I've not caught one on a fly, but I have on a 1/80 glow ice jig tipped with a wax worm if that's any help? They bite slowly and most often it's an ''up bite'' so th slip bobber goes up or even tips.
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I've not caught one on a fly, but I have on a 1/80 glow ice jig tipped with a wax worm if that's any help? They bite slowly and most often it's an ''up bite'' so th slip bobber goes up or even tips.
My best redears in Louisiana came it cypress areas on black woolly buggers... Sorry I know that ya' don't have any waters like that in Kansas..
I catch them on the same poppers I use for bluegills.
aged sage
I probably catch more RedEar (also called Shellcracker or Stumpknockers down here in Georgia) than any other variety of Bream. I love them because they grow so large (my personal best is 15 inches) and because they fight so hard. Without question, my best producer is an all black leech tied on a size 10 hook fished along deep (4-5 feet) banks lined with overhanging brush.
Jim Smith
Hi Zac,
When spawning, they do take poppers. Joe Hyde used to catch them on a #10 gold ribbed hares ear flash back in Kansas. (Look through the archives.) One of my better flies for them has been a damsel fly nymph, if memory serves correctly.
Regards,
Gandolf
Up north of you there Quivira I really like to use a snail flyof some sort.... spun deer hair or cheneile ith plenty of lead to get them down deep. Nymphs work well also but I have had my best luck on snails. Caught a 13" on a hopper about three years ago in the fall.... was an outstanding fish for sure.
Steve
This is my best shot at a snail pattern, what does yours look like? This is a tapered strip of craft foam with a split shot in the middle (make a hole in the foam to hold it) coiled up with super glue I suppose to hold it in place on a No. 10 hook. Mono eyes. This one still want to float should they go deep of float below the surface?
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There's a reason they call them shellcrackers in the south. As some of you have already figured out, they are death on mollusks and scuds and the like, which means once the water warms up and they leave their spawning areas they will be near the bottom or tucked in the weeds (or both). Around here they also tend to be in deeper water than the gills in the summer. They'll take topwater flies on those occasions when they are in shallow water or (even rarer) near the surface over deeper water, but you'll do better if you keep a nymph, scud, really small crayfish or the like near the bottom around structure of some kind.
Bluegill222, I agree with you wholeheartedly. You might add that when tying for shellcrackers, flies should be cheap and fast to tie. The combination of deep, often darkly colored water and structure makes hanging up and loosing flies just a part of the game.
Jack, is "Charlie" the tree still just downstream of the stump? There's shellcracker and bluegill habitat, first class. :)
Ed
You are dead on about the mollusk, snails and crayfish. Several years ago when the new world record was set at Santee Cooper Lake there was a condition that allow a formerly unknown growth of an Asiatic shellfish the redears pigged out on resulting in the new record. There was talk of the possibility of a 6 lb. redear being possible. 5 lbs. 7.5 ozs.
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