What didn’t happen was….

[TobyScreams]

More of the same. Scattered fish in the morning and big ol schools in the afternoon.

If you “swim” a jig at all it’s too fast. If it has any action (twister tail, roadrunner, etc) forget it. Low and slow. Cast a double tube jig set up in a school and let it fall. When you pick it off bottom try to hold there as much as you can. After a second drop it back down on the bottom If it didn’t hit while you were “holding”. Strikes came almost only on the pick up.

No real monsters but the numbers were mind-boggling. To further my tutorial, sonar looked like this mostly when you found them. Easy to miss. For those wondering the noise at the top is turbulence from my drive fins, it was windy!!

Anyone lose a new uglystik lite pro in the lake recently lol?

 

[dfitzy]

Thanks for the pictures as I always enjoy a teaching moment.

 

[TobyScreams]

As someone pointed out my double tube rig is just drop-shotting with a lure on bottom. Mostly I was using it to hold the other jig in place longer. Tomorrow I’m gonna try a “legit” crappie dropshot rig. You can’t make me not call it “crap-shooting”. Bet a gulp minnow would work but I’m tossing a tube and a 2.5” fluke cut shorter. Time will tell.

 

[oldest school]

Go ahead and boggle our minds with the numbers. I been around some aggressive story telling crappie guys for a long time. I need some new tales to motivate them.

 

[TobyScreams]

87,386,201 Is a fair guess

My wife figured I was embellishing and bought an umpire clicker/fish counter. She doesn’t give me crap anymore after two trips watching me use it. Just counted my daughters today, 17. She crapped out in an hour - hour and a half. Hard to get the technique but she did okay.

Tried my fluke rigged ‘crapshot’ technique. The bigger fish loved it. The slews of 8 inchers weren’t having it. Slapped on a Bobby garland sperm and bam bye bye bigguns, helloooooo numbers. I also ‘crapshot’ a Berkley mice tail. Yes, the trout lure. Turns out it’s not just for trout. Berkley plastic/whatever didn’t hold up long at all though.

 

[oldest school]

on berkekky palstics not holding up-
Crappie fishermen of the world can celebrate- Zman is potting out a crappie line this july- a little glue to hold them and you'll catch 87,386,201 with one bait. That elastech stuff is durable for sure.

 

[TobyScreams]

Well no crappie we’re harmed the last two days on lake Phelps but a handful of perch were caught. I’m not a bass guy so I targeted another small species that I enjoy.

The take away: Small fish in large numbers in clear shallow water are spoooooky. Open water fishing can be a challenge too. But the secret that found and caught those was an age old trick that anyone could learn. Follow the birds. The seagulls gave the perch away time after time. Just play the wind, go slow, and keep from casting shadows from the yourself or the boat onto the fish. The longer the cast, the better.

 

[TobyScreams]

Hybrids in the morning and changed to perch and crappie for the afternoon. Hybrids came in fast moving schools there, then gone instantly. Look for fish around shad. If they were tight to the bottom then they wouldn’t hit but find a couple of hybrids that weren’t hugging bottom and you’re gold. They skipped all my baited rods every time. Double rigged tiny flukes were the ticket. Actually the same rig for my crappie that day just a slightly larger jig head and not a cut down tiny fluke. (The crapshot rig I mentioned earlier.) I’ll try to get a sonar pic of the hybrids next because it looks very different. Almost looks like fireworks and look for trails, the sure sign of a moving fish. Fish that were suspended motionlessly preferred to stay that way and not bite anything. Typical hot weather fishing mostly. Posted this pic in the catch thread but wanted to point out the sonar in the background. Notice my screen; I’m just passing a school of shad when I caught that one, and lost another (broke my line).