Todays results... (interactive)

Try something a little different - an interactive fishing report...

Fished a lake today called Summit, in east Central Indiana. Caught 17,
without a single keeper. What do you guys think I should have changed to
find the bigger guys?

Here's lake info and what I did:
Lake is usually clear to 5ft or so. Today, it was a little dingier then
normal and about a foot higher, with the water level dropping very slowly.
I could see a white lute in about three feet of water. The lake is around
800 acres, and has major weedbeds of coontail, with interspersed beds of
curlyleaf pondweed deep, and slender pondweed up shallow. The reservoir is
of the age where many of the old stick-ups have fallen over into the water.
There were not a lot to begin with.
Wind was blowing about 15mph from the north/northeast, and the lake
offers very little relief from the wind, so it whitecaps pretty easily.
I found my fish in two basic places. First was on points with the wind
blowing directly in on them, or across, with stick-ups in place or fallen
down. I was casting a Bill Norman Middle N crankbait (in white with a lt
purple back) in and retrieving it with the rod tip high to work my way over
the weeds. The second was around the larger stick-ups that were next to an
old channel. I have marked up my topo and placed it on the rofb website.

http://rofb.net/gallery//displayimage.php?pos=-28

One thing to keep in mind, this lake is very busy, and usully has a boat on
almost every point by 7:00am. I had the majority of windblown points to
myself because of the windspeed today, but it made it dificult to fish a
soft plastic without a heavy weight. The heavy weight causes tons of
hangups in the weeds...sooooo.... I tried a 6"culprit a little today but
wasn't really into while catching 17 small bass on a crankbait... :-)

Anyone like to add their input, jump right in...
--
Andrew Kidd
http://www.amiasoft.com/ - Software for the rest of us!
http://www.rofb.net/ - ROFB Newsgroup Home

Forgot to also mention that I used a white 1/4oz spinnerbait with silver
willow blade and a smaller silver indiana blade. Used it quite a bit with no
action! Also used a buzzbait early (5:30am) with no luck.

--
Andrew Kidd
http://www.amiasoft.com/ - Software for the rest of us!
http://www.rofb.net/ - ROFB Newsgroup Home


"Andrew Kidd" wrote in message
news:ku2Bc.77899$0y.50123@attbi_s03...
Try something a little different - an interactive fishing report...

Fished a lake today called Summit, in east Central Indiana. Caught 17,
without a single keeper. What do you guys think I should have changed to
find the bigger guys?

Here's lake info and what I did:
Lake is usually clear to 5ft or so. Today, it was a little dingier
then
normal and about a foot higher, with the water level dropping very slowly.
I could see a white lute in about three feet of water. The lake is around
800 acres, and has major weedbeds of coontail, with interspersed beds of
curlyleaf pondweed deep, and slender pondweed up shallow. The reservoir
is
of the age where many of the old stick-ups have fallen over into the
water.
There were not a lot to begin with.
Wind was blowing about 15mph from the north/northeast, and the lake
offers very little relief from the wind, so it whitecaps pretty easily.
I found my fish in two basic places. First was on points with the
wind
blowing directly in on them, or across, with stick-ups in place or fallen
down. I was casting a Bill Norman Middle N crankbait (in white with a lt
purple back) in and retrieving it with the rod tip high to work my way
over
the weeds. The second was around the larger stick-ups that were next to
an
old channel. I have marked up my topo and placed it on the rofb website.

http://rofb.net/gallery//displayimage.php?pos=-28

One thing to keep in mind, this lake is very busy, and usully has a boat
on
almost every point by 7:00am. I had the majority of windblown points to
myself because of the windspeed today, but it made it dificult to fish a
soft plastic without a heavy weight. The heavy weight causes tons of
hangups in the weeds...sooooo.... I tried a 6"culprit a little today but
wasn't really into while catching 17 small bass on a crankbait... :-)

Anyone like to add their input, jump right in...
--
Andrew Kidd
http://www.amiasoft.com/ - Software for the rest of us!
http://www.rofb.net/ - ROFB Newsgroup Home

I was casting a Bill Norman Middle N crankbait (in white with a lt
purple back)

Right there is your problem, you were throwing the wrong color and size Norman!
Where was the ol' standby? ;-)

Seriously, did YOU not try a spinnerbait? It's like your second bait after a
crankbait, is it not? Fishing a spinnerbait over and in the weeds and ripping
it free from time to time might have gotten a bigger bite. Maybe slow rolling
the bait over and around the deeper weeds.

I would have also had to try a Crigged plastic in the grass beds. I know it's
a pain in the rear to do it in the weeds, but it can pay off. I've fished in
the wind in weeds and got away with using a 3/8 oz. bullet weight on the Crig.
I could still cast and feel the weeds and the hangups were a bit less.

Brad Coovert
2003 Angler of the Year, Greenfield Bassmasters
http://www.greenfieldbassmasters.com

Guess I should have read the second post.

LOL!


Brad Coovert
2003 Angler of the Year, Greenfield Bassmasters
http://www.greenfieldbassmasters.com

"Brad Coovert" wrote in message
...
I was casting a Bill Norman Middle N crankbait (in white with a lt
purple back)

Right there is your problem, you were throwing the wrong color and size
Norman!
Where was the ol' standby? ;-)

Seriously, did YOU not try a spinnerbait? It's like your second bait
after a
crankbait, is it not? Fishing a spinnerbait over and in the weeds and
ripping
it free from time to time might have gotten a bigger bite. Maybe slow
rolling
the bait over and around the deeper weeds.

I would have also had to try a Crigged plastic in the grass beds. I know
it's
a pain in the rear to do it in the weeds, but it can pay off. I've fished
in
the wind in weeds and got away with using a 3/8 oz. bullet weight on the
Crig.
I could still cast and feel the weeds and the hangups were a bit less.


I was really surprised the spinnerbait didn't work. I used it during the
time I was using the buzzbait, cause there were fish breaking on shad all
over the place in the cove where I launched.

Any good tricks for holding the worm on the hook in the weeds while
C-rigging? I don't mind the weeds, but having to adjust the worm after
every other cast gets a little frustrating... Maybe I need to get one tha
floats a little better...

--
Andrew Kidd
http://www.amiasoft.com/ - Software for the rest of us!
http://www.rofb.net/ - ROFB Newsgroup Home

Try a thinner wire hook. or try a dab of superglue ... or try a
different hook shape. or a different style worm....or modify a walleye
worm rig w/ floats to be your c - rig leader ... or try the new
superflexxx plastics.....



In x6oBc.66701$Hg2.8114@attbi_s04 Andrew Kidd wrote:



"Brad Coovert" wrote in message
...
I was casting a Bill Norman Middle N crankbait (in white with a lt
purple back)

Right there is your problem, you were throwing the wrong color and
size
Norman!
Where was the ol' standby? ;-)

Seriously, did YOU not try a spinnerbait? It's like your second bait
after a
crankbait, is it not? Fishing a spinnerbait over and in the weeds
and
ripping
it free from time to time might have gotten a bigger bite. Maybe
slow
rolling
the bait over and around the deeper weeds.

I would have also had to try a Crigged plastic in the grass beds. I
know
it's
a pain in the rear to do it in the weeds, but it can pay off. I've
fished
in
the wind in weeds and got away with using a 3/8 oz. bullet weight on
the
Crig.
I could still cast and feel the weeds and the hangups were a bit less.


I was really surprised the spinnerbait didn't work. I used it during
the time I was using the buzzbait, cause there were fish breaking on
shad all over the place in the cove where I launched.

Any good tricks for holding the worm on the hook in the weeds while
C-rigging? I don't mind the weeds, but having to adjust the worm
after every other cast gets a little frustrating... Maybe I need to
get one tha floats a little better...

Are you sure you didn't have spawning shad? I ran into that on Mittry Lake
back in March. Shad were busting up and down both banks were I was fishing,
and there was nothing chasing them.

In open water I would have tried a popper. Then gone to a sub surface shad
imitator like a Kastmaster in blue and chrome or a shad pattern crank bait.
If that didn't work I would probably have tried dropping wacky Kinami Flash
natural shad color stick worms through the bustting shad.

I don't mind sharing that with you Andrew. I think you're one of the guys
who helped me figure out that sequence of fishing in busting bait fish for
bass last year when I asked. Of course if there are striper in the area you
will catch them too using that pattern.

--
Public Fishing & Boating Forums
Fishing & Boating Link Index
www.YumaBassMan.com


"Andrew Kidd" wrote in message
news:x6oBc.66701$Hg2.8114@attbi_s04...



"Brad Coovert" wrote in message
...
I was casting a Bill Norman Middle N crankbait (in white with a lt
purple back)

Right there is your problem, you were throwing the wrong color and size
Norman!
Where was the ol' standby? ;-)

Seriously, did YOU not try a spinnerbait? It's like your second bait
after a
crankbait, is it not? Fishing a spinnerbait over and in the weeds and
ripping
it free from time to time might have gotten a bigger bite. Maybe slow
rolling
the bait over and around the deeper weeds.

I would have also had to try a Crigged plastic in the grass beds. I
know
it's
a pain in the rear to do it in the weeds, but it can pay off. I've
fished
in
the wind in weeds and got away with using a 3/8 oz. bullet weight on the
Crig.
I could still cast and feel the weeds and the hangups were a bit less.


I was really surprised the spinnerbait didn't work. I used it during the
time I was using the buzzbait, cause there were fish breaking on shad all
over the place in the cove where I launched.

Any good tricks for holding the worm on the hook in the weeds while
C-rigging? I don't mind the weeds, but having to adjust the worm after
every other cast gets a little frustrating... Maybe I need to get one tha
floats a little better...

--
Andrew Kidd
http://www.amiasoft.com/ - Software for the rest of us!
http://www.rofb.net/ - ROFB Newsgroup Home

"Bob La Londe" wrote in message
...
Are you sure you didn't have spawning shad? I ran into that on Mittry
Lake
back in March. Shad were busting up and down both banks were I was
fishing,
and there was nothing chasing them.

In open water I would have tried a popper. Then gone to a sub surface
shad
imitator like a Kastmaster in blue and chrome or a shad pattern crank
bait.
If that didn't work I would probably have tried dropping wacky Kinami
Flash
natural shad color stick worms through the bustting shad.

These guys were out near the outside of the weed edge, over 5-6ft of
water with the weeds just under the surface. Not really a school of shad,
but fish busting all over this depth of water. I'm pretty sure our shad
spawn is finished. I saw some minnows on the ramp at another reservoir
today, so I splashed one onto the ramp (they're not very bright), and
checked it out. It appeared to be shad, bout a half inch long. This is a
river-like reservoir that usually has the spawn a couple weeks behind the
other bodies of water in the area.
I guess I just stuck with the buzzbait instead of the popper because of
previous succes on this particular water... Should have thrown the Pop-R.



I don't mind sharing that with you Andrew. I think you're one of the guys
who helped me figure out that sequence of fishing in busting bait fish for
bass last year when I asked. Of course if there are striper in the area
you
will catch them too using that pattern.

Appreciate it Bob... Just wondering what others would have done to try and
grab a few larger fish in the situation I was in. I was catching plenty of
fish, just not a lot of size.
--
Andrew Kidd
http://www.amiasoft.com/ - Software for the rest of us!
http://www.rofb.net/ - ROFB Newsgroup Home

wrote in message
...
Try a thinner wire hook. or try a dab of superglue ... or try a
different hook shape. or a different style worm....or modify a walleye
worm rig w/ floats to be your c - rig leader ... or try the new
superflexxx plastics.....


Have used a gamakatsu straight and offset hook. Don't like circle or EWG
hooks. Even though I don't really like super glue...or should I say it
doesn't like me (picture guy with new hook stuck to finger), I might have to
consider this...

Have used berkley lizards, zoom centipedes and standard culprit worms.

Might have to try the superflexxx plastics...

--
Andrew Kidd
http://www.amiasoft.com/ - Software for the rest of us!
http://www.rofb.net/ - ROFB Newsgroup Home

"Bob La Londe" wrote in message
...
Are you sure you didn't have spawning shad? I ran into that on Mittry
Lake
back in March. Shad were busting up and down both banks were I was
fishing,
and there was nothing chasing them.

In open water I would have tried a popper. Then gone to a sub surface
shad
imitator like a Kastmaster in blue and chrome or a shad pattern crank
bait.
If that didn't work I would probably have tried dropping wacky Kinami
Flash
natural shad color stick worms through the bustting shad.

These guys were out near the outside of the weed edge, over 5-6ft of
water with the weeds just under the surface. Not really a school of shad,
but fish busting all over this depth of water. I'm pretty sure our shad
spawn is finished. I saw some minnows on the ramp at another reservoir
today, so I splashed one onto the ramp (they're not very bright), and
checked it out. It appeared to be shad, bout a half inch long. This is a
river-like reservoir that usually has the spawn a couple weeks behind the
other bodies of water in the area.
I guess I just stuck with the buzzbait instead of the popper because of
previous succes on this particular water... Should have thrown the Pop-R.



I don't mind sharing that with you Andrew. I think you're one of the guys
who helped me figure out that sequence of fishing in busting bait fish for
bass last year when I asked. Of course if there are striper in the area
you
will catch them too using that pattern.

Appreciate it Bob... Just wondering what others would have done to try and
grab a few larger fish in the situation I was in. I was catching plenty of
fish, just not a lot of size.
--
Andrew Kidd
http://www.amiasoft.com/ - Software for the rest of us!
http://www.rofb.net/ - ROFB Newsgroup Home