Jim Gill caught this beauty on light tackle, what a fish! 43" or so.....35 pound range....big fish!
The beat just keeps going on! The weather beat along with the fishing beat! Weather has made fishing possible every day and the fishing has been getting better everyday! Makes good ole’ Walleye Pete a happy guy. This CBBT season has been the best I’ve had for getting trips done. Typically I lose around 20% of my trips…..this year I’ve lost less than 10 % of my trips. Good for me and all folks who booked trips and didn’t lose them to weather. Most importantly the light tackle jigging has been very good to all who’ve givin it a try.
Larry with one of his many on this day
This week I’ve been hitting the islands at first light with surface plugs and jigs. Every morning has been successful…..the last 3 days very successful and today (15 Dec) the most successful. I’d say in the first hour and a half we caught around 60 Stripers on BKD’s ( www.basskandydelights.com ) loaded up on 3/4 ounce jigheads. The fish were stacked and my guys today whacked’m. We were throwing them out away from the boat in 10-20′ of water….letting them fall to the bottom then sharply twitched with some retrieve….the result was lot’s of nice Stripers up to 30″ first thing today!
Chuck with a nice 32"er jigg'ed up with a big 10" BKD
Lot's of this before official Sunrise!
Along with the great early morning Island bite the pilings have been crank’in out lot’s of fish. I’ve been getting them suspended in pilings up to 60′ deep. The fish have been suspended down 20-40′ down on those pilings. When the current is really scream’in we’ve had to use up to 2 ounce jigheads to get down to the fish. When the current eases up The “Bug” from Specialized Baits tipped with a BKD or Pork Rind has been completely cream’in Stripers on the pilings.
The BUG from Specialized Baits
Today we had well over 100 Stripers on pilings and Islands. The piling bite was pretty consistant with fish up to 26″ or so. The technique working this week has been using enough weight to get the jig down to the level of the fish. The faster the current the more weight needed to get down. The best bet was to toss the jig or Bug upstream from a piling, let it fall to the approximate level of the fish and then jig it back up through the fish. More often than not we were hitting good numbers of nice fish with this technique. Remember one thing with jigging…..”it’s all in the twitch”…..gotta twitch it good!!!!
With the right "twitch" the stick bends real good!!!!
Jamie Gill has a heck of a twitch and a sense of exactly where his jig is in the water column……his dad Jim caught the biggest but Jamie was magical with the wand……he caught all day non-stop….awesome!!!!
One of my favorite trips to do is father/son/son’s trips. I’m fortunate enough to get many of those kind of trips. A great one this week was a dad and his 2 sons. The boys hadn’t really light tackle fished for Stripers before. Dad had fished with me before and has practiced what he learned for a few years. The boys needed help….dad was laughing at them while he was catching fish in the pilings. With some good ole’ fashion teach’in the boys were on it quickly….as dad was wear’in out…the boys caught and caught and caught some more…..on this day we were jigg’in pilings with 3/4 or 1 ounce jigs loaded with Chartruese Glitter BKD’s……great day with a great dad and his boys!!!!
Nothing like it!!!!!
Over the last few days the numbers of fish have increased and the size is nice. Many fish over 28″ with some over 34″ coming around the islands and in the pilings. The Eeling bite is getting good and will probably get better. I’m not doing it but many folks from the marina I’m in are doing it. They are getting some really big fish at night at the CBBT/Highrise area. It’s slow fishing but boy do they get some huge fish.
If you are coming down and want a report of whats going on give me a call…..really! I’ll let you know what I know…..there’s plenty for all of us to jig up down here!!!