Has anyone been on Clinton lately?
How is the water clarity and lake level?
Are the shad surfacing and where?
Thanks, Dan
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Has anyone been on Clinton lately?
How is the water clarity and lake level?
Are the shad surfacing and where?
Thanks, Dan
Yes, the fishing has been slow especially last night in which I did not boat a fish. The clarity is good and the lake is just under 3 ft high. The shad are surfacing the usual spots, Clinton pt flats and in front of the marina. Lots of shad but the fish boils are not that organized. Only a few fish surface and then down they go, no giant fish boils that stay up for any length of time. I think the wind not being out of any one direction for more than a day or two is the factor there. We need wind out of one direction for 3-5 days then we will have some decent top water action. I have not been fishing for crappie so I cannot give you report on that. My fishing has been for wipers and walleyes.
Gary
Have you been doing any good on the walleye? Thinking about maybe going out early Sat morning to do some trolling for eyes
I have caught 2 but I am using shad in 20-25 ft of water. I see alot of guys trolling but do not know how they have done. Not a fish again last night so I am going to give it a break until next week.
Gary
Thanks for the info
Gary, what size shad are you using and how are you rigging them?
Dan,Quote:
Originally Posted by Captain Dan
The shad I have been catching with my throw net are around 2-3 inches long, some a little bigger depends on what I catch. I went today the catfish are on fire. Caught quite a few over 10 lbs and man did they fight. The way I rig them is I use a Carolina rig. I use braid so I use a 1/8 oz egg sinker then a swivel then I tie 24 inch leader out of 12lb fluorocarbon and then a 1/0 circle hook. I hook the shad thru the nose so I try to not kill him and then drop it down until it hits the bottom and then raise it up about 2 ft. Sometimes you just leave it there sometimes I slowly raise and lower it, the fish will let you know. I really like the circle hooks as the fish do not swallow the hook hardly at all, so I can release them with out fear of dying. If they are hooked deep I cut my line anyway. let me know if you need any other help. The marina cove is good spot for shad if its calm, if not go way in the back and usually you will see some. The have been in the weeds lately so check shallow.
Gary
Let me know when you may be out at Clinton and I will gladly catch some shad for you and show you the set up in person. I normally do not fish weekends.Quote:
Originally Posted by Captain Dan
Gary
Gary, Thanks for the invite. Unfortunately the only time I can go is on the weekends so I will probably be out there tomorrow/ Saturday afternoon or Sunday early.
I would be thrilled to get some live shad since I can not throw a net one handed very well. I'll PM you with my cell so maybe we can set something up.
I've been thinking about switching things up since the keep crappie are hard for me to find right now. Can you guys give me a general idea on where to go about looking for some cats? I'd greatly appreciate it
Went Saturday and trolled around for walleye, well that was the plan. Caught 6 catfish, 4 eater sized that went on the grill for dinner, all trolling cranks. Still good eating.
I know last week they had a pretty good may fly hatch so maybe the walleyes have been eating them. I know the catfish are really fat so there must be something in there besides shad they are eating.
gary
I ended up dipping timber in various parts of the lake. I only picked up a few fish. Cats were biting good for the guys chumming. I heard the walleye bite was horrible. I usually have a lot better luck on crappie but I just couldn't figure em out on sunday. The ones I did catch were on timber on the river channel edge
Went yesterday and bite for anything was pretty dead. Not many people fishing so now I know why. Clinton the last couple of weeks has been pretty unpredictable.
gary