OK, this is the senario. You're on the river bank fishing on the bottom with a large night crawler for catfish 'cause you can't catch a live bream to use. You've been trying all the "good" spots to try and catch a bream, but no luck; on crickets or worms. The evening progresses and the fish begin to flop on top of the water. You put on a popper, but still nothing even sniffs at it. The river you're fishing is in the south east, Little Pee Dee; it's contents are among Flathead Cat's, Blue Cats, Channel Cats, Bullcats, Gar, Jackfish, Bream, Bass, Crappie, Mudfish, and possibly some type of herring or shad. Here's the questions:
1. What type(s) of fish would constantly breech the water, shallow and deep? (bream obviously in the shallow, but highly unlikely in the middle)
2. Are they breeching the water for feeding purposes?
3. What are some other techniques, other than the already mentioned above, to tempt a bite.
4. A "Sambiki" rig is often use offshore in saltwater to jig up live bait around structure were the water is too deep for a cast net, and or the fish are too scattered, or there is too great a risk of a snag. A Sambiki rig is nothing more that 6 to 8 tiny hooks made to resemble a tiny offering of maybe an insect or fish attached to a long leader. Would that work for jigging up live bait in fresh water as well?
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The common carp often breech the surface and are not always eating when they do. When they are eating, it is probably some sort of small fly or gnat. That's one possibility.
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Hi there,
The river carp love nice gobs of yummy moss. Caught thiem in Japan with both moss gobs, flies that looked like moss gobs. The carp is a bigtime target in Japan and they have a mix they make kinda like catfish doughballs. Stinks like it too.
JapanRon
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First of all, you can use a Sabiki to catch small bait fish in freshwater. I use it to catch small Shad on the west coast. Shad are the = to bream over there.
Second. The fish popping the top are most likely the bass or carp in search of food. Don't rule out the cats though. Cats have been known to pull summersaults on the top of lakes. They will sometimes come up and slam baitfish.
When you are going for the Cats, you are better to stay on the bottom. Just tie up a reverse dropper loop setup. (weight on the top loop, bait on the bottom)
Some cats are more sensitive to weight on the line. In that case, you will need to tie onto a swivel with a sliding sinker above and at least a 4 foot leader below the swivel.
Smelly baits work well for cats. You may want to try: Velveeta Cheese, Cut Mack, Chovy, Dine and even chicken livers cured in brine.[cool]
Those are a good substitute for live bait and works well with most species of Cats.[
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That's awesome that the sambiki rigs will work. I wanted to hear someone say they've tried/use them before I drug out my saltwater tackle. Next time I get a blimp on my fish finder, i'm going to give it a try. I've got an eight foot cast net that I double leaded, and it sinks ultra fast, but they still swim out from under it. (or through it) I've never seen any type of shad or herring come out of this river, but i'm not ruling it out now.
As far as the rig goes, we're both on the same page. [cool]I always use a "carolina rig" just like you're talking about. Leader with an egg weight connected to the line that is seperated from the leader with a swivel. I use a large Kahl (wide bend) hook, the same thing that you would use for flounder. However, I don't use a 4 foot leader, mine is usually around 1 1/2 to 2 foot. Would the extra footage really make that big of a difference?
As far as the bait goes, I target the large Flathead Cat's, so anything less than live bait just won't cut it. You'd have a better chance of seeing Jesus in the supermarket than catching a Flathead on stink bait. Flatheads are unique among the catfish species. They get bigger than all the North American species, they grow faster than all the other North American species, and they taste a whole lot better. You are what you eat, and while all the other cat's will chow down on the stinky and rotten, a flathead will turn his nose up too it. A hand-sized bream, shad, or herring is like a big fat medium rare steak to a cat.
However, when I can't get live bait, it's usually night crawlers or chicken livers. They're not too messy and they work well. I tried stink bait one time and the only thing I caught was an awful smell all over my hands and arms that I couldn't get off. I didn't know at the time that lemon juice will kill any smell you get on your hands, so I walked around for a day attracking flys. [sly]
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I prefer the longer leader when fishing for river cats. Sometimes the weights are too shiny and distracts them from the meal at hand.
As far as stink baits go, I generally stay away from the commercial ones that are out there and make my own. I will generaly use ground up Mack, Chovy, Squid and dines. I place them inside of some pantyhose material and tie that to a 2/0 circle hook.
I have had success with that for Channels, Blues and Flatheads. If I am to target only flat head, then I will use a little Crawdad and Shad oil in the mix. They have a hard time resisting a nice scent of a couple of their favorite snacks.
When you resort to the old faithfull nightcrawler, you can also inject them with a little Crawdad oil too. It doesn't kill the worm and it releases the scent that they like as well.
There are times when I vertical jig in lakes. I will use a piece of shrimp on a lead head. That has been one of my better baits with vertical jigging in nice clean water lakes.[cool]
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Injecting the nightcrawlers with crawfish oil is a killer idea. However, I have a few questions about that:
1. What type of syringe would you use to inject it?
2. Wouldn't sticking the worm on the hook cause all of the stuff you injected to come out?
3. Is there a special way to connect the worm to the hook after it's injected?
4. What kind of price am I looking at for the things i'll need to do it?
5. Is it really time consuming and worth the hassle of going through the motions each time I bait the hook?
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Hi agian,
Thinking about the carp business. I seem to remember noticing a big school of 15 pound + carp traveling across the bay and along the shoreline near the observatory at Big Bear Lake in California.
I believe they gathered and were traveling to find a place to party and make little carps.
JapanRon
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1. You can buy a commercial worm blower from most of your tackle supply stores. It is a small bottle with a small hypodermic needle on it.
2 & 3 You need to thread the worm on the hook before injecting it. The liquid will ooze out on it's own after injection.
4. The worm blower costs about 4 bucks. The oils can cost anywhere between 4 and 8 bucks depending on the brand.
5. You only have to inject each new worm that you throw down. Once you have laid a scent trail, the rest of the work is up to the fish.[cool]
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You da' man. Thanks for the info!!!!![cool]
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Anytime bro.[
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Just remember 2 things about the scents:
1. Worms don't like alcohol. (ever see the worm in the bottle of Tequila?)[pirate]
2. Stay away from scents that have glycol. ( another form of alcohol)
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