Mar 18, 2020 fishing for both bluegill and shellcracker has been especially good for polk county area anglers this past week. You want to leave a long trailing piece of the worm. Redear are seldom caught except in the early spring when they congregate to spawn. Fishing guide services, fishing forecasts, and lodging information may be found through polk countys outpost 27 visitor center. Bluegill and redear sunfish populations support good numbers of quality sized fish, which make it an excellent area for panfish anglers. Shellcracker fishing tips sheelcracker fishing florida. In the small mountain lakes around the ozarks the fish can be picky at best. The little white grub is a tasty delight but sometimes the fish hit the bait just to defend the nest. Shellcracker are biting red worms on the shell bars, reports metheney. Crack the shell open, cut out the clam or mussel and allow the bait to harden slightly in the sun so it stays on the hook.
Bluegill spawn throughout the summer, congregating in large beds. The best bait has been a popping cork with a 18 oz. Bluewater action has been pretty good, with yellowfin tuna at the top of the list. For the shellcracker, i have to fish a bit deeper and live bait becomes key to consistent success, he said. In addition to chickamauga, other great bream fishing destinations include douglas lake, center hill lake, percy priest lake, barkley lake and reelfoot lake. Best bait ive used for bream so far and smells much better than sour wheat. With the addition of a diving lip, the black dog baits shell cracker affords anglers great versatility. Effective live baits include crickets, red worms, or minnows that can be fished under a cork. Small bream we caught were good bait for catfish and we used them on trot lines and bank hooks. Catching shellcrackers is hit or miss hartsville vidette. Heres a quick guide to the best bait to use while fishing for the shellcracker.
Put them on the bottom with a bb shot if in still pond water. Because the swimbaits are constructed out of durable plastics and tough metals, an angler can float these products in the water confidently without worrying about harsh. Successful baits sometimes border on the ridiculous so be prepared to be adventurous. Bluegill and shellcracker are also biting around lily pads and pencil reed grass on the south side of the lake, reports jim childress of big bass bait. May 24, 2009 going to a supposedly great shellcracker pond this week. The other method is to attach a slip cork setup only do not use a bobber stopper. If they are hungry, bream are not particularly fussy about what type of bait they will take.
Fish those same sandy banks, but back off into 6 to 9 feet of water. Shellcracker, bluegill bedding times near outdoors. In the mid west the bluegill offers a lot of attitude for their size, fighting better than any other freshwater species of panfish. Small crawfish are a great bait, i also like small leeches bluegill and shellcracker lovem. Steven said the best and only bait he uses are worms, black wigglers to be. Georgia lake seminole and worldrecord shellcrackers caught. Fishing habitat and techniques for bluegill and redear sunfish are much alike. Also known as a redear sunfish or stump knocker, the shellcracker puts up. If you harvest them yourself, the deal gets even better, since it wont cost you any money. When fishing for bream, many anglers have their own special baits that they hold dear. Crank it down or fish it like a wakebait on top, either way bass. Heres a quick guide to the best bait to use while fishing for the. The lily pads and shell bars are producing the most. The shellcracker g2 is designed to create a wake on the surface of the water during the retrieve.
The average pond owner usually misses this spawn and may miss some of the best bream fishing the pond has to offer. The best time to catch bream is when theyre biting, but you can narrow down the guesswork with the help of a lunar calendar. The original charlie type a is famous nationwide for its soft yet clingy, cheesy formula. Often youll need to put the bait under cypress limbs or into small targets to be successful on the lake, so use the equipment that gives you the accuracy needed in terms of presentation of the bait. Small bits of raw chicken breast can work, and cheese is also a popular choice. Crickets are the bait of choice for bluegill while redear are known to have a passion for redworms or wax worms, also known as meal worms. Panfish fishing florida helpful tips for fishing bream.
Charlie blood b has the same characteristics as type a but in a blood flavor. But wetting a baited hook isnt likely to garner as many bites. So in the remainder of this post, the word bluegill will be used to refer to both bluegill and redear, except where a distinction is made for. Floridas top bream spots make for some lively fishing. Catching bluegill and shellcracker on kentuckhy lake. More durable baits are red worms or pinches of night crawler. Best baits this is where you can become quite imaginative. But wetting a baited hook isnt likely to garner as many bites as youll get when bluegill fishing. If you have kids, this is one of the best ways to introduce them to fishing. I rigged the line with a crappie size daiichi bleeding bait hook. Well need to be careful dropping live worms near deeperwater holding spots in early spring. The redear sunfish is deep and slabsided, with a small mouth, with the upper jaw not reaching past the front of the eye. Bream bait 101, bluegill bait101, shell cracker bait 101 youtube. The best and simplest rig is to tie on a number 4 long shank cricket hook, thread a redworm on and attach a split shot about 12 inches above the hook.
Once is probably good enough, but i usually put the hook through one end of the worm twice. Many pond owners have no idea whether they have a good population of redear or shellcracker because they do not fish specifically for them. Ive used the fermented chum before and it smelled exactly like my. Fishing for bream in the mobile tensaw delta great days. Mar 25, 2020 lakes may and howard have been especially good, reports roberts.
Most often, you will be going over an area of clear water and all of a sudden there will be a large area that is stained or even muddy. The best baits to use when fishing for shellcracker bream. Florida shellcracker fishing spawning bluegills mwoutdoors. According to, if the bass you seek arent going hard after the bighook bait, add a trailer hook. Apr 12, 2011 best bait for shellcrackers is worms, either ga. Fishing swimbait products are available in a variety of compact and bulky design configurations, and each unique bait option provides benefits during specific situations. Plastic worms and swim baits have been best, reports mickey ingram at hoppys marine 863439.
The shellcracker is a type of fish found throughout the united states and one. Fishing for bluegill and shellcracker in the peak of the spawn is one of them. Sep 05, 2018 just about all delta area bait and tackle shops and docks will have live crickets on hand, and for bluegills, its hard to beat a cricket. Ebscohost serves thousands of libraries with premium essays, articles and other content including the souths 5 best shellcracker holes. The mouth of the escambia river near pensacola has good hybrid fishing, and sunshine bass feed around the fish attractors in newnans lake near gainesville. The most common panfish, thrives in lakes and ponds, but good populations are found in rivers, particularly below dams.
Every time we fish now after the road trip i ask her what she wants to fish. We visited a spot called flat swamp expecting little more than a day catching sunfish, but what we didnt expect was that some of those would turn out to be nearly. Fishing techniques best time to catch redears is in the spring when they come up to the spawning beds. Jul 28, 2014 hello all, i purchased the shell cracker from tacklewarehouse a few months ago but havent had any luck with it. As the name redear suggests, shellcrackers are known for having a distinct red color on the side fin, although the reddish hue is more common in males while females tend to have a slight orange tinge to their side fins. Mar 31, 2017 i often tried to catch my own minnows but nothing was as good for crappie as the bought shiners. The pockets and coves located throughout the lake are ideal for the fullmoon bedding periods. Mister twister product testimonials for sunfish shellcracker. The best baits to use when fishing for shellcracker. What is your favorite live bait and artificial bait for them. Of course, the traditional bait of worms or crickets will perform very well here. Find the perfect mix of activities, attractions when i find a bass on bed i cast it well past the bed and work the bait up to it slow. For live bait anglers, this is a good time to put on a nice fat worm and cast it into the transition water where the biggest bream are holding. Oldtimers insist red worms are the bait of choice for shellcracker, claiming they bite nothing else.
The moderately sloping rockandmud combination banks, along with the steep bluffs, will produce quality fishing when the fish are not on the beds. Mar 25, 2012 shellcrackers are big, fighters, tasty. For the biggest shell cracker bream, a fat red worm fished under a tiny split shot and dropped in a pocket of deeper water near some kind of shoreline cover is a good call. How to catch bluegill and redear sunfish best techniques. Some swear by corn niblets, while others use a tiny wadded piece of white bread. Mussels are a prime source of food for fish in seawater and freshwater so it follows that mussels would also be an ideal bait for fishing. Bluegill eat mostly insects and their larvae, but worms are the best bait, either fished on the bottom or suspended below a float. Crickets, wigglers or grass shrimp are best live baits while small beetle spins and jigs can be productive as well. The souths best shellcracker holes hunting and fishing. Redears were less inclined to chase baits than bluegills.
Then again, these werent your typical pansize sunfish. You may be supervised to learn that the full moon plays a major role. A sign to look for during the spawn is an area of stained water. Shellcracker, however, are much more finicky, snubbing a bait one day and slamming it the next.
Best spots for bama bream fishing great days outdoors. Fourtime bassmaster classic champion, rick clunn, has teamed up with luckestrike to help develop the luck e strike tickster spinnerbait. This massive expanse of bayous, creeks, backwaters and big rivers has a strong population of both bluegill and redear sunfish, also called a shellcracker, but they are not always easy to access. A good way to hunt for shellcracker is to cast a jigminnow rig around points and dropoffs around your lake. Such activity is a good indicator where to dip a worm.
Theres another two or three weeks of prime spawning time too so grab a friend and head on out. We both wanted to go after them with our fly rods aka buggy whoppers as acey wall, deceased use to call my fly rod. Clunn is a firm believer that a spinnerbaits blades need to displace water that is equivalent to the bulk of the spinnerbait, and ricks long drop blades achieve this proper water displacement. To keep them fresh, gather the mussels and clams from shallow waters before or while you fish. Good baits include worms, crickets and freshwater shrimp lightly weighted for a bottom presentation. Now is the time to strike a trot to the lake and wet a hook for these babies. Being bottom feeders, most redears are caught by letting live nymphs, red wigglers or garden worms lie on the bottom near shore. Shellcracker fishing tips and information on shellcracker fishing in florida on some of the top lakes in the country. Shellcracker bait to avoid cats i like to fish those deep water shellcrackers in juliette, but its hard to keep the catfish off the hook. They generally bed only one time each spring, when the water warms into the 70s.
Lakes clinch and reedy are good for bass on shiners and square bill crankbaits around the grass. The black dog small shell cracker g2 is nice as well and a little bit cheaper. Shellcracker get the edge though, as more lakes have reported a good bite for them. Florida lake tarpon and lake guntersville shellcrackers. Shellcracker are fun to catch and good shellcracker fishing tips and information on shellcracker fishing in florida on some of the top lakes in the country. Its superior design and proven performance on the water sets this bait apart from other wake baits. Fishing floridas largest bluegill, the shellcracker. Lets take a look at some of these hotspots as well. I have always had good luck with 1 to 1 12 inch crawfish and with artificials that looked the same. If your catching giant bluegill, theyre probably redear. Rage shellcracker rigging discussion fishing tackle bass.
See what triggers this bully bluegill to bite and what bait to use. Shellcracker anglers do best in these areas using red wigglers instead of. Fishing for shellcrackers in florida large bluegills. How fish the shell cracker g2 by black dog baits youtube. Bluegills are the most abundant panfish in california waters. Panfish fishing florida helpful tips for fishing bream in florida. Throughout the state, there are a number of lakes that provide exceptionally good bream fishing. Pesky bluegill will still eventually clean the hook, but it takes them longer, which gives a shellcracker more opportunity to find the bait. Luckestrike rick clunn trickster spinnerbait tackle warehouse. A bed of shellcrackers is a great day of fishing and an even better.
The shellcracker name seemed more fitting for a saltwater species like sheepshead than a sunfish. They are also second to none in the frying pan, so i thought i would take a trip to tavares florida and try my hand at some of the largest bluegills in the states, the shellcracker. Limits of bluegill and shellcracker have been caught on crickets and red worms through the south chain. Its just a shame you cant get leeches around without having to order them.
The best bait is freshwater shrimp, which we show how to catch in the video can be purchased as well. They dine on small snails, mussels and other mollusks they crush with teeth in their throat, thus the shellcracker nickname. Lake reedy is producing shellcracker on red worms on the edges of the grass in five feet of water. That is as early as february in florida, may in midgeorgia and june in indiana and north carolina, the northernmost point of their natural range. Bluegill will smack just about any similar bait cast their direction or depth range, whereas shellcracker usually prefer a bait on or near the bottom. If clams or mussels are native to your area, they make a great live freshwater bait to catch the native fish. Linda and i would seine the banks just after dark and catch all the small bream we could use in a few minutes. I like to catch plenty of fish that fight hard, test my tackle and my angling skills and taste delicious when i eat them. May 30, 2012 while live bait is also good, i prefer to use a lightweight flyrod with a popping bug and catch the bream on topwater. Shellcracker and bream fishing robert webster of hamlet, nc who has a camper at the lake tillery family campground, adjacent highway 2427, has been keeping a watch on the fishing conditions for shellcrackers and bream. This 4,500acre lake is home to plenty of shell beds, jeff willitzer, biologist for the southwest region of the fl orida fish and wildlife conservation commission in wakeland, florida, explains. Bass, rock bass, smallmouth sunfish shellcracker trout.
Freshwater snails, clams and mussels are the food of choice for redear sunfish shellcrackers. My absolute favourite is chicken breast marinated in oyster sauce and soy. Live bait, including shad, grass shrimp and crayfish are especially effective, but jigs, spoons and imitationminnow plugs also produce. For best delta bream fishing, a small boat of some kind opens up the world of fishing possibilities. Big shellcracker redear sunfish fishing with 1 lb line and. Grab a shellcracker g2 today and see what the black dog bait can do for you. Panfish fishing florida helpful tips for fishing bream in. For the last seven years, lake tarpon has consistently produced large shellcrackers year round. Even a few inches can make a huge difference between success and failure. It was in the latter part of the day, maybe an hour or two from dusk. Spend the whole time running away from catfish to find some bream. Each can be effectively targeted with live bait or artificial bait.
I hope you enjoyed the video, please leave a like if you did. I cant find pink worms anymore, only wigglers, jumpers and crawlers. Catching shellcracker bream is a lot of fun and they are good to eat, too. This is a perfect time to take a kid fishing and have a ball while youre doing it. In natural waters, it is confined to the southern half of missouri, but it is widely stocked in small reservoirs and ponds. A full instructional video on demonstrating the versatility and effectiveness of the g2 shell cracker made by black dog baits. Shellcracker in particular like areas where wood is or pieces of wood are present. If you can find pink worms they are the best shellcracker bait i have ever used. Grab a shellcracker g2 today and see what the black dog baits can do for you. The shellcracker name seemed more fitting for a saltwater species like sheepshead.
How to catch bluegill and redear sunfish the fishing advice. I cast it out but since its so heavy i always worry that it just spooks them not to bite. They will take other bait even small minnows and artificial baits but for size and numbers you can. Typically, bream fishermen on reelfoot will use crickets as bait. I personally think people overcomplicate shellcracker rigs. Grant olguin, cofounder of black dog bait company, relayed to us a story of when they first fished the shellcracker on the waters of the california delta.
How to use mussels as fishing bait gone outdoors your. Adding to the lore was the conventional wisdom of fishing the fullmoon phase in spring for the best shot at a. Bream bait 101, bluegill bait101, shell cracker bait 101. Rig this on a jig head or as a drop shot and its a nice minnow bait for anything that. The trick to using mussels as bait is to secure them to the hook. Quality and innovation that leads the way in todays explosive big bass swim bait market. The best chance of catching them is to use live bait as artificial ones have a. Yatesville lake will get a stocking of shellcrackers this year, making an already good bluegill lake even better as the years go by. While this sounds more like human food, the smell of the sauce creates a good berley slick that entices bream to feed. Catfish charlies dough bait is known as the old standby for thousands of fisherman.