bait for well-fed bream?

[RamblinWreck]

I've been fishing a nearby medium-size lake that has a few electric fish feeders on it. Not sure what is in them, and have never actually seen one go off. Anyway, I have caught many huge bream and shellcrackers in this lake during bedding phases, but not lately. I really wanted to find some the last couple days, so I put some time in looking with my electronics. Yesterday I found some, on a flat not too far from one of the feeders. Didn't think they were crappie, because the crappie I've been finding are at 18-22 feet most of the time. The fish covered the whole flat - it looks like this pointing the PLS transducer in any direction:


Now, you know I couldn't drop anchor and get a cast out fast enough when I saw that. And again. And again, ... what the? I only caught 2 redears, one real nice, one dink, in about 3 hours of throwing everything I had in the boat at these fish, and the little redear was foul hooked. They would rush over and look, but not touch. I only had jigs, trout magnets, and small plastics and such, along with some crappie nibbles and Berkley power honey worms. The fish would only make short strikes, if at all, not take it. Kinda sucks watching a crowd of fish clustering up around your jig, with not a single peck.

I think they are full of fish food, and just not hungry. I'll double-check with the lake mgr to see what and when the feeders are going. Maybe I can tie a jig that looks like a pellet!

'cracker 1 was pretty nice, about a lb:


cracker 2 was just OK:


Plan B is to get some bait that these fish might want to bite, and head back tomorrow. Hopefully they will still be there. I'm thinking wigglers and maybe crickets, too. Maybe the 1" gulp minnows if I can find some. Any other suggestions? I love catching crackers on UL gear, they are the King of the Bream in my opinion.

 

[GreenPig]

I'd have to try drop shotting a cricket or wiggler.

 

[Nicodemus]

If you could get some catawber worms, I bet you could catch some. Especially if you turned them outside in on the hook.

 

[Fletch_W]

I feed the bluegill and shellcracker in our neighborhood lake and at this point, it takes a cricket on a #8 to catch them. Also, they will attack the split-shot just as fast as they'll attack the cricket. I used to catch them easily on lures but not anymore.

I think RamblinWreck put me on ignore a while ago because he doesn't like me for some reason, so someone else feel free to repost this for his/her benefit.

 

[RamblinWreck]

A super nice older gent offered me a paper bag full of catalpa worms a couple weeks ago, said they were from a tree in his yard, but I was leaving and didn't take them. Should have got his number.

I'll get crickets and wigglers for sure.

 

[littlejon]

I would try crickets also and a beetle spin too, nice catch!

 

[RamblinWreck]

I'd have to try drop shotting a cricket or wiggler.

Yeah, good suggestion. key words = drop shot. You definitely want the hook off the bottom, because the fish are above bottom weeds about 1-2 feet thick, based on image, and jig. Not sure what kind of weeds, but if I let my jig get too low, it would foul in it.

I usually use a 1/32 or smaller bare jig when fishing wigglers. I gut hook every shellcracker I catch if I use a plain hook and split shot, and I hate that. If I put the wiggler (or cricket, I guess) on a jig head, I land more fish, almost never gut hooked. Sink a jig in the roof of the mouth, well, they may still get off with wild shellcracker antics, but the hook won't fall out too easily.

 

[across the river]

Whether it be catfish or bream, when they get used to the feeder it can be tough. Buy some of the little bitty short shank salmon egg, trout egg, or whatever they call those hooks. Owner make some call micro something, eagle claw has them at Walmart, so there a different ones. You want very light line (4lb is what I usually use, but 6 will work) and put a small piece of worm that covers the whole hook, and let it freelance to the bottom. I don't know how well it would work in 14ft of water, especially if the wind is blowing. It will catch them thought when nothing else will. A small piece of split shot works as well, but the more "natural" it looks floating to the bottom the better. Your will get tbad line twist though if you don't keep tension on it reveling it in. I have also used those Berkely Powerbait crappie bites or whatever they are called doing the same thing for fish used to eating fish food. It looks like a fish food nugget sinking, and they will usually hammer it pretty good to. The only down side to this "technique" is they will swallow that small hook if you don't fill them hit it immediately. If you are eating them, no big deal. If you plan on release them, it can be an issue.

If you fish there a lot, another thing you can do is buy a bag of fish food, put it in a gallon ziplock bag with dough water to get it all wet, and them mash it up in the bag. It will make a big dough pile as long as you don't get it too wet. Drop some of it out in one of those spot in quarter size balls or chunks when you go. They are used to the food, so they will eat it, but it gets them used to eating off of the bottom. Do that ever day for a week, and you can roll up those balls and put them in a little bitty treble hook like you would catfish dough bait, and they will hammer it when it hits the bottom. That doesn't work as well as the worm though, unless you have been baiting them on the bottom and gotten them accustomed to it. If you have been baiting them up though, you can fill the boat.

 

[Semi-Pro]

I believe berkley makes a fish food formula. That simulates the food pellets

 

[hopper]

My Uncle had a feeder and the fish would tear that food up. I tried everything to get that feeder food on a hook. Then one day when I was rummaging through his garage I saw the cat bowl. It was Xs and Os cat food. The O's fit on a small gold hook.
We caught bream, cats, bass, and the two yr old hybrids he stocked. I miss that lake, the hybrids ate about everything and died off in a few yrs though. Cheerios worked aswell when we didnt have cat the cat food. Who knows worth a shot.
Also I think if your lake is what I think the cats they stocked a few year ago should be getting to size.

 

[Josh B]

I caught my biggest trout in a pond that a man fed the fish. I tried for 5 weekends and finally got one with a piece of the fish food.

 

[RamblinWreck]

I believe berkley makes a fish food formula. That simulates the food pellets

I'll have to look for some of that. Never heard of it.

 

[RamblinWreck]

This is a pretty big lake and there are only 2-3 of these feeders, so it isn't like all the fish are fed. This is the first time I've seen them stacked up near a feeder, and tried to catch 'em, so this is not typical for me, or the lake.

 

[Ray357]

I've been fishing a nearby medium-size lake that has a few electric fish feeders on it. Not sure what is in them, and have never actually seen one go off. Anyway, I have caught many huge bream and shellcrackers in this lake during bedding phases, but not lately. I really wanted to find some the last couple days, so I put some time in looking with my electronics. Yesterday I found some, on a flat not too far from one of the feeders. Didn't think they were crappie, because the crappie I've been finding are at 18-22 feet most of the time. The fish covered the whole flat - it looks like this pointing the PLS transducer in any direction:
View attachment 1033899

Now, you know I couldn't drop anchor and get a cast out fast enough when I saw that. And again. And again, ... what the? I only caught 2 redears, one real nice, one dink, in about 3 hours of throwing everything I had in the boat at these fish, and the little redear was foul hooked. They would rush over and look, but not touch. I only had jigs, trout magnets, and small plastics and such, along with some crappie nibbles and Berkley power honey worms. The fish would only make short strikes, if at all, not take it. Kinda sucks watching a crowd of fish clustering up around your jig, with not a single peck.

I think they are full of fish food, and just not hungry. I'll double-check with the lake mgr to see what and when the feeders are going. Maybe I can tie a jig that looks like a pellet!

'cracker 1 was pretty nice, about a lb:
View attachment 1033906

cracker 2 was just OK:
View attachment 1033902

Plan B is to get some bait that these fish might want to bite, and head back tomorrow. Hopefully they will still be there. I'm thinking wigglers and maybe crickets, too. Maybe the 1" gulp minnows if I can find some. Any other suggestions? I love catching crackers on UL gear, they are the King of the Bream in my opinion.

Trout magnet.

 

[RamblinWreck]

I already tried it - as I mentioned in the first post that you quoted. The trout magnet is one of my usual go-to baits, but only the 1st fish was caught on one (sowbug color), the rest ignored it - and I have almost all of their colors.

 

[Ray357]

I already tried it - as I mentioned in the first post that you quoted. The trout magnet is my usual go-to bait, but only the 1st fish was caught on one (sowbug color), the rest ignored it - and I have almost all of their colors.

The yellow ones with the orange stripe are deadly in all the ponds I fish.

 

[RamblinWreck]

Pink lemonade? Yeah I have it.

Bedtime. I'll hit the store and get some wigglers, and yes, Fletch, some crickets, too. I'll try everything mentioned - until something works!

Good luck to all. If I get on 'em I'll post some pictures, unless they won't bite!

 

[Bowyer29]

I'd have to try drop shotting a cricket or wiggler.

100%

 

[diamondback]

Sometimes a small pea sized piece of white bread molded onto a small hook works good for fish used to eating feed. Fish it weightless with a bobber about 3 feet deep just for weight to cast.

 

[RamblinWreck]

Well, got out there late this afternoon, and only caught a couple dinks and one good bluegill before wind and storm ran me off the lake. It kept dragging me off anchor, and I couldn't stay on 'em. The good news is, they were biting drop-shot wigglers as soon as it hit bottom.

Couldn't find any crickets; Hammonds was out, and so was the pet store. Add them to the list of shortages these days...

I'll try them again tomorrow - weather permitting.

I did get some info on when they are feeding - a little in the morning around daylight, and a full feed at 8:30 PM, both when the gate is closed, so no possibility of fishing when it goes off.