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]

20160813—I saw intermittent or chances of showers for the reaminder of the afternoon on the accuweather site… so I said what the heck… fish around the bridge and if I have to take cover ill be right there. With the boat traffic on weekends under the bridge fishing is hit or miss… usually more miss than hit.

I prepared another strategy using the 2-0’ ice rod and vertical jigs to poke around the pillar bases for r.bass or gills. Base of the pillars range from 7-20 ft.

I started fishing under the bridge during a rain shower and spotted 0 fish working the zone. With no visual targets to fish with the vertical jig I started working the bases with 0 hits.

After the shower ended I started working the thin weedy flats and started picking up b.crappies avg’ing the 10-12.5” ranges on the power minnow and small swim baits mounted on 1/64 and 1/32 oz jig heads.

 I really appreciated the fight out of the b.crappies today with some pulling drag after the hook set. Who doesn’t love that?

Float/fishing produced 0 hits.

Water temps at 81° and calm seas.

Todays tagged fish… all CPR’ed

 

[Slip Sinker]

20160814- ...----~~<")))))><(--------------------------

[Slip Sinker]

20160814—today was spent greatly in part paddling back and forth from fishing spots and seeking shelter under the bridge from intermittent rain. Spent some quality time vertically jigging the columns with the ice rod and jigs. Tagged some nice fish including a near 12” class B.Crappie. talk about a great time fighting the fish in open water on little ice rods. If you’ve never experienced this you have to try it.

In between rain spurts I was able to find loose schools of above avg size b.crappie tossing the swim jigs. I was unable to make long casts due to all the debris floating on the surface due to weed harvesting. Short 20 ft casts into clear paths were the norm.

Good b.crappie snap…

Vertical jigging the colums with ice gear…

Todays tagged fish…

[Slip Sinker]

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[Slip Sinker]

20160815—fish were in a negative mood from the weed harvesting efferts that have been on going since the ends of last week. Many small b.gills with a couple 8” plussers kicked in. the popular method was the slip/float/fly/waxie. Surface of the water was filled with weed clippings making casting the jigs difficult.

BFOTD!! CPR'ed

[Slip Sinker]

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[Slip Sinker]

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[Slip Sinker]

20160817—I was pretty exciterd to get out on the water to test out these new generic Power Minnow short baits. So tiny and thin… mounted on a 1/64 oz jig the jig seemed large and over sized.  Could use a smaller size for this tail… maybe try 1/80 next

After a few casts with the jig I tagged a nice lunker B.Gill 9” class then in short order an 11” class B.Crappie.

Most of the afternoon was spent dodging a line of intermittent showers and t’storms.

The jig caught everything from tiny LMB’s to the lunker B.Gill, nice B.Crappies and a bonus midsized LMB that didn’t know the meaning of the word “quit”. Taking out some nice drag on numerous runs.

The set-up used for todays catches was a 50 series Micro UL Shimano Sienna spinning reel mounted on a 4-6’ Diawa SpinMatic spinning rod. The line of choice for throwing these tiny baits was Crystal White 3# Nanofil. I covered a lot of water making long casts and working the bait in. I relied on the bait design as well as tried and true twitching to coax the fish bite… no tipping. I find that tipping with live bait negatively effects the over all action of the lure.

first fish caught was a nice toad 9" class B.Gill

 bonus LMB

today's virtual livewell

 

...

[Slip Sinker]

20160818- ...----~~<")))))><(--------------------------

[Slip Sinker]

20160818—another repeat performance using the LIL Power Minnow. With much brighter skies and no threat of showers I continued fishing the LIL Minnow Jig … I continue with the productive fishing pattern with the panfish hitting the little jigs that were tossed to em with the short spinning rigs. The tiny LIL Minnow jig is fast becoming one of my favorite baits presently.

Again there was floating debris through out the lake making casting difficult. Short casts and vertical jigging over structure tagged most of the fish.

Was a pleasant surprise to catch a couple hefty lunker Y.Perch bouncing the jig off the bottom in near vertical fashion. I feel the presence of a Master Angler Y.Perch now when fishing that spot.

The more complex the structure the more frequent hook-ups with the R.Bass… they were tagged vertically jigging close to the bottom.

Nice b.crappie

BFOTD Y.Perch

Todays catch all CPR’ed!

[Slip Sinker]

20160819- ...----~~<")))))><(--------------------------

[Slip Sinker]

getting a late start today due to pain... hope to still get out there!