polo-dog
Well-known member
Fished drifting with shad in the upper end of Pickwick lake with my college roommate Roger V. and his friend Jim. On the first day we procured shad in the tail waters of Wheeler dam as the shad stack up on the rip rap there and with two casts of a net had enough shad for half the day. We then drove to put in below Wilson dam in the upper end of Pickwick and bounced shad off the bottom just letting the current take us down drifts that Roger had fished before. We had lots and lots of fish in the boat by around noon including one smallie over 5lb and one over 4lb. Most were in the 2-4lb range. Lots of drum in the 3-8lb range came in between the smallies. We fished from around 8am until around 2. Ended up with around 20 smallies. We did run out of shad at one point but went into a slough across the river and procured a couple of nets full and we were back in business.
On Tues it was just Roger and me. We got up later as the bite was really better late morning and early afternoon with the current ramping up in the late morning. We also decided to get bait in Pickwick as we had gotten what we needed in the afternoon the day before in the a slough. We put in at Florence and got bait right way in the same area as day before. Same pattern worked. Ended up with more smallies and about the same number of drum but had a lull in the middle of the day when we tried a new to Roger spot down the river at the "Rock Rows". I think that there were lots of fish there but drifting shad was probably not the best presentation for that area. Didn't have any really big smallies the second day but the drum were bigger on average and we did get a few whites and blue cats on day two.
Was a great time with good friends and learned a lot about fishing a river for smallies. I had spoken with drumking and Spurhunter before I went for pointers on how to best present baits and it really worked out well. Small diameter line with enough weight to hold bottom was key, that and using a flouro leader and I was in business from the get go. Thanks guys for all of the help! I really need to try this presentation in the river or even the lake sometime soon as shad are easy to come by right now.
On Tues it was just Roger and me. We got up later as the bite was really better late morning and early afternoon with the current ramping up in the late morning. We also decided to get bait in Pickwick as we had gotten what we needed in the afternoon the day before in the a slough. We put in at Florence and got bait right way in the same area as day before. Same pattern worked. Ended up with more smallies and about the same number of drum but had a lull in the middle of the day when we tried a new to Roger spot down the river at the "Rock Rows". I think that there were lots of fish there but drifting shad was probably not the best presentation for that area. Didn't have any really big smallies the second day but the drum were bigger on average and we did get a few whites and blue cats on day two.
Was a great time with good friends and learned a lot about fishing a river for smallies. I had spoken with drumking and Spurhunter before I went for pointers on how to best present baits and it really worked out well. Small diameter line with enough weight to hold bottom was key, that and using a flouro leader and I was in business from the get go. Thanks guys for all of the help! I really need to try this presentation in the river or even the lake sometime soon as shad are easy to come by right now.
