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]

the 14" plus Master Angler B.Crappie continues to elude my tag... here i thought that would be the first target on the list... i have come close within a quarter inch many times. it is a great time of year rivaling the spawn period in trophies tagged.

[Slip Sinker]

glueing lil minnow bodies to jigs... reloading for this afternoon!

successfull repaired  and recycled torn Lil Minnow bodies with super glue... torn jig bodies can be repaired with a drop of Super Glue!

[Slip Sinker]

14" B.Crappie is the main target for late afternoon and early evening bite

[Slip Sinker]

20160921- ...----~~<")))))><(--------------------------

[Slip Sinker]

20160921—today Earl and I decided to hit a private lake that we haven’t been on in awhile to test the post summer bite. B.Gills, P.Seeds and B.Crappies were the main targets but we would welcome any pred that came our way.

It’s no secret the favorite presentation since last season, ice-out and thru this season has been long casting the tiny swim jigs. Preds and the panfish seem to spring into action when these little minnow imitations swim by. Lately scaling down even further swimming the Lil Minnow has been the hot presentation… for everything. Today will be no different it will be the presentation we will start with and probably end with.

Once out on the lake we noticed calm waters and surf temps in the low 70’s. panfish were spotted in the shallows and noticed on sonar in the depths. Dropping the Lil Minnow over the side of the boat in a vertical jigging presentation produced a few quality b.gills with no b.crappie. Connor even tagged a few on the slip/float/crawler but few in number. Connor was biting at the bit to fish the docks and laydowns along the shoreline where the action on the slip/floats was further concentrated.

Fishing our quality shoreline spots producing only dinks we started fishing shoreline areas in-between picking up some better fish and a few quality 10” plus y.perch casting the Lil Minnow on the thin Super-Lines.

Weed beds are scarce in this lake due to intensive weed control but with work they can be found. Sonar is a key tool in locating the shorter grass beds in deeper water. We found some 2-3’ weeds and grass in the 4-6 foot muddy flats and so were the B.Crappie.

A small stump field was spotted on the sonar next to the original lake edge. I then tagged (3) great fish over the 90% Master Angler Rating including my PB P.Seed at 9.6” on 3 successive casts!. After the explosive action died down we headed for the drop off on the other side of the lake and Earl tagged a 27” N.Pike on the Lil Minnow tied to 4# Nano casting for the B.Crappie. the Nano held tight and the n.pike was brought to net in short order measured, photo’ed and carefully released to fight again. Big fish on little baits has been the key presentation and pattern!

We finished off the trip with long casting the swim jigs for b.crappie before calling it a day!

… and what a memorable trip!!

My PB P.Seed at 9.6”

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3 nice fish on 3 successive casts!

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Earl’s large pred on the Lil Minnow presentation

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Some of today’s tags featuring the Lil Minnow… all CPR’ed!

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[Slip Sinker]

20160921—7^th inning stretch video composition of the trip featuring the Lil Minnow

[Slip Sinker]

20160925- ...----~~<")))))><(--------------------------

[Slip Sinker]

20160925—ive been dealing with a lot of chronic neck, shoulder, arm and hand pain the past few days… unable to fish and difficulty sleeping at night. feeling a little better with nearly four days of rest hopefully I can get out and use them again today and make a few casts.

 

[Slip Sinker]

20160925—panfish trip to a small reservoir in Gladwin county found surf temps at the low 70’s with calm seas. Perfect for long casting tiny jigs.

A quick scan with the sonar found some fish schooling in 25 FOW. Vertically jigging found them to be a mix of midsized B’Gills and B.Crappie.

Not satisfied with the slower pace in tagging this school I set off to test the mud flats where we found them just 4 days earlier. I anchored near the waypoint where I caught a few lunkers and a PB P.Seed on the sept 21^st trip. The area was on a 6-9 ft mud flat with a small stand of submerged tree trunks surrounded by a weed bed. I tagged many above avg sized B.Crappie including a 13” lunker long casting the Lil Minnow with a lunker P’Seed mixed in.

After the tagging pace slowed on the waypoint I moved to a hotspot across the lake that has always proved successful. I found a school of abv avg sized B.Gills that scaled between 8-9” vertical jigging the Lil Minnow in 9 FOW. Fun watching the fish move up from their positions to meet the falling jig. Almost feels like cheating… lol

The Lil Minnow is proving to be the hot bait in my arsenal in the latter part of this season.

Had to cut the trip short due to pain.

 

One of the lunker B.Gills

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Lunker B.Crappie Long Casting the Lil Minnow

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Lunker P.Seed Long Casting the Lil Minnow

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Some of today’s tags on the Lil Minnow

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[Slip Sinker]

20160926- ...----~~<")))))><(--------------------------

[Slip Sinker]

... well the neck,shoulder,arm and hand pain has recently slowed me down on the hours or minutes out on the water. it has also shortened my time on the pc where i do most of my work for the BBG postings. i will be doing my short term work from my phone or tablet where keyboard and mouse work will be reduced till this bout of inflamation subsides. i will be taking advantage of the voice recognition built into these devices instead of the arm and neck movement required from the pc. the quality of the snaps and postings will be somewhat lower than what im used to.

i like and enjoy everyones photos and discussions. keeps me busy when i cant fish. i like posting to them as well.

so moving forward ill be having more slack time between fishing resting but ill keep posting while things get better.

[Slip Sinker]

20160927- ...----~~<")))))><(--------------------------