Big M area 2/22

Very nice, QB. Delighted to hear that the Ned is working!

No neds allowed in the OA tournament is the word on the street!!!

I ordered 1/8 oz. crappie jigs from Bo. When they arrived, I nipped off the lead collar. I look forward to using them. I still have 20 or so of Dave's 1/16 jigs, but I lost the last of his 1/8th. The Hayubasa jigs work, but I do not like them as well. Besides, they are not inexpensive.

Bo's appear to be kind of bulky when side by side to Dave's but they sure seem to work just fine.

I use the 1/8 oz. Nu Tech crappie jighead for all kinds of stuff and really like 'em.

QB, are you seeing lots of shad and is there a shad kill going on? in the Kim City area there are tons of shad everywhere I want to fish and a steady shad kill. 

2 hours ago, Dock-in-it said:

QB, are you seeing lots of shad and is there a shad kill going on? in the Kim City area there are tons of shad everywhere I want to fish and a steady shad kill. 

I did not see a single shad yesterday, saw a few small bait balls on the finder, but that was it.  I was surprised not to see any.

On 2/23/2019 at 7:31 AM, Quillback said:

Got in the water around 0900, it was 38 degrees, cloudy, misty with some bonus wind thrown in.  Weather stayed that way all day, except the wind did die off a little in the afternoon.

Fishing was decent, got a dozen bass, 3 keepers, and a walleye that was just short of being a keeper.  All on the Ned, with most of the fish being around trees in 15-20 FOW.  Slow dragging on the bottom.

Had a lot of bites that I missed, tried a couple of models of Ned heads and used a setup with braid and one with InvisX, didn't seem to matter what I used, the fish were just not staying pinned.  

WT 43.

there are just times that the bass are just holding onto the tail.  they just clamp down and you can have them there for a bit and then they are gone.  after several times on this they often pull the plastic into or completely off.  the reason that i say this is because i have watched do it.  sometimes you can learn a lot about how bass react to a lure and take fishing the creek (wading) where you can visually watch what they are doing.  mike sowders and i used to watch the bass in the aquarium at their restaurant after they shut up at night.  we feed them at this time and sat and watched how they attacked food and various lures we would fish through the tank.  it is how mike and i learned about how often that brownies and k's like to pin their prey to the bottom with their nose (the bite you first feel and swing at and get nothing).  ever heard of the expression a picture is worth a thousand words.

bo

Bo I totally understand what you are saying.  When I was a kid I fished Flat Creek a lot.  It was very clear and you could see everything that they did.  I once watched a large hybrid at Truman come up and take a gizzard shad of about 10-12 inches by the tail.  It just held it like a cat will do a baby rabbit.  It let it go and when it tried to swim away it grabbed the tail and hung on again.  This happened another time or two then it turned the shad lose and swam away.

What you describe is the reason Babler talks about his friend Beck's hook set.. Beck said, as I understand it, when you feel a bite, reel quickly until you feel the fish and keep reeling, then let the hooks set themselves. Just put an arch in the rod and fight the fish.

13 minutes ago, rps said:

What you describe is the reason Babler talks about his friend Beck's hook set.. Beck said, as I understand it, when you feel a bite, reel quickly until you feel the fish and keep reeling, then let the hooks set themselves. Just put an arch in the rod and fight the fish.

With today's hooks, lines, rods, and reels this is all you need to do in most instances. I try to do this fishing a jig and at times have excellent results. My problem is I started fishing over 50 years ago. Back then we had broomsticks for worm rods made of fiberglass, we rigged our worms to be weedless by putting the hook inside the worm, not skin hooking it. When we felt a bite it went like this: drop the rod, watch the line to see if he still had it, when line moved rare back on that broomstick like you were trying to move a mountain and hoist the fish into boat. Old habits are hard to break and I sometimes forget to do it like it should be done.