Anybody fishing?

Or is everybody hunting and watching football? ;)

We don't get a lot of fishing reports this time of year, so I thought I'd throw one out. I've been float tubing the last few weekends and averaging about forty gills per trip (plus an occasional bass or two.) I've just been using trout magnets, and they are an awesome little bait. Solid black was my favorite color, but solid red is rapidly replacing it.

I've been getting a good number of fish suspended out in deeper water, but I'm amazed at how many nice fish I'm catching shallow (2-4'.) Some of these shallow fish are right on the banks. Others are a good distance away.

If anybody else is catching, let's hear it!

Good to see your report. Sounds like the bite is good. I plan to pick up some of the trout magnets to try. From everyones reports on them they must be a great bait.
Nice catch and report Thumbs Up

DBD....how are you fishing the Trout Magnets?

The gill/ear bite is pretty steady here, just not catching the monsters like the spring and summer. Fish are scattered, but the better numbers of keeper fish, are coming out of around 12' of water, fishing standing timber, on or near bottom. 1" black grubs one day, redwoms the next. Probably could get as many as you wanted, but I seem to keep reaching for the jig pole, and crappie fishing.

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Originally Posted by Locator79

DBD....how are you fishing the Trout Magnets?

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My usual method: cast out, count down to the depth of the fish, and a slow, steady retrieve.

Perch are really biting here in Northern Michigan.

Lots of crappie in Ohio. I fish East Fork lake and have been catching them on 1/32 jig heads with tube baits. going again on Friday when the rain stops.Hands Clapping

i've been hitting the tree tops on carters, mostly gills and rock bass. no crappie tho.

Crappie are biting pretty good on my side of Ga.Thumbs Up

Leaving for KY Lake in the morning, we'll let you know whats going on.

Disco,
I have been fishing the trout magnets also for gills from a poonton not tube. I troll with
2 spining rods. 1 with2lb test and 1 with 4lb test. I have a hummingbird fishin buddy depth
finder that I watch for suspended fish. Just troll around small lakes, ponds and strip pits wjith
my fins. Great way to locate some fish. Usally catch a mixed bag of gills, crackers and crappie.
Few bass thrown in. I usally add a bb split shot 8" above the magnet. I like the dark colors for
gills/crackers and light colors for crappie. If I get tired of "kicking", I will cast like you are doin.
I tipped them with a crappie nibble or gulp maggots. I guess it is time to get out the waders,
it has turned cold here in Ky. I am a "true fan" of the trout magnet baits.
Oh lately, I have been "spoon fishin" for gills. I am sure you have read about it (In-fisherman
May 2011) or ****************. I enjoy learning a new technique! It works great!
By the way, my dad moved to Danville. If you are ever up that way, give me a shout maybe
we can go tubin. I have not had my outboard out in about 2 years! I love the tubes or toons.
Later from another "Hogtown" boy!

I have had some good luck on private ponds, using red twisty tail grud.

I've been catching some lrg bream on micro spoons tipped with minnows while I'm spider rigging for crappie.

Catching some in Florida

We cuaght 8 crappie yesterday on KY lake and 11 gills that we kept. The crappie were cuaght between 9 & 15 fow with a jig no minnow. the jigs were my version of a firetiger, green, chart and orange, and an emerald shiner, green, blue and white. We cuaght a bunch more crappie but they were short, the gills we cuaght drifting around trying to find them, mostly in 6 to 12 fow. We didn't hit the water till noon so today we'll hopefully go a little earlier and do a little better.

I hope to go today, and try out the new terrova as well.

Going Tommorrow

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Originally Posted by jimp

I hope to go today, and try out the new terrova as well.

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You'll like the Terrova, we only caught 7 keeper crappie today, again no minnows. My wife was using a chart jig and i was using a firetiger. This afternoon we were looking for some gills, we were in about 7 fow, we used the spotlock on a small brushpile, caught a bunch of crappie but only 2 were big enough to keep but it was still alot of fun. We cuaght all of those on all whit jigs tied with chart or pink tiped with wax worms & without. We can't find any decent sized gills, everywhere we try we get a bunch of little ones but we wound up with 9 decent sized ones. Gonna have a fish fry with 9 people so we gotta do a little bettter

I definitely like the Terrova, great boat control and speed control. Installed the Ipilot last night and going this morning to test it out this morning/today. Definitely a big upgrade for my boat over the 5 speed MG I had, where the speed was set, with little/no control over speed control.

Last evening after work, I picked up 9 crappies and some three or four others that came unbuttoned within in sight of the surface under one of the few docks that are still out, a couple of small perch off the deep bottom (about 20') and a few bluegills.

There were bluegills all over from concentrations just under the dock to scattered fish all the way down, but nothing of any size and they are feeding very, very tiny on something. I have been working luv nubs pretty heavily, both sizes, fishing vertically on a tight line. Standard crappie tubes are also working when one gets the color and subtle settle down right for crappies with the tiny GULPs also taking bluegills, but needing to be rebaited all the time.

Crappies are suspended these days and can be anywhere from deep on the bottom in 20' all the way up to 6 or 8' down but with most fish coming deeper than shallower. Bluegills and crappies are taking 10 and 12 size shad darts and the crappies are also taking 32nd oz round head jigs with size 6 and smaller hooks, which the bluegills only nibble on. I have had to drop down to 2# line to get the shad darts deep enough and still have a tight enough line to detect the ghosts. My best crappie response has come from starting on the bottom and working slowly up the water column using a soft lift and settle until I make contact. Most of that for crappies has been close to the bottom where the dock shadow crosses 12 to 20' of water. Perch have been on the bottom, and sunnies anywhere from surface on down with the better ones tending to be deeper but not always.

I release everything and have been able to put back limits + (Minnesota crappie daily and possession limit is 10) working the deep ends of the fishing and boat docks for a couple of weeks now. Lots of ghost bite these days, too; so holding the one rod we are allowed here in Minnesota has not been a limiter. The last of the fishing docks around here that reach the necessary deep water go away around here this week; so access to the deep dock shadow pretty much disappears around here then, too. Most of my crappies recently have been coming from beyond the outside weedline off open flats at the second or third break out; so without the docks shoreline fishermen like me will no longer be able to reach them and without the additional structure of the dock shadow many of those crappies will relocate then, too, but not all of them.

There aren't many up here still going after open water crappies and bluegills with most panfishermen around here now waiting for ice up. Mostly I am fishing along side the muskie hunters with their big sucker baits these days. When their quarry moves in my bite pretty naturally stops as the panfish duck for cover, and vice versa when my bite is on; so we kind of watch each other :) . Interesting social interaction when neither bite is active, friendly enough, too. There are a surprisingly large number of common observations.

I haven't put down a live minnow for crappies now for several years; for me plastics simply work better in general and much better in any active bite, and with a whole lot less fuss about keeping bait alive, and almost never a deep hook either; so survival after release is very dependable, too.

In southern NY the lakes are in the upper 50's and soon the schools will form up for some incredible action! Last Sunday the fish were scattered but the quality was good for crappie, perch and sunfish.
The Cajun Crawler (picture in a crappie post) worked well for all species including bass, especially in dying lily pads that have short channels to cast into. Best depth was 4'.

Nice day to be out. These weekend is going to suck weatherwise!

This evening GULP Alive 1" minnows took most of the half dozen crappies and 25-30 bluegills we caught. The plastics were getting lightly bumped but there weren't even any tail grabbers; so I pulled the GULP out of the bottom of my Bag of Tricks and that worked. We fished it on ice jigs and that worked too; I was using a #10 yellow Fat Boy. Fish of both species came from all over the water column around the dock from on the bottom at 20+ feet to just under the dock edge. Cold with a enough breeze to have a bite; so we shivered some, but the dock is getting pulled any day now; so we gave it one last shot for the season. Got on the dock about 5 and left a little after 7. Not a fast bite, but a whole lot better than a skunk for the last dock outing of the year. We only went through about 4 of the GULP tails in the process so that was better than I expected. They don't normally stand up to fishing pressure that well.

Monday we cuaght 7 keepers, Yesterday we cuaght 12. There were alot of short fish mixed in, mostly cuaght with white or another color with white. Jigs were working with and without minnows. Yesterday afternoon purple and chart. was doing pretty good. Still not doing to good on the gills, getting a few but not like we did last year. I guess we still havent found the right spot.

Fishing some local ponds catching mostly gills some crappies and perch.I've been using different jigs tipped with maggots below a bobber.I just got done molding up some jigheads so I'm getting ready to head out soon for awhile.Attachment 72291

I fished a local pond recently and got four species on a red trout magnet: crappie, bluegill, rainbow trout, and yellow bass. The yellow bass was the best fighter of the bunch.

I noticed the 'gills nesting in a city pond here a few weeks back and whacked 'em pretty good with bobby garland scent wiggler tails in outlaw special color on #8 owner mosquito hooks under a very small bobber. Unfortunately my success was noticed by the locals and I grew tired of rude folks sitting on top of me. I didn't mind teaching their kids how to fish, but wish they would have waited until I left to take over the hole...

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Originally Posted by WhiteMeat

Unfortunately my success was noticed by the locals and I grew tired of rude folks sitting on top of me. I didn't mind teaching their kids how to fish, but wish they would have waited until I left to take over the hole...

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Some people are just terrible with that. I've had it happen to me, too. :mad:

Caught a few gills last night in the couple hours I was out.I caught a couple nice ones then they got smaller.I caught most of them on a purple splittail tipped with a maggot below a bobber.I also caught a couple on a chartreuse rocker(ice jig) with maggots.My arm and shoulder is sore today as I slipped on a muddy bank going to my spot..

Two Perch & one Bluegill today. Getting cold in the North. Water temp is 45. Big Perch yet to come.

Rained most of the day, coldfront came in. Fished the dock for a few hours. wound up with 3 keeper crappie and a few smaller ones. another guy cuaght 2 cats, and another had 2 crappie. Going out with a guide tommorow afternoon, maybe learn a few things. Anybody know how much you tip a guide?

Went to a city pond about 2 miles from home yesterday after work. Caught 5 bluegill and 1 small bass. All were caught on a 1/64 jig I tied with a sparkle chenille body and rubber legs, tipped with a crappie nibble.

http://img684.imageshack.us/img684/3...rtez102711.jpg

last time i went out with my dad on the lake it was real slow.was like a week or 2 ago.got mostly blugills and a pumpkinseed.we are gonna go to another lake that is real shalllow but fish were still biting good on surface around this time last year.i like those trout magnets too,haven't used them in like a year or so tho.i got the bulk kits from walmart few years ago.think i got some of the crappie ones too.

We caught 15 keepers yesterday. whole bunch of small ones. Picked up 7 nice gills. The wife caught the 2 biggest. 15 to 20 fow, right over the brishpiles.

Here's a link to a post I made about my day this past Thursday on the main Crappie forum. It was the second good day I had this past week.

http://www.crappie.com/crappie/main-...-good-day.html

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Originally Posted by WhiteMeat

I noticed the 'gills nesting in a city pond here a few weeks back and whacked 'em pretty good with bobby garland scent wiggler tails in outlaw special color on #8 owner mosquito hooks under a very small bobber. Unfortunately my success was noticed by the locals and I grew tired of rude folks sitting on top of me. I didn't mind teaching their kids how to fish, but wish they would have waited until I left to take over the hole...

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That sort of thing gets really frustrating. Unfortunately some places that would otherwise be good fishing spots are real prone to having rude people shoulder one off a good bite. There seem to be some places that are just natural gathering points for pushy, ill-mannered people. I tend to avoid those spots generally. Most places I fish, the shoreline and dock folks are friendly and considerate. But at the same time I don't like to be too public about being on a good bite. If your area is like mine, though, the pushy rude folks don't usually do too well. If that is any consolation.

FWIW I like lakes that I know have the fish I am after, but tend to have a reputation of not having an active bite, of being hard to fish. If you know the fish are there, they are catchable, provided you can work out how. Those fish have to eat sometime, too. Once you work out the supposedly difficult bite, normal conditions get a whole lot easier, and then a whole lot of options open up. I have to admit that there have been times where I have been pushed so hard that someone else and his equipment came real close to going for a swim. I have a bit of a temper but have not ever followed through on something quite that dramatic or stupid. I get pushed too hard, I pack up. Hey, there is other water around. It just isn't worth a bloody nose and possible arrest over a fishing spot. A lot of the time that is when I will try something new, a new technique in a new place perhaps, and often that can really enhance one's sport.

I work weekends; so I tend to do most of my fishing on weekdays, which seems to allow one more elbow room. Then I normally frequent places I know are courteous. Thankfully they seem to me to outnumber the assembly points for the punks by quite a bit.

I got 48 bluegill today. I ordered some maggots earlier in the week and put them to good use. I was using my typical set-up with a waggler float. Fish were suspended about 5' deep well off the bank. About a dozen or so were in the 8-9" range. The rest were a little smaller but very fun on a 12' rod.

I had something pretty unusual happen, too. After I caught several fish, a big blue heron flew in and started watching me. He stood about 30' from me for the next 2-3 hours. Whenever I caught a smaller gill (5" or so), I tossed it to him. He ended up eating EIGHT bluegill. I figured one or two would have filled him up, but boy was I wrong. After the last one, he just turned around and walked down the bank. He was full! :D

Sounds like you found a new fishin buddy Thumbs UpRoflRofl

We've fed the Heron's a few times also,pretty neat.

Went back to the same pond yesterday and got 45 gills. Did not see my heron buddy this week. :)

I posted pics from last week's trip here ("Eight is Enough"):

BNKJ Angler