That's good stuff
I notice this the last 3 or 4 weeks where I would always catch 2 or 3 bass has been deserted. Now at the open end of the river, where there are more flats, coves and such its been more active.
Thanks!
I've never had any luck with jigs, but after reading some of these and other comments I think I'm fishing them to fast. I have 2 questions about them:
1. Since I assume you primarily fish the bottom with them, Don't you get hung up in muck and create a lousy presentation? Everywhere I've been fishing still has some vegetation and a ton of rotting stuff and leaves on the bottom. I can never be sure at what point during the retrieve I snagged that leaf and feel like I just spent 5 minutes using vegetation as a lure.
2. What colors, weights and trailers would you recommend for a) deep clear water, gravel bottom, and b) shallow, stained water, heavy vegetation.
Those are some great tips stratos1966 . I was doing great on crankbaits and jerkbaits until 2 weeks ago, and suddenly all I can catch is pickerel. Going out Sat. and Sun. on small ponds and Crystal Lake up in Haverhill.
I've never had any luck with jigs, but after reading some of these and other comments I think I'm fishing them to fast. I have 2 questions about them:
1. Since I assume you primarily fish the bottom with them, Don't you get hung up in muck and create a lousy presentation? Everywhere I've been fishing still has some vegetation and a ton of rotting stuff and leaves on the bottom. I can never be sure at what point during the retrieve I snagged that leaf and feel like I just spent 5 minutes using vegetation as a lure.
2. What colors, weights and trailers would you recommend for a) deep clear water, gravel bottom, and b) shallow, stained water, heavy vegetation.
As the water cools you will get into a lot of pickeral, especially on reaction baits. weed through them to get to the bass. if your on a pond that has big pics, that can be fun too on a cold late fall, winter, early spring day.
Jigs:
I throw "football jigs in deeper open water. They are called football jigs because of the shape of their head. I fish them on clean bottoms, usually rocks, gravel or sand. they will be either 1/2oz or 3/4 oz. depending on depth. Over 15 feet I go up to 3/4oz.
Pitching or flipping jigs go "into" things like trees, bushes and docks. They are usually 1/4 oz or 3/8th oz. In weeds you can use grass jigs, they have a pointier cone like head that makes them less weedy. 1/8 oz to 1/4 oz in the weeds. All jigs should be natural colors. Black, black and blue, black and brown, green pumpkin watermelon. I use pork trailers 85% of the time.
Pitching or flipping jigs go "into" things like trees, bushes and docks. They are usually 1/4 oz or 3/8th oz. In weeds you can use grass jigs, they have a pointier cone like head that makes them less weedy. 1/8 oz to 1/4 oz in the weeds. All jigs should be natural colors. Black, black and blue, black and brown, green pumpkin watermelon. I use pork trailers 85% of the time.
Wow, I need to process that for a minute. I'm familiar with football jigs, but are you talking about the jigs with skirts and weed guards or just a jig head with a J hook? Oh and, and what the hell is a "pork" trailer. I know what a trailer is, but I have yet to find a clear definition of a pork one. Thanks for your insight, I'm learning a lot here.
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I throw "football jigs in deeper open water. They are called football jigs because of the shape of their head. I fish them on clean bottoms, usually rocks, gravel or sand. they will be either 1/2oz or 3/4 oz. depending on depth. Over 15 feet I go up to 3/4oz.
Pitching or flipping jigs go "into" things like trees, bushes and docks. They are usually 1/4 oz or 3/8th oz. In weeds you can use grass jigs, they have a pointier cone like head that makes them less weedy. 1/8 oz to 1/4 oz in the weeds. All jigs should be natural colors. Black, black and blue, black and brown, green pumpkin watermelon. I use pork trailers 85% of the time.
Wow, I need to process that for a minute. I'm familiar with football jigs, but are you talking about the jigs with skirts and weed guards or just a jig head with a J hook? Oh and, and what the hell is a "pork" trailer. I know what a trailer is, but I have yet to find a clear definition of a pork one. Thanks for your insight, I'm learning a lot here.
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Football jigs have skirts just like flipping jigs and grass jigs.
Wool gloves are the answer. And the cold really is tolerable, it's the wind that kills.
Fellow kayak fisherman here: Agreed, it's the wind that'll make a rough day, but at some point you have to get your hands wet. When it's 38 and blowing 15-20 out of the N, that gets hard quick. I switch up between fingerless and rubber coated gloves and struggle with this. Tell me more about these wool gloves.
http://adventure.howstuffworks.com/outdoor-activities/hiking/wool-when-wet.htm
all you need is a ton of clothes,hat, gloves, flask and heatpack
reeling in 60 ft of wet anchor line is not fun in 29 + 10 kts wind
fish are active - slow crank and livebait
i trolled half a day at cochituate and got some decent trouts
It's just about time for reaction baits, jerkbaits and super shallow cranks like minus -1. You want to keep moving and cover a ton of water. Fish start to bunch up for winter. When you get 1 spend a little more time trying to trigger another. keep changing up the cadance of (shawn will love this) your jerking..... jerk, pause, jerk jerk pause, jerk LOOOONG pause, jerk jerk LOOONG pause, jerk jerk jerk pause. saem thing with the crankbait. Start with a stright retrieve and then work in pauses. Spped it up, slow it down, bump it into things. When you catch one remember the retriev you were using and duplicate it. Revisit areas where you caught multiple fish. Affter letting them "rest" you can trigger more. Change color and size to trigger more. I will break through thin ice in the am to get out on a pond to do this. Shallow ponds are best because the fish do not have deep water to retreat to and you always have the bait infront of fish.
today was a good example of this. i hit a local pond i've only been to once. i didn't like it but figured i'd give it another shot. well, i still don't like it, but i caught a lot of fish in the 1-2.5 lb. range. i'll definitely take that for this time of year. the water was only 45-27 degrees.
it has some deep water (36') but there was nothing out there. no bait, no bass, very few arches. tried pitching jigs to wood in 5-8' dropping down to 20'...nothing. kept moving and tried steep almost vertical rocky dropoffs from 5-18'...nothing. even threw the jerkbait for awhile and got nothing.
tried an island...nothing. went to the shallow side of the island where it's a big shallow flat. square bill crankbait time. bang, yellow perch. kept throwing it, retrieving as slowly as possible bumping it into anything on the bottom - sticks, bumps, rocks, twigs. i had a lot of yellow perch followers and that's good - this is when i started catching fish. they were loaded up in 2 spots around old cat tail stems. the key was bumping them into something and pausing. they would hit it after the bump and pause. after catching 5 or so, i found spot 2 and let spot 1 rest. i think we caught 8-10 in a matter of 10 minutes all in one spot. i had 3 on 3 casts at one point then sat and watched as my buddy went back to back. everything was in 1-5' of water.
i switched colors and caught a few more at the original spot. they wanted the silent crankbait today.
keep searching this time of year until you find them then really fish that area thoroughly. the bass could very well be loaded up in a few specific spots.