porthos33
Well-known member
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</div><div>So with all this rain, muddy stained water, the flood gates now almost wide open, and seeing how the bass I caught yesterday choked the trap so deep in the muddy conditions i found, I figured I would take the boat to the tailwaters and surf some big waves! My step dad was a very competitive whitewater kayak/canoer so I've always enjoyed swift water. Greg learned really quick that this is a good time of year for trophy bluegill too (as crazy as this sounds)! haha</div>
We half heartedly fished for bass for about an hour with nothing to show and I made the call to try for some big gills. I marked them right on the edge of a drop and there were a lot of them. First cast I hook up to the shell cracker in the picture that was over 10 inches. We ended up catching them on that drop for close to 2 hours before they started to slow down. </p>
Whats crazy is how hard and violent they would eat the bait. A lot of times bluegill will just peck that worm off your hook as you watch your bobber go up and down and they never even get hooked. Well these fish did not get that memo. I think fish just must attack its food faster when the water is dirty since they can't see as well. We must have caught at least 80 -100 and I could use the same worm for up to 10 fish at a time. We had 4 shelly's over 10 inches and tons of bluegill between 8-9.75 inches. They were basically the size of keeper and almost keeper crappie and they fought much harder than crappie I've caught in the same size. Also last week caught a big channel cat that was over 17lbs. I figured I'd post it too since I rarely ever see channel's over 5lbs.</p>
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Shout out to ----Jack's Bait Shop-----</p>
I just can't say enough good things about this place! I live in Cleveland and would go between jacks and hamilton's for large shiners for years. There were quite a few times over the winters when I would get to hamiltons and they would be out of shiners and I would call Jack and he most of the time would still have some. And then there were times when I really wanted to take friends who were in town down there for a big smallie and no one had any large shiners. </p>
I was really sad to hear hamiltons closed and again super sad to hear that Jack passed away. But his daughter Kim has really stepped up! She is just awesome and this new bait connection she has is the most consistent I've ever seen. Plus they have the salty's and jumbo shiners now. These jumbo shiners are sometimes 2 and 3 times the size of the large ones we used to get. I wouldn't know where to go if they were not around. So don't forget about them over there. As bad as I want to just keep the cat in the bag so I always have bait when I need it, Kim definitely deserves the support for keeping her father's business alive and always having everything we need!</p>
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</div><div>So with all this rain, muddy stained water, the flood gates now almost wide open, and seeing how the bass I caught yesterday choked the trap so deep in the muddy conditions i found, I figured I would take the boat to the tailwaters and surf some big waves! My step dad was a very competitive whitewater kayak/canoer so I've always enjoyed swift water. Greg learned really quick that this is a good time of year for trophy bluegill too (as crazy as this sounds)! haha</div>
We half heartedly fished for bass for about an hour with nothing to show and I made the call to try for some big gills. I marked them right on the edge of a drop and there were a lot of them. First cast I hook up to the shell cracker in the picture that was over 10 inches. We ended up catching them on that drop for close to 2 hours before they started to slow down. </p>
Whats crazy is how hard and violent they would eat the bait. A lot of times bluegill will just peck that worm off your hook as you watch your bobber go up and down and they never even get hooked. Well these fish did not get that memo. I think fish just must attack its food faster when the water is dirty since they can't see as well. We must have caught at least 80 -100 and I could use the same worm for up to 10 fish at a time. We had 4 shelly's over 10 inches and tons of bluegill between 8-9.75 inches. They were basically the size of keeper and almost keeper crappie and they fought much harder than crappie I've caught in the same size. Also last week caught a big channel cat that was over 17lbs. I figured I'd post it too since I rarely ever see channel's over 5lbs.</p>
</p>
Shout out to ----Jack's Bait Shop-----</p>
I just can't say enough good things about this place! I live in Cleveland and would go between jacks and hamilton's for large shiners for years. There were quite a few times over the winters when I would get to hamiltons and they would be out of shiners and I would call Jack and he most of the time would still have some. And then there were times when I really wanted to take friends who were in town down there for a big smallie and no one had any large shiners. </p>
I was really sad to hear hamiltons closed and again super sad to hear that Jack passed away. But his daughter Kim has really stepped up! She is just awesome and this new bait connection she has is the most consistent I've ever seen. Plus they have the salty's and jumbo shiners now. These jumbo shiners are sometimes 2 and 3 times the size of the large ones we used to get. I wouldn't know where to go if they were not around. So don't forget about them over there. As bad as I want to just keep the cat in the bag so I always have bait when I need it, Kim definitely deserves the support for keeping her father's business alive and always having everything we need!</p>
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