4 hours of trolling only netted three fish, 13 in crappie, 19 in saugeye, both on bomber A 04 red craw, 21 in saugeye on chart/craw bomber 4. In front of pew island in middle of lake and end of oldfield beach 4ft water.
LimaEyeCatcher and I went out from 7:30 to 12:30 today. Decided to take the boat instead of the kayaks. Caught an 11 lb flattie. Man was it FAT! Got 5 white bass, one was really nice. But we also got snag, snag, snag. Couldn't find the saugeye for some reason.
Our Bomber 04's were dragging bottom whenever we were out past 25 feet. Is this normal? It would just seem you would want it up off of the bottom slightly to let it work. Got frustrated with them, so we switched off onto whatever would not get caught up. How are you guys keeping those B04's from dredging the lake?
Caught half of the fish off of the boards and half off of propwash lines.
I keep my rod tips up as high as possible. On my 02's, I leave my side rods perpendicular to the water.This allows me 13-15 yds behind my main rod. I can only get out 10-11 yds with the 04's and not much action at the same perpendicular. The higher the tips,the more yardage you can release and seems like they're not major snags like my 02's are because there is a huge dive angle difference for the 04's compared to the flatter line of the 02's running out from the side.
Seeing as how the tipped up propwash rod is taking the majority of the eyes in the last couple weeks,I now tip up my side rod/s up as high as they go. Now my counter reads 17 yds and it tore up the eyes tuesday night. Propwash rod is set to 65' and my other siderod says 95' is equal to that same 17 yds,65' rods.
If you have a portable shakespeare line counter, 51.5' on it = the same 17 yds on main cabelas depthmaster siderod,65' on propwash depthmaster ,and 95' on other cabelas depthmaster II side rod. Those aren't actual footage measurements because you'll get different readings with different amounts of line on your reel. My main line is running low,so I've been getting higher numbers in the 14-15 yds lately and usually it's 12-13 yds. I've got to add line to it for next season.
There's a utube vid that shows you how to calibrate linecounter reels,but I use that portable shakespeare and no need to keep adding or removing line.
That portable counter doesn't matter if you have a full,half,or near empty spool.
That sounds about right. I run my bombers between 27-29ft, and bandit 200 36ft. I don't set mine to hit bottom continuously but a couple times a minute it hits here or there. I just go a crank at a time until it stops plowing. I also have raised my rod tips a little just to get to that distance but not way up, probably even a 45 degree angle. When I have rod tips down 24-25 is it for bombers. I've also had most of my luck 2.5-2.8mph. It doesn't seem like fish would hit a lure less than 1o yards from a moving motor but they have proved to me they just don't care.
That makes sense. I'll have to adjust the rod holders for a higher tip then. Yeah, LimaEyeCatcher has some nice Cabela's Depthmasters that we were using today. They seemed like they were pretty close.
I have a couple of Okuma linecounter reels on some Uglystick catfish rods. They're good setups, and it seems like the superbraid does help with the snags when they do happen so you can jostle around the lure until it pops back up.
When you're back out next season I'll look for you Saugmon and introduce myself if we're on the ramp at the same time. Thanks for all the help this year, and congrats on a great season!
Puge, we were only going .8 to about 2 mph today, and we were experimenting with some speeds in between. We didn't touch 2.5 or 2.8. Is that speed still effective if the water temps are getting as high as they are? It was up to 85 degrees by the time we got off the water today. Started at 76 degrees when we put in.
Water temps are so high, I threw away my saugeye book. I've never caught many once it hit 88. Last saturday morning,it was 92 and I caught 4. Still 90 degrees tuesday evening and limit'd out.
Since going with the 04's,I don't have to hold my siderod all the time to put extra action on the cranks. They've been hitting them better when the rod is sitting in the holder.
I've been going through some unorthodox ways of getting the eyes in the last couple weeks. The 3.0 mph speed is the only thing that I haven't changed. 3.0 mph in the 60 degree water of early may and 3.0 mph during the boiling 90+ degree water now.
I have a cabelas pedestal mount/8 tubes at the bottom. I put a cedar 2x4 to make a T out of that pedestal mount along with 3 sidemounts.That T bracket sits a good 2'+ above the side mounts.I run that propwash rod off the T around a 45 angle. The side rods are another story. 8.5-9' rods and I keep them up as high as possible.So high,that I have to use the safety slider to keep them from falling out of the holder.That's the only way that my siderods have been outperforming my propwash rod.
Saugmon, unlike speedyr I didn't catch any channel cats or anything else except those two saugeye and a crappie. Speedyr called and instisted I keep a chartruse craw on all the time. Caught more on the red craw. Didn't even lose any to the snags.
I'm always dogging on speedyr about that chart craw being a channelcat slayer!! It did catch quite a few tuesday evening. Channelcats haven't been too bad this year. I'm usually pushing around 80+ keeper sized a season.It's kinda nice that they did slack off because they wreck the Tx3 trebles.
All my redcraws are 02's.They usually tear up the eyes when they're on the planerboards.Just never had much luck on them on the siderods.
can't decide if I am going to give it one more try Saturday morning!!!!!!
I let the lures touch the water, then set the line counter to zero. When I run a high center rod I just adjust accordingly. If you think about it, if you are running 28 ft and hitting bottom, go to 26, or 25....that is only 2-3 feet of line out difference. sometimes i will stagger lures...especially if I am not in the mood to deal with snags. The amount of line you let out is, like saugmon eluded to, relative to the diameter or the spool of line. The line counter reel measures not the line out, but the revolution of the spool. I would let 25 feet out. get your speed at what you want it. Check your depth. if you are not dragging. Let 5 more feet out. Once you start dragging. reel in a foot till you stop dragging. Then you know, this pole, with this lure, going this speed, will be just of the bottom at this depth. Then you can replicate. That is why my rods and reels are pretty much the same.
That is why this year, for the most part, I pulled all bomber 04's. Which removes one changing variable and made it constant. The more constants, the less thinking for me!
Well me and riley got up to the lake and fished from 7:30PM till 1230ish. We landed 27 channel cats. West side of the lake only brought dinks. Once i moved to the east side it was on. Much bigger and fatter kitties on the eastside. We went back out at 7am and fished till 2:30 an managed close to 30 channels the largest being 13.46lbs! I had a guy in a boat stop to see what all the ruckus was all about when my son stated going crazy. I held up the net and he saw. Luckly he had a scale, my cell phone was dead and my camera was at the house, it sucked but it was my biggest cannel cat to date. All fish came on cut shad or shad guts.
Side note.... While on the west end i came across alot of snags, stumps and what not. Alot of them came up as shallow as 1.5fow when the water was 5-7ft deep. I also noticed alot of large pieces of drift wood just at the surface or just under around lakeview and north east. Be careful guys i dont want to see any ones boat getting tore up.
Speedy i think i found your sangs we were talking about. I found a series of stuff that may be what we were talking about. I remember looking on google earth and it seemed to be in the area. Heres what i found. The last 2 pics came from different areas of the lake that i found
I was looking at my track today and I promise I will get you some points to look at. I will only send you the good snags. I can tell because when my route line goes in a real small circle over and over again, it is a snag and a ******* good one. There is ifo oldfield beech that it big and long. It locked me up once on three rods. It truly is the devil.
so do you mark the snags, then go drop cut bait around trying to pull out cat's. You don't clean all those fish do you? Cleaning 12 Eye's after a morning of fishing is about all I can handle, let alone cleaning that many cat's....More power to you if you got the energy.
I only kept 15 of em. That would way too many to clean but it goes qiuick I got an electric filet knife. I have a fishfry comming so i keep some of the cats from each trip. I did do some anchoring around snags and stumps, but had no luck. I did get one good run on a live 8" shad but missed the hook up. Most of the time i try and drift around the stuff getting as close as i can without getting into em. I usually mark a wave pt every time i find something unique. For a lake thats mainly 6' deep or so and mainly flat, i mark anything that stands out,stumps, sharp drop offs(yeah theres a few in this lake), I marked a flat area today as well. Its in 7fow and its a raised flat that comes up to 3fow and completly surrounded by 7'-8' of water.
Wish I was out there today, what a beautiful morning. I think im gonna give it a go again tomorrow morning if I can get the boat ready tonight. I may have an open seat, but I wont know until later. I started out with walleye speeds 1.8-2.2 the first 2 years. This year I went higher and have had more luck than ever. I have only flirted with 3mph a couple times for short burst, really only because im catching them at 2.6 so why change. When it gets slow I change it up 0.2mph at a time. Couple times back started 2.5 and nothing, went to 2.8 got 5 then nothing. Went back to 2.5 and got 4 more, coulda been speed, coulda been time who knows.
Trying to decide kings royal at eldora or fishing, think ill just rent a cottage next year and do both.
I'm dying to know how they're hitting so I'm heading up there shortly. Looks like the weather looks decent. Will post back results! I may not make it to Benny's tonight.
On the water by 4:15 this afternoon and 2 eyes in the boat before 5:00 p.m. Then slowed down with nothing til after 6 p.m. By 6:30,frenzy began at waypoint wes1 which I hit 2 previous trips with zilch. 5 keepers in the boat and threw back 4 in the 15" range. The bigger ones started hitting after 6:30 with a 20" fattie and a 19" slimjim. Kept a 15.5" to finish limit and fled. Both the bigger eyes on the mossback craws on port side. Propwash with sunrise craw skunked.Ran both siderods. Chart craw on starboard took a couple. Foxy shad took 1. Those catfish sure tore up that mossback craw as well as the short eyes. Lost a couple other decent ones just outside net range. Another wavy day. Less than 2' waves and no bites.White caps,bite was on.
Water Temp: 88. A bass fisherman told me the channel in blackhawk was 82.
1-20"
1-19"
2-16.5"- cooler scale measured them at 17" before they went in.
1-16"
1-15.5"
Got out on the water at 4:40. Went out of Blackhawk. Like Saugmon said, the waves meant the fish were biting. The wind was out of the east. Caught A nice white bass right off the bat, and a 15.5 inch saugeye soon after that by Pew. The wind calmed down and the fish stopped biting for about 45 mins. The wind then picked back up and my propwash rod got a 16'' eye. About 10 mins later in front of pew, I had the biggest bite i've had of the season. My line went straight out of the counter reel for about 25 feet, and I began pulling back and it got off. Wish I would have seen what that was (wasn't a stump ) Saw Saugmon and thanked him for the help he gave me. Thanks again man! Good to put a face to a name for me. I wish I could have stayed out, because he said they were just starting up again at 7:30 or so, but my dad was with me and he was done.
Regardless, two good eater eyes, and its time for some late dinner!
Indian 7-12-12
Indian 7-12-12
hrs- 3.0
Bathwater
) Saw Saugmon and thanked him for the help he gave me. Thanks again man! Good to put a face to a name for me. I wish I could have stayed out, because he said they were just starting up again at 7:30 or so, but my dad was with me and he was done. 
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