[Deploy]

It's been a while since I've had the chance to post. Finally got out in the boat for the first time since last August. Me and a co-worker went down to LaSalle for an afternoon of trolling. We weren't doing anything special but we did have some difficulty with the yellow bird planers most of the day. I think it is time to upgrade.

We trolled for about 4 hours and wound up with 4 blues and 2 drums. We also lost 2 or 3 when the board hit the fish. 5 of the 6 fish came on the outside boards. The fish didn't like the hot stuff today. We found them mostly in the 82 degree range.

They did have one ramp closed due to the low water. We did drag a little coming back to the launch. You really need to remember to trim up for a long distance outside of the harbor.

Good Luck.

 

[moe00]

yellow bird

Put a big enough split ring on your line to stop the bird from sliding into you bait

 

[Fire In The Hole]

I went out yesterday as well, worked the shoreline with jigs and minnows. Caught a ton of small cats. If you want to take a kid fishing buy some crawlers or minnows and just drift the shoreline, you can catch well over 100 cats for the day. The size wasn't the greatest, the biggest was about 2 pounds but a good 1st fishing outing for the year.

 

[RiverRat242]

thanks for the report - I wonder if they are pumping into the river? Hard to belive with all the moisture this winter they would be low. Did you locate and bait schools?

 

[Deploy]

My fish finder isn't the greatest but there were some areas were the finder showed larger groupings of small fish. Generally on the high sides of the big holes. Again didn't mark much in the 89 degree water or on the flats. Once we started marking fish in the 81 - 83 range we tried to stay in those areas.

 

[FishinMatt]

Re: yellow bird

Put a big enough split ring on your line to stop the bird from sliding into you bait

Good tip. I'm no expert at all with boards, but I also put a bead in front of the swivel to stop the board and protect the knot, and then run a 5-6 foot leader to the lure. I use the same beads as I use for tying walleye spinners.

 

[HOEH]

if you put on a big enough bead all you have to do is run the line tthrough the bead twice and it holds fine, I use them on the big lake and do great putting the bead 3-5ft away from the lure so not to change the action of the bait, I run the offshore brand, and never had problems with them

 

[icedevice]

I heard they broke the pipe going to the river. It might be a while before they start to fill.

 

[FishinMatt]

if you put on a big enough bead all you have to do is run the line tthrough the bead twice and it holds fine, I use them on the big lake and do great putting the bead 3-5ft away from the lure so not to change the action of the bait, I run the offshore brand, and never had problems with them

Thats a great tip, thanks