Harder Than It Should Be.\

[Bill Babler]

Beck and I started out this AM on a Float N Fly and finished up on a McStick Blue Bandit. It was hard, to say the least. We took 4th. out of 47 boats and worked overtime for everyone we caught. Tossed in a Wart, Mid-Morning, and it helped,but not a bunch.

Only caught 14 fish for the day and 9 keeps. Did lose a Hog, and I mean Hog MOM-MA right off the bat. 6 Pound test line and pole timber don't mix. I believe she was 8 plus, probably closer to double digets. I have had a dozen on this rig over 6 and she would have kicked their butt.

Bite is early, ending at 9 AM and then getting fired up again at 1 PM, if the wind blows.

Good Luck

.

[Jason Essary]

Sorry to hear about losing Mamma. Thanks for the report, great job on the 4th.

[dtrs5kprs]

How did you manage the f&f on the 8' rod? Kicking a ton of ideas around on that thing.

[Sprint21fter]

  On 3/7/2011 at 12:57 AM, Jason Essary said:

Sorry to hear about losing Mamma. Thanks for the report, great job on the 4th.

Did you catch some crappie after you left from Natural Dam. I was one of the Berryville boys that was

down there. We'll have to do some fishing together sometime.

[Bill Babler]

I will tell you this, it is a lot harder on the 8' St. Croix. We were using about 12' t 14' leaders of 6 pound flurocorbon, and I was using a 1/32 oz. Micro Jig. I will post some pictures of these jigs. They were made special for me from the makers of one of our trout jig people and they are just beautiful. It is just a splendid jig. I would think they would drive the crappie insane.

This is pretty funny however that no one fishing this is catching any crappie. Spoke to Bill Richy this morning and he is not catching any crappie on it fishing bluff faces, and cedar trees. There are a bunch of us fishing bluffends, trees, transitions, and pole timber and we are not catching any crappie either. I just don't believe they are there, or they would eat it.

Richy and Beck fished it a bunch last year. Richy told me this morning he thought it is pretty much over on the thing once the water hits the 50 to 53 degree mark. Kind of like the shad kills on taney. When they stop coming thru, within a little while those trout are not as hot on that white jig. The bass will also loose interest after the shad die off is over and more importantly I believe this is a staging bait for congreated bass and they will move.

Fished with Rick Lisek this morning for about 4 hrs. We started off cranking a wart and had 3 just flat dandy fish in the boat in 30 minutes. We were betting each other how long it would take to put the last two in and see what kind of a limit as far as weight we would have.We were high fiving and thinking we were all that. We are still waiting for those last two fish. Never caught them, it just got brutal. I have never been so cold. I was just shivering by 10 AM.

We caught 3 more shorts the entire morning and got off the gar hole before it froze over.

Good Luck

[Jason Essary]

Sprint,

Didnt really go. I was whipped. Didnt get the feeling back in my legs till saturday sometime.. . Thinking of going chasing some walleyes in the morning.

Sometime you want to come up, let me know (pm me here is best). Im always looking to go, next week after the time change I will be running the james a bunch. Always fun catching a limit of whites and crappie.

[dtrs5kprs]

Bill, great info and much appreciated as always. Thinking the f&f might, with super much adjustment, be a way to get the kids on some open water fish this summer.