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Stick Marsh & Farm 13
Capt. George Welcome
November 29, 2001
Stick Marsh-Farm 13 - Freshwater Fishing Report
Date fished: 11/27/01 – Time fished: Daylight till 3:00 PM – Weather: mostly sunny with an afternoon breeze – Areas fished: NW area of Stick Marsh, SW area of Stick Marsh, west end of E/W ditch on Farm 13.
Baits used: Plastics, Chug Bugs, Buzz Baits, and Spinner baits, small Crank Baits. Best bait was again the Chug Bug!
Mike Ziegelheim, presently a New Yorker that got transplanted from Emerson, NJ arrived with bells on to search the Marsh for some of its famous bass. Starting in the NW end of the Stick Marsh using Chug Bugs we quickly had fish on and in the boat. The day looked as if we were going to have a banner day but as the sun rose and the wind went slack those hopes were quickly dashed. We covered a lot of water, made an extreme number of casts but today was very, very tough for artificial baits. We did manage to place 12 in the boat, which was significantly less that either of us had hoped for. Most of the bass were small with the biggest barely tapping the scale at 3.5 pounds. My offer to Mike: Let’s try this tomorrow for a ˝ day and see if we couldn’t improve on the catch.
Date fished: 11/28/01 – Time fished: Daylight till 1:30 PM – Weather: A duplicate of yesterday – Area fished: NW area of Stick Marsh –
Bait used: Shiners
Looking at the weather report early this AM conditions appeared to be the exact same as yesterday. Wanting to ensure that Mike had a good day I opted to buy some shiners. Also, since Mike was only going to fish a ˝ day I had Scott come up so that we could fish after Mike left to try some other areas than what we would be using the shiners on. Arriving at the fisherman’s shack on the wall at daybreak we got our shiners from Joe Middleton, (561 778-0150 – Joe will deliver right to the Marsh for $13 per dozen + tax as long as you buy at least 6-dozen), and then headed for the NW area of the Marsh.
The bite was immediate and several fish were quickly placed in the boat. One hour into the trip the bite went soft so we made a couple of moves of 50-100 feet. After this didn’t prove to be productive we moved back to our original spot and after about 30 minutes the magic began. By the time we headed back to the ramp to drop Mike off we had placed 47 bass into the boat with the big bass being just over 6 pounds. The majority of the fish that we caught were 3-5.5 pounds with probably 50% hitting the 5-pound mark. Most were females and showing that the spawn was going to be another good one. The one thing that was important was that the shiner that was used had to be very lively. Those that were lethargic just wouldn’t get hit and fortunately Joe’s shiners are of the lively variety.
Once we had Mike safely on his way Scott and I headed back to the area with the shiners that were left and in the next 1.5 hours landed another 21 bass with most looking like someone had made them with a cookie cutter.
Some of the things that made the difference:
Perseverance with a location that the fish are known to be. So often I will note fishermen out here constantly on the move. Most I see are drifting shiners out behind their boat while trolling about. Even if you opt to do this once you locate fish, get the anchor out and sit still. The bass in the area will come to you and give you a great day of catching if you will have the patience.
Hook set is a very important ingredient to a successful day with shiners. When a bass takes your bait you need to recognize which way the bass is moving, point you pole at the bass, tighten the line until it is straight and then setting the hook with a solid lift that is strong enough to drive the hook through the shiner and into the bass’s mouth. You need to start this lift with the rod pointing down at the water. If you do it will usually get stopped at about 10:00. If you start with the rod up you will usually not have enough power to drive the hook.
Once the hook set is accomplished you are only halfway home. You now need to get the bass to the boat without ripping the hook out of its mouth, without allowing it to get you into the sticks, (we are famous for them), or without simply not applying enough pressure and letting the bass off with slack line. A constant pressure should be applied without any pumping of the rod. Also a constant retrieval is necessary to stop the bass from getting down.
Very important: If you are bringing a fish to the boat and it does get you down stop cranking and release all pressure on the fish. Most often the bass will swim out of the sticks the way it came in and you will be able to finish getting it to the boat. If you do continue to try to force the bass through the sticks your hook will rip out and you will end up with your hook in the wood and losing your rig.
Of course there are more subtleties to using shiners but there are too many to go into completely here. Your best way to learn about shiners is spend a few hours out there with a guide or an experienced “shiner” fisherman. Hope to see you out there. Say hi as you go by and if we can help we will be glad to.
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