Fishing Friday 10/7

[polo-dog]

I am planning to fish in the AM. My plan is to fish shallow grass, cover lots of water if I need to and if I hit a school, to stay on them. If anyone fished today, let me know what worked and if the fish were shallow. I will only have a couple of hours to fish so I won't have a chance to try much. Wish me luck and let me know what's been working the last couple of days. Thanks.

 

[JerDog]

I went out Thursday morning from 7-10am. Caught 5 little bass trolling some bandits in about 15 feet of water near some rocky banks and points above Chickamauga. Missed several others but fish seemed to be biting in the shallow areas for me, go get em'!

 

[polo-dog]

Thanks JerDog, that's the kind of info I need.

 

[jason]

JerDog, have you replaced the trebles on the Bandit's yet? With Excalibur Rotating or Mustad Triple Grip? Those two in particular will guarantee a hook-up if the fish even breathes on the crankbait.

 

[JerDog]

No, where do get your trebles from?

Went fishing in the rain tonight (Thursday) for a couple of hours and worked the shoreline with some bandits and jigged a hopkins spoon. Caught 4 largemouth and 1 smallmouth. Nothing big, but lots of fun. Had a little striper too.

Was below Chickamauga and worked rocky banks in 12 feet of water.

 

[polo-dog]

In 12 feet of water were you using the 200 or 300 series bandits?

 

[JerDog]

200 series. What is the difference b/t a 100, 200, 300 series? Are they bigger or smaller, or do they run at different depths? I would like to find something that runs about 6-8 feet down...these are running 9-10 ft. down and getting hung up too much. I am off to BassPro in ATL today and gonna see if they have something in the spatterblack pattern. I love them!

Anyone else using colors that are productive?

 

[G-MAN]

The card on the back of the 200 splatter back Bandit that I bought indicated a depth of between 4-8ft. The card had all the depths for each size Bandit, but I discarded it. Sorry, can't be help with other sizes. The back of the lure info must not be correct if your getting more than 4 to 8ft depth.

 

[jason]

The Excalibur's can be found at Bass Pro or you can go to Dick's for the Mustad. The 200 series runs 8' with 10lb test...I use 14lb Sensation and can manipulate the rod tip to get a range of 3-7'. The splatterback pattern works well on crankbaits and bone has been good for topwater.

 

[JerDog]

I too threw the box away..

So the heavier the line, the shallower the depth...I did not know that...I will use some heavier line and keep the rod tip up to keep it in the 6-7 ft range...Nice, thanks.

 

[jason]

If I'm not mistaken, most lure manufacturers base their depth specs on 10lb mono. For each 2lb increase in test, you lose a foot or two of running depth. However, I'm not sure how this applies to the thinner diameter of braids. I do know that Berkely Vanish, a flourocarbon, sinks and will give you the maximum depth attainable with the appropriate line test. I learned the hard way, in the wallet, not to use Vanish with suspending cranks.

 

[sdfd504]

Here are the Bandit crankbait diving depths...

1000 series 6"-1'
1100 series 3'-6'
100 series 2'-5'
200 series 4'-8'
300 series 8'-12'
400 series 12'-16'
500 series 3'-6'
600 series 18'-23'

Let me know if you have any more questions about the baits

 

[polo-dog]

Fished twice today. I got out at 6:45 while it was still dark and fished a colorado spinner bait without takers over some grass and along some rip rap. Once it became light I fished over grass on shallow flats with topwaters and rattle traps. Caught a 3 1/2 to 4lber on a Chug bug and had a huge bass wallow all around my bait trying to hit it for about 2 seconds but missed. Caught one more fish on a rattle trap off the same shallow point that the other two fish were on but just a bit deeper. It rained the whole time and the wind blew hard. I had to be home by 9am so I quit fishing at 8:45. It looked as if the baitfish were just starting to get active as I had to leave. Saw almost no movement on top, baitfish or bass the whole time out. Got back out on the water at about 1:30pm, fished the same shallow grass as in the am but the shallow bite just wasn't there. We did catch one slick out over 12 to 15 feet of water out from a cut between two islands as I figured the shallow fish had gone downwind off a drop but only that one small fish caught there. Went to another shallow flat in a slough with short grass and caught two slicks very shallow on chug bug/pop R. Decided to fish with shad and cast up a huge school of shad. Went across the river to where the river comes close to the bank and caught two or three small bass with a soft jerk bait. Went to Sequoyah and started catching loads of stripe on the shad with a few spots mixed in. Saw some surface action out over the discharge and cast at it for a while with one or two hookups. Decided to see what kind of fish were in the discharge and fished with shad vertically. Caught two big skipjacks and my buddy Bill and his son Will made cutbait for a big cat or striper. We caught lots of 12 inch blue cats on the shad and cut bait and had some better fish on but never got them in. There was a band of fish in the 20 to 25 ft deep range that could easily be seen on the depth finder that would start biting if I counted to 20 and kept that depth with the bait and raised and lowered the bait in that range. Deeper or shallower wouldn't hook up right away. Lots of other bites in that range but often wouldn't keep hold of the bait.
The water seemed to be up 6-12 inches from earlier in the week but the water temp was down to 77 in Harrison bay. Really thought the shallow bite would be on with the water up and the clouds but the cool windy conditions may have squelched it. Maybe the fish were in the 5-10 ft range or off the ends of deep points or drops in the area. Really wished that I could have stayed a couple more hours in the AM as things seemed to be starting up just as I had to leave. Jmax and Choochoosnakeman let us know how it goes in the AM Sat.