Read about all of my Fishing Adventures!
Follow my Fish of 2016
Been another month since I checked in last. I know, I know. I promised I would do better. But, when you are relying on others to fish and the holidays roll in, fishing trips can get far and few in between. Sprinkle in some deer hunting....you get what I am saying.
Anyways, we did get out several times the past month and I am trying to get those reports out, not that some of them will help you much.
Right before Christmas, Brad and I took a trip to Pickwick. This would be about the 23rd or so. It was very cold, but the current was decent and the water was low. We had some intel that we wanted to check out. We began the day by fishing the barge canal just above McFarland. We have learned how to fish the set of five or so barge tie ups based upon how the current is flowing.
Brad was going to stick with the A-rig. I was determined to get better with some of baits I don't frequently used, especially the jerkbait as I had just watched a video with local pro Jimmy Mason. Mason is an expert with the jerkbait, especially on Pickwick and especially with smallies. So, I was excite to catch some after watching his video.
Fishing the eddy line and the rocky bank, I caught a couple of small largemouth on the jerkbait while losing several others. Keep in mind that I have only caught a handful of fish on a hard jerkbait. After experimenting, I found some of the errors with my retrieve.
First, I was taking in slack line so I could feel bites. However, a tight line causes the jerkbait to straighten up and start moving, which is counter productive to its natural presentation. Instead, I needed to watch my line. When it jumped, I had a hit.
Lastly, when I was getting hits, I treated it like a crankbait. I would just reel in the slack. The fish would pull off. Because the bait is on slack line, there is no tension when the fish hits and therefore the hooks are unlikely to penetrate the fish's mouth. So, I learned to really get that slack in and set the hook hard.
After the bite quickly died, we moved to the bluffs across the river but didn't catch any fish. We moved to the end of Seven Mile Island where there is still grass. We were unable to catch any fish or even have any hits, despite what our intel had told us. But, there was a critical bit that we had overlooked. We had been told to concentrate on small cuts in the island. That is, little pockets. We found the nearest one and found a pile of largemouth stacked in it. For about five minutes, Brad and I caught a fish on every cast. Nothing huge, best five going around ten pounds.
Then they quit and we called it a day. In all, we caught about ten fish though none of them were smallies.
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