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| I fished Pool 8&9 the last three days with limited sucess. The sucess I did have was pitching jigs and shad bodies/and Hutches new holographic blades in 3to 10 ft of water on current seims. The bigger of the fish came on the blades, possible reaction strikes. Anyone else pitching blades if not I think you could missing the boat. | |
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| I hear they are really catching them on pool 4 on these holo blades in gold and orange gold. What color have you been using GUS? | |
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Member
Posts: 27
| Well, Gus, I have a feeling you may not see my response, but my answer is a short, "No".
Killer Jigs made by Mrs. Clement from the Clements barge are one of the only bits of my arsenal below Genoa and Alma, however, I'll usually have a rod hanging straight down with a WR rig.
My experience tells me that during late March and early April as those big girls are spawning below the dams, you're not catching 10lbers that are eating cause their hungry - you're getting reaction strikes. I think that's why I love the killer jigs so much. They slice through the water instead of letting the current own them, and you can give them quick "pops" on the retrieve to initiate strikes.
I am, however, interested in "blades", as you call them. Are you referring to sonars or spinner baits of some sort? | |
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Member
Posts: 625
Location: LaCrosse, WI | Can't believe I missed this one for this long. I fish 7 & 8 a ton, and pitch a ton of blades. When referring to blades, he means lures like the Heddon Sonar. I make and paint my own, but there are several good sources for them. Hutch is one, Everts Resort is one, Bfishn Tackle has good blades. The key is you want the ones that are shaped like the old Heddon Sonars.
I use 1/4oz mostly. I have a few smaller ones that are good for pitching, but I rarely ever use the 1/2oz ones that are out there. I feel that if I need 1/2oz I'm fishing too deep or in too much current. There's an art to pitching blades. You don't want to rip them, you want to just lift them 3-6 inches just so you can feel the vibration of the lure. You want them to move with the current, so just a minor lift to get the action out of them and repeat as soon as it hits bottom. You'll want to pitch to your target area from several angles.
It seems that pitching at the proper angle makes more difference than where you pitch. A bait that has just the right line angle and current flow will move past more fish. The guys on pool 4 catch many many big fish both verticle jigging and pitching blades fall and spring. I personally like pitching them to wing dams in summer, but be prepared to loose plenty of tackle.
Any specific blade bait questions, please ask here. I've been fishing them most of my life. | |
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Member
Posts: 27
| Awesome feedback! I kind of figured GUS was talking about sonars. Dude, you have some great insight, I sincerely appreciate the words of wisdom. I have a box of them from over the years, I'm not sure why I never had much faith in them. A group of my good friends will be doing our annual spring weekend on the Clements barge this spring, so we're all kind of itching to hit the water... Enough so that I already ordered 2 doz. custom Killer Jigs and yellow suffix. Something about Alma and Genoa has just got us hooked. The fishing is always great, but staying at the little hotels and drinking at Rudy's is always a blast.
Thanks again. | |
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Member
Posts: 625
Location: LaCrosse, WI | If you can fish a 1/4 oz jig in that water, a 1/4 oz blade will probably put more fish on the deck for you. The reason is, you're fishing a little faster, and triggering reaction strikes. Many many, big pre-spawn females are caught pitching blade baits every year. Give it a shot, you've got nothing to loose. | |
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| rj lures have some pretty sweet (blades) blade baits too. www.rjlures.com/store | |
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| NOT SURE IF YOUR ASKING ABOUT ONE-EYED SHINER STYLES OR SONAR/CICADA/ZIP STYLES . but we have used all of the above on 8-9-10 or something like them since I was a child. In the spring the second type,(SONAR/CICADA/ZIP STYLES) has its applications , both vertically,( I seldom use them this way), but even more effectively cast and pull wind pull wind retrieved in shallow water almost anywhere for walleye in the spring and cast and stready retrieved like a crank bait in summer/fall . But they in my experience are usually no more and usually less effective than a hair jig, jig and tail. or live bait rig in spring and fall if you have already located the fish
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The one eyed shider types are most effective in current and when tossed upstream and either popped or lift dropped as you work it from up current and back to you and they are a very effective search bait...
Likewise casting zonar/zip types are effective in locating fish that aren't necessarily feeding, but more often appear to be just reacting... the thrum they make seems to be either be very attracting or very irritating but it gets strikes when the fish are not very excited about eating. I know anglers that use blades almost exclusively. But I use them as a small part of the scheme... I will tell you they can add fish on you might not normally get on those long sand flats that sometimes we go right by, mostly for the same reason a spinnerbait is effective in bass fishing... you can cover a lot of water quickly... Bryan another guide and I could have made our first pass from almost all the way from the lake all the way up to to the dam on Pool 4 a week ago hitting most of the eddies and flats in about 6 hours. The same area vertical jigging might take you a couple days or more and with a jig and tail certainly almost twice as long... because the thrum does seem to call fish in from a lot farther away. Keep in mind in spring and late fall itr isn't a stready retrieve.
Hope this helps. Lawrence
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Pools 8&9 (BLADES)