Redears......

We have been doing Clearlake here locally. Been taking some young'uns up for mainly big redears on worms. The kids are 6-10 yrs old and the redears generally run 7 1/2" - 11". While that is going on OCCASIONALLY we get to toss bugs at the crappie that are running 10"-15". Last w/e no kids and the crappie were VERY picky.....only got 12 late evening after changing lines and bugs for several hours midday. Folks were hammering BIG redears with the worms and when we tried (due to boredom), we would only sporadically connect with our flies, which seemed to need to be DEAD deep. Any tips and thoughts. I KNOW there are better redear chasers out there than we are. James Smith.....Rick......?
....lee s.

Here's my somewhat limited experiences:
In my area, folks rarely catch Redears outside of the spawning season. Most are fished while they are in shallow water, visible, on beds. That being said, I've also caught some by suspending a dark-colored microjig under an indicator.

Just in the past week, a friend of mine has been icefishing for them in the central Iowa area, and has said the ones he has been catching from 3 separate lakes seem to be suspending in the wintertime...NOT near the bottom. He hasn't caught ANY in the bottom 2 feet of the water column. And he was generally using ice lures (jigs or spoons) tipped with plastics.

Maybe something in this info will give you some ideas for your situation and location?

Don't have many red ears around me.

Rick

Red Ears are my favorite fish to chase. I use a weighted all black mohair leech for most of my Red Ear fishing in the spring (which is in 4 to 8 feet of water). I tie them on a size 10 2XL hook and add four to 8 wraps of lead under the mohair body depending on how fast I want them to sink. If I'm fishing very deep (greater than 15 feet), I use a Carter's Sculpin pattern again, tied in all black with a grizzly tail. Carter's Sculpin will get down fairly quickly and when retrieved with fast 2-3 inch strips with a one second pause between strips is a killer bream and crappie fly and I also pick up some decent bass on it as well. I been too busy to get out yet this year, but with the weather warming up, I hope to get out next week:)

Thanks guys,
Dark, deep, and slow seems to be a "best" strategy and will be continued. It sure is hard to leave 10"-14" crappie on small minnow immi's though.....just left the fillet table and are sharing them now.
James, do you ever use an indicator on'em?
....lee s.

Lee, Since I'm using weighted flies, I'm not sure that an indicator would work well. The only indicator I've ever used is the small yellow foam rubber roll-on kind, and even then I cut them in half to use. I would use them when fishing soft hackles up under overhanging brush. With the leeches, I watch where my leader/line enters the water. If I see any movement, even the slightest twitch, I set the hook. Most of the time with both the leeches and the and the Carter's Sculpin, they just grab it and take off. In the summer months, the big boys get real subtle with their takes and an indicator would not be a bad idea. My go-to summer pattern is Cap Spiders, usually tied on 1/80 oz jig heads, painted black with nail polish, and white or barred legs. p.s. You will find the Carter's Sculpin to be a very effective crappie fly as well, especially when it's tied in bright colors like red, orange, or purple tail and a white body with grizzle hackle collar. Great pattern.

Jim Smith