Kim City - Mar 2 - Jerkbait and A-rig

[Dock-in-it]

I fished a while this morning and found a few locations that had plenty of shad & trees and a fair amount of fish. The main activity happened from 7 to 8:30. The fish were feeding on shad and that seemed to accelerate a shad kill. There is a normal shad kill happening but when the fish are feeding on weak shad it makes the kill excessive.  With a shad kill it is hard for a swimbait or underspin to compete, so I stuck with the a-rig and jerkbait (pearl +1). The a-rig was only effective on K's and the jerkbait worked on a 5# LM. The trees were too thick to work the a-rig near the bottom (where most of the fish were). The majority of fish where in 20-30 FOW and using the 15-30ft range. There was no wind early and that may have hindered the jerkbait bite. WT reached 47 around 10AM. 

[Bill Babler]

Thank you, excellent report.  I fished Indian Point yesterday and it was really hard for this old lure flinger.  Ended up with 5, 3 LM on a float-n-fly and 2 big K's on a swim bait, boat on the swim bait fish in the 40' range.  I threw a jerker on wind for at least two hours and just could not get them to touch it.

Surface temps at 47 to 48

[Dock-in-it]

This morning was taylor made for Live Scope. The fish were moving around a lot and with all the cover I could not just fan cast and let the a-rig go to the bottom. I would move the boat up into 20-30ft and find a few fish then back off and cast to them. The hound dog lure retriever seen a lot of action today. The wind picked up around 9:30 and I hit several spots with the jerkbait, but no luck. It seemed like when the feeding time was over (8:30) everything just shut down. Around 10AM I rechecked an earlier spot that had plenty of fish and it looked like a ghost town.

[Bill Babler]

How do you have that dog rigged to retrieve A rigs, anything special?

[Dock-in-it]

I have a 3ft rod and a left-hand reel with 65# braid. I am right handed so when I drop the lure retriever and it hits the a-rig I can engage the reel by pushing the reel handle against my side. The a-rig head goes inside the hound dog coil and the rig breaks loose almost every time. I known when I am about to get hung up so I do not set the hook in a tree (with a few exceptions).

[aarchdale@coresleep.com]

Hound dog works great on a-rigs, i use it the same as a would on any other lure just bounce it a few time on the rig and it will pop out

[Bill Babler]

Thanks, I don't lose many like you Dock as I can tell when it hits solid and just go behind it, but some clients think most everything is a bite and whale on it like there is no tomorrow.  I bought some Rigs from W-lures for $2.95 each and with a little tuning they seem to work perfect.  Very heavy wire they just lack a extra set of blades.  Your still losing 5 Keitechs if they break so nothing is free.

[buck818]

Bill,

Are u still using the light wire hooks on your jig heads on the A-rig?

[Bill Babler]

Yes I am, I love it when they just bend out.  Good Old Eagle Claw.

[Guest]

i use 3/16 NuTechs and you rarely ever get hung up period.

bo