The wind has been a problem at over 20mph daily on a large lowland lake with no shore windbreaks. I need to keep my boat in position once I’ve found fish and pound the area. But the boat can’t stay still even with a 10lb anchor and that’s all she wrote.

Luckily, not far from home is a much smaller mile long lake with high hills behind east and west shores, the south end not so much, but enough of a windbreak to keep the boat more or less stationary when anchored. This is very important considering the light finesse lures cast in 58-degree water where casting accuracy is very important whether under overhanging branches, near shore or between stumps.

I’ve fished this lake for over 30 years and still discover things about – it namely structure I didn’t know existed. Armed with a Crappie Magnet rigged on a 1/24 oz jig attached to 8# test braid, along with sonar was able to locate and catch 38 fish that included yellow perch, crappie, bass and sunfish ranging in size from 5″ to 2 lbs. Small soft plastics and crankbaits can catch different fish types and more of them. Large lures exclude catching smaller fish. I’m addicted to the strike – any strike – and more is better IMO.

The day after to the lake I managed 24 fish but was forced off due to a 25mph wind from the south. Average fish depth both days was 4-6′ deep and the lure had to be worked slow with pauses mid-depth with rod tip twitches and slight reel-handle turns. The light action rod and braid allowed for the detection of light strikes at long distance casts that turned into hooksets after the first strike. When I found the edge of flats or humps, I cast to them and then to open water where more fish were hanging out.

Kinda felt sorry for the shore anglers watching me catch fish and in fact I did give some lures to a woman casting a lure from a spinning reel. I showed her the retrieve and told her to move along the shore every 20′ and cast again if no fish were caught.
Here are a few shots:

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A buddy just got me into trolling crankbaits. Other than bass, this crappie got hooked in 6′.

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I hate not covering water in a timely manner! Got better things to do. When the bite slows, my presentation also consists of going smaller – 1.5″-4″ soft plastics. Crankbaits are the usual size: 2 3/4″ with medium length bills that dive 3′.

Recently a buddy I fish with convinced me to troll a crankbait parallel to shore in 4-7′. On some days he does excellent catching not only bass, but decent size crappie. We did catch a few small bass and one 12″ crappie, but bite locations were scattered between water 2-6′. The lake has no pads but does have many overhanging branches and shaded rocky shorelines. Unshaded shallow water shorelines and wide flats that dropped from 3-6′ also held fish under a bright sun.

Obviously the best way to hit fish under those trees was casting small soft plastics on 1/16 oz ball head jigs. Skirted jigs with trailer may have worked, but I wanted to work those areas faster without bumping bottom. Example shown. The same lure was used to cover more water in unshaded areas along with a nose-hooked 3″ white stick and 5″ Kut Tail worm on a 1/32 oz jig with $2 hook. The action applied using rod tip twitches cause a darting action which covers water fast though with pauses. This has caught panfish and bass all year.

Would a spinnerbait have done well. In summer under a bright sun, the only blade lure I would cast would be a Beetle Spin and jighead with either no action tail or action tail. the smaller flash under those conditions seems to tick fish off more that a large strobe-like Colorado or willow leaf blade.

Sorry for the long dissertation, but hopefully even a little might be useful. It helped us log 34 fish on a slow summer’s day in Aug.

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This color water is normal for summer months. It’s like looking through pea soup. The long drought has reduced water clarity further. I no longer ice fish or fish mountain lakes that are generally colder and the water clearer.
Camera’s going back.

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In most states chummming is illegal.

Learn something new every other day, if I’m lucky.
Still, they couldn’t come up with a better name?

The camera’s not going to happen. I don’t fish much when the cold weather slides in in Oct. and that’s when the water clears. Just never realized that suspended/floating algae is uniform in the water top-to-bottom unless there is normal rainfall. Amazing how ultra dry some states are while other states have flooding. (A weird thing are nighttime temps going down to 39 some nights. Even 45 is low for late Aug./early Sept. Hate to see my heating bill this winter.)

At least the fishing’s turned on! Will be out there until the cold gets too uncomfortable.

Poor water clarity due to suspended algae made the unit useless. Sending it back. It might have worked in a deeper lake with clear water, but this lake averages 7′-8′ – less due to a drought – and no inflow for months.
The schools on sonar gave me an idea of location patterns. The number would have been more than 31 if I had gotten there before 12:30pm, but catching bass, crappie, sunfish and yellow perch that fight like crazy is better than staying home anytime!

Thanks for the quick reply!

Frank

Superb works of art Jimmy! A color and color pattern I would most definitely have faith casting. How do the lipless cranks work for you in that size?

That’s one monster of a fish. I’m surprised it didn’t break your rod in half! You must carry a huge net just-in-case.
What lure did you catch it on?

Always a pleasure helping out a fellow fishing fanatic! Even after all the years spent on the water, I’m still learning by discovery. In fact everything I post was learned by discovery and fishing with different anglers on different waters.

“I always used a yellow-pearl colored ballhead and bright yellow 3″ Mr Twister grub”
The above is a superstition of mine that will never change.

Thanks Mike. Many anglers hold different views when it comes to lure choice and which ones to use in certain situations. My thing is that a large variety good multi-presentation lures catch as many fish – and maybe more – than one or a few lures limited to one presentation.
Soft plastic shapes include lures that cover all the bases: surface, mid depth, bottom. Adjustments must be made for cover or no cover, deep or shallow bottoms, bottom type and contour, clouds/ no clouds, pre-front/post-front, season and general activity level of fish. Retrieves must be tailored to all of the above and especially to general fish activity level.

Ex. the floating Rapala is a great surface lure, but unless C-rigged, can only target fish near the surface that are active near the surface.
Ex. You all know the versatility of the plastic worm
Ex. A deep dive crankbait or Rat L Trap is more versatile than the Floating Rapala
Ex. Small soft plastics blow them all away when it comes numbers of fish caught, the many species caught and the size range. In one outing I can catch 3.5″ bass and sunfish to 2 lb crappie and 3 lb catfish – all on one lure.

The +12″ crappie pictured was caught on the same lure that caught many small to medium size yellow perch, sunfish and bass along with more crappie ranging in size.

I am addicted to the strike and the excitement of wondering what just got hooked or almost hooked. The more ways I can experience that, the better! At over 400 fish/yr., I’d day that happens more often than not.

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I get carried away when it comes to lure craft and lure characteristics that provoke strikes. Sorry. Should I edit out most of it and stick to the question about unpainted jigs with a yes or no answer?

BTW, the lure in the middle picture was produced by melting two grub bodies together (minus curl tails) using a candle flame. Pearl is the only color I like in that shape and only rigged on an unpainted jig. One of my best discoveries.

When I cast a soft platic lure, I want the fish to focus on what makes the lure unique such as its shape/ action/ color and color brightness/ texture/ tail or no tail and vulnerability to attack. A painted jighead IMO adds to a lure’s visual length and nothing more – which is not a bad thing. When I fished for smallies in my local river years ago, I always used a yellow-pearl colored, ballhead with a bright yellow, 3″ Mr Twister grub. Would black on black have done just as well. Maybe, but superstitions based on assumptions based on good catches are hard to break!
Example:
A buddy who I’ve gotten into finesse fishing caught a decent amount and quality of fish on a white pearl mini grub I pour. That color is all he’ll use and he and I both do great on it rigged on an unpainted jig. Not only are they are cheaper, but most important – they don’t affect the strike. On the other hand, the colors of the lures pictured on unpainted jigs, are colors that are not interchangeable. My superstition is that color matters for specific lures. If I find one or two that get it done, no need to take along others.
The color visualized is in the eye of the beholder – the fish’s that is.
Example:
I tie on a silicone skirt to a weedless Arkie bass jig that is painted black. I want the shape of the total lure emphasized such that it adds visually but not distract from the skirt color(s) or trailer.

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Great fun but this took a while

They always do!

Man that cat is huge!

Four days ago I fought a 2 lb cat that almost broke my rod going under the boat 3x!
On a pink stinger tail no less!
One thing I was reminded of: do NOT thumb lip a catfish like you would a bass. Imagine a vice with teeth clamped on your thumb!!

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So strange to find schools of fish in different shallow areas – 5.5-7′, catching fish no where near the shore. You would think a bright sun would make fish swim close to the bottom, but many fish hit near the surface. The most active concentrations of fish were between 9 and 11am. But most amazing was the amount of shallow areas far from shore that held fish. Thank GOD for sonar.

Nice having the entire lake to myself due to the heat and work day. The wind helped me deal with the 90+ air/ catching fish in the middle of nowhere kept me from feeling the heat until I had to leave at 2:30pm (ran out of water).

The lures that excelled, I’ll make more of and store them in my basement workshop. The greatest feeling is when fish slam lures you know work and that you never have to buy them.

Today was no different. By 2pm the air temp was 93/ the water temp 87 yet I found fish biting if different mid-lake sections. The reason: casting lure shapes and actions that work no matter what lake I fish.
These excelled:

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The great thing about using lures is that there are so many that catch fish and many that catch most freshwater species. Looking at my list of must-have-in-the-boat, these categories have proven themselves fish-catchers. Store bought lures also have a place but most of those are for larger fish species such as bass, pickerel and walleye. But even then, many of those lures can be made keeping in mind variations that make them unique.
example: there are many silicone skirt colors for bass jigs and spinnerbaits
example: spinnerbait blade sizes and shapes decide what the lure does and how it is used
example: spinnerbaits have different wire lengths: short or long arm
example: there are many trailers that can be used for bass jigs and spinnerbaits
example: large swimbaits target larger fish species

When it comes to soft plastics, the sky’s the limit! I recently gave some soft plastic lures rigged on jigs to the father of a little girl that he helps her fish live bait from their dock. I showed him how to work the lure and in fact caught a sunnie at the same time. The next time when I went past their dock, the little girl came out waving her arms for me to get closer. Her father and she told me how well those lures caught fish – not only sunnies but a bass. That made my day and always has after showing even experienced anglers new lures and presentations while on the water, catching fish with each.

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Fished a lake that has a c & r rule in place since last year. I don’t know if that is the reason for the increase in quality, but over 45 fish in 3 hrs. One thing that blew me away were the tight schools seen on the sonar in 7′ and the fantastic strikes/fights at that depth by sunfish and crappie. I then hit the outter weed edges near the shore in 5-6′ and more sunnies slammed my modified soft plastics rigged on 1/16 oz jigs. Everyone else in boats or kayaks were beating the banks, which is understandable without sonar on board.

Wind and bright sun are the worse combinations when it comes to holding boat postion and searching areas. The weather forecast, as usual, was totally wrong: mostly cloudy and wind less than 10 mph. In fact there was a bright hot sun and wind gusted to 20mph, averaging 15 mph. The pads held fish, but inaccurate casting because of the wind, made it impossible for casting accuracy due to wind blown line bow. Not good when casting 1/32 and 1/24 oz jigs.

The only thing that saved the day was hitting fish in 3 FOW one shaded cove – sunnies galore! Plus my partner landed a 3 lb LM. in the pads. 30 fish was not a good day but at least the sunnies slammed our lures and gave a nice fight along with crappie, yellow perch and bass that I caught in shallow water.

To bad the boat’s going into the shop tomorrow or I’d be fishing in the cool rain under a cloudy sky with little wind.

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Caught about 30 today.

That water looks pretty clear. I don’t know what would do without plastics. Next I have to try them under a float.

It’s been a numbers month of May. I’m not sure of the various spawns, but schools of different species in shallow water rack up those numbers.

tim hurley wrote:

You don’t hear too much about people targeting pre-spawn ‘gills. Anyone getting them? Tips for this time of year?

In May alone, my partners and I have caught in total over 325 fish on two outings. They included sunfish, bass, pickerel, yellow & white perch and crappie. Both days we found schools of crappie, sunfish and white perch. The usual multi-species lures were used: soft plastics rigged on light ball head jigs.

Today should be interesting….

Been long time since I used a Senko. Still have about 10 bags hanging around somewhere….

Bet the swimbaits I pour would catch a wally or two.

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I’m with you Spoony Min, don’t let these guys get to you, they are noted layman’s.

When I’m choosing the lure I will use for the day, I think not what the lure can do for me, but what I can do for the lure. The lightest flicker of my pinkie on my rod sends almost imperceptible vibrations through the rod, down the line and into the bait. These vibrations sexually stimulate the lateral line of most fish, making them ‘react’. These reactions go beyond being hungry, these are raw, unfiltered, unconscious, moist reactions.

Before all that happens though, it’s necessary to ruminate on the virtues of said bait. I’m not talking about how many fish it will catch(at least 5X a limit every time out), but what the lure represents to the local biome. One could argue that such a bait is meaningless, a grain of sand on the vast beaches of Mars, but I must disagree. This bait will fill a glaring gap in this natural ‘economy’. A grain of sand it may be, but while a grain of sand is minuscule and meaningless to a human, it is Mount Everest to a microorganism.

I digress, my thoughts and musings are often lost on this crowd, so toll not in the inadequacy of these responses, such a thought process and mind as we share is a heavy burden to carry in today’s world.

Always love rereading Phil’s reply! Apart from the R rated sentences, he figured out long ago that action speaks loudest when it comes to lures. Action, again, is dependent on shape and size. A kernel of corn is undoubtedly a bait that can be counted on for the above reasons as well as these two modifications:

A pickerel bit off the tail of a curl tail grub right at the boat. I figured: why not try casting the body minus the action tail?
The action/profile caught over 2 dozen fish that afternoon which included bass, and has done well since that day. Kind a reminds me of a mini-Ned rig:
Ned rig – how to fish it

Another surprise was seeing how much better a Sassy Shad did with the belly cut off to make the lure slimmer which changed the action.

The above 2 examples of lure profile/action changes, didn’t include different retrieves that made them move better than the originals.
The corn kernel example said it all!

(What else is there to do on New Year’s Eve when fishing is out until the lakes freeze over? With the air temperature near 50, we’ve had over 5″ of rain in the last 3 weeks making ice fishing less likely any time soon in N.Y.)