11-15 Report

[Jay]

Made it up to Murray for a couple of hours yesterday afternoon and fished in the Ballentine area. Instead of throwing a shakey head worm, my "comfort-lure," I tried flipping a jig around docks with no takers, except for the first pickerel I've caught in quite a while (on my second cast off my dock). I was nowhere near weeds so he really surprised me. I also fished a shad-colored shad rap but only picked up one small striper trolling it.

Despite the water level being up clarity was still good. I saw lots of bait, plenty of small bream, and about a three pound bass prowling.

[timmerberg]

Jay, you're just lucky that jackfish didn't get your jig! What was the water clarity like? Bank Pounder Jim.

[senkoslinger]

Nice fish actually....for this lake at least. I've caught them up north as long as 45", but down here they don't get too big. I often wonder if I went out Pike fishing, would I catch some bass, cause when I'm bass fishing all I ever catch is pike:)

[Jay]

Jason,

You're still catching them now that the grass is mostly gone? I hadn't caught one in almost three years until Sunday. I remember when the grass was really thick there was actually an article in SC Game & Fish about people targeting jackfish specifically on Murray.

Take care,
--Jay

[senkoslinger]

Sure....just toss that jig up against any shoreline grass and you'll pick one up sooner or later. They usually hit right at the weedline in a foot or two of water. You can also catch them pretty easily in the very back of Hollow Creek running a chatterbait quickly through the stick ups. They're definitely not as plentiful as when we had submerged vegetation, but they're still around.

[Jay]

Cool. Like I said I hadn't caught one for a while but good to know. Take care, Jay

[senkoslinger]

I don't think I caught one all year last year but I've boated at least a dozen so far this year.......mostly on a little john.

[Jay]

So strange how they disappear and then reappear. I just assumed they died off when the grass was eradicated, but how to explain the rebound recently?