# Indian after the storm!!!



## saugmon (Jun 14, 2006)

Waited the storm out in huntsville for 15 mins and very high winds plus my wipers didn't work. That was some wicked wind and major rain.Calmed down a little and got the wipers to work so headed over to blackhawk with another buddy and had to wait another 45 mins and it didn't look good. Finally a break so I put in and we hovered around blackahawk and oldfield til around 6 p.m. or so with lots of far away lighning. Finally started looking better so headed to pew with just a middlerod and 2 side rods. Nothing but a small dink over there so put out 1 planerboard. Zilch on that and it looked like my buddy was going home eyeless.So we trollup by chippewa. 7:30 or so game was on. Marked that waypoint and kept heading north/south of if by .2 of a mile. I put one of my new firecraw B04's on the middle rod at 65' and snag.Set it at 60' and the eyes tore it up in the propwash.The other siderod was hot as well with firecraw and the planerboard was skunked. Ended up finishing up with 9 eyes this evening and a lost hawg easily 5lbs just 2 feet from the net.Threw back a couple 3 eye dinks and one of those pesty 8" channelcat. Technically a boat record between between the 3 of us but took 2 trips and plenty of eats for my buddies.

4-17"
3-16"
2-15"


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## SoCal_Buckeye (May 28, 2012)

Dude, I really enjoy your posts. Great description of the technique and fish caught. Makes me want a boat ASAP. I'll definitely be bugging you for advice next season. We'll be looking for a steal of a deal right after Christmas.


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## saugmon (Jun 14, 2006)

Got on the water at 5:45 and as soon as I got out of blackhawk channel,lightning city! Headed back in to wait it out with birdman. Finally got a break around 7 a.m. with long distance lightning.Got at yesterdays and lake looked like a sheet of glass. I headed for victor wp in the steady drizzle and nailed a couple 14" eye dinks off the getgo.Finally 7:30 they were getting bigger. By 8:15 I had 5 keepers in the boat.They tore up the port rod rigged with B04 firecraw and 61' released.My siderod with B02 wasn't doing much so switched to B04 and nothing. That other rod bent on every turn on that waypoint til the wind shifted out of the southest. Then nothing and then birdman trolled up by me and still dead. I then hollered at speedy.Finally, #6 hit at 9 a.m. on that same wp. I didn't have much time to troll this morning.After #6 hit,I so accidentally put my kicker in reverse. The prop gobbled up my line with B02 and straightened out the swivel with no bait. Trolled into the wind to find it but no luck.

2-17"
2-16.5"
1-16"
1-15.75"
No trash fish.

No lost fish this time.

Water Temp: 78
Clarity-1', not too shabby after those winds last night.


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## Northern1 (May 9, 2012)

Saugmon,

Who makes the B04 firecraw? I'm looking for a lure that will run shallow enough!


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## saugmon (Jun 14, 2006)

Nobody makes the firecraw anymore. Discontinued cordially by Bomber!!! Bomber loves to discontinue hot colors. Firebass,gone. Firecraws,gone.Silver herringbone,gone.

Bomber introduced the B04 live craw last year,so I stocked up on the firecraws just in case.

The live craws have similar crawdad patterning,but the black profiling has been reversed to make it look more natural. I just recieved 3 each of the B04 live craw in Okie,sunrise craw,and nest robber. That okie craw looks very similar to the firecraw. Same firetiger colors but the black crawdad profile backwards. I am optimistic with that okie craw. The sunrise craw and nest robber look kinda like the red craw.Put them together and they look near identical and going to be hard to tell which one you have on once their out of the package.

Speedy got me into trying the B04's and they really love that discontinued firecraw.I gotta shorten up released line about 9'.Now to put them in the arsenal and test them tomorrow.


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## Northern1 (May 9, 2012)

Thanks! I'm actually making a trip to Cabelas this week. I'll have to check them out! If I see you on Indian i'll say hi. Im in the Alumacraft with the 9.9 yamaha


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## speedyr (Mar 31, 2012)

made it on the lake at 520...made it 100 yds out and tuned around b/c the storm was a coming. Went to state campgrounds. My boater is the nephew of one of my friends...and he was staying there. Took a nap. Got out at 830...My HDS GEN 2 did not start up. I hope it is an electrical problem. If it died b/c it got rained on I will have a stroke..... Needles to say, caught two right out of the chute over by Pew...nit sure where b/c no GPS...I was lost without my waypoints. Aimlessly trolled untill we got a total of 4. Lost a good one 10 feet at from the boat and threw back a dink. All on B04 Chartruese craw, the one that looks like the Firecraw but has a black back, a the moss back craw w/orange belly. Have no idea how fast I was going...Picked up small channel and two flats. Went in at 1130 at the state campgrounds. 


16
15.5 x 2
15

Looks like this afternoon wire testing.


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## saugmon (Jun 14, 2006)

Cabelas usually doesn't carry much of a selection of bombers. Maybe the 04's,but rarely on the 02's. Basspro would be the best source.

The 02's have a depth rating of 3'-5'. The 04's have a rating of 4'-6',so they'll dive down quicker. Both will easily surpass their depth range specs with superbraids. You'll just have to shorten them up. i shortened mine up by 3 yards.Good luck finding any of them in the firecraws. That okie craw looks great. The other live series have a matte finish with raised bulging crawdad eyes. I can't wait til tomorrow to try them out.Since my boards went cold with redcraw,I'm going with a new gameplan for them tomorrow. I've got a father and son to take out monday morning and hope to get 5 poles out since that propwash rod has been tearing them up.

The 02's run very similar to the bandit 100 series.The 04's should run similar to the bandit 200 series. Still a little deep for the main lake,but something about the increased drag is turning on the saugeye.


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## saugmon (Jun 14, 2006)

You must have posted while I was typing.Sorry about the electronics speedy.I've got a backup gps unit in the side compartment. I was at the campground a couple hrs ago.I'll be back up at the campground at 5 p.m. grubbing at #87 just north of the boat docks.

Pew turned out to be squat last night so I didn't venture that way.Finally a game plan that worked and I didn't have to move more than 500' to get them!!!

That victor waypoint was on fire til the wind churned up out of the southeast.Victor from last night showed up at the launch.He was in that older ranger with the black motor cowling trolling near me when you trolled by my hotspot.He's the guy that brought in those storms last night and this morning, LOL!

Something about the extra action of the 04's is doing a number on them despite the shortening of the lines. I got some more expiramenting to do on them to see how they do on the boards.

Of course,next year will probably be different!


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## Northern1 (May 9, 2012)

Oh yeah, I see what you mean on basspro.com. Tons of selection on the 02s and 04s. Im pounding the walleye in Canada right now. When I come back down I-75, i'll make the stop in Perrysburg at Basspro instead of Cabelas in Dundee....both places are essentially heaven anyway. Once I get back home, i'll be giving the saugeye some heck! Thanks for the help Saugmon


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## saugmon (Jun 14, 2006)

Pick up a couple 04's in the charteuse craw,okie craw,or if they have some leftover firecrawdad.That's about the only baits working this weekend. They turned away from my redcraw and tennessee shad.


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## saugmon (Jun 14, 2006)

I've got a new favorite. Okie Craw. It caught most of the 7 eyes that went 17"-20.5" this morning after dad and I limited out at 9:35 plus culled out a couple 15.5"s. The eyes were hitting everything we slapped at them except my favorite B02 firecraw,B02 charteuse/silver herringbone. I broke the cherry on 3 new bombers and 1 bandit. Orange crush on board took the 1st eye-19". Nestrobber pulled out 1 and Sunrise craw down the propwash took a couple 3-4 eyes and lost quite a few. Lots of net action on the other boats as well,but they looked pretty puny.

Gameplan was victor wp from last 2 days but nothing from 5:45 a.m. to 6:15. Then trolled up to the other latest hotspot and got a 19" on the board. Not much after that so headed to my favorite wp #34 and pulled out a small 15.5" and lost 1. Then not much action til we swung back to victor just before 8 a.m. Hit a double snag and lost my 04 firecraw.Picked up 1 here and there and 9 a.m. hit and the bite was on. No doubles,but as soon as we got a fish off and rod back out,another rod would take off. All back out and another. My siderod with okie did the best. Sunrise craw down propwash did the 2nd best but lost quite a few. The propwash rod has been on a tear so we didn't even bother releasing the starboard board.

Lost 2 bombers but found that 04 firecraw floating an hour later with my swivel still on it.Board was already in so I told dad to reel in quick because I was doing a u-ey while trying to keep an eye on the 2" bait. Got the bait back!!! So much for the blades on my new mr twister saltwater fillet knife. I gotta go out and find some more!!

1-15.5"
4-16"
1-17"
6-18"-20.5"

They're finally fattening up!!

Water temp-78


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## Biggun's (May 7, 2007)

WOW another great outing / posting by saugmon. Hopefully gettin back up there Friday / Saturday (if any fish left in the lake) Hope everyone survived the storms. We had a nasty storm blow thru Friday late afternoon. Power been out all weekend been manning generator. Hopefully see ya Friday/Saturday


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## puge (May 14, 2009)

Got 4 Sunday morning. 2 on chart & pearl bomber 1 on goby bandit and 1 on a sugar swim bait. Guessing that was you in the reddish lowe saugmon. Watched you net 4 in a ten minute span and figured that answered that. Didn't get any in the area you were hammering them in. First fish on a swim bait, about 10 the wind picked up and the waves were pretty good so I thought I would drift a swim bait. I rigged up the poles threw one over and was getting the second pole in the water when the first pole bends down then let's loose, figured it was a snag, goes down a agin and sure enough 17 in saugeye. Couldn't have been in the water 10 seconds, it looked deadly drifting through the waves almost took a video of it for big joshy. Wind died about 15 minutes later and that was it. 1 14, dink and a couple cats also.


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## saugmon (Jun 14, 2006)

What boat were you? You in a Fisher?

When the bite is on,it does get chaotic because you don't know how long it'll last.Usually less than 30 mins,but they've been lasting up to an hour in the last couple weeks.

The eyes were still down there,just waiting for feeding time.I've been on them at the spot for 3 days now.

8 pm friday was HOT, 7:30 am saturday morning lightning . 9 am yesterday morning was hot. Action was steady this morning there early and .1 of a mile surrounding around while anticipating the 9 a.m. bite that never was.It was back to the 1 here,1 there bite the last couple 3 hrs.


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## puge (May 14, 2009)

Yeah that was me in the fisher, first time out fishing in it. Got my 4 new trolling rods and reels from cabelas on my lunch break can't wait to try them out tomorrow if these storms hold off.


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## speedyr (Mar 31, 2012)

what brand rods and reels?


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## saugmon (Jun 14, 2006)

It may not have been your fisher puge.I've seen that same guy in that particular fisher quite a few times lately and have yet to see him stand up,let alone net anything, LOL!He was solo yesterday and hr later he had another guy in it.That was one quick pickup or he was teleported!

That old cabelas 8 1/2' depthmaster has been working double duty for me.When it's not running down the propwash,it's running down my planerboard side.The 04's are putting some good wiggles on that rod tip and thats where she's staying put. I grounded my Fish Eagle II 9' steelie rod a few days ago and put it on the planerboard.It did perform well on the port side after I switched it to B04's.It was slow today,so switched from B04 firecraw to B02 firecraw and had 2 eyes after 2 turns thru that waypoint. I haven't tested the 04s on the planerboards yet.

The 8 1/2' cabelas tourney special is my main siderod. It's a fine rod.


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## puge (May 14, 2009)

Cabelas combos. I've had 3 dm20 reels for a couple year and have liked them. I was just gonna get the rods which were 40 each but they had the combos on sale for 50, no brainer there. Got two 8.5ft trolling rods ml, and two 9ft planer board rods m, both with the dm15 reels. Excited to be able to finally get the lines out away from the boat. I tried hooking up the planer boards to my rods now and thought they were gonna snap. I was solo, and my fisher is white with a red stipe. Figures I finally get my stocked up on 100 bandits and now its bomber time, and from your post I tried a 200 series and that was the one that hit, none on 100 series for me yesterday.


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## saugmon (Jun 14, 2006)

You running inlines or offshore boards mr puge?

Next season may be totally different with the hot baits. The 1st year I tried the bandits and tore them up and they wouldn't touch the bombers the following year. 50-50 last year and mistake was the hottest.Mad Cow and Taco salad was hot for 1 season and not much since.

Best producers on my boards are chrome/black bandit 100 and redcraw bomber 02.Some days they're hot and have 10+ clips on each board,some days not so not like today with 2 clips on the boards because of snags. Boards had very little action this weekend,so only launched 1 and ran the slaying center rod back of the propwash. I'm going to throw that orange crush on the port planerboard tomorrow.

I'm going to have to get me a couple of those inlines.With how slow everyone trolls them, I wonder how they track going 3 mph?


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## speedyr (Mar 31, 2012)

puge..if those are the cabelas trollmaster rods, I have the same 4. When transporting or putting away DO NOT tighten the line by hooking a lure or the swivel so the ends bend. They will break off. Those rods are not designed to bend at the tip...I broke 2 this year before I figured it out. Good thing cabelas has a good return policy...


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## puge (May 14, 2009)

They are the church walleye boards, first set I have ever used or owned. Probably wont use them today but we will see. I liked how yours road through those waves I don't think these would handle that. 
Thanks for the tip on the rods. Alright heading out!!!


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## saugmon (Jun 14, 2006)

I don't like the rubberband releases,but still better than the clamp-clips. I can weaken those thin rubberbands with clipper snips.I had 1 rubberband sunday that was barely together by a hair and a 20" saugeye still couldn't break it.


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