Anybody doing any fishing now?

[MemHeli]

On 6/4/2021 at 10:04 PM, 10-Ring said:

I hit Defeated Creek for an afternoon, then the next morning two weekends ago.  BIG bluegill were spawning.  Caught around 50 each day on my ultra light running 2lb line and a 1/64oz trout magnet.  Fun stuff!

so I've not used a trout magnet before.  What color bait are you using?  I saw some pink in a quick google search.  I want to build myself an ultralight rig.  Any detail on yours is appreciated.  

[OldIronFan]

7 minutes ago, MemHeli said:

so I've not used a trout magnet before.  What color bait are you using?  I saw some pink in a quick google search.  I want to build myself an ultralight rig.  Any detail on yours is appreciated.  

Love the Trout Magnet stuff. I always have a TM ultralight setup with me. If I am getting skunked on the big stuff I drag it out. Never once has it failed to catch me fish. 

Color is dependent on water but my go to are White, Bison, Pink, green/red flake. Usually on a Chartreuse head  but occasionally on black. 2lb SOS line with a 2lb fluro leader. I have landed 4 to 5 lb fish without issue on the 2lb SOS. I actually have a bass finesse rig setup with the 4lb SOS as well. 

[MacGyver]

If I had to go through and just pick one color - it would be chartreuse/white.

If the water is really cloudy I might go with a chartreuse/black or straight black.

Like above, I don't know that I've ever failed to catch something on a trout magnet. And rigged ultralight it's so much fun - my goto is a St. Croix panfish rod and a 500 size Penn Battle III rigged with 6lbs Suffix Ghost and topped with 2lbs flourocarbon leader.

[10-Ring]

My favorite is bison, but I keep a wide variety.  Bubblegum seems popular with the fish as well. I'm using the same set up as @OldIronFan.  The 2 lb sos is a must to get any casting distance out of that 1/64 oz jig.  It's getting really hard to find though, it's probably been a year since I've seen it on the shelf. 

[MacGyver]

Do y’all use it under a float? I find that helps a bunch.

I don’t know that I’ve ever used the SOS. I always mean to pick one up.  I think I usually just use some Seagur Blue Label.  Man that stuff is hard to tie. I can barely see it. 

[KahrMan]

Our neighborhood pond has crappie, bluegill and bass.  One of my favorite rigs is a tiny curly tail jig with a bobber about 2-3 feet up the line.  The bobber really lets you cast the tiny jigs.  I have a lot of crappie that way.

[MemHeli]

21 hours ago, MacGyver said:

If I had to go through and just pick one color - it would be chartreuse/white.

If the water is really cloudy I might go with a chartreuse/black or straight black.

Like above, I don't know that I've ever failed to catch something on a trout magnet. And rigged ultralight it's so much fun - my goto is a St. Croix panfish rod and a 500 size Penn Battle III rigged with 6lbs Suffix Ghost and topped with 2lbs flourocarbon leader.

How long of a leader are you running?  18". What knot do you use t tie the leader, and hook?    Thanks for the tips guys.  I"m going rod/reel/line shopping this weekend!

[OldIronFan]

Yes to the float. I would think it would be tough to cast the light jigs effectively without the TM floats. 

I run 18" to 24" of leader. I probably start a bit long so I can trim and retie a few times before I have to replace the leader and redo my leader to main line knot. 

I forget the name of the knot but I just watched the YouTube video from the trout magnet folks on how they recommend tying the leader and main line together. 

[MacGyver]

10 hours ago, MemHeli said:

How long of a leader are you running?  18". What knot do you use t tie the leader, and hook?    Thanks for the tips guys.  I"m going rod/reel/line shopping this weekend!

FG and Alberto knots are both pretty easy to tiE and work well on tiny lines/leaders.  With thin braid like the Suffix Ghost, I may do 15-20 turns.

That said, don’t shy away from just loading up some simple monofilament and going fishing.  

[MemHeli]

On 8/24/2021 at 5:54 PM, MacGyver said:

FG and Alberto knots are both pretty easy to tiE and work well on tiny lines/leaders.  With thin braid like the Suffix Ghost, I may do 15-20 turns.

That said, don’t shy away from just loading up some simple monofilament and going fishing.  

agreed on just going fishing.  Going to learn both those knots.

[xsubsailor]

 If you're all thumbs like me, this makes things a lot easier. I got mine at Basspro

[MemHeli]

On 8/23/2021 at 1:47 PM, 10-Ring said:

My favorite is bison, but I keep a wide variety.  Bubblegum seems popular with the fish as well. I'm using the same set up as @OldIronFan.  The 2 lb sos is a must to get any casting distance out of that 1/64 oz jig.  It's getting really hard to find though, it's probably been a year since I've seen it on the shelf. 

1/64th seems awful light.  I am thinking 1/32 or even 1/16th may be more along the lines of what I need to get some kind of distance out of my setup.

[xsubsailor]

On 6/27/2021 at 8:43 PM, MacGyver said:

I fished the surf in the Outer Banks last week.  Water was still right at 70F, but good redfish bite and about all the whiting you could want to keep the kids busy. 

My 12 year old has a formula.  She says one whiting equals three fish tacos.  We like fish tacos. 

 My wife was from Roanoke Island and we used to go back there every year for at least a couple of weeks. Sometimes I would leave her and the girls there and go back to pick them up a couple of weeks later.

 We didn't fish with rod and reels but the whole family was in the fishing and seafood business. We would go out shrimping, clamming, mullet netting ( they only talked me into that once ) and harvested oysters. We also had one nephew that ran crab pots so we lived on a seafood diet while we were there. Normally brought home 50 - 60 pounds of shrimp and some soft shelled crabs when we came back home to Tn.

[gregintenn]

My  boys went with me this morning down to the Cumberland river where it wasn’t crowded. We caught some catfish and bluegills. Not much to brag about fish wise, bit they are more or less grown, and I don’t get to spent much time with them anymore. It was sure fun.