SLIP’S 2017 LOGS, STATUS AND STRATEGIES

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20170820----~~<")))))><(---*Summer Period*--89% Solunar/76°

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 20170820-i had my good buddy Jerry up from Florida spending some quality time with us. He expressed interest in spending some time out on the water learning some Long-Casting/Tiny Jigs methods and techniques. So I picked one of my active lakes with quantities of biters as well as trophies in the mix.

The first trip was catch and release to get used to the gear and maybe hook up with a trophy certificate. The second trip was to secure enough eaters for a fish dinner.

I hand selected a couple Long-Casters for Jerry baited with B.Crappie swim jigs in the 1/64 oz class.

It didn’t take Jerry long before he was on to the LMB, B.Gills and the B.Crappie… recognizing the bite, setting the hook and winching them in with the 8# GLISS.

I hooked up with a couple Lunkers… a B.Gill nine inch class and a close to the mark P.Seed 9 inch class.

Great memories with a great friend!

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20170821----~~<")))))><(---*Summer Period*--91% Solunar/77°

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20170821-80%/77°… 2 days before a “New Moon” at 80% solunar rating Jerry and I head out to one of my favorite lakes expecting a continuation of the “hot bite” on the Long-cast/UL jig combination.

The summer day was hot and still with water temps still at their peak in the upper 70’s. Most of the shallows were choked with weeds making for a difficult presentation. Slip/floats would have worked better under these circumstances. So we headed out towards the main channel to deal with some weed edges and drop-offs using the long-casters.

This portion of the lake presented harder rocky/sand bottom mix with soft bottom in sporadic areas offering clumps of weeds holding a few fish here and there. Here we picked up a mix of b.crappie, b.gill, p.seeds and hybrids. including a nice lunker hybrid.

We felt the bite was on but the fish were widely scattered with fewer fish per hour casting thanthe typical day ive been experiencing lately.maybe most fish were buried in the abundant weed cover.

I wanted to get us on the Crappie bite to better acquaint Jerry with the Long-Casting/swim jig method… more often than not I could locate the schools and put the beginners on the fish… no better way to learn the method than tagging one crappie after another. The fish were thinly schooled and tight to cover giving up one crappie here and there.

The weather was great as well as the company also still making for a nice day to be out on the water.

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20170825----~~<")))))><(---*Summer Period*--22% Solunar/74°

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20170827----~~<")))))><(---*Summer Period*--15% Solunar/74°

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20170827-so here I am an addicted panfish fisherman itching to go out even on those bad days… today was forecasted to be “BAD” all the way around… weather (rain Showers) and solunar at 15%.

I headed out with either of two lakes in mind… it was a toss up. I currently hold 2 Master Angler certificates on each and they were just minutes apart. I picked the tough lake just a few minutes further down the blacktop.

Even as a kid in Little League… you want to get better at hitting the ball?… practice against the best pitcher on the team. Want to tag more panfish on your future trips? Fish some bad days, develop your methods and wean yourselves off the spawning beds. Summer trophy B.Gills are deep, shallow and in between.

I put my best techniques and methods to work that day on the lake and nearly came up empty… best b.gill to eight-inch class with some dinks in between. Best method was dropping a vertical presentation using sonar into schools of fish…watch the fish bite or choose to ignore.

My excuse?... it was a 15% solunar day… one of the worse days in the month to fish and I’m on the lake tuning presentations. for me those are the best times to practice and tweak a presentation.

A finely tuned and practiced technique gets a few bites on those tough days but look out on those great days! I know I’ll be rewarded.

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20170828----~~<")))))><(---*Summer Period*--53% Solunar/72°

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20170828-timed an outing at the last minute to catch a Major solunar period just before dusk.

When you have a solunar major or minor overlapping a sunrise sunset your usually in for a great trip.

I arrived at the boat launch 1 hr before the Major period was to begin. I could not beg for a bite during that time. I fished many productive waypoints but the fish would not budge. This is where many fisherman not aware of solunar activity start changing color on their baits and developing the bad habits… the lull periods.

Finally as the time settled in to the major period the bite picked up at an accelerated pace. a nice Brownie took the Mid-Minnow for a ride with some amazing acrobatics.

The long-casting/.06 Jig/Waxies were the highlight of the show… Long-Casting/.06 Jig/Swim Baits followed a close second with the B.Crappie.

I finished the sunset with a junior N.Pike tag that ran the drag a bit.

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*missing photos repaired

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20170829----~~<")))))><(---*Summer Period*--13% Solunar/72°

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20170829-Earl, Brianna and I set off Tuesday morning on a short trip. Due to scheduling, they would only be able to fish during the Lull solunar period between the major and minor on a 13% poor day.

I downloaded the lake map off the Lowrance-Insight-Genesis website and uploaded it onto my Elite 7 HDI.

This was a new lake Earl began fishing with Brianna close to their new residence. On his last trip he tagged a P.Seed stretching nearly 10”… he had a good feeling about this lake. After seeing the picture of the beast I was easily convinced.

We agonizingly fished thru the Lull period with barely a bite. The highlight of the trip on this lake was I tagged a decent B.Gill that was chased by a Great Northern Pike on the way in. I estimated the length of this fish to be near 40”… it would have been a nightmare on my Long-Caster if hooked.

After dropping them off at the dock I decided to fish part of the Minor… but was not getting a good feeling about fish activity. I decided to call it a day and headed back home.

The trip home lead me past a favorite lake of mine so I made a slight detour and decided to finish out the Minor period there.

Once the boat was in I headed quickly to one of my trophy spots and setup a drift along the steep break where I spotted fish on sonar. I tagged many small B.Gills quickly and watched a fisherman land a trophy N.Pike drifting along the same pattern as me. He whooped and hollered to me that it was 43” in length and was going on the wall.

I noticed a major fly hatch developing with many flys already on the water. B.Gills began dimpling the surface so I started retrieving the waxie closer to the surface in 12 FOW. Casting into the center of a pattern of dimples I tagged a warrior of a B.Gill with lunker proportions… what a beast! … but was just short of the certificate.

The lone lunker fish saved my day.

I waited for the Minor period to expire then headed back home on the waning bite.

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