Friday, March 21, 2014

White Shad Fishing and a Nice Bass on Contentnea Creek

March 21, 2013

I needed to get my White Shad fix so off to Wiggin's Mill on Contentnea Creek I went.
I arrived there at aprox 11:30 am and went down river to a "hole" where I lost a nice white the other day. No Hits. I then moved a little upstream and got into a few small hickories that were hitting the white jig and not the Chartreuse. Here is the first and probably the best Hickory shad I caught today.

The bite was kinda slow. Ok, really SLOW, so I headed back to the car , ate a little lunch and then went in search of a striper or 2. Now , this spot isn't noted for stripers but a few do make it up here
each spring. I was throwing a Zoom Swimmin super Fluke on a 1/2 oz jighead. I was on my 3rd cast and hopping it in and "Bam" , a good hit and good fight. This Bass never came up till the end so I was thinking I did have a striper but ended up with this 5~ lb bass. I won't complain.

The reel used for Stripers was a Daiwa 2600SS spooled with 12 lb suffix on a 7' Penn Rod

Now it was getting time to try for a White Shad so I headed back downstream and hit one pool where I caught a handful of them. This ole gal was the best maybe pushing 4 lbs. (sorry for the crappy pic but there was condensation on the lens)

The reel used for shad today was a Shimano Saros 3000 spooled with 10 lb Suffix on a 6 1/2 ft Berkeley Lighting Rod. Lures today were 1/16 and 1/8 oz Pink headed arkie jig heads with white curly tails.

Not a bad day, saw lots of Herons. Even saw a wood duck pair several times and the female kept going into a hole in the top of a dead tree. She defiantly has a nest in there. I left early so I could make it home in time to see UNC play. Thanks for lookin Mack

#wigginsmill

#contentneacreek

#shadfishing

Thursday, March 6, 2014

A Few Lipless Crankbait tips

Lipless Crankbait Tips

It is getting that time. Late Winter Early Spring. Time to use Lipless cranks.

Back in the 80's I used to fish with this older gentleman named "Whitey" ...Mostly we fished Jordan for big bass and Hybrids.

The first few trips he usually caught more fish than I did and what was odd was a lot of the times we were using the exact same bait. same technique, same depth, etc. What was the difference? was he just better? Possibly, but there was one thing that he used that I didn't and for awhile I refused to believe that his little "trick" made a difference. What was it? Well, Whitey had this pink tubing that he on the line just on top of the lure. It was cut about 3/8 inch long and each cut was made at an angle and this cut "glowed" kinda like a fiber optic bow sight.

I talked him in to giving me some of this tubing as he was reluctant to at first as he couldn't remember where he got it. I finally convinced him to and My catch rate went up. I searched for this tubing and I finally found some in a Myrtle beach K mart and it was made by JT's Tackle. I bought every one they had. I still have some of that supply today but it is getting low.

This tubing I think causes the same kinda reaction as the red hooks but Whitey was using this long before they became popular.

Also with trap style baits I go by the same color scheme as for spinnerbait, rogues etc, Gold down east and lighter colors west.

Also , while I usually use a trap or spot, if I need more distance I use a ratlin rap. It's smoother rounded edges give me a lot better accuracy and distance, The rat l tap (at least for me) tends to fly erratic when you try to really sling it and get a lot of distance out of it.
The Rat lin Rap helped me get my biggest hybrid at 13lbs 11 oz as where they fed at my hotspot a trap wouldn't normally reach them.

Another trick is to put a curly tail grub on the rear treble. This seems to work really well.

Here is the picture of the tubing.

Get you Lipless cranks here - Rat L Trap - https://amzn.to/3VBxo0v

Cordell Spot - https://amzn.to/3FuS6K8

Here is the picture of my biggest Hybrid to date. A 13 lb 11 oz behemoth that measured 30 inches long. I would have never reached this fish if not for using the Rapala Rat Lin Rap.

My best from Jordan Dam

Thanks for lookin. Mack

#Liplesscrankbait

Monday, March 3, 2014

Tar River Shad and My First shad of the year for 2014

FishinCary and myself decided to go and TRY to get our first shad of the year. We decided against the Neuse since it was too high for our liking so I talked him into hitting a section of the Tar that neither one of us had been on. I have caught shad in Rocky Mount but this was a few miles down.

The fishing was slow for us today but we did put a few in the boat today. Almost all except 1 hit white curly tails with one hitting Chartreuse. We saw 6 other boats today and not one of them caught fish, however we did see a bankfisherman catch 1. Reports are that the bite in Greenville (downriver) was better today than where we were at. We did speak with 2 guys in a G3 Jon and they said that not many were this far upriver.

Today we covered about 6 miles of river . Wildlife send was Herons, kingfishers, Hawks, Pileated woodpeckers, wood ducks and a beaver. A good day fishing.

Conditions and equipment.

Water was a little high and off colored and the water temp was a cool 44 degrees.

Boat used was a Coleman Scanoe with a 2.5 mercury that I am glad I had 1 shear pin for it!!!

Reel was a Saros 3000 with 10 lb line with 1/16 and 1/8 oz arkie grubs.