17 crappies Tuesday, 15 today, trolling flats at Salamonie with crankbaits. Average around 12". Surprisingly most still had eggs. h.h.

Yum!

Left over crappies from today's dinner......Drakes breading, salt and pepper......they were delicious! h.h.

That's a nice hull. What kind of crank bait.

Bomber 6a fire tiger. Bought a couple umbrella rigs and going to try them out this evening. h.h.

Caught 12 white bass and 2 crappies last night. Most of the white bass were in the 13-14" range and one was 16". Nice mess of fish. Crappie bite isnt what it was a week ago but a white bass to me are just as good to eat. h.h.

Caught another limit of white bass tonight, the biggest ones yet. None of them were under 15". I had to throw back 2 that were over 17" and kept a third that was 18". I also caught one large mouth that went around 4 lbs and one channel cat that was 4 lbs. I released the large mouth but kept the catfish. Im having a ball trolling with crank baits! Over all I probably caught 40 fish or more in 4 hours of fishing and some of them are real pole benders! h.h.

Congrats! Good eats!

Sounds like you are on a good bite HH!

Would you mind explaining your trolling setup? speed? how much line out? Not much of a trolling fisherman really.

Bean,

Im trolling the edge of flats that break off into deep water with the river channel close by. The white bass are laying just off the edges in 8-20 ft of water and move up to feed at times. Im using Bomber 5a deep diver and Bomber 4 square a, both in fire tiger pattern. Im running the 5a on 12 lbs test back about 60 ft. It will dig the bottom at times and the 4 back about 80-100 ft and it dives 3-4 ft on 10 lbs test. Speed is 1 1/2 - 2 mph. I light up the drags so when a bait snags bottom it dont break off. Ive lost maybe 5 baits in the last two weeks.

If it doesn't storm this evening I plan on going again. I put up 5 bags of fillets today out of 13 fish.

The white bass was tearing up shad when I quit at dark last night. I caught two at one time, one one each hook. I thought it was a whooper!

I learned all this trolling stuff when I had my Erie boat. Many times Ive come in with a limit of walleyes and other boats might have 4-5 fish with 6 guys fishing. Fish hit trolling lures out of reaction when they are not feeding. Lots of fun once you get the hang it. h.h.

Thanks. I may try that at Summit. I have had good success there fishing for walleye basically dragging crawlers. I have not tried the crankbaits yet.

I like the white bass to eat as well. Some people despise eating them. We have always thought they were pretty good.

I love white bass. I just soak them in buttermilk and beer overnight. Bread them up and fry them. They are excellent, my grandpa and I used to tear them up at Prairie Creek. Hey Bean, I fished summit last summer trolling for walleye with crankbaits and did OK trolling some ledges, once we found them we bounced crawlers and cleaned up the stragglers. Caught a ton of crappies trolling the weed edge to.

An old black guy I use to work with taught me the secret to take the strong taste out of fish, soak them in baking soda and water over night in the fridge, then pour off the water. Up here sometimes the cats out of the river will be strong and this method makes them very tasty. h.h.

H.H. I have done that with white bass before and it works pretty good. The buttermilk does the same thing, sometimes I throw a little franks hot sauce in the marinade as well. That makes them even better, works with cats as well out of the river.

Caught about 30 or more white bass this evening, kept 12 nice ones. First time Ive been in a week and the bite is still strong. They averaged around 14-15". h.h.

Good deal! Congrats!

Good deal!

HH, can you share again what lake your on.

Salamonie reservoir. I use to catch a lot of walleyes there but none so far but the DNR quit stocking the lake too. Been the time when you could catch walleyes like you were on a school or crappie, one right after the other.

My buddy is coming from Florida and will be here Monday so I plan on wearing his arm out on these whites. I toll 2 rods and have fish on both a lot of the time. In the past Ive caught a lot of white bass while bass fishing but they were not the size that Im catching now. These are real pole benders! h.h.

Thanks again. It's quite a drive up there for me but sure a thought.

You come up this way Delaney.....give me a shout.....Ive got some other things up here fishing wise to do too!

I'm booked this weekend but I'll be up that way In a week or two.

Crappies are hitting trolled lures. This is the biggest Ive caught, 14". Might go again this evening. h.h.