Shellcracker ?

I saw a few today near this rocky bank but I couldn't get them to hit anything... I kept catching bluegill from around them but they wouldn't take any of my offerings... I tried purple redemption tm, bison tm, white tm, bulldog tm, and a few ultra light crank baits... The tm's I tipped with crappie nibbles. Do you all tip your trout magnets when fishing for shellcracker? I've never fished for them but I'm thinking I'll need to start fishing some red worms, night crawlers, or small crawdads. Any tips? Also was thinking using a #6 octopus hook or #6 aberdeen (think that's okay)? The ones I saw were pretty good size and it got my blood flowing lol

Worms on the bottom. I try to use 2-3" red wigglers, but pieces of night crawler work too.

If real clear water, fluorocarbon leader with redworms.

The water is super clear and they were spooky... I even had 2lb line on... No takers

I typically catch them on worms as well, but had good luck catching on small black/chart beetle spin during a recent trip. They were shallow, so could've been the reason, but it out fished the worms that day and we had 22.

What you witnessed today is a regular event with shell cracker that will last from 2-5 days before they do the spawn. It doesn't matter what you fish with during that period they will not hit it. If you go back to same location each day you will eventually get them to hit. More than likely you will go back there and they will be gone. If you will fish out in the deeper water from where you saw them you can probably find them as they usually just move adjacent to their beds....they just go deeper. I have witnessed this on many occasions over the years. Ran into it this year also down at VFW about a month ago. Three years ago me and a friend had 5 beds of shell cracker spotted at VFW with 30-40 shell cracker on each bed in very shallow water in the gravel. We tried for 5 hours to get one...couldn't get a single fish. One thing that can work but takes patience is to get a small minnow....kill it.....then drop it in the bed and wait. A shell cracker may eventually pick it up just to move it out of the bed...not to eat it. When he picks it up set the hook. But that can be a very long wait. I have tipped TM's before and whether it helps or not I am not sure. A friend and I fished this week and we caught a ton of fish with Trout Magnets....didn't need any nibbles at all.


Regards

Very nice post Alphahawk - thanks.

Thank you everyone for the info... These fish were right beside of a fishing pier and I'm thinking there are more of them hiding a little deeper I'm hoping lol... I hope I get to try this weekend... I would love to catch one lol

fly rod /black gnat. size 8 .:twocents

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by eagle 1

fly rod /black gnat. size 8 .:twocents

---

I"ve found that when the water is clear enough to see them. I back off enough where I can't and they can't. Then use a rod and reel to cast to them. The red worms have always worked for me. They just get spooked in the clear shallow water.

Oh that makes sense well I'm standing on a fishing pier not to much I can do as far as backing off... Maybe I could find more walking the banks... It was before work and I didn't want to get dirty lol

Can't beat the real thing. Use live night crawlers with ends wiggling on the hook on light line. Let it set right in the beds as some are slow about taking the bait.

I'm really not even sure these were on beds they were just kind of cruising around in the shallow rocks but they wouldn't really settle in any certain area... If I felt better I would go now but picked up some kind of stomach virus yay me