Fish'N Impossible

If you can, this early head too the Dam and fish for Smallies. Drop shots and small spoons or anything else you think you can get them too bite. Do this and you will beat your PB, some of those smallies are tanks.

to me the first question to ask is of the individual angler. 1) what bait do you personally feel you get bit on the most? 2) ifyou goto a place you have never been what is the first bait you put in the water? if they know these they have a good understanding of what that individuals strengths are, and what baits they have confidence in. then their kit should be designed around those strengths. Panic kits are not a box of goto lures because people say they work, its a kit of lures you personally canmakle work in any situation. thats where i would start Dave.

Short list: 1) Bomber Squarebill 2A 2) Powerteam Lures Food Chain Tube 3) Power Team Lures JP Hammershad 4) *** Jigs (chatter and standard) and the king of em all (drum roll please) 5) Southbend Lures Nip-I-Diddee

Favorites are: 1) JP Hammer Shad from Powerteam Lures or their Grubs. 2) Skinny Dipper from Reaction Innovations. (cut a little off the head) 3) 3.5" Craw D'oeuvre from Power team Lures I have had great results with the JP Hammer Shad. It's my goto trailer on everything Spinnerbaits, Swim Jigs, and chatter baits. Heck if it wouldnt mess with the action on a crankbait I would probably try it there too. Those things are Awesome.

Thanks, I will definately give it a look this year....after the Ice Thaws...uurrrgh!!!

The hollow body frog the Hogs are Smash'n!! I have a collection of hollow bodies and for some reason the fish are picky from day to day. Be killing a spro one day and not look at it the next, but tie on a Live Target and get it crushed.

Guess I'll have to check it out sometime this year. Always thought about it but never did because of the water clarity. What time of year is your preference to use this set-up? and do you concentrate on using it just in finess situations?

haven't really tried it I am afraid the water I fish is too murky. I always believed this to be more of a sight technique please correct me if I'm wrong.

Around here the window from pre-spawn to spawn is extremely tight. See, all of our water is 3-6 ft deep (entire lakes) so isolating bass movements are very hard considering there is no actual deep water. Our pre-spawna and spawn are actually more dictated by structure and cover than anything else. Pre spawn they gather onand around structure locations and spawn they isolate to spots of cover.

I am really partial to the *** Lures crazy Jig. Travels and looks diffrent than the standard bladed jig everyone else uses. https://nutechlures.com/index.php/

Doing the research on Lake Ronkonkoma it tends to be of good clarity so this will allow for photosynthesis to occur at greater depths, which allows an increase in Oxygen production and permits this lake to maintain good Dissolved Oxygen (DO) levels past the Thermocline. Another property of the lake that helps it maintain a good DO level is the fact the water turns solid in the winter. Although this decreases photosynthesis during the winter it permits the water to fully turn twice a year driving DO into deeper portions of the lake making it actually quite plausible to fish those deep holes early spring due to the DO from the surface water rolling down deep. As the year continues, however, and heat rises the lake will stratify again with a Thermocline and a Chemocline. Depending on clarity this lake should be good to fish a little below the Thermocline but fishing will die out at the Chemocline. Based on what I have read during the research I would “guess” that during the summer months the Chemocline will form at around 17’ to 20’ ultimately killing the fishing at any depth past that. So as far as Oxygen levels and depths I hope that kind of answers your question.

its possible to catch them deeper than that yet. it has to do with the water clarity and Carters is very clear. If your water is clear you can support more algea and photoplankton at deeper depths and they are responsible for most of the Dissolved Oxygen(DO) in the water columns.

Most of them lakes around here, Ohio, are full of pad fields. Most of our lakes here are only 4-6 ft deep though. In the summer months this is precisely how I tackle areas of Pads. 1. On the approach starting 25-40 ft away I cast around the outside lines of the field with small spinner bait. 2. closing in on the pad field I start flipping a 1/4 oz black/blue jig with a short trimmed skirt and a sapphire blue chunk (not threaded on just stuck so it freely moves around). when you flip in let it drop to the bottom then slowly lift it to just below the surface and shake it 5 -6 times and let it drop, they will smash it on the fall, no bite pull out and flip again. this is good for about the first 8-10 ft of the pad field. 3. Once I am on the pad field I flip a nose weight rigged 4.5" FTC tube as a punch style set-up. Use 3/8 to -1/2oz weight and flip it in the deeper pads. This time you let it fall to bottom then just barely move it off the bottom and shake it 5-6 times drop it down repeat 3-4 times no takers re-flip. The reason I approach this way is the active feeders are located on the pad edges and easy to pick off with spinner bait. If you just roll up to the pads you have spooked a good deal of fish before you even cast once. Using the light jig and free floating chunk does a great job simulating a blue gill sucking off the bottom of the pads and most bass in this area of the pads are looking for bigger meals and this set-up gives them the bulk they are looking for. In the 3rd part of this those bass deep in the pads are generally not actively feeding and more sitting on bottom and resting, putting that tube in their face and shaking it gets you that reaction/ aggression strike. This is how I work the shallow pad fields here in Ohio and it has proven to be very effective through the years. I am sure there are several other approaches but this is the one that works for me.

If i buy Jigs that are not hand tied I generally tie them as soon as i get them because the last thing I want is be in a tournament figure out a collor and that skirt fall off when i grab it. If you don't like Siebert jigs there are plenty of other jig makers out there. I personally use Destroyer Jigs http://destroyerbaitcompany.com/ Jeff will do anything you want and he's a vet.

Seining net is how we always did it. We would head to a creek or feeder channel and cast a net. Seemed to work well for us, just check your local regulations to insure you're not violating any local laws.

Where I am I on the decent lakes our average fish is starting to push the 2lb mark. Over the past 10 years the ODNR (Ohio Department of Natural Resources) has done an amazing job increaseing the health of our fisherys. 10 years ago the average bass was .75 to 1lb you would win tournaments with a 6lb bag consistently. In todays tournament conditions it takes 12-16lbs to win, 17-19lbs in early spring.

Being from Ohio we experience the gambit of weather conditions daily. Looking at the weather from Thursday and Friday the temps in your area have been pretty consistant but the only change has been the moisture / rain. Looking through the past weekend even carrying into next week the temps are very consistant so unfortunately what you are dealing with is not a "cold" front but a "dry" front. The standard conception of a cold front is the rain, but alot of times the rain comes and there is no major change in temperature. When this happens it's just a storm front followed by a "dry" front. Under those conditions not much will change in the way of fish activity but the location will change, but not like you think. You will have to downsize your baits a touch but you won't have to really slow down as trhe fish will maintain about the same activity level. If you go out during one of the storms they should be suspended over structure, once the rain stops they are going to push up, nose to the bank and stalk the new waterline created from the run-off. The run-off will also carry new neutrients into the water that attracts baitfish too. Once the water level starts to drop again the bass will move back out to their regular locations for this time of year. This is justy my experience in dealing with fronts here in Ohio, California bass may be more fickle due to not experienceing the frontal changes as we do on a consistent basis.

Anything under 10" here in Ohio is a dink. if it is just under 12" we refer to them as "small" or "little" ones. those just over 12" are "squeekers", and all those 18" or more we check our maps because we might be in KY.

My general rule of thumb is if it has treble hooks I am throwing Mono. The stretch helps reduce the amount of pressure applies directly to those little treble hooks, and reduces the number of lost fish.

Lakes In western Ohio stretching through to Eastern Indiana are probably the toughest lakes around. Average depth is 6ft, water clarity is always murky, and a huge lake is 15000 acres with most averaging 5000. They are mainly old swamps that were converted to lakes so they get all their water by field run-off with temps that run in the high 80's from bottom to top from June on. Most of these lakes host 4 to 5 tournaments a weekend and 2 during the week, plus your local angler pressure.These conditions make crazy tough fishing after april till the freeze....oh yeah forgot to mention, that freeze limits all this pressure to 8 months.

my understanding of "Power" Fishing has nothing to do with the lures you choose, it is speed and targets. You fish non stop trolling motor down always moving and only cast to high probability locations with yout lures; pitch to the dark spot on a stump, cast you spinnerbait through that small grass line and so on. stopping to soak a lure or shake it more than twice and your finessing it.

Yes i get that I was going to offer you what i know about the general clairity of the lake. If it is less than 10" clairity then here in ohio we call that stained as long as the water is more than 4ft deep (less than 4ft then its murky or chocolate milk). Sounds a lot like all the other lakes here in Ohio. as far as blades on spinnerbaits I routinely use Indian blades on our lakes and only use willow on bright sunny days or when i am burning or waking the bait.

Which Lake are you on Hootie? I am from Ohio and been to most of them and might be able to help you out.

Most of the pad fields we have here in Ohio are precisely like this, heck most of our lakes are only 4-6 ft deep. Here is how I approach these areas. 1. On the approach starting 25-40 ft away I cast around the outside lines of the field with small spinner bait. 2. closing in on the pad field I start flipping a 1/4 oz black/blue jig with a short trimmed skirt and a sapphire blue chunk (not threaded on just stuck so it freely moves around). when you flip in let it drop to the bottom then slowly lift it to just below the surface and shake it 5 -6 times and let it drop, they will smash it on the fall, no bite pull out and flip again. this is good for about the first 8-10 ft of the pad field. 3. Once I am on the pad field I flip a nose weight rigged 4.5" FTC tube as a punch style set-up. Use 3/8 to -1/2oz weight and flip it in the deeper pads. This time you let it fall to bottom then just barely move it off the bottom and shake it 5-6 times drop it down repeat 3-4 times no takers re-flip. The reason I approach this way is the active feeders are located on the pad edges and easy to pick off with spinner bait. If you just roll up to the pads you have spooked a good deal of fish before you even cast once. Using the light jig and free floating chunk does a great job simulating a blue gill sucking off the bottom of the pads and most bass in this area of the pads are looking for bigger meals and this set-up gives them the bulk they are looking for. In the 3rd part of this those bass deep in the pads are generally not actively feeding and more sitting on bottom and resting, putting that tube in their face and shaking it gets you that reaction/ aggression strike. This is how I work the shallow pad fields here in Ohio and it has proven to be very effective through the years. I am sure there are several other approaches but this is the one that works for me.

Being in central Indiana my bet's your spawn is over. They were most likely herding the baitfish like lambs to the slaughter.