Fished the MSC Turkey Derby yesterday. With temperatures around 20 and the rain the day before, everything on the boat was frozen, including the trolling motor. With the tm frozen solid to the cradle and not budging no matter what I tried, I floated around aimlessly from 6:30 until 9 with a couple of freelines out. When the ice melted and the motor able to be diployed, I made a beeline to Black’s, put out the spread, and fished 35 minutes along the river channel for a 6-13 and a 21 incher. Then, it was back to Acapulco for a 10:30 weigh. Glad I only bought 2 dozen herring:smiley: Captain Bill Bortz won the pot with a 9 and change.
Today, I enjoyed some perch jerkin’ with Diddy and Spoonmaster. We got atleast 50 decent ones in 4 or so hours of fishing around the Elbow. 27 feet was the magic depth for perch with the white 1/2 ounce Berry spoon… Fun times on the H2O!
Fog, Thanks for the perch fishing trip. I had a great time and always enjoy fishing with you and your Dad. I’ve got a young friend from work who might be able to help me get the toon boat floating before too long. A lot depends on his honey-do list. Hopefully the lake is as low as they plan on dropping it. I’m wondering if dropping the lake will be a yearly event. If so I might see if I can dig a channel out beside the dock, long and wide enough, to keep the toon boat floating. I’d only need to dig down about 2 feet to accomplish it.
Always great to have you join us Spoon! Wish we could have drug your toon off the bank, but it’s too shallow for me to trim down for enough torque. Diddy has some good ideas if your buddy at work can’t help you.
During the turkey derby we fished up the little saluda and followed the birds and we cought 9 keepers on free lines an planner boards. All caught on herring the biggest one was like 6lbs. It was a good fun cold!! Morning
Way to go Weston!! Good post! We need to get on the water one if these days! Fog, thanks for your reports, you always do it good gor the board and the club!
Sportsman Heritage 229 CC
Yamaha 200 HP
Jeremiah 29:11 !!
How do you guys rig the Berry spoons? Do you bend them? Do you use a split ring, snap lock, swivel, or just a loop knot? Appreciate any help, just got some Berry spoons and plan to learn this new to me technique.
I never bend the Berrys, but I know some folks do. My preferred way to rig a spoon is to tie it to about 24" of line that is attached to a good barrel swivel. This helps prevent line twist and doesn’t hurt the action of the spoon. I also prefer fluorocarbon line as it doesn’t stretch as much as momo and is basically invisible in water. Replacing the standard treble hook with a larger red treble hook completes my rigs. The larger hooks really help when a big striper or catfish hits the spoon. If I could only have one spoon, and was hungry for fish, it would be the 1/2 ounce white with silver reflector. I’ve probably caught more fish on that size and color than all of the other spoons that I own combined. I have tried many, many sizes and brands of spoons, and continue to experiment with sizes and colors. Usually I start fishing with two different colors of Berrys to see which color the fish prefer. I would reccommend having atleast one chartreuse and one gold Berry to try in very dingy and very clear water. Peel the reflector off of the chartreuse spoon for best results (try it with the reflector on and then with it peeled off). You’ll definitely see a difference. Generally, work the spoon aggressively with short quick jerks, being sure to normally make contact with the bottom on every fall. Keep the line semi tight on the fall, as that’s when a lot of strikes will occur. My above comments are how I usually fish the spoons from fall to early spring. See if you can get some input from Fogman too. He’s a top notch spoon fisherman!!
Thanks Spoon! You know I enjoy it for both stripes and perch. Boatpoor, use a low profile baitcaster with 10 pound line for the smaller perch spoons. For spoons an ounce to 4 ounces, I use a heavier Daiwa baitcaster with 20 pound line. I place the reel and rod butt across my knee and pump the rod spanish mackeral style with heavy spoons. This prevents any fatique. With perch spoons, using my wrist is not a problem… Everything Spoon mentions with rigging and jigging is spot on! He is truly a master of the spoon:sunglasses:
Seriously, nice pics and post Weston!