Fishing

[Flench]

The BS O'meter is pinging.  It wouldn't be a fishing thread without an occasional fish story though lol.

Not sure what you mean Tec ?
@ Rich , you sure right about the front hook . I have been thinking of taking the front hook's off but not sure how the plug would run afterwords ?

[Rich46yo]

They work fine. If you must run them along side the boat to make sure. Or, if your a total lunatic like I was, setup the bath tub for a test.

Things is most modern Lures are designed for multi-speeds. Most of all jointed ones, like Rapalas. The trick is to not exceed their maximum speed, front trebel or no front trebel. The front hook really has nothing to do with it. Of course once you are hooked up and patterning the fish, while trolling, you'll want to repeat everything you did to catch the fish. Including lure type, color, troll speed, type/location of structure where you caught the fish.

At times fish will hit a bait at 1.6 mph, other times 2.2 mph. Other times it dont matter. Almost at all times changing speeds and figure 8'ing will induce a strike. Walleye in particular are notorious for following a bait. But there is a max speed for each type of lure.

Think about it? When was the last time you caught a fish and needed the front trebel? They are nothing but weed catchers. Besides many Lures allow you to adjust the action of the lure.

[Flench]

@ Schen , Nice fish <S>.

Rich , All I use are Bandit crank bait's , there what every one around here is using and seems to work . I found running them at 1.8 mph is just right for crappie .
 There is not going to be any wind in the morning so I'm going to go try the crappie . I will take the front hook off and see how it goes . Will post when I get back .

[Rich46yo]

Another option is to just bend the trebels in. I used to bend the rear ones out just a bit and sharpen the hell out of them. I never put a hook in the water that I didnt sharpen. Also on all my spoons I removed the trebels and put in single offset hooks. Trebel hooks tend to give fish to much leverage to work the hook out. With the single offsets you always get that perfect meat hook right in the side of the jaw. Heres a short on a king I boated on my 17'' 'er up in Door County WI. http://youtu.be/rfrDq3SVvkU

I caught him on a Pro king spoon that had a trebel that I replaced with a single. Now this was a 30lb fish on 17lb line that had got tangled on a dipsy line and then rigger cable so I knew it was weakened. Also I had a girl with the net that had NEVER fished before. Add to that the surface temp was 52% so the GD salmon never tired when I got him to the surface.

But I saw the perfect meat hook with that single hook to the side of his mouth and I knew if I just finessed him in I'd get him. If I'd kept that trebel on that spoon I dont think I'd have caught this salmon. If you run spoons down there you might want to try changing up. Ive caught a lot of stripers and wipers on spoons that I switched to singles. Fishing is all about attention to detail.

Good luck today. 

[Flench]

I have never fished with a spoon . I don't think I have every owned one . I thought about giving one a try someday just to see if the crappie down here would bite it because those darn crank bait's have gone really high in price now . If you can even get one .

[Babalonian]

This is the Halibut i want to catch

 

(Image removed from quote.)

lucky sob.  I dream of halibut like that too.     hope he brought the big cooler.

[Flench]

Oh yeah . Limited out this morning . Had two that weight 4 pounds . Working on breaking the record just any day .


One of the 4 pound fish


Nice on the lake but very HOT .

[Rich46yo]

To me crappie are tied with perch as favorite eating. Those are big southern crappies. Is that a MS. flag?

They are also very aggressive predators when on. Ive caught crappie on small spoons while Bass fishing. Ive never trolled spoons for them however, preferring small Bass plugs that look like the Shad base. But I have no doubt trolled spoons would catch crappie.

Great catch. A 4lb crappie is exceptional.

[Flench]

Thanks Rich  , If I can just get one a pound more I will break the world record . The World record came out of this lake and I'm going to break it some time this year I hope  .
 They would not hit but a black plug with a red strip down the side . Out of 100 plug's and I just had one of those .
That big one was 14 and a half inches long .
When it comes to eating you can't beat Crappie . The best it is .

EDIT:Oh yeah I fly a Mississippi Flag . Wish I could get one on my plane in game .

[JimmyC]

Great outing by the look of things, good to see where you catch those..
good luck bustin your record..fun times
tight lines
Jimmy

[Rich46yo]

Ive only caught a few 3lb class crappie. Probably 3 or 4. If I was catching 4'lbers I'd make a diorama on the wall with 5 or 6 of them. Big Bull crappie collections, Blue Gill to, make lovely taxidermy displays.

[Flench]

Thanks Jimmy .
Rich , I don't have room . I got a 9 point in the freezer now that I got to have stuffed . I been trying to figure out how I can build another room on my house just for my trophies . My living room is full .
I'm pretty sure I hold the state record for deer(43 pointer) now I want to break the world record on crappie .

[Rich46yo]

Yeah I feel your pain. I have 1/2 my zoo in the garage simply cause I ran out of room for it.

[Flench]

That's bad . I got so many deer horn's they go all way around my shop's top trim , lol .  I like to start making knife's out of them but each horn has a memory .

[Flench]

Went out for a few hour's this morning . Had to go fishing on my Birthday .


6 Crappie / 1 catfish / 1 stripper . I should have took a pic of the Bass but I hate them and did not want him in my boat .