Saturday March 28

[techo]

We fished the AIA today. My regular partner was sent to Alabama for Blackhawk training, so Mrs. techo graciously offered to fish with me. I obviously married up!

The weather wasn't to horrendous to start with. We went to Schooners to wait for the big boats to get out of the way. We caught nothing there. We headed up to Aunt's Creek area and up from there for the rest of the day. We tried the rogues and grubs, but no takers for about 90 minutes. I saw a guy catch one on a spinner bait and tied one on for the mrs. I tied on a perch colored squarebill. I caught a 14.5 incher on the first cast. It turned out to be our biggest fish of the day for us. We caught a ton of little Kentuckys and a few smallies, but no keepers. I need to learn this stick bait fishing better! We tried the shaky jig and a few other things, but everything we caught was on the squarebill.

Saw a few of the brothers fron the board and they fared better than us.

We were rained, sleeted and hailed on. It was an interesting day. Time for a cup of hot chocolate!

[edwin]

  techo said:

I need to learn this stick bait fishing better!

I had great luck today up the James, transition banks in the wind...all on a chrome shad McStick. My largest was a 4.8 LM, as well as a half dozen solid KY keepers...16 fish in total. I don't know how much longer the stick bait will work but it's worth rigging one up.

[S&M]

Singing in the rain......no wait, signing in the hail.....no wait, singing in the sleet, LOL

What an interesting day as techo has mentioned. I thought for sure today was going to be a really tough day, but it was pretty darn good. The hail that came down in the James was unreal. The pea size hail covered the deck of my boat.

I did okay and placed 12th out of 56 boats considering that I was the only single man team. I managed to bring 15.16 to the scales just out of the money, but good enough for a pro-pack of lures for my efforts.

My prefish spinner bait bite mid week held on for todays tournament. The only differnce was the fish moved away from the bank and where roaming 10 to 15 deep feet over 20 to 30 foot water. I slow rolled a 3/4oz gold willow leaf spinner bait. There was no mistaking the bite, they just hammered it.

I culled up 2 fish and caught a total of 14 fish with 3 or 4 shorts.

My hats off to Mrs techo for braving the elements today

[motoman]

Techo,

Sorry we missed you out on Wednesday. We had engine trouble 5 minutes after we were on the water. But thankfully, Carl over at Dynaprop was great, and got us rolling again on the cheap; and after several hours, we were back in business.

-

Anywho, so much for getting back on the water; we got our butts handed to us the passed few days. The worst time I've ever had on Table Rock! Every one of my great spots had nothin'! We tried throwing everything but the kitchen sink, with little results. But thanks to the advice here on OAF, we caught a few. Since we had crap luck on The Rcok, we actually went and caught a bunch of Whites on the James to salvage our time down there. But, that bite dissappeared today too.

-

But, to get back on to the reason for my post. The few fish we did catch, were only on the rogue while we were down. One of the guys down with us is new to fishing, and he was able to get a few on the rogue. So stick (no pun intended) with it, you'll get the hang of it. And heaven knows, I'm still working on it myself. (as I generally stink at it)

Our best luck was with the Chartreuse sided/purple back rogue (similar to TRS I think?).

-

My frustration was coming when we could see fish holding 20-30' down in some trees, but we couldn't quite get them what they wanted. Although, as usual; hindsight is always 20/20. Does anyone throw a rogue with suspendots/suspendstrips on them, to get them down to deeper fish?

[Tom Spence]

Does anyone throw a rogue with suspendots/suspendstrips on them, to get them down to deeper fish?

I have modified rogues to get deeper, but am not too good at it. When I want a jerkbait deep, I'll throw a LC pointer 100 DD with the big bill.

[motoman]

  t1365 said:

Does anyone throw a rogue with suspendots/suspendstrips on them, to get them down to deeper fish?

I have modified rogues to get deeper, but am not too good at it. When I want a jerkbait deep, I'll throw a LC pointer 100 DD with the big bill.

-

Thanks 't', not that getting anything down deeper would've helped, I'm just grasping at straws here. Trying to learn from my mistakes. As I generally do just fine when I come down, but this time........Nuttin' but heartache!

-

And the guys that came down, were their for the first time with me, and it did not leave a good impression. (But I make sure to never make any guarantees when fishing)

[techo]

motorman,

I am sorry the week didn't turn out well for some of the group. Four of my co-workers went to Lake Fort in Texas for four days. One caught one fish, one guy caught no fish, the other two only caught a couple each. We did way better than that on Table Rock. Sounds like your guys did too. I think one of the reasons I like Table Rock so much.....is it is really a different type of lake.

We caught a ton of shorts. It was almost frustrating, when we reeled in another little one. I know we caught well over twenty fish, er minnows. We had a great successful day fishing, just not a great tournament fishing day.

I promise to learn the stickbait, even if it is icky.

Congrats on the great day Mike. Who won it?

[S&M]

Post deleted for the betterment of the members.

As well as my membership on this website.

[dtrs5kprs]

  motoman said:

-

Thanks 't', not that getting anything down deeper would've helped, I'm just grasping at straws here. Trying to learn from my mistakes. As I generally do just fine when I come down, but this time........Nuttin' but heartache!

-

And the guys that came down, were their for the first time with me, and it did not leave a good impression. (But I make sure to never make any guarantees when fishing)

Not an expert by any means, but I do use dots and strips, even on pointers. Also, a painted bait (vs factory) will usually fish a little deper due to the weight of the paint and the clearcoat. Seaguar will get a little more depth for you also. If they are really eating it (meaning I intend to throw it all day), I will keep the same bait rigged on mono and Seagaur to play with sink rate.

I love to paint them, hate fishing them unless it is really on. Would much rather swim a grub or run a wart. There is something unpleasant for me, in the feeling of blowing around in the wind with less bait control than I like.

[rps]

I know I stink at stick bait fishing.

You know how they video tape you when you are learning to swing a golf club or ball bat? If someone were to video tape me stick bait fishing, I am sure it would fit well on one of Bill Dance's blooper videos.

I almost always fish alone in my aluminium boat that wants to pretend it is a sailboat. So there I am, throwing a dinky little bait on light line, trying to simultaneously control the line, the boat , my balance, the troll motor, and count: one mississippi, two mississippi.... I don't even like Mississippi.

Even more irritating is the fact that the big fish of the Spring are almost always caught by someone other than me on a stick bait.

Arrrggh.