Senko's

Seeing how this thread still has some life in it lately, I have returned
for an update on the trip. I didn't get to fish near as much as I would
have liked too, but I did get in a few hours on the next to the last day. I
tried Senko's for around an hour or so, and didn't even get as much as a
nibble. I tried 3 different colors, all darker and couldn't entice anything
to bite. I could see smallmouth swimming around at around the 10 to 14 ft
break, but they wouldn't hit. It finely got to me and I went back to my old
fail safe array of baits and started landing. I hit 2 4lb er's, and probably
a half dozen or so in the 2 lb range. Spent about 3 hours in this spot
right by our cabin.

Later in the day, I took the boat out to one of my spots that many know of,
a large part of the marsh near shore broke off years ago (basically tree's,
Tamaracks growing out of a thick thick bed of moss) and floated out into
about 25 ft of water and sunk creating a large flat. I pulled up and there
was another pair of local anglers out there, and I asked if they minded if I
dropped anchor on the other side and fished, they nodded and said no
problem. As I was rigging up, I looked and could see just thousands of YOY
minnows (perch) breaking the surface, obviously being spooked and preyed
upon. It was something like I have never seen before. They were like
domino's falling, one small school would spook and then it would trigger
the adjacent schools to spook until they basically circled the whole flat
area, about 75 yards across the middle. Was just spectacular to see. I
asked the other anglers if they had caught anything, and they said,
surprisingly enough, no, they hadn't. Not much other chit chat.

Anyway, I threw my first cast, WHAM, 4 1/2 lb'r, threw another, WHAM 2
lb'r, and another, WHAM, another 4 1/2 lb'r. Of course I put on a small
show for these guys and then after the 3rd fish, the one guy looks over and
says, "You know, we were here 1st and this flat isn't very big.", and I was
like, this flat is 75 yards across guys, we got the whole thing to
ourselves, what's the big deal. For whatever reason that escapes me, they
all of a sudden weren't happy about me being there. Anyway, I pulled up my
anchor, and buoy and went to the other side, and the next cast, KABOOM!!
landed one of the largest smallmouths I have ever caught, tipping my scale
at 6lb and 9oz. I pulled it up out of the water like I was pulling a big
fish out of my livewell at the Bassmasters Classic weigh in!! Was great!!
Those guys never hit anything while I was there and they pulled up anchor
after that fish and left!!

I'll tell you the messed up part now, as good as the fishing was there for
about 45 minutes, it was just like God said, "You caught enough" and he
flipped a switch and the water became dead calm and I couldn't buy a bite
after that biggest one.

Back on topic:
I did however fish a local lake this last weekend here in Northern Indiana
and gave the Senko's another honest shot, and did fairly well, I'm not sure
how many bass I hit, but it was quite a few, all in about the 1 1/2 lb
range. None were very big at all, but the quantity made it a good day of
just fun fishing.

Also, I highly recommend the "Pictured Rocks" tour and the "Glass Bottom
Boat" tour of shipwrecks in Lake Superior too, pretty cool stuff for anyone
that gets up North. Other sites that are cool were the Oswald's Bear Ranch,
The Valley Camp Ship, and the Soo Locks and just walking up and down the
paths near the Tahquamenon River Mouth. Beautiful place and there were a
couple guys bangin' some fish at the launch too, nothing great, but with
that view, who cares. Lots of smallmouth in that river too a local guy was
telling me, said there's usually a few world class fish that come out of
there each year.

Anyway, that was my trip, and my report on fishing and Senko's.

Thanks again for the advice and input everyone!!

Doug





Pretty excited about seeing the "Soo Locks" too and the "Pictured Rocks"
on Lake Superior amongst other things, but that's another story! The kids
should have a blast!!

If I get some nice one's, I'll be sure to post a few pic's too, and let
you know how we did!

Thanks again everyone!!

Tight lines,

Doug

Hello,

When you abandoned the Senkos and started getting hits, what did you switch
to? ("your old fail safe array of baits)

What were you using to catch the fish while the other guys looked on in
wonder?

Lastly, where are you at in Northern Indiana? I'm in the Lafayette area and
love to hear "close to home" stories of what works and what doesn't!

Thanks in advance!
Mick
"Doug" wrote in message
news:ZEatg.3954$Th7.282@trnddc05...
Seeing how this thread still has some life in it lately, I have returned
for an update on the trip. I didn't get to fish near as much as I would
have liked too, but I did get in a few hours on the next to the last day.
I tried Senko's for around an hour or so, and didn't even get as much as a
nibble. I tried 3 different colors, all darker and couldn't entice
anything to bite. I could see smallmouth swimming around at around the 10
to 14 ft break, but they wouldn't hit. It finely got to me and I went
back to my old fail safe array of baits and started landing. I hit 2 4lb
er's, and probably a half dozen or so in the 2 lb range. Spent about 3
hours in this spot right by our cabin.

Later in the day, I took the boat out to one of my spots that many know
of, a large part of the marsh near shore broke off years ago (basically
tree's, Tamaracks growing out of a thick thick bed of moss) and floated
out into about 25 ft of water and sunk creating a large flat. I pulled up
and there was another pair of local anglers out there, and I asked if they
minded if I dropped anchor on the other side and fished, they nodded and
said no problem. As I was rigging up, I looked and could see just
thousands of YOY minnows (perch) breaking the surface, obviously being
spooked and preyed upon. It was something like I have never seen before.
They were like domino's falling, one small school would spook and then it
would trigger the adjacent schools to spook until they basically circled
the whole flat area, about 75 yards across the middle. Was just
spectacular to see. I asked the other anglers if they had caught
anything, and they said, surprisingly enough, no, they hadn't. Not much
other chit chat.

Anyway, I threw my first cast, WHAM, 4 1/2 lb'r, threw another, WHAM 2
lb'r, and another, WHAM, another 4 1/2 lb'r. Of course I put on a small
show for these guys and then after the 3rd fish, the one guy looks over
and says, "You know, we were here 1st and this flat isn't very big.", and
I was like, this flat is 75 yards across guys, we got the whole thing to
ourselves, what's the big deal. For whatever reason that escapes me, they
all of a sudden weren't happy about me being there. Anyway, I pulled up
my anchor, and buoy and went to the other side, and the next cast,
KABOOM!! landed one of the largest smallmouths I have ever caught,
tipping my scale at 6lb and 9oz. I pulled it up out of the water like I
was pulling a big fish out of my livewell at the Bassmasters Classic weigh
in!! Was great!! Those guys never hit anything while I was there and they
pulled up anchor after that fish and left!!

I'll tell you the messed up part now, as good as the fishing was there
for about 45 minutes, it was just like God said, "You caught enough"
and he flipped a switch and the water became dead calm and I couldn't buy
a bite after that biggest one.

Back on topic:
I did however fish a local lake this last weekend here in Northern Indiana
and gave the Senko's another honest shot, and did fairly well, I'm not
sure how many bass I hit, but it was quite a few, all in about the 1 1/2
lb range. None were very big at all, but the quantity made it a good day
of just fun fishing.

Also, I highly recommend the "Pictured Rocks" tour and the "Glass Bottom
Boat" tour of shipwrecks in Lake Superior too, pretty cool stuff for
anyone that gets up North. Other sites that are cool were the Oswald's
Bear Ranch, The Valley Camp Ship, and the Soo Locks and just walking up
and down the paths near the Tahquamenon River Mouth. Beautiful place and
there were a couple guys bangin' some fish at the launch too, nothing
great, but with that view, who cares. Lots of smallmouth in that river
too a local guy was telling me, said there's usually a few world class
fish that come out of there each year.

Anyway, that was my trip, and my report on fishing and Senko's.

Thanks again for the advice and input everyone!!

Doug





Pretty excited about seeing the "Soo Locks" too and the "Pictured Rocks"
on Lake Superior amongst other things, but that's another story! The
kids should have a blast!!

If I get some nice one's, I'll be sure to post a few pic's too, and let
you know how we did!

Thanks again everyone!!

Tight lines,

Doug

"Mick Haberzetle" wrote in message
...
Hello,

When you abandoned the Senkos and started getting hits, what did you
switch to? ("your old fail safe array of baits)

What were you using to catch the fish while the other guys looked on in
wonder?

Lastly, where are you at in Northern Indiana? I'm in the Lafayette area
and love to hear "close to home" stories of what works and what doesn't!

Thanks in advance!
Mick


Hi Mick,

Well, I sorta took a blood oath to a few guys about our bait I found that
works like no other that I've found. We were at a small local manmade
reservoir one time, me an 2 buds, and we weren't doing anything on whatever
we threw. I decided to try a bait that I had bought and put in my box, but
had never tried before. I had it for quite sometime. Anyway, I started
railing the smallies once I tied it on. So I gave my friends 1 a piece and
that was all I had. That day, we had a great day. Since then, we've been
using it and I couldn't tell you how many fish we've caught since then,
thousands? Not only do bass like it, I think I"ve caught about every
species around here on it about. Perch, Pike, Pickerel, bull gills,
crappies, rockies, walleye, bout everything.
Actually, one of my bud's I was with that day, used one in a tournament
and fished it most of the day and came in second place with it.

Anyway, the reason were so secretive about it, is that I told "Joe Blow" at
the reservoir, some other angler, he did well, he told a friend, so on and
so on, and the next thing we knew, everyone fishing 2 weeks after had one
tied on. The worst part was a lot of those guys up there were keeping them
too. My buddies haven't let me live that down yet.

I'll spill though since the internet is such a broad venue. Hell, they
might not even sell the things anywhere else, cause I know there made
locally here. There called "Kelly's worm". They come Individually wrapped
in a "C" shape in the package. I Carolina rig them. I tie on a small
swivel, hook on the worm and put a small split shot about 18 inches up on
the line. Cast and reel very very slowly, just enough so the worm will
turn. If the worm isn't spinning, it's NOT working. I can't stress enough
to reel slowly. Sometimes after catching a fish, you will have to re-tweek
the hooks to make it spin again.
My hot colors are Purple worm or Grape with White stripe, in summer, Black
worm with Yellow Stripe, and the Firetails are pretty good. By far though,
Purple and White are the best.

Other then that, I just used the the standard Pop-R and a Silver Deep Diving
Rapala, but you can't beat a Jitterbug at night.

I live here in the Fort Wayne but I caught all those fish I was talking
about at a private lake in Michigan's U.P.

Around here though I usually fish a little north of here, usually Lake
James, Crooked Lake, Wawasee, and a gobb of others. There's a thousand
lakes around here, but you just gotta drive 40 + miles to get to them.

The Wabash River is a beautiful resource down there though Mick. You fish
that much? Know any good Flathead holes?? Gotta love the Wabash River!!

Anyway, I know this more than you intended for a response, but I had a few
extra minutes.

Regards,

Doug

snip
I'll spill though since the internet is such a broad venue. Hell, they
might not even sell the things anywhere else, cause I know there made
locally here. There called "Kelly's worm". They come Individually
wrapped in a "C" shape in the package. I Carolina rig them. I tie on a
small swivel, hook on the worm and put a small split shot about 18 inches
up on the line. Cast and reel very very slowly, just enough so the worm
will turn. If the worm isn't spinning, it's NOT working. I can't stress
enough to reel slowly. Sometimes after catching a fish, you will have to
re-tweek the hooks to make it spin again.
My hot colors are Purple worm or Grape with White stripe, in summer,
Black worm with Yellow Stripe, and the Firetails are pretty good. By far
though, Purple and White are the best.
snip
Regards,

Doug

Doug,
The Kelly "Plow Jockey" is what I think you are referring to. It isn't a
bait only available in your area. I took and taught my kids to bass fish
with that bait 10 years ago in New Jersey. I've also seen it here in
Florida. I used to call it the "beginner worm" because of the 3 hook
(front,middle,end) design. Like a bike with training wheels. Basically a
can't miss hookup when you get a strike. Also not the easiest to remove when
all three are impaled in various areas around the mouth. I caught a pickerel
once on it and found that while getting 2 of the hooks removed the fish
shook and 1 of the hooks ( they are small) became a very deep part of my
finger. Had to perform surgery on myself at the boat ramp!

Yeah, it's great for kid's definitely too cause how great they work and how
easy they are to fish, and fish go nuts for them. It's funny how they work
too when no other worms work. We've tried the K&E's, the Slicks and others,
and none work even 1/2 as well as the Kelly although similar. You're right
also about the "Can't miss" as well, that trailer hook doesn't miss much. I
haven't had to many problems with the hooks but the kids have had a couple
of deep ones. The Hemo's are a must when fishing with the them. Or a good
Multi-tool with scissors.

I had no idea that the actual Brand of "Kelly" was sold nationwide, for I
know they are produced here in Fort Wayne, In., and I just haven't really
looked for them on my travels, I usually stock up before a trip and just
really haven't had a need to search for them while away. Thanks for the
info.

I'll tell ya though, there's something about that bait that just triggers
the fish, that bait is responsible for many many large fish that I've caught
and I'm hooked on it too, it got me.

Something else is the price, you can't beat the $1.50 a piece price tag.
It's amazing, I just bought 2 Rapala's and a Mepps Spinner bait, and it came
to like $19.00 yesterday. Everything goes up it seems. I remember buying
Musky Killers for $5.00 a piece, and now there $12.00 a piece in just a
short 6 years. Makes me work a little harder on getting those stuck baits
outa the brush.

Anyway,

Tight lines,

Doug



Doug,
The Kelly "Plow Jockey" is what I think you are referring to. It isn't a
bait only available in your area. I took and taught my kids to bass fish
with that bait 10 years ago in New Jersey. I've also seen it here in
Florida. I used to call it the "beginner worm" because of the 3 hook
(front,middle,end) design. Like a bike with training wheels. Basically a
can't miss hookup when you get a strike. Also not the easiest to remove
when all three are impaled in various areas around the mouth. I caught a
pickerel once on it and found that while getting 2 of the hooks removed
the fish shook and 1 of the hooks ( they are small) became a very deep
part of my finger. Had to perform surgery on myself at the boat ramp!

Doug,

Thanks for the awesome response - it's always good to hear what others are
doing (and where!)

I must admit I have not yet explored the Wabash. It's kind of an issue of
not knowing where to start! I'm not sure where to look for good spots or
"holes". Most of it would have to be shore/bank fishing since my boat is
too big/deep for the Wabash.

With your statements, though, I now realize I need to give it some further
attention!

Thanks again!
Mick


"Doug" wrote in message
news:xAgtg.8059$F8.4912@trnddc02...

"Mick Haberzetle" wrote in message
...
Hello,

When you abandoned the Senkos and started getting hits, what did you
switch to? ("your old fail safe array of baits)

What were you using to catch the fish while the other guys looked on in
wonder?

Lastly, where are you at in Northern Indiana? I'm in the Lafayette area
and love to hear "close to home" stories of what works and what doesn't!

Thanks in advance!
Mick


Hi Mick,

Well, I sorta took a blood oath to a few guys about our bait I found that
works like no other that I've found. We were at a small local manmade
reservoir one time, me an 2 buds, and we weren't doing anything on
whatever we threw. I decided to try a bait that I had bought and put in my
box, but had never tried before. I had it for quite sometime. Anyway, I
started railing the smallies once I tied it on. So I gave my friends 1 a
piece and that was all I had. That day, we had a great day. Since then,
we've been using it and I couldn't tell you how many fish we've caught
since then, thousands? Not only do bass like it, I think I"ve caught
about every species around here on it about. Perch, Pike, Pickerel, bull
gills, crappies, rockies, walleye, bout everything.
Actually, one of my bud's I was with that day, used one in a tournament
and fished it most of the day and came in second place with it.

Anyway, the reason were so secretive about it, is that I told "Joe Blow"
at the reservoir, some other angler, he did well, he told a friend, so on
and so on, and the next thing we knew, everyone fishing 2 weeks after had
one tied on. The worst part was a lot of those guys up there were keeping
them too. My buddies haven't let me live that down yet.

I'll spill though since the internet is such a broad venue. Hell, they
might not even sell the things anywhere else, cause I know there made
locally here. There called "Kelly's worm". They come Individually
wrapped in a "C" shape in the package. I Carolina rig them. I tie on a
small swivel, hook on the worm and put a small split shot about 18 inches
up on the line. Cast and reel very very slowly, just enough so the worm
will turn. If the worm isn't spinning, it's NOT working. I can't stress
enough to reel slowly. Sometimes after catching a fish, you will have to
re-tweek the hooks to make it spin again.
My hot colors are Purple worm or Grape with White stripe, in summer,
Black worm with Yellow Stripe, and the Firetails are pretty good. By far
though, Purple and White are the best.

Other then that, I just used the the standard Pop-R and a Silver Deep
Diving Rapala, but you can't beat a Jitterbug at night.

I live here in the Fort Wayne but I caught all those fish I was talking
about at a private lake in Michigan's U.P.

Around here though I usually fish a little north of here, usually Lake
James, Crooked Lake, Wawasee, and a gobb of others. There's a thousand
lakes around here, but you just gotta drive 40 + miles to get to them.

The Wabash River is a beautiful resource down there though Mick. You fish
that much? Know any good Flathead holes?? Gotta love the Wabash River!!

Anyway, I know this more than you intended for a response, but I had a few
extra minutes.

Regards,

Doug