Kim City - Dec 19 - Deep bite

[Dock-in-it]

I fished a while this morning and the deep bite is still good but it takes a lot of searching with the big motor and trolling motor. The shad are normally stacked when you find them and they might be thick for several hundred yards. I do not see very many fish relating to stacked shad. I normally find the shad then use both the big motor and trolling motor to search the edges for active fish. The shad are normally in the channel and I move to the shallow edges (normally 38-55ft). Caught fish this morning on a 4" smoke grub, Damiki rig, and 5/8 ice jig. The WT is about 50-51. The graph picture below shows no shad around the fish, but the shad were very thick about 60ft away. Had about 12 keepers and plenty of shorts.

 

 

 

[dwiebenga]

Nice fish and graph images!  Good Work!

[bobby b.]

I was out this afternoon.  Fish had moved from where they had been to deeper water in the creek gut up to 90 fow.  What bite there was started at 4:30.  Had a just a couple of keepers but missed several.  They held on a just a bit and then let go.  Only the tiny fluke worked for me.

5 hours ago, Dock-in-it said:

I fished a while this morning

Dock-in-it - what time of the morning?

Bobby

[Dock-in-it]

Bobby, I was on the water from 7:30 to about 11:15. I started on the main lake and quickly found active birds and fish. That produced good until 8:30, then I searched with the big motor for well over an hour. I checked channel swings, gravel run outs, and a few creeks. Some creeks are just loaded with shad, but it is time consuming to find a group of active fish. There was very little wind so that opens up the areas I am willing to search. I always search where I want the shad to be and that is out of the wind (comfort, better boat control, and less trolling motor noise). 

 

[bobby b.]

Dock,

Thanks for the detail.  In the last week, the shad I was locating stayed more or less in the same place, then moved out a bit to the creek gut and then they were gone so following your post above I started driving this morning and ended up pretty far from home but did find the bait fish and immediately started catching including this nice 3.25 lb SM.  The tiny is still working the best for me but I tend to lose three to one because they let go early on.  Also today I would only catch 2 or 3 per location even though the graph said there were more to catch. Almost as if the released fish told their buddies what was going on.

[Dock-in-it]

Good catch. I am using 6lbs mono on the damiki rig and I think the bass are getting the entire jig in their mouth and the big moon eye head is hendering the hook set (due to line stretch). I am going to experiment with braid to reduce the line stretch. When the fish start to ignore the D rig I would try another bait to give them another choice. Also, the fish you found today might not be there tomorrow due to shad movement,,,etc. But there is good chance the same exact location will be productive when the shad are back in the area.