FISHING BEDS

[shooter]

when i fish a bed chinks or gills(sometimes both at once) i always fish the deep water around the bed first.a lot of fishermen will fish beds from the bank out. spooking the fish when when one is hooked and runs through the bed, not realizing that most of the fish are under their boat.
the fish want to run to the deep water when hooked,away from the bed,i find that i catch more big fish in the deeper water around the shallow bed , this is not always true but more often then not the larger fish will come out of the deep water just off the bed.
when searching for beds besides movement you can see in a shallow bed,there is the smell ,i have sniffed out more then one bed.the fish will bed deep also in some clear water lakes i have caught bedding fish fifteen to twenty feet deep,but the smell was there even in deep water.
i like to work the banks with a top water fly when looking for bedding fish,when i get two or three fish in fast succession ,i will stop move back and let the bed settle down .switch to a sinking spider or nymph and then start fishing the deep water outside the bed and work my way slowly to the shallow bed.
if you are fishing with live bait take both worms and crickets ,the crickets are a great live bait for gills and the worms fished on or just off the bottom, i find work best for chinks.
my wife fishes with a fly rod for chinks( nothing but fly rods in our boat) and tight lines with worms(no float) and catches chinks right off the bottom.
remember when you find bedding fish on the bank there are fish you can not see in the deeper water just off the shallow bed.
i don't take to many fish from a bed,if i want a mess of fish i will take a few from several beds,and i like to let a bed rest ,i try not to fish the same bed more then once a week.


gators bite

[steve b]

Funny how attitudes vary. We'll catch 'Gills off their beds, me included. Yet the trout/steelies/salmon crowd frown on this. Which leaves me scratching my head 'cause here the trout/steelies/salmon are "put-n-take" and success rates at natural reproduction in Oh and Pa are well under 10%. Guess they're just snooty ! steve b

[GLENN MARTIN MILLER]

I haven't heard the expression "chinks". What are they?

[shooter]

* Chinquapin, a name for the redear sunfish (Lepomis microlophus) also called shell crackers.