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Try a little red meat. These boys seem to like a chunk of nighcrawler about 1 inch long. Fish it on a wire hook or jig but fish it slow on the bottom. Sometimes just let it soak on the bottom for a little while. Watch your line for a slight jump or movement. They sometimes bite very lightly.
I fish in ARK. yearly and peg flies. All the redear I'v caught have always been against banks, in brushy area's, and in around 6 ft of water and don't seem to be on the bottom. The ones I catch avg. 10 inches and are nice thick fish. I never caught any in the areas I fish in ARK. on the bottom in deep water. What is deep? Are the ones in deeper water larger? Is 10 inches a nice size? Most of the time I catch & release or give away fish to people fishing from shore, is this a good eating fish like a bluegill?
Very good to eat, and 10" is nice. In my experience, shellcrackers run slightly larger than bluegills, and they're one of the prettiest fish in freshwater.Quote:
Originally Posted by Flyrod Man
we catch a lot of shellcracker. In Dec, Jan, & Feb the shrimp move from Apalachicola Bay up into the tributaries that form the Apalachicola River Delta and the shellcracker move into these creeks to feed on them. You can catch a limit of 50 on many days during this period. They also move into the weed beds on Lake Wimico (brackish water) to spawn in late March and April. We catch a lot of them in the 1 to 2 pound range then. Redworms and earthworms or small live shrimp fished on the bottom work best. And they do put up a fight on light tackle, especially a Bream Buster pole.
Here's a little promo I copied from a DNR website about a small pond in Marianna, FL:
[QUOTE]
MERRITT'S MILL POND: This is a unique 202-acre spring-fed impoundment with crystal clear waters near the city limits of Marianna. The lake is accessible off US 90 in Marianna by taking SR 71 north 1.1 miles to SR 164 for 1.8 miles and then south on Hunter Fish Camp Rd. to the ramp. Merritt's Mill Pond is renowned for its trophy redear (shellcracker) fishing. The pond currently holds the State record for redear at 4.86 pounds and until recently held the world record fish.
[END QUOTE]
Recently, the size limit of 14" for shellcracker, with a daily bag limit of 5, was changed to 10" and the daily bag limit increased to 10. Back in the early 60's my brother and I caught 20 from this pond that weighed close to 40 lbs.
That's a nice haul!Quote:
Originally Posted by SpeckChaser
CF,down here in southeastern,nc,we use worms primarily and catch most of ours arounds the pads.May and June are awesome fishing times for shells.We loose alot trying to wrestle them out of the pads,but we catch come nice ones in there also.You can also catch them on deep sandy bottoms around the cypress trees and the blowdowns from the hurricanes.
CrappieFarmer,
I have fished along the deep creeks and ponds in and around the Camp Lejeune/Jacksonville area quite a bit when I was stationed there. I have successfully used, crickets, wax worms, meal worms and even chicken livers to target these great fighters in the late summer and throughout fall and never fished off the bottom other than for catfish in the same area. I normally do not to use night crawlers and red worms/wigglers but they do produce a good amount of fish also when I use 1" portions of them or whole. I've also used white 1/8th rooster tails and small Rapala minnows in blue and fishing them slow is the key. But for some odd reason I have never caught them off of regular crappie tube jigs.
Good luck!
I've had good luck using a half of a nightcrawler inflated with a worm blower fished 10'' off the bottom on a 1/80th oz orange jighead. If you can't find a worm blower use a hypodermic needle. I've also had some luck using precooked shrimp, the little ones or pieces of bigger ones in the summer when crawlers wilt.
chinks,"big ol biguns" my favorite fish.we take them here in louisiana with cold worms on the bottom,but fishing chinks with flies is my thing.
the week of the full moon is the best time ,the best spawn is from april through june. although we have caught them on the beds in march .
i always fish the beds first ,even late in the year on the full moon,i call it fishing the false spawn,it seems the bigger fish visit the bedding areas on the week of the full moon all year until the water temp drops below 62 to 64.
we catch them on black woolly worms,and clousers,the bitch creek works well early along with dragon nymphs.
this is done on flyrods 61/2 to 7 footers in the tember,form pirogues ,unless the wife wants to go thean we take the big boat.
Great info guys! keep it coming. What are seasonal habits of Shellcrackers? CF