Finally got back on Harris

Finally had a chance to fish Harris last night. I've been back and forth to the West Coast for the last 2 month on work and then when I'm actually in town for a day or two we keep getting storms. Don't care about rain but lightning is a no no. Got on the water close to 7 and fished till 1am. Put the lights in water on one side of the boat for crappie then cast a few poles on the other side for cats. Caught 16 cats up to 8 pounds and missed a good 6 or so more good pulls. At the same time putting 47 crappie in the boat with the largest being around 14". Ran out of bait around 1 and called it a night. Beautiful night, great fishing and very few boats.

Nice!

Watcha using for bait out there?

Thanks for the report!

i wish i would have tried Harris .i went to Farrington and caught around 40 small perch .couldn't even let my rig drop to the depth i wanted to try.when it got to about three feet under the light a perch double header every time.
i will try Harris or Ebenezer next time.

Minnows, chicken liver and cut white perch. Anchored up in 17' of water and was catching them at all depths. Had several top the water chasing small minnows that came to the lights. Weird thing was that not one shad showed up. Last year I had thousands of shad hang out in the lights.

I haven't tried night fishing, but I was thinking, if the shad are on the surface by the lights, can you take a dip net and reach down to snag some shad to use for bait?

Yes. I have a square net that's like 3'x3' with metal poles that keeps it fully expanded with a rope tied in the center. I drop that down wait a few second and bring it up fast. Catch a bunch this way. All the big box outdoor retailers have them. A dip net with small opening would probably do the same thing.

Can you get minnows with the net in the day time or just when you have lights in the water?

You can get them in the daytime with a throw net. Saw several large schools of shad in the upper end of some coves recently on Harris.

First light at the bridge is a good bet, but shad are hard to keep alive if you don't have the right bait well.

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I usually go up and down the weeds by any bank and throw a net. I can quickly get shad and shiners by the dozens. Went again last night and didn't catch as many crappie but they were much larger. So far this year I have not seen the first shad in my lights. Last year I had hundreds swimming in the lights. Even though the shad are not showing up there are thousands of little minnows about 1 1/2" long.