deep bite is gaining steam

[merc1997 Bo]

got to get out for a git wednesday and thursday.  wednesday was more of a searching expedition because it was so cold, and we also left fairly early as it was snowing like crazy and the fog set in .  did not get too far towards home, and ran out of the snow and we could have just stayed and weathered the storm so to speak.  we did find a few and caught 4 keeps and several shorts.  most bites were in the 50 ft. range.  3/4 ZincSpoon and a 3/4 GrassJig head with a 4" swimmer were the fishing tools to get the job done.  thursday was better day temp wise and nice and sunny. and it gathered the fish and bait up better.  ended up with 12 keeps.  had one that would beat 3, 3 were just keepers and the rest were nice chunks.  depth wise ran from on the bottom 60 ft. deep. to suspended around 35 ft.  caught all of them on the same two baits.  the swimmer did account for the bigger ones.  when dealing with lots of trees,  the Grassjig and swimmer is a great fishing tool because you can fish through the tree without hanging up.  casting and retrieving a spoon through trees, you are going to hang up some and have to go shake the spoon loose or knock it loose with the retriever.  so, when you can get them to hit it, the GrassJig is the way to go.  i did catch on bass on a skirted 3/4 GrassJig and chunk trailer - short k.  forgot to add that most of the keeps were all lmg's.  good to see more of them showing up.

with steady weather and sunny days, things should be looking up in the catching department.

bo

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[Bill Babler]

Was on the water this morning at the Dam after about 3 weeks in the deer woods.  Bite was just stupid, 26' to 40' on the bottom and suspended over that 40' number.  So many it would have been hard  to try and count.  Just fish after fish..  Did have 2 really nice SM I didn't photog.

if a fish came off, no worries as another one would grab the bait, regardless what you were throwing.  Was reeling one in on a C-rig and it came off and another one hammered it right at the boat as I was pulling it up to re-cast.  Had several come off the spoon and another would hit it before it got to the bottom.  You could bring them right to the surface if you caught one they would worm like crazy.

 

From  KC to Cricket Creek right now on the gravel rolloffs. You can really catch them on a C-rig, a 3/4 jig, a jigging spoon or a drop shot with a shad shape worm.  Not hard at all.  surface temps ranged from 55 to 59 degree.  Water especially up Long Creek is stained.

I was mining for an upcoming guide trip and fished 8 locations this morning and caught them the same on all 8 stops.

Lots of LM mixed in with the K's and also a few nice jaws.

Good Luck

[m&m]

Bill, thanks for the information. Great pictures of healthy looking fish. Might be on the water on Saturday in the same areas. 

Mike

[abkeenan]

53 minutes ago, m&m said:

Bill, thanks for the information. Great pictures of healthy looking fish. Might be on the water on Saturday in the same areas. 

Mike

I changed the gate access code to my cove. Text me and I'll give it to you. By the way, your Winter Season Beardsley Membership fee is getting close to being overdue. Fair warning.

[Patlock]

Just curious,  is the "For Day Use Only" box still on the dock?

[Steve McBasser]

Oh my gosh......it is so much fun when they start bunching up deep. Looks like you guys flogged 'em pretty good. I am going to try to go to the Rock the week after Thanksgiving. Thanks for the report.....

[m&m]

8 hours ago, abkeenan said:

I changed the gate access code to my cove. Text me and I'll give it to you. By the way, your Winter Season Beardsley Membership fee is getting close to being overdue. Fair warning.

I was thinking of going the other way because I know the fish in that cove are trained to not bite my lures. Membership fee is in the mail though so Please don’t cancel my permit. 

Mike

[abkeenan]

15 hours ago, Patlock said:

Just curious,  is the "For Day Use Only" box still on the dock?

It is indeed. But I've only managed to collect 3 farthings so far even in this economy. Buncha cheapskates. Kids are gonna have a rough Xmas this year. Probably going to start having to use Walmart package-less spinnerbaits and $1 Vicious crankbaits off the point of sale display at the end of the isles. 

[Bill Babler]

Took Jeff this morning out of the Lodge.  Deep bite in the dam area outside of Beardsley is fantastic and as you know I have not purchased my Winter pass to go in there yet. 

We had 49 fish with 30+ keeps this morning.  They were not bunched up as much to really hammer them with a spoon but the C-rig is just working out of this World.  1 oz. wt. size 2/0 hook and a Zoom watermelon candy centipede or a pbj centipede are just getting hammered.  Probably the best rig bite I've seen in the last 10 yrs.

We had 3 doubles on this graph location.  I was throwing the big jig and Jeff the rig.  He caught 5 keeps here and I had 2 nice ones and a 14.7/8.  Surface temp was 56.7.

Got some nice pic's of Jeff with real quality K's and a nice jaw. Had zero LM today.  When he gets back to the Lodge I'll  post his pictures if I get a moment and can get them off his phone.

Depth was about 10' deeper today. Nothing under 35' and lots of them in the 45' to 55' range.  Not nearly so many shad today and when we did find them there were no fish on them.  One point we fished was covered on the South side with millions of shad.  The North side of the ridge was covered with Bass.  Go figure.

On most lakes you tell someone you are catching bass 50' deep on a C-rig and a jig they would clear their throat and think you were bonkers.  Not on this pond, catch them where their swimming.

Good Luck and Look Deep

[m&m]

Bill, well we obviously went the wrong way. Should have went south instead of the other way. 3 hours of casting and one light hit and other than the loons and eagles it was a bust. But congratulations on catching the fish that are not allowed to go into Beardsley. 

Mike