BigBendFishing.Net

Today looked to be good weather, so we made plans to fish Lake Jackson with some friends. We put in separately at HWY 27 and Crowder, but met up on the Crowder side of the lake. Surface temps were in the high 70s in the morning and the wind was coming from multiple directions throughout the day. At our first spot we caught almost 20 in the shallows adjacent to a deep hole and some more in or near the pads until about noon. We anchored up and ate lunch for 30 minutes before heading over to another hole I located by aerial photos from the 80s. The bite was very slow, so we anchored up and remained patient. Confident we were over the fish, we initially only picked up a fish every 7-8 minutes, but they were of good size so we stayed put. The bite slowly picked up over the next couple of hours and we ended up boating about 50 big shell crackers and huge bream all between 8-10". We stopped fishing at 6 and headed back in because of stormy weather. On the day we caught over 70+ big shell crackers and BG and 5 catfish. We caught everything on pink worms and crickets, and boated most of our fish between noon to 6pm concentrated in deep open water that was adjacent to a major feeding area. Another good day at our favorite lake

You got to love it!

You sure know your stuff and I enjoy reading about it. Keep fishing and posting those pictures!

"Pink worms"....are you talking about the worms they grunt up in the flat woods?

I've not freshwater fished in awhile but your pictures and stories sure makes me want to start back.

Great looking fish!
I'm curious to hear how they taste - last bream I got out of jackson were musty - but that was a few years back.

Some of the best fish ever eaten came from Lake Ella in the late 50's and early 60's.
They were all about 2 fingers wide.
You could squeeze 65 of them into a 1/2 gallon milk carton.
Cut6 off the head and fry them whole.
Used to bring home the baby ducks too.
We had lots of yard ducks.

Jumptrout51 wrote:Some of the best fish ever eaten came from Lake Ella in the late 50's and early 60's.
They were all about 2 fingers wide.
You could squeeze 65 of them into a 1/2 gallon milk carton.
Cut6 off the head and fry them whole.
Used to bring home the baby ducks too.
We had lots of yard ducks.

JT, Remember the annual fishing rodeo at Lake Ella back in the day?, lots of fun for all the kids in Tallahassee.

Yep. I remember. Fresh cut bamboo fishing poles.

Looks like another great day out on the lake

bman wrote:Great looking fish!
I'm curious to hear how they taste - last bream I got out of jackson were musty - but that was a few years back.

I always soak or freeze the filets or headless carcasses in a light brine and milk. Everything from 10lb catfish to bream taste the same to me in brine and milk. I just ate some of the shell crackers we caught yesterday and they were excellent fried in cornmeal.

Pink worms"....are you talking about the worms they grunt up in the flat woods?
I've not freshwater fished in awhile but your pictures and stories sure makes me want to start back.

Pink worms are the ones they grunt up. They can be up 6 inches or longer. We use these to locate the fish, then we break them when were in the fish we want. We never leave more than an inch or so hanging off because the fish grab the end instead of the hook which leads to a missed pull 20% of the time and when you're trying to remain perfect when you've got "biggest of the species" type fish, 20% misses are unacceptable. We also use whole reds, and get about the same bite. Come back out to freshwater, and itll remind you of what you used to love when you were a kid. Its cheap, fast and easy to drop a boat in at any of our local lakes. I love catching a good tidal run or spearing a biggun, but 20hrs of the day, inshore saltwater is completely unproductive times and everything you catch has a high mercury level these days.

Thanks for the pics. Had a great time. See ya on the lake.

awesome report! You folks must have a freezer full!

SHOWBOAT wrote:awesome report! You folks must have a freezer full!

I would, if I didnt filet everything. She gives a lot of her fish away, and has a huge chest freezer.