make a 90 degree angle from a standard jigging position. use very small twitches from that point til it hits bottom or structure . from this point begin to reel like a slow roll spinner bait with eratic twitches, even lay your rod over so its perpendicular to your body on occasion then bring it back to jig position.. if you feel structure try pulling on the bait but keeping it on the limb for a min... these lures are bland with out you adding twitches , rips, or short erratic runs , so get out the wrist wrap its spook season all over again

with water levels going down steadily 2 inches a day your best bet is to find paths that bigger fish follow to move in and out of cover . fish are not holding to cover all day like they were a month ago. 1- 15 feet has been the most productive , try crank baits ,softplastics and topwater lures for your best chance to catch bass.. look for crappie to be suspended over brush piles in closer to 25 ft of water.muskie are sitting on channel swings and the starts of long flats. walleye are very slow but can be taken on inline spinners worked on the edges of channel flats. white bass are still in summer feeding mode and are easy to find with the boils that occur late in the day and early in the morning.. they never move shallow from 15 ft so if you follow the boils dont run em into the bank. 27th we had our most luck on spinnerbaits and soft plastics. with the sun out for most of the morning the topwater bite disappeared early but still turn out to be good fishing most the day inc this 5lbs LM

I dont agree at all. the fish are simply put , in a different stage than these big lakes... fellows mixes thier water to keep even temps. this places fish into a pattern that doesnt follow conventional themes. When you go to fellows there is 2 major things to know cover on top of cover (from the bank to the deepest point if its not atleast 2 means of cover on each other then you are WASTING your time) IE... grass and a log together .. channel swing with a brush pile... chute with grass ... long flats with secondary even a third weed line. second fish dont bite all the time, first thing in the morn. before or after noon and right before closing time are your best bets.. IE 9- 11 dead.. 1 -4 dead 9pm- its closed.... to say there are no quality fishing options is taking it too far . even my worst days yield a good 10 fish. my best days can make it upwards of 30 and 40 fish .. which means that if fish really do learn from their mistakes that there are over 1000 keeper bass in there that are privy to my spook and a new lure would take all of them..try a new lure or new approach to fishing fellows and you may be surprised that your old holes come back to life. or hope that a new bass moved in to that spot and old standby has not been run by him yet.

when i was much younger to get the thrill of fighting a bigger fish we would use that trick . try strawberry soda and only boxes with mj's pic right on the front.. mr. jordan is also a fishing legend

I will try and find that article on mdc's website about gar lures... short of it is frazzled nylon rope , no hooks , and a few red beads.. the teeth get caught in the rope and they cant shake free. which is a better idea than drilling pilot holes to set your hooks .

I am fishing from a boat

best day I have ever spent at fellows . nothing huge but , 20 or so 1-2 lb LM bass all on topwater baits.. around 10 whites first thing in the morning on topwater baits, and once again a ky that would have went 3lbs.. 2 LM's on tube baits ... and 1 more on a weedless frog. Look for long flats with live weeds or grass , prismatic or bright colors when the sun is out , darker more natural baits when the clouds roll in.. slow your retrieve down and take time to fish it close,change colors accordingly or you will miss 10 more before you realize why. the following math is what i have deducted from fellows... chrome spook+ clouds/missed fish = angry Ämp

On the contrary, studies show that paddlefish feed almost exclusively on tiny crustaceans and insect larvae that drift as plankton in the water. The common water flea, Daphnia, and closely related plankton species are reported to comprise more than 75 percent of the paddlefish's diet. This raises two very interesting questions. First, how do paddlefish find near-microscopic plankton in the murky waters of their native habitat, which includes the Missouri and Mississippi rivers and their tributaries? Second, how does a fish capable of reaching weights heavier than 150 pounds and lengths of six feet capture enough of these small prey to thrive? Regarding the first question, paddlefish are filter feeders, similar to the giant baleen whales of the world's oceans. Paddlefish gills are equipped with comb-like rakers that strain plankton from the water, much like the curtains of baleen that suspend from the roof of a whale's mouth. Like a whale, a paddlefish swims with its mouth open wide so it can filter plankton from large quantities of water. Taken strait from mdc's web site .............

first . paddlefish would be hard to hang if your not snagging for them since they eat microscopic organisms, second gar are thicker than pollution up there so i would guess thats what you hung.. its a typical hang out for the gar because they do not require high oxygen levels to live and dont mind 90F water.

everything is feeding shallow from walleye , whites , and large mouth . took 8 good keepers this morning all on top water lures in 4ft or less of water. inc. a 4lbs kentucky on my spook. look for concentrated boils indicating a school of fish and you may be in luck otherwise fish heavy heavy heavy structure .

we fished the main lake only from the boat ramp up to the dam

the rain seemed to turn them off but we still done well with soft plastics in the weeds and some top water lures ran down the alleys of the weed beds .Look for cover in cover , what I mean by this is hard wood laid down in the weeds, a ditch in the middle of the weeds, log jams, root ends w/ lillypads things that provide cover on top of cover.. put these places under a microscope , take time in getting close enough to cast .. even with visibility 2-3 ft they are easily spooked .. boat bumps ,dropped lures , loud voices, even just picking up your rod can cause them to spook. keep a low profile in the shallow water and you will have way better luck.

LOL....

been a few times at night fishing the long gravel points out til i find feeding fish usually on james river arm 20- 35 is the depth in most cases.. try large tube jigs , jig and pig, brushhogs.. and plastic worms

they never give me any trouble but I make sure to leave no trash , if im standing next to some on the ground even though its not mine I pick it up. I also stay far from view , down on the bank off the greens or fairways. just the river.

that is the james btw.. be respectful at river cut , I wouldnt want them to have any reason to throw up a no fishing sign.

you can catch muskie there , just dont do it the same way everyone else does it . trolling the lake like a race track has never provided much of anything in my favor . try in-line spinners , big plugs , big crankbaits and jerkbaits all along the spawn areas where fish are moving in and out all day. both of the eastern tips of the lake are places where fish move in and out all day to feed, try the points and the deeper waters around these places. I dont see very many ppl come out with muskie when they are trying though , and the biggest i have caught was while bass fishing with a 1$ spinnerbait (22lbs) pics on this site . its called the fish of 10,000 casts for a reason though .. out of 43,981 casts i have only gotten 3

your flies should consist of at least a few hoppers , a few craws , leech imitations , a small white and purple streamer , bumble bees , and poppers. your lures of choice wiggle wart crawdad imitations or a soft plastic version for the harder to reach places, a good yozuri jerkbait (very small prismatic purple is your best bet) or a rapala of the same size.. a good white / white and green / white and blue / craw color spinner bait... a small soft plastic assortment wouldnt be a bad idea either, small worms , craws, minnows, the pede's , grubs things of that nature . use light line and cast close to structure.. good luck

I have found around boat ramps on stockton that I can toss a brown popper with my 9wt and catch carp .. I always thought our carp just fed on plants and such , either way they take em .. I know what kinda fun that had to have been though gratz .

there is still bites coming from heavy cover on the bank .. soft plastics like lizards, tube jigs, craws, worms all seems to catch fish equally. These fish are not very aggresive . The deep bite has been difficult to locate but it is there, any slower retrieve lures like a d22 worked like a jerkbait , a slow rolled spinner bait , or once again soft plastics at or around 15-35 ft of water have produced some good fish.. the reason for such a wide range is in part to do with ever changing conditions. The bass are scattered and hard to find in schools, if they are schooled and you do find them it is just a matter of moments before they vanish. The best fishing can be found by floating entire banks and fishing everything from the ledge on the outside to the cover on the inside, there is absolutely no reason to motor around because as I said before they are scattered . If your planning a bass fishing trip to fellows wait for stable conditions (2 sunny days , 2 rainy days w/e ) . Look for major changes , coves leading to points , the back of coves , fish attractors .. and fish slowwwwwwww. IF .. you do find fish schooled your best bet is to put the ones you catch in your livewell until the school is gone and then release them back .. a freaked out bass will run a school of bass off quick..

I only have 3 words ... Wild eye Shad

These are really cool to watch . I hope you have more.

This post is to help people, not to argue or disrespect anyone.. if it was taken that way I am in the truest sense sorry for that. In the same breath I must say though if you read back I did state crankbaits have a use, but to clarify this was a bank fishing post for people that maybe are not as good as tiger woods . Btw I am fairly positive that even tiger woods still takes hints and tips whenever he can get em. PS. let me know when you want to go to SM school , fall classes are starting soon Ämp®

Found most fish moving in and out of gravel points and coves , 20- 35 ft . black spinerbaits , soft plastics. In the morning before light has shown the color of your rod try a black jitterbug or natural color spook ..once direct sunlight hits the water look for the top water bite to taper off and move back to soft plastics or spinerbaits around timber or bank changes.

My main take on spiner vs crank is pretty clear ,I cast Into structure not around it .. I let it fall in the most ideal places..I can put one spare in my pocket and walk for miles with just a rod.. there is nothing wrong with a crank , but a person with much xp on the subject will soon realize what looks the best does not matter as much as what will work the best.. doesnt matter how special that yozuri jerk bait looks if it wont get down to a smallie , doesnt matter how pretty your craw colored crank is a soft plastic will take its place hands down. cranks have a place in fishing , but the ideal means of catching a fish is putting it in his face to start. IF.... A. you think fish stay in the current all day . B. smallies are a topwater fish . C. fishing 2 ft of the strike zone is ideal , then maybe a crank bait is exactly what you need .