Schooling Bait fish

Last week my brother in law and I fished the Mississippi River Pool 18. We
caught a few decent fish in the limited time we had, but here's my question.
We found bait fish on all the major main river points and over much of the
shore lines. On the last point there were literally schools of bait fish for
about a fifty yard diameter. We could see larger fish feeding on them, but
couldn't get a bite no matter what we threw. I suppose the bigger fish were
just gorging themselves at that location and nothing would have been
successful, but I wondering what we could have done at other venues on the
river were there were also plenty of shad and we had a hard time getting a
bite. Any tips or suggestions appreciated as ususal. We smacked em again on
the Cal last Friday, but didn't see much baitfish activity at all.

Now I'm grounded with a broken down boat motor acccccck ! Thanks for any
help guys/gals

mike
--
God Bless America

Josh The Bad Bear

I would try an orginal rapala minnow lure to mimic a wounded minnow. It
should stand out in the pack. Bass being a predator should seek it out.
BTW you didn'tsay what you used.

Joshuall wrote:
Last week my brother in law and I fished the Mississippi River Pool 18. We
caught a few decent fish in the limited time we had, but here's my question.
We found bait fish on all the major main river points and over much of the
shore lines. On the last point there were literally schools of bait fish for
about a fifty yard diameter. We could see larger fish feeding on them, but
couldn't get a bite no matter what we threw. I suppose the bigger fish were
just gorging themselves at that location and nothing would have been
successful, but I wondering what we could have done at other venues on the
river were there were also plenty of shad and we had a hard time getting a
bite. Any tips or suggestions appreciated as ususal. We smacked em again on
the Cal last Friday, but didn't see much baitfish activity at all.

Now I'm grounded with a broken down boat motor acccccck ! Thanks for any
help guys/gals

mike
--
God Bless America

Josh The Bad Bear

Fishtale,
We threw some small willow leaf spinner baits, some pop r's, some soft
plastic jerk baits (smaller sized), a mini buzz bait, a small rattle trap
was considered but not thrown (we shouda given that a try) small crank but
not small enough I think. One other news group guy had a good suggestion. He
advised tying on a Lurh Jensen Kroc spoon and advised that if you let it
flutter down through the schooling shad bass will not let it drop down very
far. We never thought of that.

--
God Bless America

Josh The Bad Bear

I would have thrown some baby flukes on a tiny jig head and definetly would
have thrown a drop shot and rattle trap. JMO



"Joshuall" wrote in message
. ..
Fishtale,
We threw some small willow leaf spinner baits, some pop r's, some soft
plastic jerk baits (smaller sized), a mini buzz bait, a small rattle trap
was considered but not thrown (we shouda given that a try) small crank but
not small enough I think. One other news group guy had a good suggestion.
He advised tying on a Lurh Jensen Kroc spoon and advised that if you let
it flutter down through the schooling shad bass will not let it drop down
very far. We never thought of that.

--
God Bless America

Josh The Bad Bear

Hey Randy, remember that tournament on Swartswood where we saw schools of
bait and couldn't get a bite. This has happened to me a few times over the
past few years. I'm very interested in what would have worked it that
situation myself. Maybe a falling blade? Maybe something that might look
like what bait could be eating like a senko or some other non-baitfish
imitating bait? Maybe some of you experts can lay your extensive experience
on us novices here please.

Rich P

When I run into this situation, I use something bigger than the actual
bait , and work it a heck of a lot more erratic. My thought is to make
my bait stand out. I usually stay with a similar color, but the more
crippled you can make your bait look the better. I opt for a suspending
or floating jerkbait in these situations. I have a hard time picking
up anything else, but if I did, it would be a spinnerbait, and I would
retrieve it by pumping the rod back and forth (just lifting the bait up
and letting it fall through the baitfish). Also, though I haven't tried
them yet, the new Rattling suspending Shadrap from Rapala would be great
in this situation!.

Chris
Rich P wrote:
Hey Randy, remember that tournament on Swartswood where we saw schools of
bait and couldn't get a bite. This has happened to me a few times over the
past few years. I'm very interested in what would have worked it that
situation myself. Maybe a falling blade? Maybe something that might look
like what bait could be eating like a senko or some other non-baitfish
imitating bait? Maybe some of you experts can lay your extensive experience
on us novices here please.

Rich P

"Joshuall" wrote in message
. ..

Last week my brother in law and I fished the Mississippi River Pool 18. We
caught a few decent fish in the limited time we had, but here's my
question. We found bait fish on all the major main river points and over
much of the shore lines. On the last point there were literally schools of
bait fish for about a fifty yard diameter. We could see larger fish
feeding on them, but couldn't get a bite no matter what we threw. I
suppose the bigger fish were just gorging themselves at that location and
nothing would have been successful, but I wondering what we could have
done at other venues on the river were there were also plenty of shad and
we had a hard time getting a bite. Any tips or suggestions appreciated as
ususal. We smacked em again on the Cal last Friday, but didn't see much
baitfish activity at all.

Now I'm grounded with a broken down boat motor acccccck ! Thanks for any
help guys/gals

mike
--
God Bless America

Josh The Bad Bear

I keep a small selection of Kastmaster slab spoons in a variety of sizes for
this. I try to select on that matches the size of the bait. For larger
bait I'll pick one with a feather trailer to make it look bigger. I prefer
to fish these at just under my max casting range with medium or light
spinning tackle to maximize distance. I've got basically four retrieves.
Once I find the right size bait one of those retrieves will almost always
work on feeding bass and stripers that have bait balled up.

1. Cast past the school and retrieve erratically, but quickly just below
the school of bait.
2. Lift and drop off the bottom.
3. Burned retrieve with rop tip under water so bait screams through
school of bait about 1 foot below the the surface.
4. Rod held high so bait skips along and breaks the surface regularly.

My fallbacks for this is either a small popper worked slowly and erraticaly
with long pauses, or a drop shot rigged with a shad or shiner colored
plastic. I prefer the spoon becasue I can keep the boat well back from the
fish and pick them off fromt he sides of the activity before working through
the main area. This usually produces the highest numbers of fish. The
poppers and drop shots force me to move the boat up closer than I would
like, but they do work.

Another bait that will work is anything that will fish slowly along the
surface and produce a surface ripple. Yes, a buzzbait will soemtimes work,
but I prefer something a little more subtle if having to go that way. A
Kick-Tail lure works well, but they are expensive and fragile. Another fall
back is a white, white blue, or white with clear and sparkle back jerk bait
with the action tail. The tail I desrbie is similar to the legs on a Zoom
Horny Toad. Then jsut fish it slow and steady along the surface so it makes
a gentle but continuous surface disturbance. Now that I think about it I
bet a Horny Toad in the right color would probably do ok here too, and you
could certainly cast it further than the jerk bait or the smaller popper.


--
Bob La Londe
Fishing Arizona & The Colorado River
Fishing Forums & Contests
http://www.YumaBassMan.com




--
Posted via a free Usenet account from http://www.teranews.com

"Bob La Londe" wrote in message news:450811ad$0$19648

Kastmaster Retrieves:

1. Cast past the school and retrieve erratically, but quickly just
below the school of bait.
2. Lift and drop off the bottom.
3. Burned retrieve with rop tip under water so bait screams through
school of bait about 1 foot below the the surface.

On number 3 stripers will often chase it down from behind and swallow it.
Ok if you are putting them on ice, but not good if you want to release them.
Stripers are incredibley fast swimmers. On the other hand LMs and SMs swipe
at it as it goes by and they are almost always hooked in the corner of the
mouth.

4. Rod held high so bait skips along and breaks the surface regularly.


--
Bob La Londe
Fishing Arizona & The Colorado River
Fishing Forums & Contests
http://www.YumaBassMan.com



--
Posted via a free Usenet account from http://www.teranews.com

Try a buzzbait, Josh. I'd recommend a Secret Weapon Lures Bleeding Minnow in
3/16-ounce size with a nickel or red willowleaf trailer blade behind the
buzzblade. Other anglers who use this bait on J. Percy Priest Reservoir
prefer high-profile buzzbaits, like the Midnight Snack Buzzrbait.

A buzzbait is the farthest thing from many anglers' minds when they're
fishing bass in the jumps over deep water, but the lure is a pretty fair
simulation of a small shad skipping along the surface.

Bass use edges to help restrict the movement of their prey. That is one
reason why fishing tight to a bluff wall, against a stump, or along the
bottom is so effective; bass are more successful at the squeeze play than
they are at open-field tackling, so they position themselves to attack prey
that enters the killing zone between them and the edge to which they're
orienting. In open water, their prey can escape in many directions. When the
prey is up against an edge, their escape route options are limited, and the
bass eat better as a consequence.

The water's surface is just another edge to bass. They trap shad against it,
and when shad are schooling in open water, the predator fish hang out below
and around the sides, looking upward. A racing buzzbait sputtering and
splashing across their field of vision is clearly visible and is often too
tempting to pass up. The bass are already in attack mode, so they rocket
upward and smash it.

Give it a try. This is effective on stripers as well.

Joe
---------------------------------------
"Joshuall" wrote in message
. ..

Last week my brother in law and I fished the Mississippi River Pool 18. We
caught a few decent fish in the limited time we had, but here's my question.
We found bait fish on all the major main river points and over much of the
shore lines. On the last point there were literally schools of bait fish for
about a fifty yard diameter. We could see larger fish feeding on them, but
couldn't get a bite no matter what we threw. I suppose the bigger fish were
just gorging themselves at that location and nothing would have been
successful, but I wondering what we could have done at other venues on the
river were there were also plenty of shad and we had a hard time getting a
bite. Any tips or suggestions appreciated as ususal. We smacked em again on
the Cal last Friday, but didn't see much baitfish activity at all.

Now I'm grounded with a broken down boat motor acccccck ! Thanks for any
help guys/gals

mike
--
God Bless America

Josh The Bad Bear

Try a buzzbait, Josh. I'd recommend a Secret Weapon Lures Bleeding Minnow in
3/16-ounce size with a nickel or red willowleaf trailer blade behind the
buzzblade. Other anglers who use this bait on J. Percy Priest Reservoir
prefer high-profile buzzbaits, like the Midnight Snack Buzzrbait.

A buzzbait is the farthest thing from many anglers' minds when they're
fishing bass in the jumps over deep water, but the lure is a pretty fair
simulation of a small shad skipping along the surface.

Bass use edges to help restrict the movement of their prey. That is one
reason why fishing tight to a bluff wall, against a stump, or along the
bottom is so effective; bass are more successful at the squeeze play than
they are at open-field tackling, so they position themselves to attack prey
that enters the killing zone between them and the edge to which they're
orienting. In open water, their prey can escape in many directions. When the
prey is up against an edge, their escape route options are limited, and the
bass eat better as a consequence.

The water's surface is just another edge to bass. They trap shad against it,
and when shad are schooling in open water, the predator fish hang out below
and around the sides, looking upward. A racing buzzbait sputtering and
splashing across their field of vision is clearly visible and is often too
tempting to pass up. The bass are already in attack mode, so they rocket
upward and smash it.

Give it a try. This is effective on stripers as well.

Joe
"Joshuall" wrote in message
. ..

snip Any tips or suggestions appreciated as ususal. .... snip