hey sbursik, if you wanna catch reds, then calaveras is a good place to do it, better than the coast as far as im concerned. there are a lot of em and they get big. my brother and i stumbled into them while catfishin last summer and had so much luck we got sidetracked from the cats. i couldnt tell ya how many we got, but our biggest was over 40in and 22lbs. they are hilatious fighters. make sure your drags are plenty loose. we catch them drift fishing live shad. big a baits as you can find. but they gotta be live, dead shad aren't really as effective for the reds. they'll bite now but if your 4hrs away, i'd wait till first part of july, thats when they really start biting. good fishin

erich

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Outdoorsman

Buerich. I'm going to try drift fishing for those reds this year. Did you ever try drifting with 3 to 4 inch or bigger talapia or perch? I used to drift fish with them before the reds got established really well in Calaveras and we would catch those hybrids up to 7 pounds on those talapia. Just wondering cause those talapia are a lot easier to keep alive than those shad. I caught a 30 incher and I can't even imagine how you managed to land that 40 inch fish. If anyone out there has never had one of those living torpedos on the end of their line they are really missing something. Good fishin! Jimbo

Bluerich. How do you drift fish? I use a Carolina Rig with a 30" leader, a Carolina floater about 4 inches from the hook to keep the bait off the bottom and a 3/0 circle hook. Is this similar to your way.
Jess

Ok, just got back from Calaveras and had an interesting day. I wanted to do a comparison of different baits to see what was hot and I tried something new that worked pretty good. Last night I went to Wal-mart to get some hooks and new line and found a fresh seafood mix containng squid, octipus, shrimp, scalops and other sea food mixed together in the seafood section. I thought It would make for interesting fishin so I bought a 1/2 pound for $2. Caught 14 8"-18" channels and blues on the squid and octipus but didnt use the other stuff in the mix. It stayed on the #6 treble pretty good, especially the squid. Fished in 5-15 ft of water off the bank from 6am to 5.30 pm. Mac caught 4 16"-18" channels, cut up carp didnt catch any, cut shad caught 5 14"-18" channel/blues/yellows and cut perch caught 12 good sized bluegill that went back in the lake and 3 8"-12" yellows. Liver caught 3 18"-22" stripersand 4 small cats, DKs caught 5 12"-16" channel/blues, crawfish caught 3 24"-37" reds that I am cooking up in about 30 min. for friends tonight and shrimp caught only 2 small channels. All bait got same amount of time except crawfish which caught limit in only 2 hrs. The seafood mix was great and I hope it wasn't a fluke, gonna buy 2#'s and keep it with me in case nothing else is catching fish.

Mac! Are you using a laptop computer to keep track of all that stuff. Man I'm impressed. Looks like I might as well sell my boat and start bankin it. You are something else my friend. I'm going to take my neighbor out next Tuesday and probably go to the crappie wall and then do some trolling and I want to get him hooked up with at least one good red. He's elderly and he always talks about how he would catch those reds down on the coast. One would make his day. When is the best time to catch those reds off the bank? Good fishin! Jimbo

Calaveras Cats Love Shad

^ That's the truth

Jimbo, caught my limit of reds right at about 7.45 am to about 8.30 am. I am going tonight again to see if they are still biting on those crawfish. Also gonna try that seafood mix again.

hey jimbo, sorry took me a while to respond about those reds. for some reason my internet hasn't been letting me access this post until now. the reds are kinda funny out there sometimes. some days they will hit tilapia like mad, and some days the same with perch. some days both and some days neither. For whatever reason though when they are feeding they seem to always like the shad so thats just what i use when i can get it. but any live bait will work when they want it. i've got about another week before i'm outa school. and then i'm gonna boogie out to the lake and wet a line, maybe set some jugs up towards the powerline if i can catch enough tilapia for bait. has anyone set any jugs out there lately? what are the cats doin these days?

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Outdoorsman

hey uncle jess, for driftin for those reds i just get a heavy rod with a good size reel, either bait casting or big spinning. smaller spinning reels work, but big fish rip em up bad, (thats experience talkin) we hooked one one day that tore up shimano 4000. so i like ambaseeur 5500's or better with at least 15lbs line. then i just tie on a big swivel and leader to some 30-40lbs trilene big game (flurocarbon works better but its expensive and i'm cheap) then to a 5/0 khale hook. no weight. hook shad through the nose. tilapia and perch can go either way. then you can fish them like that, or uner baloons or popping corks. just make sure your drags are set light, those first runs are killer.

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Outdoorsman

If you REALLY want to do some effective drift fishing in the wind out on Calaveras, perhaps Jerry Hancock still has one of his custom drift rigs. I have never seen a more effective device for drifting and controlling a boat in high winds than that rig. I use mine even for bass fishing windy lakes.

hey kat man do, so you mean like a rig for rod holders, or what. i've got rod holders on my boat, but they are verticle and not very effective. most of the time we just go with a couple people and hold the rods. i'd like to get hold of some good angled rod holders that would mount on the side of a boat. i need to get my rails first though so i got somethin to attach too.

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Outdoorsman