Decided I'd better give the kitties a little break, and go chase some bass and bluegills for a change.
Headed over to Mantua about noon. It was pretty windy, only about 5 boats on the lake, until the pleasure squad started showing up around 5.
I boogied over to the knoll, and worked north from there. Pitching into the shrubs and trees, hooked up a palm-sized panfish, then found a feisty 10inch perch attack. Also landed a small bass. But was missing a lot of bobber bumps. I worked along the shoreline till I got to a corner, and that's where I found the bluegill beds.
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Decided to downsize, and slapped on an ice jig, with a smidget of crawler, and it was game on.
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For the next couple hours it was bluegill after bluegill. For those who worry that the Tent-City depleted the lake of our fat-flat friends, never fear. They're out there!
They may not be the biggest fish in town, but for their size, they sure do put up a fight.
Since I was about running on fumes, figured I'd better head back to shore. Never did get to trolling for trout, and really didn't get into much bass-action. But, I think I got my $5bux worth. Fun day on the water.
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Good job on thosr gills Yote. I hit the bear all day yesterday and all I got was one 3lb cat. Nasty bugger slipped out of my hands and "spiked". me in the leg. My lower leg is swollen and infected so its off to the doc in the morning.
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I hear you can pee on it and everything will be fine[
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] Dont do that...actually (truth here) you can rub the slime of the catfish on the injured area to help stop the pain...but the infection is something that a doc visit can and will help.
Nice to see you CS getting out. Weird to see a fishing post from a mod[
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]. Glad you got into them...been wondering about the Mantua puddle...looks like it is time to pay my bluegilled friends a little visit. Once again thanks for your post and pictures!
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I was there yesterday morning. pretty much the same story.. I got 4 bass in the 10-12"range. And bluegill o'plenty. I was on my toon working the southwest end. You should have busted out the fly rod on those gills. Ton's of fun!
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Yote looks like you had some fun. I like those gills they can be a blast. CV sorry to hear the cat won this round that's scary if you got infected. Hope they have some good bug killers to get ya better quick. Later j
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Ya know I was THIS >< CLOSE to doing that. After a while I realized what a school of fish was waiting under the weeds. Seemed like when a lure hit the water - there was a rush as they all came to look. Movement helped - still targets worked sometimes, but more action was better action.
Maybe someday you guys can show me how to find the bass!
What's wrong with a mod posting? Not a first, heck I never promised not to post more kitty pix either...[:p]
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Yes they were looking for a chase for sure...I wasn't using dry flies. I was using a small streamer. I would get it right in front of or over the cover. like you said... as soon as it would it the water they would rush check it out. I would let it sit there and sink until they were right on it then start to strip it in. almost just like jigging it. Then BAM!
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lucky i want to catch some nice nummy blue gills XD. nice job man
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Well with as many "edited by CYS" we have seen we thought you glued yourself to the screen by now. Ah you are young still, gotta wait for you to dry out a bit I guess until you stop fishing![:p]
You are a mod yes, but you are my favortie one! LOL!
CvFisher I blame CYS for your cat crazy attitude. When you get the results from the doc be sure to post it and call it CAT SCRATCH FEVER!!!
I call dibs on the boat BTW. Yall can try and fight me for it![laugh]
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This is a simple new pattern I tied. worked great! You can't see it to well in this picture but it has a black body with gold ribbing.
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I thought I saw you as I was walking the shoreline with my boys over to the knoll. I didn't call out because I'd look like a complete dope if it wasn't you - haha.
With my boat in the shop, we shore fished. I was afraid I was gonna get skunked. Fished from 4:30-9pm. Until about 8pm, I'd only caught 2 piddly largemouths and 2 chunky green sunfish... and 2 of those were foul-hooked from taking too close a look at my fish-foolin'-apparatus.
Anyhow, as I was about to give up, I tied on a *different lure* and - BAM! - ended up yanking out 22 worthless, skinny bass in the last 45 minutes or so.
You know you're catching some
fish when you feel a "BIG" hit and find a 9 incher on the end of your line. lol.
That's okay. For the first trip out, I'll take quantity over quality. Gotta get my fix before I can exercise patience enough to chase the big boys...
On a
der note, 3 of my boys got skunked, and the 4th that came only caught 2... Not a great way to start them out... Oh well.
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Those are some nice looking gills. I actually ate bluegill for dinner tonight too. I'd forgotten how tasty they are. I'll be keeping them more often.
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That's funny - saw your crew march out. Was hoping to hookup while you passed, so you could see there were fish out there! Problem was - the beds I was on were outside of trees that inhibited shore access. Had run into fish, and seen other shore fishers pulling in catches.
But - at least for the gills - seemed like sizing down helped my hookups.
CVf - that poking sounds rough! At least you didn't stab yourself at the same time. Those spikes are nasty. I got poked by baby yellowbellies, and it was like bee stings. Nasty!
When your healed up we'll haveta see about chasing those Preston bass.
Nice going man! Good to hear your early outing this year didn't end like the early one did with the Barney encounter last year. Also glad to see you found one of your little perchies that you love so much [cool]