I had two suckers I was able to keep alive all winter, until just last week and they both finally died. I've been craving a fresh mess of bluegills anyways, so I plan on hitting Long Sunday and keeping a few panfish alive in my tank. I really would like to get on some crappies, from my personal experience, crappies work just as good or sometimes even better than suckers. Perch are always good too.
"Kingfisher" said:
we got 94 bluegills in two days. Gills are shallow and feeding on hatching bugs and tiny minnows. We dodged the storm and got 50 of them tonight. Mike
This is my favorite time of year to go after them. On a couple of the local lakes they like to stack up in some of the shallower coves that will be weed/lily-pad choked in the summer to feed. I like to pick a lake depending on wind direction for the day so I can hide out in one of these calm coves.
The only time I ever use the hopper dropper routine [smilie=brows.gif] but I replace the hopper with a 4 legged spider. most fish still come on the spider but the bigger ones tend to come on the little brown fuzz ball hangin under it. most of the lakes I am in are so clear in the shallow water I can't get within reasonable distance for a spinning rod so I take the 6 wt with a 12ft leader and go stealth mode from as far out as I can cast. It is definitely my favorite way to go after pannies.
The lake we are fishing is about 120 acres and by July the entire lake is choked with Lily pads and weeds to the surface. Deepest spot is only 3 feet. Bottomless silt and black mud make up the entire lake. This is the only time we can target them as they will be under cover soon. Lily pads are already coming up in many areas. Right now the fish are on the edges near shore but also around these huge Lily pad logs that look like sea monsters. Last night was real fun. We use ultra light rods and the old Daiwa x-80 trigger spin reels spooled with 4 pound . W e use Thill inline bobbers with 4 inches of line under them and tiny perch colored Easy Prey tear drops tipped with spike worms. We are fishing about 12 inches of water so we have to make long casts. As the Lilly pads get taller we move to 6 pound line on 7 foot rods and still get the distance. We use our Meyer sport pal canoe. We also use what Michelle calls Rocket bobbers which are weighted but still small enough to not spook every fish in the area. I even made some by drilling out the bottom of some thill floats and pouring them with lead. You can really whip those suckers out there with light rods and line. Few people get in on this lake as there is no boat launch and any motor including electrics will get fouled up. Canoes or Kayacs are the best boats to use there. Some places the water is only 6 to 8 inches deep and areas around the springs can be 2 to 3 feet. No one fishes it from shore as its surrounded by private property. Wading would be dangerous as the bottom is non existant.
Just got done taking the shrink wrap off the boat with SNOW on it. She was screaming NOOOOOOOOOOOO!! Got someone coming over to measure it for a new cover, old one (20 years) got shreded on the way to WI. last year.We'll be there with ya again Steve. We'll be camping for the weekend again. I like the tradition we have started with opening weekend. Like I've said before, it's more of a celebration to kick off another season. Hopefully the fish join us for the party once again. Everybody be safe, have fun, and stick a biggun!!!
"ERJake" said:
I'm planning on hitting Ovid on Saturday. Weather looks like it's going to be great! I did pretty well over there last spring but after the water warmed up I had trouble contacting fish. Any thoughts on how to fish this lake after the weeds take it over? Good Luck this weekend.
Go to the meeting on the 30th…
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