Seems that all fisherman love to read about fishing (those that can read of course). It takes about five minutes in my garage, like all my other buddies, to find my four foot tall stack of back issues of Cosmofisherman, NEWSFISH, The Walleye Street Journal, Seventeen Pounder, etc. These magazines are all well and good, but I want specifics, I fish Richland Chambers, obviously if your reading this you do to.
Everybody wants to know what to throw. In the last four years I have seen just about everything catch fish on Richland, but there are a few tried and true tricks that always seem to produce. Before I go on I must say that I have only one bait sponsor (not because I wouldn’t love some free baits), and it will be in the mix below.
First lets talk crankbaits, a real favorite on Richland. Most of the locals here really like some chartreuse in their baits. A Mann’s 20+ in fire tiger and a DB-3 in the same color catch allot of fish (including a few 10+ pound catfish my partner Kev “Aquaman” Reid has caught). Chrome or shad catch allot of fish, but the sandies will eat your lunch, not to mention your shad colored bait if they’re in the area. Another insider favorite here is a Poe’s 300 in a white side with a yellowish (some call it chartreuse) back.
Spinnerbaits are responsible for a great deal of the giant spring strings that get caught. Favorite baits seem to be 1/2 or 3/8 ounce Mepps, Stanleys or Strike Kings. The colors vary per water color but gold blades seem to be predominant. White and white/chartreuse are my favorites for skirts but I did get my clock cleaned by a buddy throwing chartreuse bladed, chartreuse skirt and orange bladed, orange skirted baits last spring.
The warm water will see the soft plastic bite start to pick up in the next few months. A peculiarity that I seem to find only here is a 6 or 8 inch junebug pearl ring worm, another heavy favorite with the local crowd. Another bait that I know has caught a lot of fish is a junebug chartreuse claw Guido bug (the big one). Pumpkinseed and black/blue Jawtec or Hale craworms also produce real well, especially in the clearer water. No I didn’t forget, the centipede still catches allot of roadbed and point fish, watermelon or pumpkin blue flake are favorites.
“What about jigs?” you ask. Year round on Richland they’ll eat ’em. Since we have no grass, stick to the lighter half ounce or less. Black/brown/amber and black/blue/purple can do little wrong, trailed with plastic or pork. My pick for jigs would be a Stanley, All Terrain or a new guy in the jig market Jawtec, if you haven’t tried this jig do, my hookup to boated fish ratio with it is excellent (no that’s not my bait sponsor). – Lake Mohave
– Lake Mohave
