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Finnally something other than sheephead!!


Jeremy airjer W

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I decided to hit the river on Sunday for a couple of hours. Right of the bat I noticed the folks that where fishing off the point down by Prescott had a basket of what I hoped where sauger. I deceided to give that area a shot as long as I was passing through and as usuall no luck.

I headed up to the bluffs regional park and tried working the west side of the river just north of the park. I saw plenty of smallies, carp, and gills on the camera, but they definitely where not biting on anything I showed them. This was also confirmed by the other boats that came and left while I was there.

I had about an hour of sunlight left and decided to check out another spot I've had my eye on. It has a rock face at the shore and a drop off that went from about 6 feet to twenty + feet within the width of my boat. I lowered the camera and holy cow, crappie heaven!!

I tied on a perch go-devil tipped it with the head of a fat head and started realling them in. They where not breaking any records for size (12" was the largest) but they where biting fast and they where not sheephead!!

I might make a couple more trips down there before I put the boat away. I think the first year of river fishing with a boat went well. A fair number of walleye and sauger in the spring, some nice smallies over the summer, Plenty of sheephead, one of the largest carp I have ever caught, A few rock bass, a couple of gills (boy do they have some funky color out of the river), and know a bunch of crappies.

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Don't put your boat away now. River season is just atarting. You could actually keep your boat in storage during July, August, and half of September. We have at least 2 months of great fishing coming up! Nice job on the Crap's!!!

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Airjer, I found some crappies on saturday too. Mine were suspended in 15-25 feet over some sunken brush. I wonder if they will bite better toward dark as when you caught them? I'm gonna have to test the theory soon. The walleye and sauger bite will get better into october and november so keep the boat out for a little longer. Many times I see fish suspended on the graph, but I don't usually have the camera with me. I usually think they are white bass, sunfish or crappies. Might have to bring the camera more often to find out.

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I like to use the camera more in the winter but I have found it very helpfull to see whats going on down there in the summer as well. I usually find a spot with a map and the graph then throw the camera over to see what is down there. Then I pull it back into the boat and start fishing if I like what I see!

I've also found it usefull to target fish at specic depths. I'll lower to the bottom and raise it untill I find the suspended fish. I grab the cable at the waterline and start to pull it in using my arm span as the measuring device. I now know exactly where they are suspended and set the bobber stop accordingly. This really works slick for crappies!

I might wait to put the boat away until the end of october.

If you see a goofy looking guy in an old lund with no stickers in a place that doesn't seem right, that will be me trying to figure out this river thing!!! Stop buy and say high!!! grin.gif

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Air-paint your camera cord every foot... and change colors every foot so its easier to count.... wink.gif

I use my Aqua-Vu all year!

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Them crappies will bite all day long!! I know what spot your talking about I think and at times they will shift shallower or deeper but not much at all. We usually drag a 1/16-1/32 oz jig with a fathead on it and have the best luck when we get them just bumping the bottom. There usually spread along them shorelines pretty good thru the day and you have to stay on the move to keep on active fish. I drag them jigs pretty slow also .3-.5 mph. We usually catch a few sheepies to grin.gif Man I love those things

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Dang - I have to remember to through the AquaView in the truck... I bought one this spring when they went on sale and always forget to take it out on the boat...

I have a question/problem that would make using it much easier - it's a real pain to unwind the cable by hand, drop the camera down, wind it back up, etc. Anyone know of a cheap/easy fix like some sort of hand-cranked spool you can use to drop and retrieve the camera?

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Nice tip dietz!!

I guess that falls into the "why didn't I think of that" catagory! grin.gif Thats been happening a lot lately!!!

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We were out on Sunday and picked up a couple nice crappies fishing the bluffs for smallies. My buddy got two that were between 10-11" on a 2" white Mr. Twister.

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