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Caught 12 trout to 25 inches and 2 mid slot reds.
Started out with bone one knocker fishing mud and shell near a sand bar. Had 5 strikes on the one knocker ... all missed. Nope not me, just the fact that a topwater does not have a 100% hook up ratio.. I think we all know that; especially this time of year, trout hit topwaters with an almost closed mouth trying to capture small forage in a closed lipped fashion. I switched over to the TSL and it was game on.. 5 misses with a topwater and then an immediate hook up with the Pink TSL. I did finally catch one trout on the one knocker as I love topwater blowups like the next guy. Went back to the TSL after that and especially with the midday sun coming on. Hit a south shoreline area with some slicks popping and it was game on. Ended with 12 trout to 25 inches (all CPR) and 2 mid slot reds.
Trout were where I found glass minnows and I saw a trout slick and knew how to approach it.. just like the Limits DVD on how to work trout slicks. find an area with key sign and if you catch one trout park the boat or yak on the shoreline and get out and wade it. This will have you fish higher percentage areas more thoroughly. The trick is knowing when to get in for the wade and when to cover water. That comes with knowledge from many sources and time on the water. I prefer to wade as I can control where i'm fishing much more. Approach to an area is also very important as well. These fish weren't far off the shoreline and had I been trying to stay in any boat I'd have been in the boat right on top of them spooking them. In the end one little stretch of shoreline produced 11 trout, mostly solid fish from 18 -23.. one that was just a hair over 25. Reds were nice mid slot fish.
I was working the bait in anywhere from thigh deep water to almost chest deep. I've found that fishing this area with the bait is best with a slow retrieve much like fishing a plastic worm for bass. But the fish were nailing it. I start with a slow pull with the rod and then at the top I add a couple twitches to make it walk then reel up the slack and repeat over and over. The fish were hitting it on the slow pull mostly and that was great because I could really feel them thump it hard.. I have video of several of the strikes and if I can get to it I'll slow down the speed of the clip to slow mo and you can literally see the rod vibrate with the thump. Very solid hits. The key with this bait, and all weedless rigged baits, is to not set immediately but instead reel down the line while pointing the rod at the fish, do this to take up slack out of the line, but don't let the fish feel the pressure.. you don't have to take up a lot of line.. just a couple of turns of the reel, then set the hook hard. As a note, I start with a tighter drag .. almost to where a 5lb trout could barely pull the line out if I couldn't back the drag off in time. With the drag tight and the slack out I set the hook sharply with some power. I've only very rarely had a 'skin tear-out' with a trout as the swimbait style hooks are setting mostly into bone and cartilage and not right beneath the skin. As soon as I set the hook I back off the drag. With this method my hook up ratio is in the 90%.. probably a little higher with redfish. This is the same hook up ratio I have with jig heads and topwaters. It works. Bone Diamond and Pink did the best. I did catch some on Chicken on a chain on Saturday .. half dozen fish on saturday on it as well.
Started out with bone one knocker fishing mud and shell near a sand bar. Had 5 strikes on the one knocker ... all missed. Nope not me, just the fact that a topwater does not have a 100% hook up ratio.. I think we all know that; especially this time of year, trout hit topwaters with an almost closed mouth trying to capture small forage in a closed lipped fashion. I switched over to the TSL and it was game on.. 5 misses with a topwater and then an immediate hook up with the Pink TSL. I did finally catch one trout on the one knocker as I love topwater blowups like the next guy. Went back to the TSL after that and especially with the midday sun coming on. Hit a south shoreline area with some slicks popping and it was game on. Ended with 12 trout to 25 inches (all CPR) and 2 mid slot reds.
Trout were where I found glass minnows and I saw a trout slick and knew how to approach it.. just like the Limits DVD on how to work trout slicks. find an area with key sign and if you catch one trout park the boat or yak on the shoreline and get out and wade it. This will have you fish higher percentage areas more thoroughly. The trick is knowing when to get in for the wade and when to cover water. That comes with knowledge from many sources and time on the water. I prefer to wade as I can control where i'm fishing much more. Approach to an area is also very important as well. These fish weren't far off the shoreline and had I been trying to stay in any boat I'd have been in the boat right on top of them spooking them. In the end one little stretch of shoreline produced 11 trout, mostly solid fish from 18 -23.. one that was just a hair over 25. Reds were nice mid slot fish.
I was working the bait in anywhere from thigh deep water to almost chest deep. I've found that fishing this area with the bait is best with a slow retrieve much like fishing a plastic worm for bass. But the fish were nailing it. I start with a slow pull with the rod and then at the top I add a couple twitches to make it walk then reel up the slack and repeat over and over. The fish were hitting it on the slow pull mostly and that was great because I could really feel them thump it hard.. I have video of several of the strikes and if I can get to it I'll slow down the speed of the clip to slow mo and you can literally see the rod vibrate with the thump. Very solid hits. The key with this bait, and all weedless rigged baits, is to not set immediately but instead reel down the line while pointing the rod at the fish, do this to take up slack out of the line, but don't let the fish feel the pressure.. you don't have to take up a lot of line.. just a couple of turns of the reel, then set the hook hard. As a note, I start with a tighter drag .. almost to where a 5lb trout could barely pull the line out if I couldn't back the drag off in time. With the drag tight and the slack out I set the hook sharply with some power. I've only very rarely had a 'skin tear-out' with a trout as the swimbait style hooks are setting mostly into bone and cartilage and not right beneath the skin. As soon as I set the hook I back off the drag. With this method my hook up ratio is in the 90%.. probably a little higher with redfish. This is the same hook up ratio I have with jig heads and topwaters. It works. Bone Diamond and Pink did the best. I did catch some on Chicken on a chain on Saturday .. half dozen fish on saturday on it as well.
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