Stick Marsh Farm 13 Catching Report

[Hugh Crumpler]

From: "Hugh Crumpler"
To: "Hugh Crumpler"
Subject: Stick Marsh & Farm 13 Catching Report
Date: Wednesday, October 23, 2002 8:39 AM

Catching at Stick Marsh & Farm 13 remains very good. Catches of a hundred bass a day are highly possible. Catching a MONSTER BASS in a day is highly possible. The two styles are not mixing at this time. The hundred bass a day are sized in the vicinity of keeper. MONSTERS are over 24 inches long. The latest MONSTER exploded on "Big" John's second or third cast. Big John was using a BabyBassBoat(TM). We were fishing old levies in Farm 13. Photo attached.

The smaller bass are feeding on shad and the larger bass are feeding on wild shiners. Shad run in schools. Shad rely on the numbers of their school for protection. They group knows some will be food and rely on the sheer numbers of their school for protection- the predators (bass) can not possibly eat the whole school. Shiners live in schools. However, shiners rely on cover for protection. Their schools are not as large. Shad tend to be wind and current driven while they live in open water and shiners live near cover,. So, where you find bass eating on shad and bass eating on shiners are not in the same places. Knowing and understanding the difference will improve your catch.

My philosopy has always been that a bass which is eating, or in a place for eating is more likely to bite than a bass that is sitting in his house. So I fish where eating places are. I fish for bass that know they are in a eating place. Going back to the shad eaters. These bass will be somplace where the wind or current will bring the bait to them. The shad feeders will move about the lake just like the bait. A change in wind direction will move the bait and the bass. The shiners live in the same area. Meaning that the shiners do not travel regularly and they are not likely to accected by wind. So those bass will be moving from home to food, eating and then moving back home. The shiners will be in shallower water than shad and close to cover.

If you know and understand your lake structure it is fairly easy to key in on where the bass will be and catch them. In Farm 13 this process is fairly easy. The old canals are the deepest parts of the lake. The old levies on each side of the canals are ambush sites. These old levies are also roads the bass follow to the feeding areas. Fish the old levies. The old levies that lead to shallow water are where the larger bass will be.

I post this report in places like Ohio and New York and I am always trying to provide information that will benefit a reader on his home waters. True shiners are native to Flroida and Southern Georgia. Some bait dealers like to call minnows shiners so they can get more money for them but, they are not shiners. Northern bass love crawfish first. The bass get more usable food per weight of crawfish than they do per weight of minnow. They also chase shad. Shad chasers are more likely to be smaller than are crawfish eaters. So......if you are looking for a larger bass go to bottom bumpers (where the crawfish live) use the lures over rocks. Deep diving crankbaits, and jigs are two good selections.

Just got an e-mail from a person from New York who had a awesome stringer of smallmouth. They were dragging tubes. One of a smallmouths favorite foods is a crawfish.

Back to Stick Marsh and Farm 13. Catching is very good. The catching will do nothing but get better as the weather cools. The water level is very good. Fish are also moving to the pumping station. Our experience yesterday was that we could have caught a hundred at the pump but the size was not of interest to us. We did get broke off once at the pump. "Little" John (I had two Johns on the trip.) Caught a 4 lbs 9 oz bass late in the day. Real nice fish. While the largest came on the BabyBassBoat(TM) and we had several bites on the buzzbait most of our fish were caught on Florida rigged soft plastic lizzards and worms.

Hugh Crumpler is a guide on Stick Marsh and Farm 13. Hugh's website is www.HughCrumpler.Com and e-mail is [email protected].