Six Species Slam at Pineview

[TubeDude]

[cool][#0000ff]Been itchin' to hit Pineview, to see if the fishies are in their late fall or winter mode yet. Also wanted to test my tube cart for getting all my gear down to the water...and back. It worked fine.[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]Got launched about 8 AM, at the bottom of the hill near the caretaker's facilities...near the dam. Damn. That hill doesn't get any better as I get older.[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]Air temp 35 and water temp 54 at launch. Shoulda knowed not to work the deepest spots yet. But, I wasted two hours bottom bouncing in 50 feet of water. Saw lots of fish, but they all had lockjaw. Not a tweak in the first two hours. [/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]Finally got smarter and moved over to an area that has produced well at other times. For the next three hours I got over a hundred fish...of six different species. Got about 15 to 20 bluegill...up to 7". Got several smallies up to about 12". Lots of fingerling largemouths. Must be a nursery area. A bunch of bitty perch. Shorter and skinner than the last two years. Finally found some crappies and caught five...when I could get my jig down to them...or back up to them...without a bitty bass or perchette smacking it.[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]The surprise of the day was a bullhead catfish from about 30 feet of water on a glow werm jig with a piece of perch meat for bait. Hit hard, fought well and surprised the heck out of me. [/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]Almost had 7 species. As I reeled in something small, I had a sudden heavy weight on my light rod and 4# line. I slow pumped it up where I could look down and see "color". It was something about a yard long with vertical bars. When it saw me it did a couple of barrel rolls and an immelman and my line went slack...cut clean. Hmmm. Wonder what it might have been.[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]There were tons of fish staging in deep water, including what appeared to be clouds of fry...fish food. As the water continues to cool it should be good up there in open water, and hopefully even better through the ice.[/#0000ff]
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[FISHAMANIAC801]

[] Nice post tubedude.. glad too see someones been chasin the panfish at the view besides me..I too noticed that there were many fish out deep but more active fish in shallow which included a grundle of baby largies.. I got all my crappies last week in 20ft er less..Did you happen to notice if any water was tricklin out of the dam ?? I will b up tommorow after work till dark..Thanks fish on ..FISHAMANIAC..[][]
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[TubeDude]

[cool][#0000ff]Sorry, did not get a look at the river flow on the way down. I was stuck between two kamikaze drivers who kept things interesting enough that I didn't take in much scenery.[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]Most of the crappies I saw on sonar today were at about 20 feet...but some were suspended over water as deep as 35 feet. However, as you observed, the more active ones were in shallower water. I actually got a couple right on the bottom in about 24 feet.[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]Interestingly, they are feeding on zooplankton...not minnows. During the winter a lot of the crappies we catch have perch fry in them. Didn't keep anyof the other species for CSI results.[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]Good luck.[/#0000ff]
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[bassrods]

It makes it fun not to know what your going to catch...Nice looking crappie, and nice to see a few small LM bass...

Were the LM as deep as the crappie and perch???
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[kochanut]

a yard long with vertical bars? you must have snagged someones back yard fence!
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[RyanCreek]

That's exactly the same spot where I spent some of my time fishing on monday trying exclusively for tigers with some jigs and rattlin' rapalas with no luck.

That would not be a fun hill to take a tube down!

I really need to learn to find the panfish first, and then try for tigers. The stories are usually all the same, "I was fishing for perch and doing well, then suddenly......."

Cool fish. I didn't know there were bullheads in there.
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[TubeDude]

[cool][#0000ff]There were swarms of both smallmouth and largemouth fry...4" to 6"...in shallow water...from 8' to 16' deep. The crappies were all in water from 20 to 30 feet deep. The perch seemed to be in water deeper than 25' deep, but I did not get any hits deeper than about 30 feet. [/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]As the water gets cold, however, the fish will all move out deeper. On my tubing trip in early December last year, water temp was 39 and I got all species right on the bottom between 45 and 50 feet. [/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]The shallow flats near rocks, down by the dam, have always been a popular spot for young bass to hang out. Bluegills too. In the olden days we used to fish for tons of big bluegills from shore with long lines under a slip bobber about this time of year.[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]I suspect that there are still a few tigers holding in the area since there are plenty of groceries along the shoreline.[/#0000ff]
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[TubeDude]

"That's exactly the same spot where I spent some of my time fishing on monday trying exclusively for tigers with some jigs and rattlin' rapalas with no luck. "

[cool][#0000ff]That spot has become a known hangout for late season tigers. They go where the groceries are and the panfish gravitate there as the waters cool.[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]But, it is a two sided coin. Tigers follow the food, but if the food is too plentiful they do not hit lures as readily or as often. With all of the bitty bites in shallow water still, I suspect that most of the toothy critters are well fed.[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]That is a good area to try for tigers through the ice too. If you have good sonar, know how to use it and have a rod properly rigged with a big tube you can watch for a tiger to appear somewhere in the water column and then send down your "tiger tamer". But, as we both know, it is more common for someone to either hook one on a small lure being fished for other species...or to have the top predator decide he wants your struggling perch or crappie more than you do. Tigers usually win those disputes.[/#0000ff]
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[WaveWolf]

[#500000]Yeah!....Particularly with 4 lb. line.....WW.[/#500000]
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[LloydE]

Another great report! I recognized all of the lures you used except one. Was the glo-jig on which you caught the catfish one the newest versions of the "Perch Urchin"?

It is great fun to catch a bunch of different species; makes the catching of fish more suspenseful and interesting.
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[TubeDude]

[quote LloydE]Another great report! I recognized all of the lures you used except one. Was the glo-jig on which you caught the catfish one the newest versions of the "Perch Urchin"?

It is great fun to catch a bunch of different species; makes the catching of fish more suspenseful and interesting.[/quote]

[cool][#0000ff]Crappies were my primary target. I can catch most of the others at other lakes. I figured I would probably score a few perch and maybe a smallie or two. I was surprised by the variety myself. If I had brought in the tiger, or caught a carp, or caught one of the big trout in Pineview...IF...I would have really had a multi-species day.[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]The "Glow Werm" in the kitty picture does not show up too well. Here is a link to a pic I posted in another thread a while back. [#000000] [/#000000][url "http://www.bigfishtackle.com/cgi-bin/gforum/gforum.cgi?do=post_attachment;postatt_id=20072"][#63626b]GLOW WERMZ.jpg[/#63626b][/url][/#0000ff][#000000] (35.3 KB)[/#000000]
[#0000ff]The "wermz" are just PBJ's with some glow added for fishing in deep water or under the ice. For some reason they really work well at Pineview late season and ice fishing.[/#0000ff]
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