Tims Ford can be a tough lake to fish. They don't call it the 'Dead Sea' for nothing. Rick called me Friday and showed me a pic of a TARP crappie that he had just caught and said that he caught 1 Walleye. So, we planned a trip for this AM. Walleye fishing at Tims sucks to put it mildly. At least for me anyway.
Neither of us had a Walleye bite, but Rick had his heart broken very early with a Smallmouth Bass in the 4 lb class broke his line at the boat after a couple of nice jumps. Pretty fish that got away with one of Rick's blade baits. After about 30 minutes of fishing with no bites just after daylight, Rick made the call to stop Walleye fishing and go crappie fishing. He had located a big school and said that he could only catch 1 and just couldn't figure out how to catch anymore. So, that is where we went after one brief stop at another usual hotspot which yielded nothing today.
We could see the fish on the graph and it took me a few minutes to figure out how to get them to bite. Reluctantly is the best way to describe the bite this AM. Almost non-existant in Rick's case. I'll leave that story to him. I had to change lures a couple of times and went from a 1/32 to a 1/16 oz jig head size to produce the first fish. The first fish was the smallest crappie of the day. 11.25" long, so things picked up after that for me.
But, I had a great time and successful day for August at Tims Ford. I landed two TARP Black Nose Crappie. Both exactly the same size. Twins at 14 7/8" long and probably pushing 2 lbs. Maybe slightly under two, but those babies would have weighed 2.5 or more in February when they would be full of eggs. I totaled 11 keeper crappie. Only a couple under 12" and all the fish were fat. They have been feeding well. I also had 1 small bluegill and that's all I caught.
Fish were at the thermocline depth today. It is about 25 to 28 feet at Tims. Fish were under docks. Technique: We sat in 36 feet of water and made 25 to 30 ft casts and never touched the reel handle. We just closed the bail on the spinning reels and let the jig pendulum downward. The shallowest fish that I caught was at a 23 count with a 1/16 oz jig. All the others were deeper still. The bite looked just like the jig had hit the bottom, but when you are sitting in 36 feet of water and making 25 foot casts, the jig doesn't hit the bottom. Set the hook, DK, there's a fish on your lure. It was "get the net. Get the pliers, get the camera, repeat, repeat, repeat' over and over for Rick today. He said that he had fun watching me catch those fish. I believed him.
Thanks, Rick for taking an old emoGeezer fishing today. You made up for me getting skunked the last time that I was over here. emoBigsmile emoGeezer
Neither of us had a Walleye bite, but Rick had his heart broken very early with a Smallmouth Bass in the 4 lb class broke his line at the boat after a couple of nice jumps. Pretty fish that got away with one of Rick's blade baits. After about 30 minutes of fishing with no bites just after daylight, Rick made the call to stop Walleye fishing and go crappie fishing. He had located a big school and said that he could only catch 1 and just couldn't figure out how to catch anymore. So, that is where we went after one brief stop at another usual hotspot which yielded nothing today.
We could see the fish on the graph and it took me a few minutes to figure out how to get them to bite. Reluctantly is the best way to describe the bite this AM. Almost non-existant in Rick's case. I'll leave that story to him. I had to change lures a couple of times and went from a 1/32 to a 1/16 oz jig head size to produce the first fish. The first fish was the smallest crappie of the day. 11.25" long, so things picked up after that for me.
But, I had a great time and successful day for August at Tims Ford. I landed two TARP Black Nose Crappie. Both exactly the same size. Twins at 14 7/8" long and probably pushing 2 lbs. Maybe slightly under two, but those babies would have weighed 2.5 or more in February when they would be full of eggs. I totaled 11 keeper crappie. Only a couple under 12" and all the fish were fat. They have been feeding well. I also had 1 small bluegill and that's all I caught.
Fish were at the thermocline depth today. It is about 25 to 28 feet at Tims. Fish were under docks. Technique: We sat in 36 feet of water and made 25 to 30 ft casts and never touched the reel handle. We just closed the bail on the spinning reels and let the jig pendulum downward. The shallowest fish that I caught was at a 23 count with a 1/16 oz jig. All the others were deeper still. The bite looked just like the jig had hit the bottom, but when you are sitting in 36 feet of water and making 25 foot casts, the jig doesn't hit the bottom. Set the hook, DK, there's a fish on your lure. It was "get the net. Get the pliers, get the camera, repeat, repeat, repeat' over and over for Rick today. He said that he had fun watching me catch those fish. I believed him.
Thanks, Rick for taking an old emoGeezer fishing today. You made up for me getting skunked the last time that I was over here. emoBigsmile emoGeezer
