Slip’s 2016 LOGS, STATUS AND STRATEGIES

[Slip Sinker]

The past few seasons it’s been season outdoing the last. Knowledge base on top of knowledge base. Building on some great info from this site and time on the water. I’m anticipating and looking forward to even better results with more citation fish. Anyway that’s the game plan.

Last year was the season of fishing TINY. Thin UL Lines loaded on tiny 50 series reels and light UL rods tossing tiny baits in front of fish targets…quantities of quality panfish and trophy SMB. Tossed the baits into thick cover with reckless abandon. Tiny presentations under slip bobbers thrown next to thick weed slop and weed pockets. Mid day fishing out of the kayak in less than two feet of water and tagging quality fish. Never really had another fishing boat come close to me fishing. it was like i had the lake to myself. looking forward to making some more good memories in the upcoming season.

Looking forward to any hints suggestions or comments from the BBG membership… sharing is the best way to learn and progress!

hope everyone a successful "2016 Open Water Season"

[Slip Sinker]

Beginning of June has brought in weeds and dirty water filled with floating poplar seeds, algae and scum. The weeds are at the top of the water and has brought a very successful end to a very successful fishing pattern for me… “long casting the tiny jigs in shallow”. What a run this pattern had ice-out till now… many days with multiple limits on panfish catches and numbers of Preds.

It’s time to mark the calendar and move on… the slop is here and will be till the end of September. Here the slip/float/waxie and drop/shotting take over. I never put away the jig rod if there is open water I’m casting it. Jigs are my number one producer dating back to my childhood. if there are fish out there in a BOW they will hit a jig.

I paddled to a small cut that produced very well for us earlier this spring and discovered it was literally filled with fry. Fry of many species! The bow was filled to the top with pads and slop but very little full size panfish activity. One female I did tag was wide… from overeating or eggs to go?

Casting the jigs was just about useless and casting and retrieving the slip/float filled your line and spool with poplar seed. Cleaning the line and spool of seed and algae in between casts really slowed the game down. Can’t wait for the seeding to stop!

I did manage to tag a good few good ones out of weedy edges and holes topping out at 8.5”.

Collage … all cpr’ed

fishing the slop:

[Slip Sinker]

20160610- ...----~~<")))))><(----------------------------

[Slip Sinker]

Had a great time on the yak today!

…the shallows were still pretty much littered with poplar seeds, scum and algae. The past few trips my 2 and 3# ice braid has been collecting the stuff and after a bit the line feels like im casting rope. So today I thought id try the 8# Gliss to test its performance in the dirty water. It did pretty well shedding most of the gunk. the cotton picked off the line easily and collecting mostly at the rod tip not affecting my casts as much. It is now my new line of choice fishing in the slop.

The fishing pace of the day was pretty slow but the few bites seemed to be better quality fish. The jig rod sat in its holder most of the afternoon because of the dirty water and the slack was picked up with the slip/float/fly set-up. Precision casts to edges and pockets resulted in a few nice fish including a chunk 9.6” er. I thought this fish was going to easily break the 10” mark but just falling 4 tenths short. What great dynamics.

I worked two slip/float set-ups one with the waxie tipped fly and one with a plain hook and waxie… both performed equally as well in fish production. The plain hook set-up had 6# spider wire and collected a lot of junk on the casts while the slippery Gliss seemed to shed the junk for smoother casts. The fish seemed to prefer a waxie segment rather than whole. 

the pred of the day was a LMB of 17" that hit the Gulp Waxie bit.

BFOTD!!!:

Collage of today’s catches:

[Slip Sinker]

20160611- ...----~~<")))))><(----------------------------

[Slip Sinker]

Found a good late afternoon bite on the Slip/Float/Fly/Waxie combination. To many weeds to throw the jig around but did manage couple nice p’seeds one approaching 8” on the "Spring Cricket". Many nice sized B.Gills one approaching the 10” mark. This bull gill dug down deep in the weeds similar to a LMB but the 8# Gliss pulled him out.

Water temps approaching 80°

Great trip over all

BFOTD!!!

Todays catch

[Slip Sinker]

20160613- ...----~~<")))))><(----------------------------

[Slip Sinker]

I believe due to the warm spring and early ice out with above normal air and water temps the majority of the B.Gills have spawned in late may during the full moon. Currently I am witnessing some B.Gill spawning behavior in the shallows but not in such great numbers as in May.

 im trying to establish a post spawn behavior of movement in the deeper weeds and edges to the slop weeds in the shallows. Im also trying to sync my trips with the major and minor lunar periods during the day. When I coordinate the two schedules I usually end up successful to some extent.

So yesterday I timed my trip for the major lunar period as shown in the snap… got out there just before 18:00 and did pretty well.

Ive been tagging them well with the Slip/Float/Fly/Waxie combination so I continue using that technique. I caught a few panfish with B.Gills to mid 8’s and that makes me a happy fisherman. Just as I predicted the major lunar movement during the day was shallow and on the edge of the slop weeds or shallow weed line.

Collage of the trip

[Slip Sinker]

20160614- ...----~~<")))))><(----------------------------

[Slip Sinker]

I love watching the bobber go down

[Lord of the Fly , Rods]

I love watching the porcupine quill go down !!!  LOFR

[Slip Sinker]

its the anticipation... then the setting of the hook for me... plus it rests my neck, shoulder and arm from casting and jigging

[Slip Sinker]

20160614…waited for the rain to end and was left with calm seas and grey overcast skies… I hit my waypoints straight away and found some fisherman on my spots. That’s the thing on a large public lake your in the backyard of everyone close to your spots. If your on the fish they know about it. So I fished on their outer perimeter and watched for a short time and they would bring in periodically a small fish. Either they fished down the spot or they just weren’t doing any good. I asked “how you guys doing?” and they responded slow… ha… good for me.

So I fished along the northern exposure of the road bed and did pretty well… with a nice P’Seed between 8-9” along with a few feisty B’Gills between 7-9” on the Slip/Float/Fly/Waxie. Ive been going thru one to two flys an outing…after about 25 to 30 fish they start looking pretty ragged. Ive also discovered two observations… one… the fish don’t hit a plain fly… im not saying they will never hit the plain fly with no tipping… its just never happened on my watch. Number two is presently they are hitting the fly/waxie combination better than the plain hook and waxie.

Hopefully weather and health permitting ill be able to get out tomorrow under similar weather conditions before the sun/heat roll in for the weekend

some good fish...

BFOTD!!

Today's Compositer catch

 

Good fishing everyone!