Fishing Forum

Weeding my yard isn't fun, but working the weeds at Lake Shenandoah was a hoot Saturday morning. Unlike most Virginia lakes, Shenandoah is murky with a ton of weed beds. It has a little bit of everything for structrure -- riprap, laydowns, points, flats -- but nothing has been working lately. Except for weed lines.

Out of frustration, last week I tied on a triple-jointed Japanese crank I got off eBay on a whim. It runs very shallow, and I worked it atop weed beds and along the outside lines for good success. So I rummaged through my tackle box during the week for whatever else would target that shallow strike zone. Today's winner to my surprise was a white square-bill crank I got for $1.99 at Wal-Mart a few years ago. It doesn't do much, nothing like the snaking action of the triple-jointed five-inch lure. But the largemouth ate it up -- eight times in two hours in fact, including a couple of the largest bass I've caught at that lake.

While Shenandoah is dingy, the water over the weed beds is fairly clear, and it's great to see bass loom up out of a hole and strike the lure.

The little el cheapo crank's success also redeemed my favorite reel, a trusty Bass Pro Extreme. I'd shelved it after losing casting distance, but last week I cleaned it again very carefully with an eye on the bearings. The spool spins longer, so I put it back in the ODC's rack, and it caught all the fish. It gets better distance, but it still makes a rattling noise on casts. That's gotta be a bearing, right? So anyone knows a good baitcaster repair shop?
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Nice bass and report. Glad you were able to enjoy yourself. I can tell you that one of my favorite lures for trout is a cheap $1.25 spoon that most people overlook at stores for the more expensive ones. I catch a lot of trout off of that lure and stock my box with many of them. Also doesn't hurt when I lose one either.[]
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Nice report. Sometimes I get fish to bite
on stuff that you would not believe. You just never know.
They say that the very nice lures for big $$$ are to
catch the fishermans wallet more then the fish............
Anyways, thank you for sharing.

Peter
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I don't know how legal this is but my wife caught a brookie on bubble gum once.
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[quote albinotrout]I don't know how legal this is but my wife caught a brookie on bubble gum once.[/quote]


Sure, why not. Sunfish will take bubble gum all the time.
They will taste it and spit it out. If you set the hook at
the right time..............


Peter
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[quote albinotrout]I don't know how legal this is but my wife caught a brookie on bubble gum once.[/quote]

[cool][#0000ff]What I wanna know is did she have the piece of bubble gum on a hook...or was she holding it in her teeth over the water? Great visual.[/#0000ff]
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Chew the gum slightly then place on hook. Salt and bubblegum work well together. Always go for the fish kiss, not!!!!![:p]
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[cool][#0000ff]Well, just to reinforce your experience...and to help convince the doubters...there have been a lot of folks who use a little piece of gum as a fish bait. It has caught a lot of trout and sunfish...as well as who knows how many other species.[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]Most bubblegum is pink and pink is a great attractor color for many species. Surprisingly, even the snooty largemouth bass responds well to pink. There are several manufacturers of plastic baits that include "bubblegum pink" in their lineup. And, there are numerous lures and fly patterns that are mostly pink...and they often work very well.[/#0000ff]
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[url "http://www.steelheaduniversity.com/images/worms2.jpg"][/url]
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Yeah, just like TD reported. Pink is in and fish like it.
[][][cool][shocked]

Peter
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