# Tappan



## ltroyer (Feb 6, 2013)

Fished tappen lake today.was a slow day catfish n gills were the things that seemed hungry.but no keepers.tried for saugeye but couldn't get em to bite.any tips for those late summer saugeye? We tried a variety of jigs


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## Sr.Jigger (Feb 17, 2005)

Friday just a black head 1/8oz bare jig (no tail) with a bass minnow was the only thing that would work.
Even better, up 14" from the bare jig tie a plain hook and put on a bass minnow. Now you got 2 minnows.

We fished straight down in 12' -15' FOW around sunken tree tops/drop offs and had a good Saugeye day.
We could see fish on sonar and this was the only way we could get them to bite...
The second hook (double bait) really got their attention !


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## ltroyer (Feb 6, 2013)

I may have to try that.we fished 10 to 12 feet of water


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## ducky152000 (Jul 20, 2005)

we had a saugeye tournament at tappan last sarurday. my partner and i took 2nd using multiple types of baits. rippin raps took the most and best quality. jigging raps was a close second and we even caught some fish on little georges. The crazy part was i could not catch a fish on my bread and butter bait the hopkin spoon. we was snap jigging these baits in 8 to 12 foot. 10 foot seemed to be the best depth. we caught 12 keepers that day and a bunch of shorts. our best 6 fish for the tournment was between 16 and 20 inches. 1st place beat us by 3 oz. they was running livebait on shallow flats 6 to 8 foot. other teams did well trolling cranks fast at 3.0 mph. seemed like you could catch fish any way your comfortable fishing.


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## ltroyer (Feb 6, 2013)

ducky152000 said:


> we had a saugeye tournament at tappan last sarurday. my partner and i took 2nd using multiple types of baits. rippin raps took the most and best quality. jigging raps was a close second and we even caught some fish on little georges. The crazy part was i could not catch a fish on my bread and butter bait the hopkin spoon. we was snap jigging these baits in 8 to 12 foot. 10 foot seemed to be the best depth. we caught 12 keepers that day and a bunch of shorts. our best 6 fish for the tournment was between 16 and 20 inches. 1st place beat us by 3 oz. they was running livebait on shallow flats 6 to 8 foot. other teams did well trolling cranks fast at 3.0 mph. seemed like you could catch fish any way your comfortable fishing.


Congrats to your win!never fished with spoons before


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## Sr.Jigger (Feb 17, 2005)

Yea, On the sonar you could see the thermocline line was at right around 12' - 14'. We fished just above and below this depth. That's where the most fish marked for us. For us the 8'-10' flats didn't produce (time of day thing). If you could find a steep drop with some structure the Saugeye/Wallege were there. 
A spoon or vibe would have been a good go to bait. Still liked that double hook presentation with Bass minnows on bare hooks thing. The fish were timid and slow to bite while we were fishing. Lost a few big ones as they cut our line at the side of the boat because they inhaled the bass minnow deep. Trolling was a bust. 
You never know what will cause a Saugeye/Walleye bite right now.. I think the recent good rain helped. Water was up 2' from a week ago.
I think when nothing seems to cause a bite - fish real slow and simple. Hell most of these fish have seen every bait and are weary of it.


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## ltroyer (Feb 6, 2013)

Gonna have to give it another shot.we tried points n drop offs guess we didn't use the right bait.probably didn't help either with all the pleasure boaters out there tearn it up


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## ducky152000 (Jul 20, 2005)

pleaaure boats are a saugeye fishermens freind. they cause mudlines, chop and current which pushes bait and saugeye to the banks. trust me, saugeye do not get scared of boat traffic. you can run a outboard trolling in 4 foot of water with your crank in the propwash and still catch fish. as long as there is a little color in the water, which most of the mwcd lakes always have some color throughout the year. leesville and piedmont will sometimes get clear enough where a boat will scare fish.


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## Shortdrift (Apr 5, 2004)

ducky152000 said:


> pleaaure boats are a saugeye fishermens freind. they cause mudlines, chop and current which pushes bait and saugeye to the banks. trust me, saugeye do not get scared of boat traffic. you can run a outboard trolling in 4 foot of water with your crank in the propwash and still catch fish. as long as there is a little color in the water, which most of the mwcd lakes always have some color throughout the year. leesville and piedmont will sometimes get clear enough where a boat will scare fish.


I agree with the above. On more than one occasion I recall pulling saugeyes off a sunken railroad bed or vehicle roadbed trolling spinner harness/worm alongside or just behind the boat in 3 to 4 foot of water. This happened on Attwood as well as Tappan on calm as well as rough days.


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## ltroyer (Feb 6, 2013)

Learning new tips Everytime.saugeye fishing is something I'm new at n wanna do more of.figured boaters would scare em.i only know a few guys that fish em but don't get a chance to fish with em so for me any tips r greatly appreciated!


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## 1MoreKast (Mar 15, 2008)

ltroyer said:


> Learning new tips Everytime.saugeye fishing is something I'm new at n wanna do more of.figured boaters would scare em.i only know a few guys that fish em but don't get a chance to fish with em so for me any tips r greatly appreciated!


Did pretty good out there over the weekend. Trolled around the dam with a chartreuse 1/8oz jig and grub and Lucky Shad chartreuse perch. Caught a mixed bag of saugeye, crappie, smallies and a bunch of small catfish. All in 8 to 12 fow.


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## Flatty01 (Aug 9, 2008)

Nice report 1m, glad someones catching fish.


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## Critter Getter (Jan 30, 2007)

Fished it on Saturday landed 11 or 12 eyes took 7 home fished by the boat ramp 8-12 foot floating jig heads with crawlers pink and purple where the best colors for me


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## Rich B (Feb 14, 2016)

Excellent presentation info in these posts....thanks for sharing....


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## 1MoreKast (Mar 15, 2008)

Rich B said:


> Excellent presentation info in these posts....thanks for sharing....


No problem. All fish were released by the way. Was feeling too lazy, hot and sweaty to clean! I will add that I had to change up speeds now and then. But they are extremely aggressive. It was fun watching the rods dance!


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## ristorap (Mar 6, 2013)

How do you like the lucky shads action?


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## 1MoreKast (Mar 15, 2008)

ristorap said:


> How do you like the lucky shads action?


Personally, I've like them better than the Flicker Shads but that's probably because I've caught more fish and more fish species on them. Lucky Shads and I just seem to understand each other haha.


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## Flatty01 (Aug 9, 2008)

Tried there this am. from shore dam area got shut out.


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## Tinknocker1 (May 13, 2013)

you could catch saugeyes tonight after the cool down and all the wind we had today i might sneek out for a couple hours after im done cleaning squirrels


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## Tinknocker1 (May 13, 2013)

caught 2 white bass 3 crappies "which all came home with me " 4 largemouths 1 catfish and 5 saugeyes which 2 came home with me 1 19" and a 22 " lol and one squirrel this morning ..........


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## Tinknocker1 (May 13, 2013)

slow night 1 largemouth and 3 saugeyes 1 keeper eye 17" bass got a free pass  heading to Kentucky for 2 weeks of seng hunting


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## Specwar (Sep 22, 2014)

can anyone till me the name of or give me the phone number of the little bait shop across the road from the ramp at Tappan,Thank you


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## ristorap (Mar 6, 2013)

1MoreKast What colors do you use in the lucky shads ? How deep are you trolling the lucky shads ? Have you tried the Bonsai shad and the Banana shad by Strike King ?


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## Z R Beljin (Aug 15, 2016)

Than you for sharing being from the west coast i could use all the help i can get you fellas are great


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## Flatty01 (Aug 9, 2008)

Sounds like I need a boat, lol.


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## shorthair (Jul 21, 2009)

Had a good morning trolling and casting jigging raps. Caught 8 keepers and 6 short eyes.


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## polebender (Oct 29, 2011)

Great job Kurt! Got one really good one too!


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## Skippy (Dec 2, 2009)

Way to go Kurt. Wife and I were at Salt Fork Tuesday and had 3 decent eyes casting jigs and swims till she started picking up some nice gills. Down sized to small jigs and BG's mini shads and brought home 16 good gills also.


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## shorthair (Jul 21, 2009)

Thanks guys. It's been by far my best Saugeye fishing year and majority of it has been Tappan with a few trips to Salt Fork. What I have been doing differently is using my HDS and locating the fish. Before I would just go to the normal spots that I caught fish in the past. I'm thinking of selling my I pilot and purchasing an xi 5. Then I can hook it up to the HDS. Any reviews on the xi hooked to the HDS would be great if any one has them. Thanks


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## TClark (Apr 20, 2007)

Awesome catch!!

I would love to learn how to locate fish and then catch them!! I've never seen the fish I catch on the Lowrance Elite 5 Chirp I bought last year. NONE of them. Actually see very few fish at Piedmont, but then too I wouldn't know what they was any who....lol
carp, cats, gills shad, etc etc...only thing "I think is fish are the long tubes" I see sometimes. VERY VERY few arcs.


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