Fishing from the weekend.
 

I fished some of the smaller rivers I know this weekend with a trout magnet. I caught a good amount of blue gill with a few being decent size. I did catch a couple nice shell crackers and one Monster Large mouth. I was looking for a change of pace, I did throw a D bomb for a few and caught a keeper large mouth but I really enjoyed just getting out and catching fish. I will say I struggle fishing the TM without the float. We need some rain, all the rivers where really low and stagnant. The stretch I fished today, when full should be really good. Tons of lay downs and a really nice stretch of rocky bank. I will have to check it in the spring for crappie, not sure how smaller rivers do with crappie.

Thats a nice shellcracker there!

Got to love the shell cracker fishing.....good looking fish. The fall bite for them appears to be on...that is why I'm headed to Pickwick again this week. Got to get them while I can. Some folks have trouble twitching the Trout Magnet. It is a cadence thing almost like having a nervous twitch. Sounds like a good trip.

Regards

Do you let it just drift back to the yak while twitching?

I have luck with a very slow reel while a very fast twitch so the bait actually almost dances around


Mike

That's it...Mike has it down.....seen him fish it. I do the same thing. browntrout is a good fisherman but he too likes to fish it under the float....not too much twitching. Some guys do both and some either twitch or float it. I like doing both but twitch 90 percent of the time....but man it is neat to see that float go under. But fishing for shell cracker you have to be just about on the bottom so I twitch.

Regards

Went wading this weekend and had quite a bit of luck. Caught about 20 overall 12 blue gill and brim and 8 bass 3 of which were nice little small mouths. They are in the pics below. All were caught with crappie magnets magnets with the floats.

I do both.

For the cadence its definitely something that you just get with time fishing it. I associate it with picking up a new rod at the store. The first thing you do is give it a shake to see how it feels. Just do that on the retrieve.

I troll them in the yak Juice. You can catch them that way too. Add a BB shot, long cast then paddle or drift enough to keep the line from falling all the way vertical. Its slow lazy fishing but I catch crappie, gills, whites and a ton of trout this way.