eWhat to use when feeding on insects

Went fishing today up at rodman, and one fish skunked my all day long. He had to be at least 12-15 lbs. I threw every lure I had and used every conventional and non conventional retrieve I could think of. This monster just kept swimming in about a 20 foot wide circle. I saw him come out of the water about 40 times today. If I had some flies I might have caught him. The only lure he was interested in was a 8" Shallow diving Shiner Crankbait. He had just rolled up on some bugs when it went by and he made a quick turn and took a b-line straight towards the lure. The water was rising up over his back as he got closer and closer to the lure, he got right up on it and stopped dead in his tracks. That was the only interest he showed. Then he continued feeding on insects. Talk about frustrating. It was an awsome expierence to be able to shore fish and see a fish this big and for as long as I got to see him. He stayed in the same area making the same circle for at least 4-5 hours today. I'll be back tommorow with some live shiners.

[Rob Mak]

normally dig out my fly rod and catch a couple on it each year

zooker

lol, this monster woulda been fun on a flyrod. I might just have to bring one up there tomorrow in case the shiners don't work.....if this monster is still there.

[zman]

Make it a 3 wt, with a parachute style dry fly. ;D

[macgyver]

Use a popper, or jitterbug or a bass fly. Just keep it more or less in place, just wiggle the rod tip to give it a few ripples occasionally. Many times this will drive em crazy.

Lizards

[Rich]

Or downsize-"match the hatch" so to speak. The minnow had him interested-maybe if you threw a smaller offering it would have done the trick.

[Bassin_Dude]

you could try one of those poppers that look like a grasshopper. those are pretty good. you might have had some good luck with a smaller bait. let us know what happened today.

[macgyver]

Hey Rodman Rod,

How is the Battle to keep the lake open going. I've read several bits about the losers down there want to remove the dam, so they can make it back to a river? In Bass Times they had an article, that these same idiots did a research of the tourneys that happened on the St Johns and Rodman and came up with this wonderful :P notion . They said that the average Big Bass out of St Johns was like 7.?lbs something, and the average Big Bass outa of Rodman was 6.67lbs(I think) So ther WONDERFUL minds decided that you don't need Rodman since there are bigger fish in the St Johns : Yeah I think 6lbs isn't worth catching, so we should all jump on the band wagon huh This is just another one of those freaking idiots, who probably have some stake in the property around there somewhere. Where do these people come from. There was also another article I believe from Arkansas, that the land owners next to a river set up Barbed wire along the river to keep anyone from getting to HIS river. This is the same guy who is a MEMBER of congress, and is a member of a Private Hunting and fishing club. I guess If I have money, and power, I would change all the laws to give me more of both too > We need some of the gene pool to die sometimes, if you know what I mean I would also like to say that ALL of us need to send letters, or emails or whatever we can do when these things come up, to our representatives and let them know we aren't gonna just stand around and take this crap. Hunters and Fisherman are the ones who pay for the majority of the money that supports our DNR and the money needed to keep these things going. They are now even trying to pass a law that instead of taxing ALL HUNTING AND FISHING tackle, that they want to just tax the rods and reels manufactutrers, because it's easier for them to track the money > There justification is that it will still be the same monies, just easier to collect and enforce. Now how is that fair to all of the rod and reel manufacturers? And guess what will happen to the price of the rods and reels? Everyone will just start ordering form overseas, and then there won't be any money collected at all. These frickin idiots need to hear from all of us, that they need to go to their yacht clubs, and private hunting clubs, and leave our areas alone. This is just absolutely getting out of control. OK I better quit talking my blood pressure and ticked off meter is getting pretty high. Next for the soap box :-*

Lizards

[Bassin_Dude]

they come from west virginia lizards ;D ;D they also want to undam the oklawahau river so it will go back to its ''natural curvy state'' ??? this river is already curvy with the dam. these people are crazy.

Lizard,
The fight is still going strong between the Florida Defenders of the Enviroment and the Save Rodman group. I've been following this some time and have been a fan to Save Rodman for the longest time, however I'm starting wonder if I should lean the other way on this matter. Every 3-4 years they need to draw down rodman to kill off the weeds. They just did it this year and they just completed the draw down and returned the water level back to normal. It hasn't been a month and the lake is already slap full of weeds again. Many locals who have fished and boated on rodman for many years through many drawdowns are saying the weeds are getting worse and worse after the drawdowns. Instead of just saying they need to restore it, I think the state needs to do more studies on the lakes health and the direction it is going. If it keeps going the way it is, it will eventually suffocate the fish. Something needs to be done, restoring the river probably isn't the answer, but something needs to be done, and with the lobbying from the Florida Defenders of the Enviroment, the politicians see restoring it as an easy fix, my personal opinion, I don't think enough research has been done on either side, restoring the river or keeping it as is. I would hope they can find a solution and keep it how it is, before needing to restore it to salvage whatever is left.

Bassfisher,
The area between the Eureka Dam and Rodman Dam is the part that would be restored to its curvy state. There is still a very large portion of the river that is not affected by rodman. When you get past the transitional zone around the orange springs ramp, the river really opens up to what is known as the Rodman Pool/Stumpfields. Once in the Rodman Pool, it resembles a lake, then continue north past the rodman dam and the river is back to its curvy state again, along with south of the eureka dam.

[Bassin_Dude]

i launch from the moss bluff ramp, and fish all the way to silver springs. near moss bluff where that lock is \ and the dam, its pretty straight, but as you go towards silver springs it gets real curvy.

Well the moss bluff area is quite a ways from rodman, completely different dam. Rodman is at least 30 miles from silver springs(straight line), prolly 40-60 miles if you consider all the twists and turns in the river. I know what you're talking about with the river being straight down there, the tree line being far from the shore also makes it one of the least enjoyable parts of the river.

[Bassin_Dude]

the area where i fish the bank is basically a drop off, meaning the bank pretty much goes straight into the water. getting closer to silver springs, the water when not all the way down, has trees right by the water if not in the water. it gets pretty deep, the deepest area we have found was 17' its weird how the lilly pads are just along the sides of the river, i guess that is because the water gets deep right near the shore. i also cant help but notice that there are ALOT of bowfin. i just cant locate the bass in this river, everywhere it looks like there are bass, there arnt, and i have thrown everything but my tackle bag at them. the only area i have had any lucj\k in the river is at moss bluff at the dam, i caught a small bullhead. i really want to hook into a striper. i have used everthing and i cant even buy a bite. next weekend we are gunna be camping on the river, i hope to catch something, but who knows.

With as much pressure that the river gets, I'd have to suggest live bait, the smallest hook you can get away with, along with a flurocarbon line.

Since I already know you prefer lures over live bait, I'd suggest pitching a worm or fluke off those steep banks and let it just hug the wall the entire way down. Also look try around wherever there is deep water at a bend in the river, throw every deep diving lure you've got, cause there will usually be a trophy down there, course the trophy would prefer you feed her a shiner, but they'll take lures with the right presentation.

If you really want a striper, you're gonna have to go a little further north to Lake George/St.Johns River. Where ever you've got a spring fed creek dumping into the lake, you'll likely find stripers.

Bowfin is another problem rodman has, everytime I take shiners up there, half are taken by bowfin. During the drawdown when the water reached its lowest level, bowfin was about the only thing anybody could catch.