Whites, Hybrids and Stripers?

[fishinwrench]

2 hours ago, Bushbeater said:

Pink out is a term, I believe coined by the Wrench,

Naw that wasn't me, it's that crazyass OldPlug that says that all the time.  I try to already have a boatload and am headed for home by then.   I have a curfew so if I'm not home before the street lights come on my phone starts exploding.

[tjm]

I like to fish for small mouth at dusk. They been wanting to keep me up til 10-11 though.

[Yakalong]

I caught a couple small hybrids this past weekend on the surface but they didn't stay up long.  Just happened to be ready to cast when they surfaced close to the boat.  I can't wait till fall when I can get into some whites. 

[Bushbeater]

i have my best results with a medium to large deep diving crank and getting under the shad they are chasing. Only small ones on top, the big girls seem to wait below for the scraps.

[fishinwrench]

8 minutes ago, Bushbeater said:

i have my best results with a medium to large deep diving crank and getting under the shad they are chasing. Only small ones on top, the big girls seem to wait below for the scraps.

Shad.  They are everywhere.   Deep, shallow, and in-between.  A cast anywhere will be in the vicinity of shad.  There's just too much lake, my arms, and my time on Earth, can't take it.  

I kinda think that the measure of a good fisherman is in how few casts it takes.

[Blazerman]

14 hours ago, fishinwrench said:

Shad.  They are everywhere.   Deep, shallow, and in-between.  A cast anywhere will be in the vicinity of shad.  There's just too much lake, my arms, and my time on Earth, can't take it.  

I kinda think that the measure of a good fisherman is in how few casts it takes.

So what do you do? Wait for them to show up on the surface?

i ran into a deal two weekends ago up a creek where there were shad everywhere and something would slash through them on the surface. But not consistently. I could see a ton of bigger fish under me on the fish finder and threw everything i could think of and finally caught a nice white on a red eye shad.  

But only the one. Also caught a 14" spot that was busting on the surface but that was it. That was frustrating. 

[fishinwrench]

58 minutes ago, Blazerman said:

So what do you do? Wait for them to show up on the surface?

No, but when that happens it's a bonus.  

In another month or so they will start herding shad into shallow bays like this one 

and I can load up in no time at all when they go on their 30 minute-to-3 hour long gorge fest almost every evening in the backend of these coves.  They will be hanging out over that 18-25' water at the mouth of the cove all day.... but you'll wear yourself out trying to catch any.    Once they make the move back into water less than 10' they become way easier to catch.  Sometimes the feed is quick, sometimes it lasts until dark, and sometimes it doesn't happen at all.  There's no pattern to wind, cloud cover, water generation, or anything else that I can pinpoint, they just do what they do and you either get them or you don't.  But it's always a late afternoon/evening thing.  Mornings and mid-day is a waste of time.

[fishinwrench]

Actually I don't think they "herd the shad" at all.   The shad are always there, the Whites just come in there and start eating them.   No idea why, because there is always shad out where the Whites came from.  No need to go anywhere....but I'm glad they do 

[fishinwrench]

Well I headed out about 3:30 and found what I'm certain is a ton of Whites hanging out in 14-22'.   I tried a jigging spoon, a lipless crank, and a sassy shad jig, and never even got a bump.  They were so thick I can't believe I didn't at least snag one.   

Water is still 88-89° so I put the white bass tackle away and went after the green fish.  Caught a few shorts slow rolling a spinnerbait over deep brushpiles, a few shorts on a swim jig, and one dink on a worm.  It just wasn't happening out there so about 5:45 I headed to the shallows.   Didn't take long at all to figure out something up there. Caught 7 keepers and a handful of shorts, but nothing much over 2lbs. 

The wife and kids are gone for the night and I had no dinner plans in mind other than frozen pizza.  3 LM sounded way better than Digiorno pizza. 😊 

[Smalliebigs]

9 hours ago, fishinwrench said:

No, but when that happens it's a bonus.  

In another month or so they will start herding shad into shallow bays like this one 

and I can load up in no time at all when they go on their 30 minute-to-3 hour long gorge fest almost every evening in the backend of these coves.  They will be hanging out over that 18-25' water at the mouth of the cove all day.... but you'll wear yourself out trying to catch any.    Once they make the move back into water less than 10' they become way easier to catch.  Sometimes the feed is quick, sometimes it lasts until dark, and sometimes it doesn't happen at all.  There's no pattern to wind, cloud cover, water generation, or anything else that I can pinpoint, they just do what they do and you either get them or you don't.  But it's always a late afternoon/evening thing.  Mornings and mid-day is a waste of time.

This is the exact same for me where  I chase these crazy things.... you nailed it....other than I’m fishing the lower end of the Meramec and Mississippi... they are always there but, only feed when you said and trying to wrap your brain around anything else with those crazy fish will make a man go nuts.... they are just fun