Interesting Friday Fishing Trip on Pool 8

Sorry, no pics but, had a great morning fishing in the backwaters on pool 8. It was interesting because I forgot my bait this morning…sitting out in the boat trying to figure what to do? I looked in my lunch and I had brought a beef hotdog…I thought what the heck…I had a pair of scissors, cut a very small strip with a piece of the skin included for better stay on the hook, put on an ice fishing jig with the piece of hot dog and wham…a nice big bluegill. By the way I’m fishing in fairly deep water (around 12 feet)with a very slight current. I had only 3 hours to fish this morning and it was a beautiful day. I ended up keeping 20 nice bluegill slabs with a couple of nice crappies thrown in to the net. I really had fun catching fish with a makeshift bait. And up until today I have been having trouble finding the fish with the higher than normal water and mostly small fish too. The river stage is coming down now and that had something to do with the fishing picking up I’m sure. By the way to add a bit of excitement, my last catch of the day was a monster 30-40 pound turtle that took 15 minutes of fighting before I saw him for the first time. I didn’t want to lose my jig but ended up cutting the line…that big head scared me just enough. I guess he thought the hot dog bait was very good just like the bluegill. Well, that was my interesting fishing trip…I am curious, has this ever happened to anyone else and did you come up with any oddball bait that actually worked? I know I will again try the hot dog in the future…maybe it’s a big fish bait, at least it was today.

Awesome job improvising on the bait Sounds like that must have been one good hot dog…Bakalars by chance
Glad to see the water is coming down some. Maybe the gill bite on the wing dams will improve.
Thanks for the report, enjoy them tasty treats you caught yourself

Years ago, I tried the same thing by cutting sliced turkey and bologna for trout in Salmon, Idaho. Got a couple of hits, but nothing to show for it.

Nice work at improvising. I would have fished with lures or plastics. I’m guessing that the bait won’t be forgotten again, at least not right away!

Weldon, I did have a few plastics and, if not for the hot dog, I would have had to do just that but, since I was fishing deep and the water was still dirty, I decided on the hot dog which worked very well…I’m sure there is scent to it that the fish liked and were attracted to. When the water is low and clearer on the main channel, I will go to plastics for bluegill at times, and if they are biting well, it works. But, you have to be sharp as they do not hang on very long at all…you got to get in a groove of setting the hook very quickly. Very fun fishing as well though.

The big gills are on fire. I am finding them in deep water with current also.

Great Report

Way to think outside the box