Rez Tips?

Anybody have any reports (depth, patterns, etc.) on the Rez? I'm taking someone on the 26th and was trying to get a feel for productive areas/ patterns since we will be several days in by then with 65+ degree temps.

My best friend, who's a regular old country boy like most on the board, married up to a sweet southern Belle (like most on the board), and wound up moving to DC. As we all know, the politicians outnumber the fish by 3 to 1 up there. With that said, we he comed home, he's hurting for the smell of fish on his hands.

I'd like to send him back up to the Wasteland with a heavy dose of feesh on his mind to get him through until he comes back in spring.

PM me if you'd like. I show preciate any help/info.

Austin

These temp swings lately have made for some interesting days. I was out for a few hours several days ago when it was cold and found the deeper sections of the old river channel absolutely loaded with bait. I was out mainly fiddling with my new side scan unit and the amount of returns I got once over the channel was astounding. With CHIRP running I was getting hundreds of arches of all size and plenty of dense bait balls. I spent a few minutes actually fishing and lots of catfish a buffalo to show for it! I did find some good crappie down deep just off the bottom in 15-20'. I had to run a heavier than usual lead just to get it through the fish to get down to the crappie. Water temp was 45° then but that was before all this warm weather. I'll be out there tomorrow and Tuesday, you'll probably find me looking for them high in the water column over deep brush or pushing around some deep flats near the river channel.


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Anytime I get arches, I feel like I'm looking a bigger fish (catfish, carp, buffalo, etc.). Crappie don't seem to make a good arch because of their size. They do seem to show up as vertical clusters of dots. It's kinda hard to distinguish crappie from bigger bait fish.

Yeah, I would have to agree. Though this is my first time using a CHIRP unit so I haven't had nearly enough time on the water to try and distinguish one from the other. I can say that the definition was much clearer.


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Thanks to Wannabe for giving me some good info to start out on. Bout what I told him was:

Tried fish from the bridge pilings to the S Curve- from 8 fow to 34 fow. Put one decent fish in box all day. They were 13-16 feet deep and seemed to like 22-24 fow. When I say "they", I mean the 6 fish we caught all day. Catfish were thick and kept us busy at the bridge. Too busy.

Should have stayed just south of the bridge trolling and possibly put a pattern on em, all the while waiting until a piling opened up, but we left for greener pastures at the S curve.

As soon as we got to the S curve, the wind let loose and it was down hill from there.

Had to be careful where I went and how I trolled because my buddy is a newby and I dang sure didn't want any of those 30 minute long re-tying sessions in that wind. If I'd of been alone, I woulda tried some deeper timber and walked farther up the ledges (without reeling in line), but I had to be careful because there's only so many lines I can watch. As expected, he was thinking it was a "set it and forget it" type of thing once the poles were in the holder. He missed several fish this morning so that was funny to watch. I always said watching a new troller getting madder and madder at missing fish is akin to getting mad in golf: you over compensate even more and the train wreck gets worse with the hooksets looking like a bass fisherman.

It was freakishly warm today for me, I can't imagine what the fish thought. I bet they busted wide open this afternoon, but we left. Water temp at Tommys was 62, temp in channel was mid-high 50's when I left.

Nobody looked to be catching enough fish at the bridge worth writing home about. Not enough for me to fight the chop and demolish a boat gunwale over at least.

I hate the rez because it seems to be feast or famine for me. Always has. Need some current in there. That lake is much easier to winter fish when there is some current, in my opinion. I won't be going back until the pearl is pushing enough water to stack em up in the holes. Had fun though, thankful for the opportunity.

Isn't Wannabe only good for "1" fish??
There is the problem.....you took the advise of a 1 fish fisherman!

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Lol, I think the whole lake was full of us today then

I aw alot of folks fishing the ledge outside Tommys Monday. Not sure if they were catching anything but there was 8-10 boats

I saw that too DonDon. I started to fish Tommys ledge last thing, but after watching a 10 year old reel in a 40 lb flathead on the piling next to us at 43, I decided to call it a day.

I bet that kid was something to see...

I bet that made his Christmas! I hung about a 15lb buffalo on a 14' BGJP 20' down. Made for a heck of a time. Luckily it was my outside rod!


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Man, that's a bigun right there. We took the dogs up to Found rabbit to chase squirrels. Saw the boats as we crossed the bridge on the way home. We got onetree rat, then the older dog decided she was gonna do what she wanted to do. I called and she kept going. I chased her butt down and she ran from me again. WRONG thing to do LOL Butt whoopin time

Biggest one for me, thought I had that 40lb flathead. I just picked up a catahoula puppy, gonna get her in the woods after deer season. Seems to be a pretty smart pup.


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Nothing like dog huntin

Yep I was happy for him. Memories like that with his dad just might be what keeps him on the straight and narrow. It worked for me.

Speaking of dogs, if I can get the deer rut behind me, I got a couple wild coveys left that I'm going to run my dog on. Love watching a dog work.

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Originally Posted by SlaterSlinger

Yep I was happy for him. Memories like that with his dad just might be what keeps him on the straight and narrow. It worked for me.

Speaking of dogs, if I can get the deer rut behind me, I got a couple wild coveys left that I'm going to run my dog on. Love watching a dog work.

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What I grew up doing, never deer hunted till I was grown. Sure miss having a bird dog and enjoying the day hunting with my grand dad.

Well I can't promise much to the folks who remember the good old days (other than a lot of walking and a little praying), but the birds have rebounded a little around my parts. Come on down and hunt. We will FOR SURE kill a lot of time...and calories!

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Originally Posted by SlaterSlinger

Well I can't promise much to the folks who remember the good old days (other than a lot of walking and a little praying), but the birds have rebounded a little around my parts. Come on down and hunt. We will FOR SURE kill a lot of time...and calories!

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My mom lives at DeKalb, I will sure take you up on it. The exercise is good, am sure the fellowship would be great and a chance to watch a dog work some wild birds in Mississippi is almost priceless.

I grew up hunting released quails. You know, the ones you punt into the air like a football after the dog is on point and shoot them before they land again 30 feet away..... haha! My first wild quail hunt was a ball. Night and day difference!


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Originally Posted by MidMsAngler

I grew up hunting released quails. You know, the ones you punt into the air like a football after the dog is on point and shoot them before they land again 30 feet away..... haha! My first wild quail hunt was a ball. Night and day difference!


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We did that for a few years, just not the same. The wild birds eat better too, ain't much better than crappie but quail is.

Lol, yep I always keep 30 or so from July into October for dog training. I could care less if I ever shoot a tame quail again (I do, when the training is required).

The wild birds are like hunting 20 miniature turkeys. None of that fancy stuff I see in the faux southern lifestyle type magazines where the men hunting are in nice loafers and not bleeding from anywhere that their skin is exposed. There's no loud talking and there's definitely no place for dogs that have been raised hunting penned birds- they just don't have the hunt nor the range required to find wild birds.

I always laugh to myself when I think of the people I know who like to "quail" hunt (tame birds only)- the shock they'd experience as we eat up a few miles before brunch-thirty.

It's a different game that most in my generation know nothing about. But I love it.