Fishing Report

Taberville Report

By Bobby Dain

Dains Fish Farm

The Osage River just got good again yesterday (Sept. 10). It was up from that rain and went back  down.

They are catching blue cats on just about anything you put on, I’m selling shad, carp, perch, crawdads and bullheads.

One kid came in yesterday with a limit of big crappie. He was fishing out of a boat in the south lake at Schell around the stumps. He wanted to weigh his biggest – a 2 1⁄2 lb. crappie. That’s a big crappie.

I called all the other usual fishing spots and got no report. Caplinger Woods said they are selling  minnows and worms but haven’t had any reports of success.

Michelle  Finch  at Caplinger Woods said they will not be  open except by appointment after next weekend.

I called all the usual fishing spots. Only Bobby Dains had a good report from Taberville. I’ll try again next week. Fishing usually picks up as the temperature cools. In fact, I’ve found fish schooled up on points with structure in the fall ready to put on some weight to get them through the coming winter. Fall fishing has been productive for me where two colors of water mix on a point that has structure.

I usually run a crankbait across the point. At times, I start with a topwater like a Tiny Torpedo. On one point with deep water, they wanted a clear Tiny Torpedo. Dan Hare and I were sitting in about 30 ft. of water at the mouth of Bullfrog Bayou. Don’t know the depth of the bayou but it wasn’t as deep as the West Pearl about a mile before it empties into Lake Pontchetrain. I remember now. It was just above the I – 10 bridge A blue and white speed boat came from down river and went blazing up into Bull Frog Bayou. Pretty soon a buddy of his in a matching red and white speedboat came by looking for him The buddy stopped throwing a huge wake that almost knocked my boat off the two anchors we had out. Dan has a short fuse for things like that and stood up in my boat giving the guy a short lecture on his boat driving skills. Dan doesn’t use curse words but he left no doubt about his opinion of the guy’s boat handling.

If the top water bait doesn’t work, I’d try a shad-colored medium depth crankbait. Then go deeper. Don’t forget that not everything fish eat rattles. In strip pits with bass, I use balsa baits with no rattle or drill a 1/16-inch hole in a rattling bait and quiet it with a spot of epoxy. I’ve caught hundreds of bass up to six lbs. that way.

On a diving Balsa B, I hooked a sow as soon as my bait hit the water, but she jumped and gave it back to me. Dan Hare, who has caught 10 pounders in Florida, was with me that day and thought the fish would have gone every bit of 10 lbs. But she was coming toward the boat and I never got a good hook set.

I caught a 6 and a 5 1⁄2 on successive casts on a silenced magnum Wiggle Wart out of the back of the boat and Dan threatened to stop netting fish for me.

The owner of the pit died and the property sold so I can’t fish there anymore.  Good memories, though. I still have the rods and reels and baits Kimball painted for me. I told the guy who told me about the strip pits the secret of how to catch big bass there. Maybe I’ll get a report back from him some day. Or an invite to go with him.