Attracting fish

[gpfishingdude]

My wife and I were fishing in a lake that had about eight foot of clarity. She tossed her line out with a bobber and split shot and a small hook to fish for bluegills, I was casting a double fluke rig for bass. She wasn't getting any bites until the bluegill started following the flukes in towards the boat. About ten bluegills followed the flukes in and four of them were nibbling at her worm, three were attacking the split shot and snap the rest were just swimming around in the area. We were fishing late in the morning and the bluegill weren't hitting the worm hard but she caught enough to make her happy and I finally caught one small bass on the flukes. I am learning to fish with plastics, I have one rod rigged with the double flukes and one with a Carolina rig, now, and although I haven't hit a mother load I have found out that they both will catch bass. I am going to try two rods rigged with the double flukes the next time. I want to try a wacky worm on the deeper points and bars and over the deep weeds one of these times too.

 

[Jlawsen]

Re: Attracting fish

Two things I do when I get on the water -
1. Find the bottom at the dock and get an idea of clarity.
2. Run my hand through the water and watch for bubbles. If I make bubbles the oxygen level is probably o.k. If not, that's not a good sign.

In good water with clarity 8-12' I use bright colors like flourescent orange as an attractant. If the oxygen levels are good you can use chase baits (anything you drag) because the fish will have the energy to chase the bait. Clear water, but reduced oxygen (lake has been calm for a couple of days and cloudy) and your worms under a bobber should be the hot ticket.

In bad water with low clarity and low oxygen levels I use darker colors. My theory is that the fish are spooky and will go after shadows if its near enough to be a threat. They'll feed closer in because the clarity is better and in places with overhead cover so the air force (birds) doesn't get them. Sometimes you have to almost bop them on the nose to get their attention. The Whacky rig does this well and so does a double beaver or lizard. Throw it up on the bank and slide it into the water like it would do naturally.

The odds that any of that info is 100% correct is a 50/50 propositon.. LOL.. That's why we call it fishin and not catchin.

 

[gpfishingdude]

Re: Attracting fish

Thanks! I will check the oxygen level like that. The fish finder gives the depth and the surface temp. It has been between 77* and 79* the last times we have been out. The clarity is between 8'-12' and maybe a little more in places. I think the bass are getting skittish from all of the fishing pressure this lake gets and we are thinking about getting a raft or carry-in boat for some of the lakes that don't have boat ramps. About half of these lakes have ramps and the others are fished mainly from a few easy to get to spots on the shore line.

 

[Jlawsen]

Re: Attracting fish

When the fishing pressure is heavy, I often downsize everything. Pull smaller cranks, smaller plastics, 1/2 worm, etc. This situation is perfect for going ultra-light. Fish will eat but when they're wary, they're more likely to go after something less intimidating. You'd be suprised how well this works. I went from 4-0 tackle down to 1-0 tackle at a local lake recently and did 100% better, I caught fish when others weren't.

 

[gpfishingdude]

Re: Attracting fish

Thanks! I downsized my gear-lighter tackle- for the next time we go out but I couldn't give up my 7" watermelon seed twister tail worms. I will include some orange in the colors of lures I take along. We are going to carry in a small plastic boat and I will have to limit the amount of gear I normally take on a boat but the way I have it figured is, as long as it's in the truck we can go back and get it, if we want to. The recent rains may effect the way the fish are biting but it doesn't effect the clarity of the water where we fish because of all of the vegetation around the shore line.

 

[jigngrub]

Re: Attracting fish

I agree with J on downsizing when fishing clear water.

Downsizing your line weight and lure size is very important. I use 4 lb. test fluorocarbon line and 1/16-1/8 oz inline spinners (roostertails) in white or whitecoachdog (white with black splotches) with silver blades. I use a 5' UL rod and a 1000 size spinning reel. I've caught more fish casting with this setup than any other rod and reel I own. This rig is very light so you can cast it effortlessly all day long and not feel like your arm is going to fall off.

You'll catch small fish with this rig, but you'll also catch big fish too... so set your drag properly before you start fishing. And catching any fish is better than not catching fish at all.

Buy on of these setups and try it, you'll be amazed at the number of fish you catch... if your wife doesn't steal it first.

 

[gpfishingdude]

Re: Attracting fish

I cast every small lure I had while I baited the wife's hook with little red worms. She caught about a dozen bluegills and one small bass. It looks like the only color they like is natural worm on her little gold hook. I even tried different scents on the lures. I kept telling her this will catch fish-- BASS JUST LOVE IT- it says so right on the bottle. I am thinking about soaking my lures in a bunch of worms and trying that or adding a worm trailer to the hooks.

 

[sschefer]

Re: Attracting fish

I'm not famiiar with the waters your fishing but it sounds like you did everything right. It may sound odd but 1/2 nightcrawler is the fall back around my neck of the woods when nothing else works. I usually start the day with at least one in the water and then proceed to start throwing stuff from the tackle box. If I come across something that's nailing them I stick with it until the fish are gone or it's not working anymore. If the night crawler is getting all the attention and I've got a full box of them then that's what I stick with.

Don't ever look at a lure and say "That'll never work" because you just never know. I once fished a lake where they said the bass fishing was off. I fished it drifting a 3-0 flasher with a 24" leader on lead core with a threaded night crawler and limited out in about an hour. That all happened by accident, I was originally trolling for trout but shut down to take a phone call and wham they started hitting.

 

[emoney]

Re: Attracting fish

Amen to the "that'll never work" comment. I've seen folks catch fish with bent bottle caps, lol. I've started relying on my little Garmin GPS76's built-in Hunting/Fishing Almanac. The time seems to play a huge key, and the GPS factors in moon stage, etc. If I turn it on and it says "Good", then the fish will bite (which they do). If it says "Poor", we go cruising. Of course, our "night crawlers" are shrimp down here. Anything swimming in the Gulf will pretty much bite on a live shrimp.

 

[gpfishingdude]

Re: Attracting fish

I know what you mean about the shrimp. We fish off of docks in the Indian River during the winter months. When the fish are biting good we have to get them out fast or the pelicans or the porpoises will get them before we get the hook out. We love watching the porpoises go get them after we throw them back in though. We gave some of our fish to some young guys who were fishing off the same dock for sharks. One guy had a picture of a big shark laying on that same dock and we forgot to ask him how he got it up onto the dock.

 

[sschefer]

Re: Attracting fish

I know what you mean about the shrimp. We fish off of docks in the Indian River during the winter months. When the fish are biting good we have to get them out fast or the pelicans or the porpoises will get them before we get the hook out. We love watching the porpoises go get them after we throw them back in though. We gave some of our fish to some young guys who were fishing off the same dock for sharks. One guy had a picture of a big shark laying on that same dock and we forgot to ask him how he got it up onto the dock.

I once caught a 7' blue off the pier in San Diego and ended up calling the Sherrif to come shoot it. It litterally ripped everyones lines off their rods as it went up and down the pier. It was wierd, it swam back and forth but never under the pier or in between the pilings. Anyway, we gaffed it and then hauled it up with a couple of ropes lassoed around the tail. It was an eventful evening to say the least. A resturant chef watched the whole escapade from across the street and ended up buying the fish from me. That was the best part, I'd have probably given it to him if he hadn't offered to pay because I had no idea how I was going to con the quarterdeck watch into letting me bring it back onboard the ship I was stationed on at the time.

 

[Mark_VTfisherman]

Re: Attracting fish

I know fishing in different areas of the country have different approaches and techniques, but the dissolved oxygen test by checking for bubbles sounds hokey to me.

Bubbles *might* be an indicator of pH or of a certain concentration of dissolved particulates but I can't think of a single scientific reason for bubbles to have anything to do with oxygen content.

My 2 cents as usual...

 

[jigngrub]

Re: Attracting fish

If you really want to attract some fish, sink a few of these in your lake:

Or even these:

 

[Fishin Magician]

Re: Attracting fish

If you really want to attract some fish, sink a few of these in your lake:

Or even these:

ahh.....what are those ? something that provides cover..?

FM

 

[coastalrichard]

Re: Attracting fish

You ain't playin around, are you Jig?

 

[pdgs]

Re: Attracting fish

Wow, that's a project! Are you seriously considering putting those in the waterway. If you are, have you checked the Federal laws?

 

[oldjeep]

Re: Attracting fish

In the carribean I found that barfing into the water from a pirate ship does a good job of attracting fish

 

[OkieToon]

Re: Attracting fish

Wow, that's a project! Are you seriously considering putting those in the waterway. If you are, have you checked the Federal laws?

Around here (Oklahoma) the Corp of Engineers and others that manage our lakes provide flexible PVC tubing and cement a few times a year to any individuals that will donate their labor to make these for area lakes. Right now with our lake levels way down due to the drought you can see PVC spiders all over the lakes.

 

[jigngrub]

Re: Attracting fish

Wow, that's a project! Are you seriously considering putting those in the waterway. If you are, have you checked the Federal laws?

Those bamboo structures are alreay sunk and are holding some nice Crappie and Bass... and there's a few people around here that would really like to know exactly where they are.

Here in 'Bama they encourage us to increase fish habitat.

Our lakes are run by our power company ( and they're overseen by the COE). Every January the power company, our DNR, and various fishing clubs have a big Christmas tree sinking on our larger lakes.

So yes, it is perfectly legal here.

 

[fishrdan]

Re: Attracting fish

In the carribean I found that barfing into the water from a pirate ship does a good job of attracting fish

Chumming is illegal in some states...