Thread: Tillery 9-18

Bestfriend invited us to join him and his wife on Tillery on 9-18. The original plan was they were going to do some catfishing until the sun went down. My wife and I were going to play with crankbaits for the first time while we waited for the setting sun.

We were late showing up at the Ramp, but we got a phone call from Bestfriend to check on us. He said they were already on the lake, and gave us directions on where to find him and his wife, while they were stalking catfish. We had never put in at this Ramp so the whole area was foreign to us. His directions were spot on and we found them without any issues.

We conducted our meet and greet out on the lake while they were jugging for catfish. We talked at length about the lake, the crappie movement patterns and different fishing techniques. We went our separate ways to await the departure of the sun. They finished up their catfishing and we went off to try a “new to us” technique.

We pulled crankbaits for a while, rather unsuccessfully. Set up took forever and once we got them in the water we got one hung up and lost it and the plug knocker when it broke off. Pretty sad first effort, especially since we only had two in the water. We decided this is not something to experiment with 45 minutes before dark. We then started to look for a place to set up for night fishing.

Our first spot appeared to hold promise, little bit of bottom structure with the fish finder full of fish from 8 feet to 36 feet. However the boat traffic racing back toward their home docks with the last rays of sunlight, made our little section of the lake feel like the insides of a washing machine. After about an hour with one bite, which resulted in a 10 inch perch, we decided to move.

We moved back to the other side of the lake and set up off a point. We had located some fish in 27 feet of water holding at about 15 feet. We had boated 4 when Bestfriend call and said they were on the fish and to move over toward them. We did move toward them, but we first had to untangle and retie a few lines, that had become the victims of an outraged perch. As we approached Bestfriend and his wife, we noticed they were both hooked up and bringing them in from both sides of the boat. We set up about a boat length away as instructed. They continued to bring them in from both sides of the boat, while we stared into a barren waste land of water in front of our boat. We did catch a few while there, don’t let me fool ya.

I did start to wonder about our different light choices. They were using two underwater green led lights suspended a few feet away from the boat on both sides. We were using two reflector style lights clamped onto the front and rear cleats of the boat on a single side. They were killing the fish and we were struggling, just a few feet away. Since we moved away from the LED underwater lights last month we have had great success with the reflector style of lamps, just not last night. They were also using split shot on their lines and we were using ½ oz. egg sinkers about a foot above the hooks.
Bestfriend and his wife ran out of minnows and were jigging fish into their boat around 10:30pm. We offered them some of our unused minnows, but they decided to head home with a full cooler.

We decided to hang around since we only had 6 crappie and 2 perch in the boat. My wife and I are currently on a third shift sleep cycle, so it was WAAAAAAY too early to consider going to the house. We switch our reflector lights off and deployed our green and white Led light. We moved around the general area we had been in and found fish in 22 feet of water holding at 15 and 16-20 feet or water holding between 10-14 feet.

We finally ran out of minnows at 3am and were off the lake by 3:30am. With our first ever “double limit”.
Most fish were 10 inches. We kept a few smaller ones that either had good meat on them, or were badly hooked.

Wife caught our big fish of the night at 12”

Water temp 80, clear skies, very light wind
Depth varied. We caught some fish in 27 feet or water at 15 feet.
We caught the majority in 16-22 feet or water at 10-15 feet.

Interestingly enough, Green underwater l.e.d.’s out fished our two reflector lights badly.

Thanks to Bestfriend and his wife for inviting us along. They were gracious, informative, extremely supportive and a pure joy to share the water with.

Short re-cap of the night. Caught some fish, met new friends, learned some new stuff about a different lake, got to compare fishing techniques and experiment with different lights and presentations. All and all it was a good night.

If the fish are biting well I will only use one rod and I like to hold it so I feel the slights bite. If it is slow I may use two rods and watch them close. I do have some fish swallow the hooks but not that many. That being said I do not eat fresh water fish and do not keep a lot. I just like being on the water and seeing what is working and a 20 fish night or day is good trip for me.