Like Raising The Dead

[Hexagenia51]

Went out shortly before sunrise and set up on a seven and a half foot deep weed bed. Found fish glued to the bottom in most holes and like the topic of the post,”it was like raising the dead”. If you worked them just right one would follow up and maybe commit . A bunch of lookers and refusals but I fooled six nice gills. I fished about three hours and that’s all I could take of the tight lipped SOBs. Rapped up and went home cleaned those, then had them for supper. Man were they delicious! Guess those three hours were worth it after all. I didn’t see anyone else catch a fish while I was there, so I felt somewhat fortunate. Tough bite lately! Here’s a picture of the gills, biggest was close to nine inch! Hex

[Lee1977]

I was in 20’ of water and the fish would follow the hook up 4’ or more and wouldn’t commit. Then when I would drop it slowly back to the bottom they would hit it. The way they followed it I thought it was a for sure commit. Maybe some day I’ll figure them out.

[Slab catcher]

Good luck!!!!! I haven’t yet....😂

[river_scum]

those are the meals that taste best!

when i get just a few in the morning and have all day, i make soup from them.  takes a while to make a great fish soup from hand full of gills.  it also grosses some people out if they watch it made.  

[zcm_82]

I had a lot of lookers, but only 7 biters yesterday, and 6 were dinks. Hoping today goes better, just getting my boots on as the car warms up now.

[tschneid]

This post really hit home today. Hit a porter county lake and I felt like I marked fish all day but nothing would rise. The few that did raised quickly and we're all over it. Unfortunately for me that was only one 7" gil and one 8" crappie. Got enough exercise to last a month walking in that snow.

[zcm_82]

Today was still slow for me, but a bit better for a while. Caught 9 gills between about 7-9am, but then they just shut off completely. I stayed out till 10:15 but never even got a bite past 9. Still saw a lot of fish after that, but they just wouldn't hit anything, like a switch got flipped.

[taxi1]

those are the meals that taste best!

when i get just a few in the morning and have all day, i make soup from them.  takes a while to make a great fish soup from hand full of gills.  it also grosses some people out if they watch it made.

If you wouldn't use their guts it wouldn't be so gross! 

[RoeBoat]

Fish head soup, yuck!  Buddy has a wife from the Philippines,  I'll pass thanks.

[zcm_82]

The bite has been a lot better today than the past couple. Getting into that mid-morning lull now, but still getting an occasional fish.

[Lee1977]

Good tip Snitch! I’ll give it a try when I run into that scenario again. This morning they were biting pretty good. Thanks!

[zcm_82]

This is a very good reason why lead jigs "aren't" dead!  The first thing I do when I experience tight mouthed gills, while using tungsten, is tie on lead.  And then it is usually the smallest lead jig I can find.  Sometimes slow falling jigs is the only way to put fish on the table.  You just can't get a tungsten to fall slowly.  Yes, you can lower it slowly, but that still isn't the same!

I have some Northland helium series tungstens 1/150oz that drop super slow, but they are also ridiculously expensive. Like $6 each for a ice jig. I'm not even sure they make them anymore. I can't imagine them being big sellers at prices like that, but I got some a few years ago to try. They do work well for slow drops, but the hooks are pretty crappy considering the price.

[taxi1]

Barometer will be dropping soon with the upcoming storm. Should make the fishing pick up.