JWall14 Posted April 20, 2021 Posted April 20, 2021 I'm going to start this to write and clarify my observations. I think its a good idea because this year I want to focus more on catching giant bass, not just numbers. I hope to post after each outing and make a post every Sunday for a "Week bag"- best 5 of the week. I am doing this because I have school and sports so I can't fish for longer than 1-2 hrs on weekdays. I was going to do this on a word doc but decided why not here because it could help others and myself more. I will start for last week as it was the best week I have ever had and post later today about it. 3 Quote
Super User A-Jay Posted April 20, 2021 Super User Posted April 20, 2021 Good Luck ~ Looking forward to it. Following . . . . A-Jay 1 Quote
Global Moderator TnRiver46 Posted April 20, 2021 Global Moderator Posted April 20, 2021 Cool idea!! 1 Quote
JWall14 Posted April 22, 2021 Author Posted April 22, 2021 First trip of the week. I hit my home water which is a quarry lake. The cold weather along with the increasing grass had them acting funny but managed 6 for a 13.5lb bag. All on the A rig again. Only 2 were females which means the spawn in coming in hot. Big change from last week. Last week I had a week bag of 23lbs with a 5-6 big all on the A rig. By far the best week of fishing I have ever had. Interesting to note I caught NO males and the smallest was over 3lbs for the whole week. It was even tough because everyone else I went with caught nothing but I was ok with that. I also have not told my friend who fishes there regularly. He only knew about a 4-4 so I guess I'll just keep the A-rig thing a secret. The grass was almost non-existent and the females were relating to the rock wall so I got to see almost every bite. They seem to have moved off of it now that the grass has taken over the hard surface. I am not sure how to get em between now and the spawn. Any ideas where they are?? There are good reeds around the lake so maybe they moved into there?? The grass is that really thin hair-like stuff, I don't know what it's called. 1 Quote
Biglittle8 Posted April 22, 2021 Posted April 22, 2021 After a lackluster day of fishing the Cape Fear River yesterday, today's fishing was hot. I stopped counting at 12 fish. All mostly in the 2 to 2.5lb range. Couple of good fish. Most of the fish hit a purple Senko rigged wacky style. My finesse gear got a workout today.?Sorry...wrong place.? 25 minutes ago, Biglittle8 said: After a lackluster day of fishing the Cape Fear River yesterday, today's fishing was hot. I stopped counting at 12 fish. All mostly in the 2 to 2.5lb range. Couple of good fish. Most of the fish hit a purple Senko rigged wacky style. My finesse gear got a workout today. Ment to post this under latest pics! Sorry! 1 Quote
JWall14 Posted April 23, 2021 Author Posted April 23, 2021 Your good lol. I hit the quarry again today and broke another A-rig off at the leader knot. I think it’s the blood knot and the 80lb braid to 25 shock floro leader. It’s just cutting the floro so I’m going to try another knot. I got one but broke off when a fish took it when I was getting the line off the tip of the rod. I hand lined one hook set and it just cut easily. I was really mad at that knot for a long time. Especially since it came off on a fish. I think double uni would be better for this yeah?? Anyway, I kept the skunk off with a pre spawn male but missed 3 other bites- probably from small males short striking. 1 Quote
JWall14 Posted April 26, 2021 Author Posted April 26, 2021 @Junk Fisherman was interested in how Heidecke lake fished so here is the tourney recap. We launched at 7:20 and fished until 2:20. There were 50 boats in the tourney(all high school teams) in a 2000 acre lake. Water clarity was about 4ft and temps were low-mid 50s. We fished mainly cranks, ned rigs, jigs, and a drop shot. I had the ned in my hand almost the whole time. We started by the water pump on the north side of the man made lake. -the lake is a giant rectangle with almost all rip rap bank and a train track down the center (so two big rectangles) About 7 boats had the same idea and one boat next to us had one in the first 2 min. I got 2 20 in walleye in the first 5 min and then my partner caught a 2.3 ln largie on a DT 6. Then 15 min later I got a 14in smallie on a ned. At this time we were pumped and ready to have a good bag. This is when it went wrong. We should have found some fresh rip rap to continue our patern but we stayed near the pump for another hour. There were too many other boats doing the same and we should have ran to fresh water. My partner snapped his 15lb floro mid way on a good jig fish that would have qualified us for state. I also missed two more on the ned. A majority of boats were running rip rap. Boats with limits were fishing similar stuff to us so I think it was just who happened to run into fish. The other boat from our school got 5 for 6lbs. They had their bite turn on in the afternoon which was opposite of us. We ended with only 2 for 3-8. It took 13lbs to win which is impressive at this lake. Lots of by-catches including drum, walleye, and hybrid. The top schools all live around there which makes sense. I would come back given the chance because there was a lot of action. Also, forgot to mention the over 50 people bank fishing which was slightly annoying as they all had walleye/carp/whatever line out which eliminated some water. They also illegally go out on the rail line which took up even more water. I would be interested in the offshore fishing here but we don't have any electronics that would be good enough for me to want to try that. 2 Quote
HaydenS Posted April 26, 2021 Posted April 26, 2021 On 4/22/2021 at 7:06 PM, JWall14 said: It’s just cutting the floro so I’m going to try another knot. Have you tried the FG knot? It takes a bit of practice, but is a really strong knot, it is also very small and goes through small guides. I also tie the blood knot when I don't have time for an FG knot. The blood knot isn't as strong, but when tied right I've never had either of them fail. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZPTzkep9xlI https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q06QKib1AEQ The FG knot is better for bigger braid to bigger fluoro. Quote
Junk Fisherman Posted April 26, 2021 Posted April 26, 2021 56 minutes ago, JWall14 said: @Junk Fisherman was interested in how Heidecke lake fished so here is the tourney recap. We launched at 7:20 and fished until 2:20. There were 50 boats in the tourney(all high school teams) in a 2000 acre lake. Water clarity was about 4ft and temps were low-mid 50s. We fished mainly cranks, ned rigs, jigs, and a drop shot. I had the ned in my hand almost the whole time. We started by the water pump on the north side of the man made lake. -the lake is a giant rectangle with almost all rip rap bank and a train track down the center (so two big rectangles) About 7 boats had the same idea and one boat next to us had one in the first 2 min. I got 2 20 in walleye in the first 5 min and then my partner caught a 2.3 ln largie on a DT 6. Then 15 min later I got a 14in smallie on a ned. At this time we were pumped and ready to have a good bag. This is when it went wrong. We should have found some fresh rip rap to continue our patern but we stayed near the pump for another hour. There were too many other boats doing the same and we should have ran to fresh water. My partner snapped his 15lb floro mid way on a good jig fish that would have qualified us for state. I also missed two more on the ned. A majority of boats were running rip rap. Boats with limits were fishing similar stuff to us so I think it was just who happened to run into fish. The other boat from our school got 5 for 6lbs. They had their bite turn on in the afternoon which was opposite of us. We ended with only 2 for 3-8. It took 13lbs to win which is impressive at this lake. Lots of by-catches including drum, walleye, and hybrid. The top schools all live around there which makes sense. I would come back given the chance because there was a lot of action. Also, forgot to mention the over 50 people bank fishing which was slightly annoying as they all had walleye/carp/whatever line out which eliminated some water. They also illegally go out on the rail line which took up even more water. I would be interested in the offshore fishing here but we don't have any electronics that would be good enough for me to want to try that. Thanks for the update. I am going to have give Heidecke a shot this summer when Braidwood gets too hot. 1 Quote
JWall14 Posted April 27, 2021 Author Posted April 27, 2021 6 hours ago, HaydenS said: Have you tried the FG knot? It takes a bit of practice, but is a really strong knot, it is also very small and goes through small guides. I also tie the blood knot when I don't have time for an FG knot. The blood knot isn't as strong, but when tied right I've never had either of them fail. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZPTzkep9xlI https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q06QKib1AEQ The FG knot is better for bigger braid to bigger fluoro. I’ll take a look at that but the double uni worked fine for me. Thanks tho! 6 hours ago, Junk Fisherman said: Thanks for the update. I am going to have give Heidecke a shot this summer when Braidwood gets too hot. I definitely would go out again. Lots of multi species action which is a nice change. 1 Quote
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