10/24 North Indian, Cow, and a lesson in between

[NebSchmidty]

Decided it was time to sleep in for a change, so I didn't get on the water until 830 this morning.  Having spent time running various areas since arriving this weekend, I opted to zero in on the common denominator for just about every bite for me this week -- chuck to ledge rock shorelines with a relatively quick drop to nearby deep water.  Started out by heading north up Indian to such a point.  Confirmation one came when I started marking fish in the 20' range.  Confirmation two was a tussle with a nice 17.5" SM... big fish of the vacation thus far.  Stayed there for almost two hours picking it apart from all angles and scraped out another barely keeper KY and a pair of short SM.  Three on the 1/8oz Canada craw ned, one on the keitech 2.8 sexy shad on 1/4oz ballhead.  No love for the tube, or 5 different jig combos fished from 5'-30'.  On to the next spot.

At this point, the east wind had come up a bit.  Wind and waves were going to make it difficult to keep my high-profile fish/ski (aka sailboat) in a desireable position on just about every western section between Indian Pt and dang-near point 5.  But because I'm determined when I get an idea, I opted to head for the backside of a mainlake runout, and fish an a-rig through some submerged trees... because I'd read a report about it, and we'd caught several fish amongst these trees on the day prior.  Moral of this part of the story?  You may think you're all rigged up... but if your heavy duty swimbait rod and 30lb big game mono connect to your a-rig via a small wire quick connect for cranks/topwaters, the cedar tree will win every time.  There's that teambuilding saying -- you're only as strong as your weakest link.  ~$20 worth of further validation of that.  On to Cow.  

Pulled into Cow and not much action on the point.  Went in a little ways and spotted the fisherman's best friend -- a blue heron.  I started marking and catching in relatively short order thereafter.  By this time the clouds had rolled in, so the fish depth change had paused and a color swap was in order.  Went to PBJ on the ned and pick up a few shorts with a keeper SM, casting 45 degrees against the bank.  Lots of quick nibblers - bluegill or very small SM - in the shallows.  After PBJ was just attracting the nibblers, I tried GP and GP/red with no change in fortune.  I then started seeing a few more running off the shore, so picked up the 2.8 keitech and caught another keeper SM and a couple shorts.  The further I got in the creek, the more consistent the sonar was for suspended fish around 18-25.  I also saw the most surface action that I had all week, but just could not get anything to bite a reaction bait.  Dixie jet, plopper, spook, or even running a keitech through the areas where shad had busted... didn't matter.  0 love today in cow for jigs or tube (caught 3 the evening prior on a tube, near the same area).

Ended the day with 4 keeps, 7 shorts.

 

[Quillback]

Thanks for the update, that's not a bad day at all for the way things have been going lately.

[NebSchmidty]

First two are the biggest fish of the day.  I liked the coloring on the darker one.

Sonar shot is how that cow stretch looked over 20-30' when I kept seeing shad busting, but couldn't buy a bite.  If anyone has a suggestion on how to approach that differently, I'd be all ears.

Throwing in a 10" goggle and a Table Rock since, for good measure.

[Quillback]

Well I didn't see you mention a drop shot or jigging spoon for those deep fish, might be worth a shot.  Sometimes when they are busting small shad a 1/4 oz Kastmaster or a Little George type underspin will work.  

[Royal Blue]

You might try throwing that A-rig on 50-65lb braid with light wire jig hooks.  Most of the time the hook will bend out and you'll at least get your rig back.  I've not noticed less bites on braid, but I didn't throw the rig as much this past year.

[Quillback]

Little white marabou jig may be worth a shot also.  I'm clutching at straws here, these fish have been extremely weird lately.  

[magicwormman]

Thanks for the report! I love your picture! That's the beauty of fishing the Rock, catching fish is a bonus! I agree with Quill, sometimes they will hit a spoon or dropshot. Many times I've experienced the same thing. They just can't be fooled with any lure. I guess if you really think about it, if we're eating fresh fish and someone throws us a hot dog, would we be interested?

[Sore Thumbs]

As Quil mentioned a drop shot would be perfect. You can throw it in the middle of them and slowly reel it back keeping it at the right depth as long as possible. I personally throw a Zoom Fluke in Glimmer Blue in that situation a lot. It works well. It slowly falls through the water column. The fish will let you know what rate of fall they prefer. Nice report!

[Bill Babler]

On ‎10‎/‎25‎/‎2018 at 8:40 AM, Royal Blue said:

You might try throwing that A-rig on 50-65lb braid with light wire jig hooks.  Most of the time the hook will bend out and you'll at least get your rig back.  I've not noticed less bites on braid, but I didn't throw the rig as much this past year.

Most of the guys throwing the Rig these days have dropped the braid and are now throwing it on either Carbon or Mono in that 25 to 35 pound test.   The braid is just simply a major headache as it sucks down inside its self on any hang up and at times it just throws terrible.  It will also cut the heck out of you.

As you mentioned lite wire hooks are an absolute must.  Chomper's makes a lite wire A-rig hook that is the best I've used.  I believe it is an Eagle Claw size 2/0. They put it on their own very streamline jig head and it comes in 1/16 to 1/2. oz.  It bends out easily and can either be rebent or it pretty much cost but a few cents to replace it. 

I did not lose a single A-rig last year using the 25# carbon and the Chompers hooks and have never had a fish bend one out and escape.  No split ring on the head and I'm using a Flash Mob Jr.

On another note from what I'm hearing this morning, they are on the A-rig.  Weights in these derby's are getting ready to go up.

Good Luck

[Dbeard4u]

Fished the mouth to Piney Creek on Tuesday and had success with Crawlers. Lots of fish breaking the surface chasing bait. I was surrounded for 3 hours but only managed two keepers (LM&SB).