Thread: Lake Tarpon (2/25/2014)

Weather forecast was perfect, so I picked up dad and headed up to Lake Tarpon! Made a quick stop at Dicks so he could pick up a spool of 4# Trilene XL (only line he will use).

At the ramp a couple of boats coming in told us they hadn't caught anything - but a day on the water is better one off the water, so we ran over to just north of Pasture Fence Point and started trolling south in 12 - 13 feet. Trolling a 1/8 ounce road runner head with a green/yellow slider grub, the bluegill started hitting hard right away. I managed to land a good size shell cracker and a bluegill in short order. Dad hooked up with a nice crappie, then the bite slowed.

We made a second pass and I trolled a second rod with a pair of 1/32 jigs, one with an electric chicken Garland shad, the other with a brown/yellow Slider panfish grub about 60 feet back. It didn't get bit all day! Dad trolled one of his white hair jigs in 1/16 and caught several more crappie.

Near the end of the day we trolled from Piney Point down to Wall Point and picked up a few more crappie mid-lake.

It was a really nice day on the lake with dad and he's only going to be here a couple more weeks before he goes back home to St. Louis. I sincerely hope to get him back out on the water few more times before then!

Originally Posted by fishin813

The several more crappie your dad caught were they of size ? and he was using 1/16th
oz white hair jig ?

The largest crappie measured at 13", the rest between 10 and 12. The jig he likes to use is a 1/16 ball head painted hot pink, white craft fur and a few strands of Krystal Flash. The other rod he was using had a white RR head (probably 1/8) with a white curly tail grub. He caught most of the crappie on the jig.

I kept with the heavier RR after catching the shellcracker and added a 1/32 chaser jig with a small slider panfish grub because I wanted to catch more of them! I trolled the second rod with a pair of 1/32 jigs, trying various distances behind the boat without any success.

I have to kind of limit how I fish with dad - he has his own way of doing things and doesn't like to change! He likes to troll and to cast, sometimes with a bobber, because that's how he always did it. He really turns up his nose at minnows, spider rigging, etc. If he tries something new, it has to work immediately or he will pretty quickly change back to his old standards.

Me? I'm just happy to have him out in the boat!