Pretty Slow Out There

[jeb]

Went out for a couple of hours last evening. Had to get out and practice some of what I learned at Babler's seminar! Water temps in the 39-40 range. I sure found the shad and some good structure to fish over, but not a bite. The shad were everywhere! I scooped up a couple that were near the boat just to look at closely. They're still alive, but they'd kind of come up to the top and go back down, which I'd been seeing before. But there were hundreds of them yesterday. I'd have 6-8 of them on the surface around me quite often.

Once I got home, I started wondering if the strategy of finding shad balls is just not a good idea right now. I mean, why would a fish take a lure when it has all of that to eat? I'm thinking the next time out, I'm going to look for transition areas that DON'T have shad balls near them and give them a try. Sure can't do any worse!

Thoughts?

[Quillback]

I don't know what to tell you, it may be that it's still a little too cold. I did fish Loch Lomond here in BV yesterday, I caught 4 bass, nothing special, all around a pound. I could only get bit using an IMA Flit (Perch) no fish on any of the other sticks. 3 of the fish came out of the same little cove, suspended off the banks in 10 feet of water. The fish were really sluggish, two of them I didn't even see the bite after a pause I went to jerk it and they were on. I missed a couple of others also that I never knew were there. I put in 6 hours to catch these fish. Darn things did not even fight, I think it's still just a little too cold.

[jeb]

A 4 bass day would be welcome, Jeff! Good job. I did get some bites yesterday on drop shots and jigging spoons right tight up against some trees, but didn't get any in the boat. Stripers were surfacing again, too, chasing shad. But I didn't have much time to fish. Took the wife and MIL on a boat ride up to the dam and then down to War Eagle and back to Prarie Creek. Showed them some waterfalls, etc. Nice day for it, compared the the weather we've been seeing!

Did you pick up the Flit locally or mail order it?

[Quillback]

I got it at Cabelas, that pattern is "Matte Bluegill".

BTW, I only had one of these and I accidently bounced it off a dock and the bill broke! Very annoying that an $18 bait is so fragile. I'm going to see if IMA has an address I can send it to, maybe they will replace it. What I like about it is that it suspends 6-8 ft without any weighting, unlike the other stickbaits that run shallower when unweighted.

[Quillback]

Also, Tacklewarehouse has them for 17.99 and free shipping over $50 which is pretty easy to reach as expensive as these things are.

[jeb]

Thanks for the info. I've found the LC's to be the best out of the box for not needing much or any adjustment for the correct suspending depth. The McStick needs a lot of weight to get it there.

[Bill Babler]

Don't mean to hog in on your thread, but I am really liking that FLIT jerkbait. Just have used it one time over on Upper Bull last week for two hours, and caught 1 keeper Eye, and 2 very nice LM on the bait. Mine is custom painted in Norman Flake and the bait really looks good in the water. Really like the depth the bait achieves. I am however putting two suspend dots on mine. 1 under the bill of the bait and 1 on the tail.

Good Luck, Maybe one of you lucky boys will catch a big Striper on it. I would sure like to do that.

[Quillback]

Thanks Bill for the tip on the suspend dots. I like the action the Flit has, different than the other baits, and it works pretty well on a slow pull.