Wheeler Branch smallies?

Anyone have any luck lately with the smallies out there?

Ironmike, See my whole post in the Kayak Fishing posts.

I caught my first out there today on a second trip to the dam on the far side away from the boat house down there. I cast a drop shot rig with a Keitech shad bait to the outside edge of some vegetation and she hit me and swam back into the weeds. I waited sort of statically, then she came out and I was able to reel her in. 17" approximately, a lovely golden brown coloring.

I usually drop shot roboworms but I caught two of my largest fish today on this little shad/fluke looking bait. I saved the package and I can give you the exact name of plastic bait I was using later, assuming it had anything to do with it. Maybe it was just time for me to finally catch one.

Maybe SMBs aren't as interested in worms as they are other things.

Hope to catch more; they fight great, neat looking fish.

Brad

Fish Wheeler often(in my backyard) and honestly have not found a way to "target" smallies. I simple cross paths with one every now and then. If I was going to "waste time" targeting them I would spend lots of time fishing cranks on the points and finnese jigs on the rip-rap.

Nice fish. I still have not been to wheeler branch even though it is my back yard too. AS soon as I get my kayak I plan on going over there.

If I were you, I would not trailer a yak to wheeler... It will cost you more if on a trailer... Good Luck

Fish wheeler often (usually least one day a week) and found every smallie I've caught have been suspended using weightless flukes or arig, if I was going to target them I would fish the rock piles right of the island

No, there is no additional fee for a trailered Kayak to Wheeler Branch. $8 for a non-county resident . . . whether it is trailered or top-carried.

I will say this, that one time, there was some confusion over this and they charged me $25 when I trailered a canoe out there. I asked the attendant, when did this start? Was it the trolling motor or the trailer? She seemed confused. And, oddly, her husband didn't correct her and I had been out many times before with the exact same configuration.

So, I was not going to miss my fishing day, so I paid it, and when I got off the water, there was a note taped to my car door, said "see me" and I was going to stop but they saw me and she came out and had an envelope with $17 dollars in it, said she had made a mistake. We talked a bit, I said no issues, and I wasn't mad or anything, but I wondered if the "bureaucrats" over in the building were cooking something up, mentioned to the lady and her husband that if the board ever charged $25 for kayaks on trailers, they'd literally run the vessels off the lake. No one pays $25 a trip to float what are often < $1000 kayaks.

You may have gotten caught up in that confusion several months ago.

I will admit it is an odd price schedule. First, there is rarely, I have never seen it, any pressure on the boat ramps, so that isn't an issue. And, since full sized boats can only use trolling motors, I really don't get why they charge them more for not acting like bass boats. I do like the idea on a small lake like that that they limit the number of large boats, but the troll-only aspect naturally limits that. Not many big bass boats with all the gear want to troll small lakes.

*** Stetson, haven't seen you in awhile out there!

Brad

I've caught several out there. All over the lake. Me and my fishing partner always catch them while fishing for largemouth. TX rigged worms,wacky drop,topwater,crawdad baits but mainly the flash mob Jr. A-rig. I fish that little lake more than any other. Been there close to seventy five times. Great lake. Hard to target specifically smallmouth out there. I believe they have only put 25,000 brownies in there. But there is plenty of spawnable areas with all the rock. If I where going to target smallies I would definitely stay on the "right"hand side of the lake. Me and my fishing buddy have caught all but one or two out of about fifteen on that side of the lake. Good luck out there. Let me know about ANY fish u catch out there. My favorite lake!

Anybody have an extra kayak they could take there? I want to see if my bad shoulder can take paddling a kayak and what it's like fishing out of one. Hoping to have surgery in the next few Months then get me a kayak.

Agreed. So far, I haven't seen any results, nor do I know anyone who has even tried, targeting SMBs.

I have been out there about 20 times, 12 I guess from the bank, 8 in either my canoe or kayak. All LMBs for me . . . excepting the one SMB I caught yesterday.

Interestingly, according to stocking reports, they have actually seeded the lake with more SMBs, over more years, than with Florida strain LMBs.

I'm still hunting for the elusive walleye. Rick at Angler's says they like live leeches. Hmm???

Brad

If I knew how to post it I would show you a good wheeler walleye

Same as everybody else has said, they are hard to target out there. Caught them all fishing for lmb. I've had best of luck catching them on topwater around the island. I dove the lake a couple times and have seen some monster smallies, but have yet to catch a good sized one, all have been smaller. I fish that lake more than any other. Great to have in the back yard

Have never caught a smb there but the husband caught this good size catfish there a few weeks ago on Wheeler. Hit that worm so hard my husband was sure it was a lunker. Crazy!!