This Years Trends

[jiginitis69]

I have been out jigging for 3 weeks now and have seen a trend that I thought appropriate to share. The best bite is between 6AM and 8AM. This means ya need to get your shiners the evening before. Most bait stores open at 7. By the time ya buy bait, launch, and run you'll catch the end of the big bite. You'll also see fellas cleaning thier limits while your launching. Another trend is the fellas with electric trolling motors are staying on the active schools and killing them. If ya dont have an electric be prepared to do short quick drifts. Mark your active school and quickly get back on them when ya drift off. Color trends are changing with water clarity improving. Purple and Black Hair jigs still produce, but we found sticking a white twister tail seemed to help. Learned that one by my buddy beating me 7-3. Of course I was the Sheepshead King that day. Strange to catch them jigging. I've been on the same boat for 21 years and cant remember catching this many sheepshead, but on a high note I did catch a smallmouth also.
The bay is also ready to go. It has cleaned up tremendously is the last week or so. I can see my cavitation plate now.

[Water Fox]

we have been catching them in the bay,but i have noticed the size of the fish are shrinking the last week.Have you experienced this just wondering?

[jiginitis69]

They are running inconsistent in the bay as far as size compared to the reef complex. I am taking 5 guys tomarrow morning out of Michigan so we can take 30. I will post my averages. We have been averaging 3 lb out off the reefs with a few 25" males. We have not caught any over 22" in the bay and the average would be 19"-20" vs 20"-21" off the reefs. Whats got me wondering about the timeline is the number of sheepshead I have been catching. Have you been catching them also?

[Water Fox]

last sunday I caught about 20 of them.No foolin some big ones weighed one 12lb14 ounces.Sat. my fish averaged 3.5lbs went to the same area sun.2-2.5lbers.Didnt make sense to me.I will be leaving my boat at turtle creek next week.

[fishrwork]

went out of draw bridge on the headboat on 4-26 had 27 people on board and only netted about 15 walleye with the biggest being 21.1/4 inches. color veried from purple to white to neon green. i even got one on a red and white erie dieri with the biggest shiner i could find in the bucket. so there was nothing that seemed to work better than the other.

[jiginitis69]

It wasnt pretty out there but we caught fish. We went for a spin to the east and the mud line was so definitive it looked like you could draw it with a pencil just past Little Cedar Point running South to Northeast. The pitch and twitch method was the only way to produce consistently. We had no drift or lets say a minimal drift at best and we could not cover enough ground. Our catch varied, but the ave was 3lb. Biggest was a 25" Male about 5lb. Catch of the day was a 14" Yellow Perch.
Sheepshead and White Bass are taking over. We caught well over 20 Sheepshead and about 10 White Bass. I will start trolling now or drifting bottom bouncers if we get the wind to work with. I say there are more walleye between the Toledo Lighthouse and West Sister then there are between the Lighthouse and Turtle Island. Not so 2 weeks ago, but times are a changin. My FishHawk had the surface temp at 58.4 degrees. Did not drop the responder over to check bottom--it was in my garage--DUH!

C ya on the water