Thread: Question for shellcracker pros

Originally Posted by tinsmith

Has any body tried the 1" plastic crawdad on a small jig for shell crackers,? I've cleaned shell crackers with little craw claws inside them.

I have used them quite a bit and I love them. I usually fish them with a small silver or gold spinner and I have a good bit of luck with them. I usually buy the brown (no glitter or anything) from Wally-world (around a buck for 2 rigger and 3 spares). I really think they are a great jig for Crackers and gills too.

i have been fishing chinks for over forty yrs. ,i live in south central louisiana and fish one lake mostly(chicot lake/chicot state park).
i catch chinks on dragonfly nymphs,small red worms(midge fly larva) and grass shrimp,i tie the flies on #8 to #6 hooks.
The first spawn of the year almost always occurs on the full moon nearest the time the optimum water temperature first occurs. Some bream, particularly bluegills and shellcrackers, spawn around the new moon during the summer, when water temperature are well above the minimum spawning range. But the preponderance of the data shows that the period extending from one week prior to the full moon to one week after the full moon sees the strongest activity. This is definitely when most creel surveys show the highest per-hour catch rates.

Expert bream anglers narrow that time frame down even farther -- to a few days before the full moon to three or four days after the full moon

try the deep water off the rocks of a dam from 10 feet on down.

Originally Posted by OKSTATEjiggy

A 4 pound shellcracker??

Merrit`s mill pond in Marriana, Fla used to have a good supply of 3-4 pound crackers. The locals would spear them off beds and net them and ruint the population.

There was a CO on Lake Barkley a few years ago who reported checking a boat at night. The boat was a typical bowfishing set-up we see around here, high intensity lights, generator, etc. The guys in the boat had over 200 shellcrackers that they had gigged off beds.They were totally legal (sad to say). This was before the KY F&W designated them as sport fish and put limits on them on KY and Barkley. There will always be somebody who will ruin a resource if they are given the chance. I personally hope the SOBs choked on a bone!

Originally Posted by mrdux

There was a CO on Lake Barkley a few years ago who reported checking a boat at night. The boat was a typical bowfishing set-up we see around here, high intensity lights, generator, etc. The guys in the boat had over 200 shellcrackers that they had gigged off beds.They were totally legal (sad to say). This was before the KY F&W designated them as sport fish and put limits on them on KY and Barkley. There will always be somebody who will ruin a resource if they are given the chance. I personally hope the SOBs choked on a bone!

i agree ,but what would anyone want 200 for,they must have been selling those fish.lord how many is enough,i sometimes catch 75 or more but i never keep over 20 fish,and most of the time 10 or 12 at most.

shooter, I can only guess that they wanted to be able to brag to their drinking buddies about their "fishing" prowess. I see no sport in what they were doing but it wasn't illegal at that time.

The KY F&W stepped up BIG and made them a game fish with a 20 fish limit on KY and Barkley. If they had the manpower to check creels on a regular basis, I'm sure they would find that many fishermen could really care less what the limits are. I personally think they should check possession limits at campgrounds much more closely. Lots of folks catch and clean many more fish than allowed when they are camping around the lakes. Possession in these parts is usually 2X the daily limit. I hear often of folks heading home with deep freezers full of fillets after a couple of weeks at the campgrounds. I guess there will always be those who think game laws are made for someone other than themselves.

The KY F&W stepped up BIG and made them a game fish with a 20 fish limit on KY and Barkley.

I will second this statement.