Chocolate Milk

[Pat Brown]

7 minutes ago, TnRiver46 said:

I love rattle trappin

this fish as well as the one in my avatar were captured with a lipless. Still lifetime skunked on red eye shad tho, go figure

 

 

Gorgeous smallmouth.  It really seems like they tend to strongly go for one or the other.  Must have something to do with the tighter shimmy and dive vs more thump and lift.

 

I feel like sometimes it's even a profile thing and they just like one specific shape more.

[TnRiver46]

Thanks pat, granted I’ve never caught them in “chocolate milk” with a trap as the thread title suggests. The only thing that works (well) for me in that water clarity is black/purple soft plastics or paddle tail baits 

[Koz]

12 hours ago, FishTax said:

I need a lipless course. I have no confidence but throw it consistently, I always catch other species but no bass. Somehow I catch crappie on them regularly, which is weird since the hook is larger than their mouth. 

In cold, stained, water try a rip/lift and drop. But really let it drop. Give it a count of at least 5 seconds.

 

Or you can crank really fast for a few seconds and then pause for at least a 5 count.

 

This works for me with winter lipless cranks, although I prefer these methods with a chatterbait in the winter.

[flatcreek]

I get a lot of bites in cold water with a slower retrieve fishing rattlers.Changing directions helps trigger bites.As the water warms I speed up my retrieve and start to yo-yo the bait a lot more Vary the speed and let the bass tell you how they want it.From September to May I’ve always got one tied on and ready on the front deck.It’s been my favorite search bait because it catches lots of fish and I can cast it a long way and cover water.

[Team9nine]

From what I can tell, it looks like we’ll fall about half an inch short of our January record rainfall dating back to 1906. But, the nearly 2” we got yesterday combined with the 1.4” plus on Thursday will certainly trash my local lakes again (doubled our monthly average). They were starting to recover finally, more than two weeks after the last 4” blast of rain, but alas, another big setback. Forecast models are for more than average rainfall the next two months, so I’m going to relent and retool today, removing all the usual clearer water tackle from the boat (jerkbaits, A-rig, some finesse, etc.) and replace with all muddy water selections and beefed up tackle - then just hope for the best. Big disappointment, but there’s always next spring to look forward to 😆

 

[Swamp Girl]

Four and five-inch rainfalls events aren't uncommon in Maine, but I have never seen muddy water here. We're just too rocky, I think. Typical shoreline:

 

[TnRiver46]

@Team9nine style photo, looked worse live and in color 😂 

[Team9nine]

18 minutes ago, TnRiver46 said:

@Team9nine style photo, looked worse live and in color 😂 

 

Thanks! I was going to say, that doesn't look too terrible - lol. I'll be checking a new lake out early this week. No high hopes. Will probably return to another just to look around, but one is definitely shot until at least mid next month. Sucks for me, but I got what I got, and it ain't NC or AL 

[TnRiver46]

The main channel was actually clear water, our creek (where I launched) is pretty brown but it gets worse regularly 

[FishTax]

You could tell from my photo of the threadfin in latest catch thread how muddy our usually clear/stained lake is, and that was before all the rain yesterday. This is definitely new territory for me, but I do think it's warmed the water up a little bit (almost back to 50) so hopefully we'll get into spring patterns sooner than later in this area. I'm ready for it!

[txchaser]

LC500 Lipless produced for me this weekend in 42 degree water, cloudy. That's cold water for these parts. Some muddy, some not. 

Windblown outside weed edges or where the outside used to be, 8-10 feet deep. Downwind was 1 degree warmer than upwind. I think the rain was warmer than the water. 

 

Sometimes steady slow retrieve, sometimes reel and pause. Tried a lot of other stuff except a big colorado blade spinnerbait, none of it worked. 

Basically I was fishing where I thought they'd be hunkered down. These were gill eaters not shad eaters that were offshore.

I was marking offshore fish at 13ft and 25ft. I didn't really push on them because it seemed like a good opportunity to try pushing the 'fish it like prespawn even though it's coooooold water' game and it paid off in some confidence. 

 

A couple of the BR vids have clued me in on not waiting till prespawn for red. Yep yep, red's a winter color in texas now too. Red/orange in low vis water/cloudy/etc. Only color they'd bite.

 

If I had exposed wood where I fish I probably would have chucked a jig and a free rig at the wood all day, and it might have worked. 

 

If the sun was out a chatterbait and a keitech up shallow. Probably gold blades, but no idea if that actually matters.

[TnRiver46]

I’m seeing some clearing 

[gim]

Guys, Kemps is widely available at your local grocer.  No need to be visiting the area lakes or rivers.  

 

[Team9nine]

14 minutes ago, gimruis said:

Guys, Kemps is widely available at your local grocer.  No need to be visiting the area lakes or rivers.  

 

And I probably stand just as good a chance catching a bass out of that gallon of milk as I would being out on my local lake right now  - maybe a small Ned dropped through the opening and deadsticked on the bottom of the container 🤔

[TnRiver46]

Just don’t set the hook when I guzzle the last drop

[Team9nine]

One more serious question…

 

My current Ned outfit has yellow braid on it. Should I tie direct in that chocolate colored milk, or use a fluorocarbon leader? If you went with a leader, would 18”-24” be long enough? It would keep the connecting knot outside the lip of the container, but I’m afraid if a good one were to bite and make a run, it might pull my knot over that lip edge and risk break-off. And I’m not good with FG knots yet. Would a Uni-Uni hold up okay in that instance?

[TnRiver46]

Personally, I don’t like fiddling with leaders when my hands are frozen and the wind is blowing. Or anytime for that matter.

 

 

[Blue Raider Bob]

2 hours ago, Team9nine said:

One more serious question…

 

My current Ned outfit has yellow braid on it. Should I tie direct in that chocolate colored milk, or use a fluorocarbon leader? If you went with a leader, would 18”-24” be long enough? It would keep the connecting knot outside the lip of the container, but I’m afraid if a good one were to bite and make a run, it might pull my knot over that lip edge and risk break-off. And I’m not good with FG knots yet. Would a Uni-Uni hold up okay in that instance?

Just my two cents but....I starting going with straight braid last year and the waters I fish are usually very clear. I cannot tell a drop off from the straight braid and I'm way more comfortable with the elimination of the knot. The 15 lb. Suffix 832 in green is what I have settled on. It is thin, flexible, and strong.

[Pat Brown]

I think line matters the most fishing slowly and horizontally in very shallow open water.  Most of the time, the line doesn't matter.  They're either biting or they're not.

 

I think bass are much more likely to 'feel' your line and leave than see it and leave most of the time.

[Koz]

It's been a month now and water visibility has increased to a whole two inches!

 

I got out on the water yesterday and did some fishing but mostly scouted locations, I have a tournament next weekend, and with warmer weather this past week and all of next week and our water temps increasing, I expect the bass will start staging nearer their spawning grounds. I expect with the shorter runs to shallow water they will be in the shallows a little more than the past few weeks.

 

But just in case, I marked spots where I saw on my electronics I saw a lot of fish and baitfish around humps in deeper water. While I was running in deep, open water I saw a lot of schooling fish at 7-12 feet which I assume were stripers and crappie.

 

Tomorrow I have two creek channels to check out where thee are inflows of fresher water. But I'm also going to bring a few spoons to vertically fish any schools I see in open water.

 

I'm really liking the Autopilot. While running at 5-6 speed I'm at around 2.7 - 2.9 mph which is slower than my 3 - 3.1 cruising speed in my pedal drive. But obviously I can cover more water since I don't have to rest.

[FishTax]

I went out again yesterday thinking it would have cleared up some. Wrong. It may have been worse actually. There were significant pieces of wood floating everywhere, I got a 4' log stuck under my kayak that I had a struggle getting out. My transducer was constantly covered in junk and my kayak has a nasty mud line stain now that I need to wash off. Never got a bite, I marked a ton of something at 15' that looked like big fish but I'm thinking was submerged debris due to the quantity of it. No way there works have been hundreds of large fish over a half mile of lake?

[Koz]

20 hours ago, FishTax said:

I went out again yesterday thinking it would have cleared up some. Wrong. It may have been worse actually. There were significant pieces of wood floating everywhere, I got a 4' log stuck under my kayak that I had a struggle getting out. My transducer was constantly covered in junk and my kayak has a nasty mud line stain now that I need to wash off. Never got a bite, I marked a ton of something at 15' that looked like big fish but I'm thinking was submerged debris due to the quantity of it. No way there works have been hundreds of large fish over a half mile of lake?

There was a to. of debris in Sinclair the other day as well, and some of it was pretty big. I hope no boaters hit that stuff at speed.

[TnRiver46]

Easy way to avoid that, don’t be at speed when it’s a mine field 

[Woody B]

30 minutes ago, TnRiver46 said:

Easy way to avoid that, don’t be at speed when it’s a mine field 

There's still sections of Lake Wylie with stuff floating.  There was 3 tournaments Saturday and $100K boats flying through the debris.  The sticks hitting their boats sounded like firecrackers going off.  I hit a submerged.......couldn't see log a couple weeks ago, but I was only going 10 mph.   The water clarity in the upper and mid part of the lake is starting to clear.  It's still fairly muddy toward the dam, and up the creeks.  Usually it clears up the creeks fairly quickly.  I suppose we're still getting just enough rain to keep them muddy.  I didn't cover my boat last night because it was wet from fishing in the rain.  Now it's pouring.   I'm going to move it under the carport before I go to work.   

[Pat Brown]

Embrace the chocolate milk. Power fish up shallow. It's like one of the only times in 2024 where that bite is viable everywhere all the time. Muddy water equals fish on the bank.