Lake Tarpon, Tuesday 11-10-15

Morning started out with rain, heavy
overcast - rain, 73 air temp, water temp
of 74.6.

Yelim & I went to check out Tarpon for 4
time in 3 weeks.
Wind starting pickin up around 8:30 am out of Northwest right down the lake
Spider rigging was order of the day - working various water depths from 8 - 14 ft.
Started NW end of lake - very little
action. no where in the water column,
9:30 am started down center of lake -
(southbound) 10 - 12' - picked one up
here there, no pattern, color or depth.
Wind was causing multi problems continued working west side of lake,
through Dolly Bay - Little Dolly Bay
ending at or around Wall Point. Progress
to there with wind to back - backtrolling
for speed control was 11 fish in well, 10 throw-backs. Colors - red - butterscotch
yellow & Blue (red moon jigs - butterscotch also moon jigs-Blue, mylar
white head, blue collar & body.
Catch depth 8 - 11 ft in 14 ft water.
Camera malfunctioned - no pictures.
ended up with 24 keepers, 33 throwbacks. 7 fish weigh in weight
8 lbs 3.5 oz.
Turned out to be good day...........
Thanks Yelim for being my partner today.



backs.

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Thanks again Harold. Fun day. Boat and trailer are a masterpiece. Amazing to sit on front porch fishing and have to get up and walk all the way back to the kitchen to get a drink.:biggrin

Wish to thnk Rick /Bill's Bait & Tackle for supplying pictures.
My camera malfuntioned and failed to record

I should've went today. Decided to smoke a pork butt instead.

Going back Friday - check out another section of lake.
May even try hand at Long-lining instead of Spider Riggin,
although, do not hold your breath on that commin to pass.

Catch a few for me Harold, I'm out of the game for a few weeks with messed up elbow.

Nice day for you 2. Better get ya some practice longlining in for your trip to Crescent.

So true Mike, so true regarding Crescent.
Already in process of making some 3 - 3 1/2" jigs to compensate for them
St Johns Hogs that come through Dunn's Creek.

Great report, sounds like a nice day on the water. I've been creeping for acouple months and decided it was
time t
o sign up to try to learn more and add to the crappie knowledge collective.
I've got a couple dumb questions so try and go easy on me. You mentioned your spider rigging with moon jigs
and mylar jigs. Are you using the typical 2 hook rig when spider rigging or a single jig rig? I always thought the weight (egg weight) should
after the tri-swivel then I read an artical where the egg weight was above the tri-swivel. What se
ems to be more
successful?

I primarily fish the Clermont chain of lakes in open water, nice easy trolling, very little submerged aquatic
veg. I like longlining, but i'll push 4 rods rods while longlining. I'm pushing them fast-ish (0.8-1.1) but I'm catching
some fish. Right now i'm experimenting with my pushed "spider" lines with double roadrunner rigs (1/16) and (1/32) with 1 ounce wt.
Also a mylar (1/32) and moon jig (1/16) with a 1 oz weight. Naked hooks with 1 oz wt, everything minnow tipped. Just want to
see if theres something I can do to increase productivity. Throughout October went out about 5 times, average 10-12 keepers,
20-25 fish per trip, trips are 4-5 hours. Usually the top 7 fish are over 5lbs, best in Oct. was top 7 fish: 6.5 lbs,
everything was real thin. Its supposed to really blow this weekend; I'll give it a shot regardless!

Got a lot of questions there my friend.

I gathere your pushing the heavier wgts to keep lines down, same principal as
down rigging.
Very rarely use double baited/jigs of "road runners" does not give same effect
as single roadrunners - wgt also a factor when using road runners..........
1/8-1/16 - 1/32 - blade size & flash also contributor. Willow- blade size and color
(chrome -gold)
SPIDER RIGGING: can use 1 or 2 jigs, can be of zip style (mylar) or hooks and
tube or solid jig - all minnow tipped.

When spider riggin doubles - top jig is 16th, bottom is 32nd - or can use 32nd top
and 48th bottom. can be mylar -tube or solid.
When double jigging - will possiblty have more tangles in net because nylon webbing
will catch hook vs rubber netting, hook does not attach as easily
More or better quality of fish are caught by spider rigging vs long-lining (which i use
only use in clear - spring fed water - fish will spook much easier than stained.
Colors most worked with in spider rigs: hot pink - black/chart - white/red - orange
yellow (butterscotch) or yellow/chart, green/black - blue - powder or dark.
Long-lining - curley tails (blue - orange - yellow - black/char - blue/chart - red)
Slider jigs 1/2" or 1 1/2" are excellant - same colors as above minnow tipped
Roadrunner jigs - Blue Cheese - Yellow dragon 1/16 & 1/32 are excelant in any
water - distance is best control to hit ratio ...


One of most important things - know the water you are working in.
Points - sandbars - drop-offs - holes - contours - know what depth fish are
hitting at...........(sometimes difficult when long-ling unless you know the exact
jigs or baits being used, distance behind boat and speed )
Example: 1/32 & 1/48 jig - not tipped, 60 ft behind boat will be running 8 ft down
at 1 mph.............
This formula is worked out by yourself - actually testing on a lake you know depths
at. 4 - 6 - 8 - 10 - 12 -16 ft..............
This takes time................but will help if you wish to perfect long-ling...........
Some of same principles required to make spider riggin a working method.
Catching 18 - 25 per trip in 5 hrs is fairly good ......using methods you are using
now.

Probably need to come to one of our events - don't have to fish in it - ask questions
of participants after weigh in............most will be more than glad to give you some
tips - or come fish with us - only thing involved with cost is that of event cost of
the day..............no dues - no yearly fees -

Thank you for the information. I had planned to fish the Johns Lake tournament however I was having some boat issues. I stopped by the weigh-in and quickly realized how out of my league I would have been. You guys pulled some real nice slabs outta Johns. I was impressed by the fish and the tournament atmosphere. Look forward to checking out more events in the future.

Thanks for compliment regarding tournament competitors and how we handle
events and atmosphere.
We all enjoy competition-however, the comradship and being together carriers
more weight than you can imagine.
I learn someting new each time i go out on an event - always to apply ideas
to pre-fishing.
Bottom thinking - Crappie fishing is actually a very simple thing: Location, location
presentation & fish.

Just for the curious to know: Bill Berwaw & I did return to Tarpon last Friday 11/13
We elected to start out Long-lining using 6 rods out back - 2 off sides.
14' rods off sides - single 16th oz road runners - Blue Cheese (gold head - blade -
blue body - yellow feather - no minnow - 60ft back speed .9 mph
6 rods out rear - 2 - 10's - 2 - 7's & 2 - 5.5.ft - All Micro-lite rods (extremely
flexible -carbon fibre) Jigs - ran all single jigs, minnow tipped on rods.
2 - 10's 16th oz white jig- slider acid rain
2- 7's 16th oz - Red head / white eyes - AWD curley tails -blue-white-sparkle tails
2-5.5's 16th oz - white/red jig heads - mylar bodies - red - copper - cream
Rear rods were minnow tipped...............distance behind boat 25 - 35 - 45 ft

As stated started speed .9 - not much action - moved to 1.0 - little more returns
- at 1.1 - fish were connecting with various rods 1 every 4 minutes............
Working water in 12 - 14'depth.

More fish were taken going into wind - then riding with wind.
zig-zig motion was employed - to check if bite would increase (it did)

at 11:30 wind was comming out of North West - 8 - 11 mph down the lake.
Bite suddnely stopped.............and did not return any mode rest of day when
we pulled plug 3pm.
Color changes from Red - Blues - Blades - White - made no difference - even after
we went to Yellow - (various shades - Green, various shades & Brown )
We ended up keeping 23 spec's over 11", largest being 13 1/2" 1 lb 4.5 oz,
retained 10 spec's in range of 8 - 10" for elderly lady from old school florida who
liked small fish - scaled - heads off & field cut. Threw back 43 spec's, bass of various
sizes up to 4 lbs, few bluegills & 2 mud fish - no gar's
7 Fish weigh in - 8 lbs - 6.4 oz

Lake Tarpon in early am. Bill Bercaw - ready for actionAttachment 220079Attachment 220080

Another great report, nice detail, that's another lake I'd like to try.

West Lake Toho is excellant fishery in your area.
(Kissimmee - St Cloud area)
Lake Louisa also produces some quaility fish

Walk-in-Water east of Lake Wales off highway 60 - produces quite well each
year - all year - as does Kissimmee -Tiger - Hatchenaw - Cypress

Toho's got a lot of hydrilla, which discourages me from fishing it, same for all those lakes in the St. Cloud area, lots of hydrilla. The chain has relatively little hydrilla, which makes fishing abit easier. The quality on Lousia can be pretty good, but for me its real hit or miss. When Lousia's on its pretty good. I've tried several times in October and did not do well, seems like I have an easier go at locating fish on Minnehaha. They might not be as big but I seem to catch a bunch more. Before the water came up Lousia was much more stained than minnhaha, now that the water has come up they have about the same color. I've heard that Lake Mattie down in Polk County has some pretty good fish, haven't fished it though.

Three years ago when people were first able to get on Mattie after it became
impossible to come up creek into lake & a Gentleman opened his ground to
put in for a launch fee - Fishing was almost unbelieable - It was nothing to catch
3 -4 2 pounders per day......7 fish weigh in could be around 13 -14 lbs.
Heavy pressure on a 1,000 acre lake has hurt the big breeders... I have not
fished in 3 yrs. (Just going by quality reports)

East Toho (i have real hate relationship with) West Toho is quality lake for
Crappie

Great report. I was going to take Tuesday off from work and try it out, but ended up working.

One of these days I am going to have to try Tarpon out for some specks. I say try as I have not fished for specks in over 30 years.

The Clermont chain can have its days :)

http://i729.photobucket.com/albums/w...psi1xypkup.jpg

Oh and Harold..............just in-case your not told enough................Thank you very much for your efforts and wealth of information................ YOU are appreciated.

Your a class act my friend! Good luck in Tarpon!!

:ThumbsUp:ThumbsUp:ThumbsUp:ThumbsUp:ThumbsUp:Thum bsUp:ThumbsUp:ThumbsUp:ThumbsUp:ThumbsUp

:hesaid:ThumbsUp

Thanks Stu for compliment, just wish i could, at times, remember a lot of my
knowledge of what to due on tournament day competition.
Many, many times we do well on Friday pre-fish days, make a game plan and
on tournament day when things are not going to plan - refuse to change in time
to correct to change outcome of event.
Thats known as being "STUBORN".

Hope over the years i have helped a few to fish better and enjoy the sport.