17" American Shad, Crappie & Catfish

With the shad run nearing it's end, I wanted to see how they were biting today and possibly catch a few crappie. Alot of clouds in the sky with a chance of rain in the forecast, but all we got was a slight sprinkle for a few minutes. When I arrived I noticed some vultures next to the river bank so I knew something dead was laying there. When I looked it was a BIG fat catfish, it to have been about 20lb. It was really fat and I don't know what happened to it. It's likely someone caught it and didn't release it properly. Such a shame to see a big fish like that fall victim to careless fishermen.

I used 1/8th oz jigheads today for casting distance and to stay near the bottom. A couple boats were trolling back and forth, but only catching small crappie. The bite was slow, which kinda surprises me with the upcoming cold front this weekend. My friend David came out for a little while but didn't have any luck. All my fish today came between 10am-noon, but after noon the bite stopped with no fish.

First fish I hooked into was a small shad but it got off close to the bank so it doesn't count towards my season total. My next fish was a small crappie on a black/chartreuse tail Strike King Slab Hammer grub. It was too small to keep so it was released. Next was a 17" American Shad caught on a pink/chartreuse tail Strike King Slab Hammer grub. This is one of the longer shad I've caught this year but it looked skinny so maybe she already laid her eggs. I already have enough frozen shad in the freezer anyway so this one was released after measuring the length. Next and final fish for the day was a 1-2 lb catfish that I had accidently snagged on the tail. When I first felt the fish on my line I really thought it was a big shad. It pulled hard but I did notice the vigorous "shaking" of the line that catfish normally do when they know they're hooked. I removed the hook from it's tail and let it go. The wound wasn't too bad so the fish should be okay. Catfish are pretty resilient anyway.

Sorry no pictures today. I wasn't trying to keep anymore fish since I already have that flounder from yesterday. But with the 17" shad I caught today, my season total is now 27! I don't know if I'll break the 30-mark since this is usually when the shad fishing really slows down at Mullet Lake. Can't complain though, last year I only caught 10 shad and this year I almost tripled that amount.

3 Crappie and 2 Shad @ Mullet Lake Park

Hit the banks today from 9:45am to around 12:30pm. I noticed alot of boats on the river this morning, they were trolling back and forth catching small shad and crappie. Yesterday morning my buddy David reported he fished for 90 mins and caught 12 crappie and 5 shad all on chartreuse. Once a steady line of boats started moving through the bite suddenly stopped for him.

Today my first catch was a 13.75" american shad on chartreuse metalflake. Next fish was a 10.75" crappie on chartreuse also. Then the bite stopped for awhile. I changed colors but couldn't buy a bite for the longest time. I switched to 1/8th oz jigheads so I could cast further and then caught a small hickory shad around 11" on a white grub tail. My next two fish were crappies, both caught on chartreuse metalflake. Noticed some darker clouds moving into the area so called it a day.

2 Shad (1 american on chartreuse and 1 hickory on white)
3 Crappie (all on chartreuse)

With the two shad I caught today, my season total is now 26!

3 Crappie and 1 Catfish @ Mullet Lake Park

Stepped out to the river bank again this morning at the usual time around 10am. Normally I'm fishing for shad but today I was going for crappie instead. With a slow retrieve and random twitch, I caught a nice 11" crappie. Shortly after I caught another smaller crappie. The last crappie I caught today was the biggest of them all almost 12" long. All crappies were caught on the new Strike King Rage Tail Slab Hammer Crappie Grub in black/chartreuse tail. The tails on these grubs really move! They are so impressive that I plan on buying more color combinations. Each pack contains 10 grubs but the only problem is they are pretty expensive. Fortunately I can order them from Amazon.com where I use gift cards I've earned from online surveys.

Here's the Strike King Rage Tail Slab Hammer Crappie Grub
Black / Chartreuse Tail



And here's the 3 crappies I caught today using the above grub on a chartreuse jighead 1/16th. The two big ones were about 11-12" long! Slab Hammer!



I also fished with live minnows on a crappie rig and caught a catfish. It hit hard and took alot of drag before I could even get to my rod. The fight was fun on my light rod, and for awhile I thought it was a shad the way it raced and didn't stop. I haven't weighed the catfish yet but my guess it's around 1.5 lb

20th Shad of the Season! with a few small Crappie

Today I received my order from Bass Pro Shop. With some gift cards I earned from online surveys, I was able to purchase some items for shad and crappie fishing.
1/16th oz pink jigheads
1/16th oz white jigheads
Bass Pro Heavy Glitter Squirmin' Grubs - white / chartreuse tail
Strike King Rage Tail Crappie Grubs - black / chartreuse tail

So this late afternoon I took Cody to the river bank at Mullet Lake. We probably got there around 3:30pm so it was a later trip than usual. Cody's setup was live minnows on a bottom rig with two hooks. Unfortunately he didn't get very many bites. He ended up catching 1 small catfish. My setup was the same double jig rig for shad fishing. The bite was slow though, I had a few small nibbles but nothing to play with. I jigged the crap outta that river and couldn't find the fish to bite. It wasn't until after 5pm when I finially caught a couple small crappie on the new white/chartreuse heavy glitter grub. Only one was big enough to keep though. I did hook into 1 shad before it was time to go and this makes my 20th shad of the season!

A Windy Tangled Day / Large Yellow Rat Snake

My day started with a little excitement early on as I was about to walk through the thick tall grass. What I noticed was a very long snake just laying in the grass next to the parking lot. This thing must have been 4-5 ft long no kidding! Just like Indiana Jones, I hate snakes. Can't stand them and to be honest, I don't really know how to identify them. So I took this picture and sent a text msg to my friend David who knows more about this stuff than I do. He said it's a Yellow Rat snake and it won't bother me. Once I knew it wasn't poisonious I was relieved for sure.



Today the weather started out good, nice and sunny with very few clouds. I caught a small shad early on and released it right away without measuring. I hooked up with another small one but it got off the hook before I could land it. As the day went on though the winds picked up and clouds blocked the sun. On top of that, my double rig kept tangling on my mainline in almost every cast making my morning very frustrating. I did catch some fish but I feel my day could've been more productive if I wasn't spending so much time untangling lines. All together I caught 2 shad about 12-13" each, 1 crappie and a catfish using cut shad.

So with the two shad I caught today my running season total is 19 shad this year! Tomorrow the forecast calls for early morning rain then winds 14-15mph, so it's highly doubtful I'll do any shad fishing tomorrow.

Shad Slam at Mullet Lake Park!

Today was my most productive day fishing at Mullet Lake. I hooked 2 smaller crappies early on pink grub tails. All of the crappies were up close so I tried to catch a few more. I noticed a trail of bubbles in the water up close again and thought it was some more crappie, so I jigged in front of the bubbles and got another bite. It wasn't a crappie though, it my first shad of the day on a pink grub tail on chartreuse jighead.
David showed up shortly after my first shad and this is when the fun began. The shad were biting like crazy in the middle of the river where we were casting our lines. I was in a zone when I caught one, then another, then another. Some bites were soft, and then some bites striked aggressively. David would get a fish on and at the same time I would get a bite. Twice we came really close to reeling in a shad at the same time. The hot lure for me was chartreuse grub tail on a pink jighead (1/16 oz). Soon the bite stopped and that was it for us today.

During the visit David caught 2 nice crappie which he was kind enough to give to me (thank you!). He also landed a big female shad that measured 17.5" to the fork! He is now tied with the leader in the shad derby for our division. Woot Woot!

Today I caught 4 shad and 2 crappie. The big female shad are definitly in the area now and this should be a fun upcoming week. So far this year I've caught 12 shad!

Crappie 10.5"
Crappie 9"
American Shad 14.25"
American Shad 13.75"
American Shad 11.50"
American Shad 11.50"

Here's a picture of the fish I caught today, it doesn't include the 2 crappie that David gave me.

12" Crappie at Mullet Lake Park

Another late morning at the bank today, usual time between 10am and 1pm. Very very slow fishing today though. Unfortunately I wasn't able to catch any shad today, in fact, I didn't even have any bites besides a 12" crappie caught with a pink grub tail on a white 1/8th oz jighead. The crappie was caught at the far leftside where the boats enter the river.

1st Shad of 2012 - 3rd Annual Shad & Crappie Derby

American and Hickory shad are an anadromous species, meaning it spends most of its life in the sea and returns to fresh water to spawn. Shad enter the St. Johns River in late December and January to spawn, and the spawning will last until early April sometimes.
With that said, the 3rd Annual Shad & Crappie Derby is open. This year the derby has been extended an extra month too. It opened on December 17, 2011 and lasts through March 17, 2012. My friend David and I have already got in on the shad action. He's the only guy I know who targets shad as much as I do, and he is more experienced so I've learned alot from him. Shad aren't good to eat, we just love catching them. Plus the added chance of winning some prizes in the derby is cool too.

This morning was my first visit to Mullet Lake Park river bank since May 2011. I brought 3 poles with me (two catfishing rods and a jigging rod for shad). The hike was a little wet and the grass is still really tall. The old pathway to the bank has grown in so it was more difficult to find my way out there. When I finially made it out I immediately started jigging. About 20 minutes later I caught a decent 11" Crappie. And not long after that my friend David showed up. It was cool to hangout with him again. The shad were hard to find but probably because it's still early in the season. It will be another couple weeks before they are thick in our area. David caught the first shad of the day that was about 11". Then about noon I caught my first shad of the year that was approx 11.75". David says those are the males, but the females get bigger. Those are the ones we're after. The females usually average 16-18" long.

During the day I had good bites on my catfishing rod too. I used old shrimp and chunks of shad, with a piece of cut mullet mixed in there. The shrimp was getting good bites but it was hard to stay on the hook. So I switched over to cut shad and caught a big 6 LB 3 OZ Channel Catfish. I didn't bring very much shad with me so switched over to a piece of cut mullet. After some soaking I got another Channel Catfish that was about 1 LB that was let go to grow some more.

All together I caught 2 catfish, a crappie and a shad. Good day on the water!

My 1st Specks @ C.S. Lee Park

Today was an early release day at Codys' school so I picked him up at 2PM. I checked the weather when we got home and then headed out to C.S. Lee Park. I wanted to checkout the shad run in that area to see how thick they are. I first tried a red jighead with chartreuse 2" squirmin' grub from Bass Pro Shop. This is my most popular shad lure, but I wasn't getting any bites though. It was a cloudy day with alot of overcast. With that in mind, I wanted to see how darker colors would work instead of my usual bright colored lures. I changed the red/chartreuse jig to a black jighead with a smoke/silver flake 2" squirmin' grub. After a couple casts, I had a bite and reeled it in. Turns out it was my very first crappie! A rather nice size one too. From then on, I had specks on my menu. Overall, I caught 5 specks and kept 3 of them. The longest crappie I caught today was 12" long.

Catch: Crappie "speck"
Size: 12"
Lure: 1/16oz Black jighead w/ 2" Squirmin' Grub (smoke/silver flake)



Here's a photo of all three getting ready to be filleted.