Fishin' - 8/12/11

[AtticaFish]

I was able to sneak out tonight - with no little ones on my heels. I love 'em dearly but it is nice to get a break too and be able to fish where i want and how i want.

Water levels and clarity on my 'home' river have been horrible this year and have had very few days to get out and chase any bronze backs. Sooooo, i decided i would head to an 80 or so acre reservoir that i know has a decent population of smallmouth after dinner. It is the big perfectly round "Fish Bowl' if you remember my post about it from awhile back.

Got to love it when you hook up on the very first cast. Not a lunker, but was a beautiful fish:

Water is still very clear and could spot a few here and there on some of the areas that had larger boulders. I landed 3 other smallies (all on the same jig, never switched) and this one was the :bigfish: of the day:

As the sun started setting, i changed gears and threw out a bait rod.... slip bobber (with glow stick), a full nightcrawler set 10-12 feet deep and the cats where waiting there to play. Got my limit of 6 catfish and also a bonus 9" yellow perch. I thought the perch was odd to catch since i was fishing about mid-water, 10'-12' deep over 30 or so FOW - they are notorious bottom huggers. But i will take oddity with-out question.

My conclusion: a beautiful night! Listening to crickets, an owl hooting in the distance, full moon AND fish. I'm a happy camper.

 

[SaltyBuckster]

Very nice Attica.Looks like a beautifull place with lots of fish.Great pics.

 

[Ron Don]

Man those smallies are beautiful! Great night for ya Russ. Good eats! How does the perch taste compared to other fish?

 

[CrappieHappy]

Nice...

 

[Jig Man]

Man thats great Russ. Glad you had a great trip, and an awesome story. Just a couple of questions. Number one is kinda off the wall, but what type and size baits do ya'll fish thru the ice with? "There is a reason for it" And number two... why are there no smallies on the cleaning table?

 

[StumpHunter]

Good report and those are some nice looking smalls.

 

[Radtexan]

Good job Russ,glad someone is getting to fish !!

 

[AtticaFish]

Ron Don - Yellow perch are up at the top on many peoples list of table fare fish. I would say they are right up there with bluegill on my list and have god sized fillets for their size. They do get bigger and you can get into huge schools of them and catch your limit (30 on Erie and 40 on in-land lakes) very quickly on some days.

Jig Man - I think i have kept 1 single smallmouth in all my years of fishing - and that was because i gut hooked it. They are just too fun to catch and are totaly different fighters than largemouth. They are little rockets! I DO keep a few of smaller sized LMB over the season but most of the lakes i fish are small so always worried about over harvest.

My ice fishing is done mostly with very small jigs, tipped with maggots, waxworms or cut minnows. I do use some tied jigs that have legs or dubbed bodies but usually leave room on the hook to be able to tip them with bait of somekind. Dropper Spoons caught me a lot of fish through the ice last year also. It is a casting spoon with the treble hook removed and a 2"-3" piece of mono in its place tied to a tiny jig or hook... tipped with bait/meat same as jigs. This is for panfish, guys use other larger lures for walleye thru the ice.

 

[SaltyBuckster]

That perch is the size of the snappers that we use for bait for "Doormats".

 

[Hawnjigs]

Nice rock structure, prob crawling with bugs. Any minnow forage? Bigger cats in deep water?

Looks hazardous for bank walking !

 

[AtticaFish]

Jig Man - Forgot to ask.... whats your reason for the ice jiggin questions? You planning a trip north over the winter? I suck at ice fishing, but you are more than welcome to join me sitting on a bucket.

Hawn - There are piles of larger rocks spread out here and there. Those areas hold fish consistently... gills, crappie, bass, cats and carp. I know there are walleye in there - caught a hog a few years back - but they mostly elude me. There are shad as well in here but the majority i see are over-sized, 8"-10". Rest are just fingerlings from spawners. I have caught a couple 30"+ catfish from here and all have been caught tightlining the bottom using peel/eat shrimp. Seems the 'eater' sized cats hold around the middle of the water column or higher. And yes the rocks can be tricky to walk on. I have come close to taking a swim before and a buddy of mine did take a dip by accident once. The bad part is that ALOT of the rocks are not stable and shift as you put weight on them. It's not too bad right now..... later into the fall as they use water from this reservoir for the city, the water level drops 10 to 15 feet! It is an upground reservoir, so you have to walk UP the hill to get to the top, then DOWN the rocks to get to the water. This is one of my favorite local reservoirs..... it is right around 80 acres of surface area and it holds many different species. Best part is that it is only a 15 minute drive from home.

 

[Jig Man]

Attica- No plans at this time, unless work sends me to Akron... You never know. I was just wondering what size jig to tye for the swap. I have some 1/16 oz and 1/8 oz heads, but can get some 1/32 if that would be better. I would like to spin something that ya'll would use, but that is about as small as I can go for now...

 

[Lost Pole]

You echo my thoughts in most.
All never caught to me fish, besides the cat. And I'm assuming that's a channel. Much prettier than ours. Scenery on in a diff level altogether. Let's swap for a week and trade reports.

 

[AtticaFish]

JM - Akron? I actually grew up there (Ellet/Mogadore area) till around age 12. About an hour and half drive west for me now, but i would make the trip that way...... we could talk papaperch into taking us out on Berlin i am sure.

My biggest ice jigs for panfish are 1/32's.

LP - It is a channel cat. They are nice and clean looking from these up-ground reservoirs. In cleaning this mess of fish, their stomachs were full of green weeds and algae - they are darn near vegetarians i think. At least summer and into the fall when the algae is growing heavy on the rocks. Switch places, hmmmm - not sure i like gators!!!! And we have snakes up here but NON-venomous. Risky fishing down that way - but i would sure give it a go! Maybe you could teach me how to catch a dang crappie, i think my count for this year is up to 11 now.

 

[Lost Pole]

Attica,
Sacalait are easy in the summer for me b/c my spots revolve around feeding. Go early or late find timber close to drop off and they'll be ambushing schools at one of those times more often than not.
I love crispy fried catfish and like catching them but I HATE cleaning them with a passion. I usuall will run lines for cats. I prefer Flatheads but hard to beat a blue.

And please come get the gators! They're not so bad on the river or bayou but when they get up in those pits from the river they're downright aggressive.