I was waiting for the Lynn Creek marina to open this morning at 6:00AM. The weather was cool and overcast.

While it was dark I concentrated on the stocker channel catfish. I have been losing a lot of our custom recipe dough bait to small fish who dart in and take the bait in one quick jerk. I cannot feel them well enough to catch them on the medium action rods I usually use for catfish, so this morning I took a 7 foot ultralight rod. I caught four of the 10-12 inch catfish while it was still dark. They quit biting when the sun came up.

I then switched to a short ultralite rig with a slip bobber set at 5 feet. I have been killing them with that set up the past few weeks, casting under the bridge from the pier. Not this morning! They were deeper and in a different spot. I found them and caught many, but not like they have been. I finally caught most of the sunfish using the same Carolina rig on the bottom that I used for the catfish, except baited with nightcrawlers.

In the process I caught a carp and several small bass. I broke off a big carp and fair sized bass.

I caught bass, channel cats, carp and bluegill. All the bluegill were caught on small lengths of nightcrawlers. I did not catch any other species of sunfish. The bluegill ran small.

I am looking forward to Wednesday to try again.

One of the great things about fishing for sunfish, the by catch. Hold on when a big bass or whatever else bites down.

Good times on light lines.

Solid Post! Nice variety of fish. I bet the Carp fight were AWESOME!



Side Note: I have also noticed the Bluegill have somewhat changed their patterns on Dunlap and have moved to a little deeper water two week ago I was getting em in 8 to 12 feet of water. Now it's 10 to 15 feet of water and usually by drop offs. Overhanging tree limbs in 5 to 10 feet of water are still holding some good fish.

Excellent post. I've also seen some signs the fish are moving deeper. Approaching the full moon the bite has been best from around 7 to 8 AM for me. Catching a few decent size fish shallow during that time period. The bass bite is picking up.

Great post Sir! As always thanks for sharing.

Nice report "Smithaven"! Will not be long until we will be chasing trout.

Good post Smithaven...Im gonna have to catch ya out there one of these Wednesday mornings!