ODD HOOK-UPS

[efishnc]

I was out the other night (Dec. 23rd) chasing the water-borne whitetails (walleyes) and had a situation that I never thought would have happened, except maybe, other than in bar talk.  I typically fish with big baits (4 - 8 inches) after dark and seldom do I finesse for winter walleyes.  Yet because fishing was slow on my "regular" main-flow rock plies, I went to fish slack water eddies, which is not totally uncommon for me.  Here's where the rub comes in - the water was far more slack with one particular eddy than I expected it to be, and a 1/4oz was WAY too heavy, especially considering the rocky shoreline... (I don't carry anything lighter in my winter jig box).  By chance, I grabbed my bass finesse rod (spinning rod with mono) that evening as a rig to overcome potential line icing issues, should the temps get that low; as it turned out, this rod had a Do-it Freedom Fry rigged wacky style, from earlier in the year, and I'm sure everyone can guess by now... I was successfully catching walleyes on a wacky worm... in December... after dark (about 10pm).  The hardest part was (not) feeling the bite because of the slack line, but overall, this method did produce.  We caught a couple 18 inchers that we kept and turned back a handful of other shorter fish... not the quality of fish I was hoping for, but hey, it was action!

Never in my wildest dreams would I have thought of this technique until it just came together the other night; heck, I never would have thought of fishing crappies with a wacky rig until BKJ mentioned it early this spring... then a couple of weeks later, I actually caught a crappie on a wacky rig fishing for smallmouths.  I'm sure there are plenty of other "off-the-wall" experiences/methods out there and I'm just chumming the water for some other great fish stories... let's hear them.

[ctom]

I'll be up near the Minnesota side of the St. Croix River tomorrow and have a rod and a bag of jigs and plastics ready to fly with me. My goal is for some smallie action [got a few stick baits packed too] but walleyes and smallies go hand in hand with winter water. The smallies are more likely to smack a stick while the waldos will like the plastics. That's the plan anyway.

I had to pass on an offered trip to the dam in Red Wing yesterday. All I did yesterday was eat it seems and the guy with the boat snared his limit of walleye fillets for a couple nice meals. Shoulda gone, but being Christmas with Ma is declined. Now today she's out shopping and all I am doing is trying to get 500 of the 1.5" thump its shot for tail stock.

[Muskygary]

When I was a kid back in the early sixty's; I had a big river I fished with a orange colored daredevil spoon. That color spoon (orange, not red, with a white stripe)caught more big channel cats then anything I ever used. Other guys fishing with liver or stink baits etc might catch a couple of nice cats, but I usually would be good for five or six from 15 to 18 inches! I never figured out what the attraction was, but that was a catfish catcher.

[2XL]

I have caught a few walleyes on catfish worms before. Back then I would fish stink bait for cats in and around log jams from shore. In order to avoid snagging my rig ( half to 3/4oz egg sinker and one foot leader to the worm)  when reeling my line in to re-bait, I would crank my line in as fast as I could skipping it over the logs. Every once in a while a walleye would smack that worm as it hit the water between the logs just like smallies taking a surface bait.Talk about a surprise! LOL

[jmatheny9]

Every summer, I will make my way near Romney, WV. My family does a lot of camping up that way and almost every time they will break out the pool rafts and float down a section of the south branch Potomac. Around two years ago I started carrying an ultra lite rod with 6lb fluoro on it and catching at least 40 smallmouth each float (about 2-4 hours depending on the water levels.) Fishing from the bank, a stick bait is a no go in swift water but when you're floating just as fast as the bait is getting taken, I don't think there is any better thing out there to catch large smallmouth. This is why it became my number one bait and the sole reason I started making my own.

One trip last year, two summers ago, I had a 5 1/4" senko with a 4/0 GY EWG hook tied on. I cast in front of a large rock (the water takes it right around the big rocks and into the awaiting fishes mouth every time.) Usually it would be a smallmouth but not that time. I ended up fighting a 19" channel cat with an ultra lite rod, 6lb line and a baby blue pool raft...

That's one I'll never forget haha


  -Jeremiah         Bullfrog lures

[efishnc]

A baby blue pool raft is plenty funny without a fish story... excellent!

[efishnc]

All this catfish talk gets me thinking of times the whiskers surprised me on cranks, spinners, etc.... (lots and lots of times), but the most notable had to be when my buddy caught a 5lb channel cat on his torpedo while fishing smallies in about 3 foot of water.

[MO QWACK]

I was reeling in a speckle trout one day and a porous ate it, spooled  a 250 Calcutta so fast it melted a gear inside. Dang flipper

[efishnc]

I was reeling in a speckle trout one day and a porous ate it, spooled  a 250 Calcutta so fast it melted a gear inside. Dang flipper

I would have liked to seen that... it reminds me of a time when I was a kid, fishing near the railroad tracks and cast a jig onto a passing train; that pretty much ruined the drag/anti-reverse on that reel as well.

[Botanophilia]

My bro-in-law and I will often toss frogs into fast moving shallow rapids and fish topwater for smallies.  2 years ago we were doing just that and something nailed one of his.  Neither of us was sure at first what it was but it obviously wasn't a pike or bass. Only as he got it close to shore did we realize it was a walleye in the 12-14" range.   Surprised the hell out of both of us, I don't normally think of them as a fish that hits topwater baits.   I routinely catch crappie on crankbaits for bass or pike.  The most memorable was probably a 6" crappie on a 3" xrap.  My wife is an expert at catching shiners in the 4-6" range on ultralight gear when panfishing.  They have small mouths, not sure how she manages to hook them. 

[efishnc]

Neat stories Nick... I caught my first shiner (actually three of them) last winter ice fishing.