Stick Marsh & Farm 13

10/10/2004 David Slobodkin of Oak Park, IL joined me for day one of a two day trip. This was Dave’s third trip out with me and proved to be his best yet. The weather man was calling for 20-25mph wind out of the NE, and unfortunately they where right. Due to the weather we decided that 6-dozen shiners would give Dave the best chance at a successful day of fishing. We left the ramp at 6:00am and headed to the spillway. I positioned the boat on the point and we began with the shiners both free lined and Carolina rigged. We found out right away that the bass preferred the shiners free lined both in the current and on the point. It did not take Dave long to get the hang of fishing with shiners and he began catching bass right away. After a couple of hours I moved the boat inside and began casting across the current and to the left of the point. Dave kept on catching bass except now fishing the shiners Carolina rigged proved more productive. At 10:30am I moved the boat to the west shoreline and we ran out of shiners at 11:00am. Dave landed 30 bass with the biggest weighing in at 6lbs. We switched to Carolina rigged Senkos and kept on catching bass until we called it a day at 2:45pm. A total of 75 bass where caught with the biggest weighing 6lbs.   10/11/2004 I meet Dave at 5:15am and we picked up 6 dozen shiners and headed to the ramp. We launched the boat at 6:00am and headed to the spillway. I beached the boat on the west shore where we had finished the day before. The action started immediately and the shiner bite stayed steady until we finished the shiners at 12:00pm. Dave caught 37 bass including a 7.5lbs bass and a 7.25lbs bass.     The majority of the bass were caught with free lined shiners and only a few on Carolina rigged shiners. The artificial bite was good early and slowed down as the day went on. At 12:00pm we switched to Carolina Rigged Senkos and caught another 13 bass by the time we left at 2:45pm. The color of the Senko did not matter and we used a 3/8oz weight for our Carolina rigs. We saw lots of bass caught on crank baits, swim baits, and rattletraps.   Scott