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"

[John Sheehan]

good luck Slip,BTW how deep were those fish /The two small gills I got yesterday were near bottom in I 'm guessing between 10-20'

[Slip Sinker]

I was vertically jigging in about 9 feet of water along some lay downs

[Slip Sinker]

thanks John

[Slip Sinker]

just tagged a 20 inch small mouth bass... Whoop!

[John Sheehan]

WOAH YEA!!!

[Slip Sinker]

20160819—so dealing with some pain today I decide to step it down a notch… less paddling, less long casting and see if I could tag a few fish. my expectations sank a little when I saw the amount of boat traffic out there… many jet skis.

I started vertically jigging the colums and picked up a couple nice specs with the LiL Minnow set-up.

I then fancasted the area and picked up a lunker SMB at 20” class on the 2” Power Minnow. Shortly after a LMB hit the little pink waxie in about 2 FOW while searching for the shallow B.Gill bite.

Could not locate the B.Gills

The boat traffic started picking up that’s when I started packing in.

BFOTD!! 20 in class SMB

Nice LMB on the slip/float/pink waxie:

Best fishes of the bunch:

[Slip Sinker]

20160821- ...----~~<")))))><(--------------------------

[Slip Sinker]

20160821—Today I fished the cold front day.. the most significant one of the season. A noticeable drop in air temps of 15-20°. The fish appaerently noticed it also. The fish I could find were tight to cover in a very neutral mood. I was able to coax a few strikes because of the micro-lite technique ive been employing. Tiny baits on super lines.

The winning combination of techniques were punching a drop shot hellgrammite thru a canopy of floating weed clipping next to wood or laydowns. A close second was a vertical jig of the lil minnow on 1/64 oz jig head.

A few of the quality b.gills got wrapped up in the branches but was able to finally get secure into the boat. Powerful stuff that 4# braid and 3# Nano!

What o struggle when the SMB hit… as soon as I set that hook the fish luckily took off to open water for a huge battle for just a 15.5” fish!

The weed control program on this end of the lake took control of the fishing conditions on this lake for the past week. Ordinarily this would have been a skunking but with the knowledge base ive acquired the past few seasons (especially from BBG.com) has really upped the game for me.

Nice SMB taking the micro-lite jigs…

Fishing the slop thru the canopies…

Some of Today's catch and release…

 

[Slip Sinker]

20160822- ...----~~<")))))><(--------------------------

[Slip Sinker]

20160822—the pattern has been very close the past few days… many fish tight to cover and vertical jigging tight to it. Many of the crappie were caught long casting/micro jigs along weed lnes. A standout was a near mid 9’s B.Gill that tapped that micro jig.

 A nice bonus Y.Perch was tagged thru a hole made thru the dense vegetation mat and vertically jigged. Sometimes it required pulling the fish thru the branches and dense vegetation… always worth the chance. Braid performed flawlessly at 4#. I lost one big SMB fishing thru a laydown covered by floating debris… I set the hook and the fish hit alongside my kayak with an explosion… it finall became hopless tangled in the branches and pulled free. EXCITING!!! My suggestion though if want to try this approach leave your mono at home!

Very nice lunker B.Gill

Nice bonus Y.Perch

Selection of some of today’s catches

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[Slip Sinker]

20160823- ...----~~<")))))><(--------------------------

[Slip Sinker]

20160823—once out on the lake I could not spot any fish activity on the sonar…so I continued working the heavy cover again with vertical jigging. Fewer fish than when the fish are active but avoided the skunking!

A nice bonus 12” class B.Crappie in the mix.

Vertical jigging the LIL Minnow outproduces everything else including ice jigs with GULP.

Bonus B.Crappie

todays catch selection: