whay are some of your favorite patterns for redear?
Hey Jalama,
I catch most of my red ears in 3 feet
of water or less. Mostly in areas of mild
cypress swamps or stands of cypress on the
shallow flats.
I catch fully half of my red ears on
a brown, grey, or olive scud. They seem to
love them. The rest of them usually fall
for a grey thread midge or nymph. I usually
fish them about 18 inches under a small
popper or minnow imitation. In late summer
and fall I fish them under a hopper pattern.
Most go for the subsurface but enough will
take the popper or hopper to keep it fun. I catch a lot of them right on through summer in the heat of the
day by putting my fly against the cypress
trees on the shady side. Hope this helps.
Warm regards, Jim
Hey Pete,
No buddy, I didn't forget them. They
are great flies. Just that I’ll normally
catch 2 or 3 gills on a PT nymph to each
redear whereas on the scuds I get 2 or 3
redears to every gill.G I will say, the
PT nymphs you tie are as good as I’ve ever
fished.G Warm regards, Jim
now that is very interesting. Those ratios that is to say.
I am going to hazard a guess that since the redears are bottom-oriented, snails and such, that the scuds must more closely resemble what they tend to eat on a regular basis.
RRhyne56
[url=http://www.robinscustomleadersandflies.com:400f4]http://www.robinscustomleadersandflies.com[/url:400f4]
IM = robinrhyne@hotmail.com
Hey Robin,
About 4 years ago I got into trying to
concentrate more on the red eared sunfish.
I’d find them mingling with their cousins
the bluegills. While the PT nymphs would
quickly elicit a strike, it was more often
than not one of the gills. For a brief
period that spring we had clearer than
normal waters for whatever reason and I
could see the big hulking redears watching
my flies but not really arguing the point
with the gills. It was RG I believe that
originally suggested the scuds and they
were an instant success. They still catch
the odd bluegill, but the redears are more
agressive with the scuds and I catch fewer
bluegills. Not that I’ve ever complained
about catching bluegills, but redears here
on the Santee Cooper Lakes have to be seen
to be believed.G I have yet to try a
snail pattern on them but understand that
they are a favorite of the redears and the
primary reason they are called “shellcrackers” here in the South.
I hope to resolve that issue in the next
few weeks. Warm regards, Jim
thanks jim
i have been told that the shellcrackers bed earlier than the bluegill, maybe even in feb. here in mississippi, and that they usually only bed once per year. in the lake that i fish the red ear are respectable but many of the bluegill are stunted and will readily bite anything they can. to my knowledge i have never seen a scud and am curious to see how they will work here. i assume from your last post that you must have some type of snail pattern. i hope my blue gill are educated enough to leave the scuds for the big shellcrackers and that the shellcrackers realize what a delicacy i am presenting to them! thanks again for all your help. if you care to share a snail pattern i would appreciat it.
Hi JLM,
When I find it I'll be happy to share
it. G Still looking. Any of you folks
out there with snail patterns you’d like to
swap for “When Pigs Fly” or my latest top
water minnow or hula popper dremel bugs, let
me know.G
JLM, one thing I believe is that our
redears here on the lakes will spawn every
full moon through the warmer months. That
certainly seems to be the case. Based on my
personal experience, I do believe your right
about the red ears initial bedding being
earlier than the bluegills. I suspect the
next full moon will be it here. Warm
regards, Jim
- I WILL fish with Jim Hatch within the next 12-14 months!
- If ANYONE deserves to catch a world record redear, it is Jim…I just hope he does it! So much knowledge & he’s always willing to share it.
Mike
Previous thread on redear (shellcracker) 
.
[url=http://www.flyanglersonline.com/bb/Forum20/HTML/001032.html:02815]http://www.flyanglersonline.com/bb/Forum20/HTML/001032.html[/url:02815]
Robert B. McCorquodale
Sebring, FL
“Flip a fly”
JLM,
If you are fishing somewhere and teh BG are stunted due to over population (VERY EASY for them to do), You need to not put them back in the water when you catch them. The only way to cure the overpopulation and resulting stunting is to reduce the population by no C&R on that one species.
Mike, I’m looking forward to fishing with
you. I’d be just as tickled if you caught
the biggun’.G
Robert, while I was looking for a sinking
snail pattern, I found several threads while
doing a google search that indicated the
floating snails might be very effective.
Might make a good indicator when fishing a
scud.
RG/AR, I missed your comment on 21 Dec
about my obsession. Your right, I have not
been “normal” since that hulking red ear
destroyed the beautiful little cane Pete
built for me and started this obsession
with the redears.G He went back to the
drawing board on that one and came up with
a special design for Santee Cooper redears.
It has put several 16 inchers in the boat
and a heck of a lot of 13 inchers.G
RW, I’m looking forward to the results of
the 1 wt vs redear contest this year. I
hope to get a series of interesting pic’s
of the battle.G
If anyone is interested, this link will take
you to two Lake Moultrie readear pics over
5 pounds, including the current world record. [url=http://realindy.com/recordfish.htm:0448a]http://realindy.com/recordfish.htm[/url:0448a]
By the way, while researching the records,
I found out that the two 40+ pound grass
carp I landed on the 6 weight a few years
ago were both world records.G
Warm regards, Jim
[This message has been edited by Jim Hatch (edited 18 March 2005).]
Oh my soul! Now I can relate to your passion, Jim. And, thanks to this site I now have learned that redears and shellcrackers are the same species. With all the issues here in the frigid “Central Coast” area of the States with zebra mussels, maybe we should import some redears into our waters up here. JGW
Jim,
Have you tried a cream scud for your snail pattern? I developed one origionally for my son who ice fishes to replcate a beemoth. The redear really eat it - I catch many more redears than bluegills on this one. Maybe they are actually hitting it for a snail?? I never considered that. The interesting thing is that our scuds are [for the most part] a brown-olive colour is a size 20 or 22. I tie the Bambi Scud on a #12 scud hook. This results in a curved fly - really sorta snail lookin’ now I think about it.
Pattern-
#12 2487 scud hook [or similiar]
Body - crean Caddis Life Cycle dubbing
Back - strip of latex cut from cream coloured medical glove.
Rib - either white tying thread or 6X tippet material.
Start dubbed body “around the bend” of the hook. [Form a dubbing loop first and cut one side to form ribbing from tying thread -white.] Dub body, pull back over, rib with thread, and tie off. Colour hear brown with Sharpie pen. Pick out “legs” from the dubbing on bottom of fly. You’re done!
Fish below indicator or fly.
Donald
Jim,
Great pictures on that site & interesting…while I knew redear feed on snails & the like, I did NOT think about zebra mussels, which were mentioned on that page. We have had real problems with them in Lake Erie & it started me wondering…should Ohio give thought to stocking redear in our big lake to control the mussels? If they had redear in Lake Erie, I’d be fishing there a lot more!
Mike
WOW Jim Hatch!
YOU are a VERY interesting read for sure…thanks.
Here we thought a 11"-12" RE was a grand specimen from L. Sonoma or the delta. Hah, I see they gotta grow some.
Gonna give your scuds a serious try this summer. Too much distraction before and after then.
The “kid” in many of us will not or cannot abandon BG’s and RE’s.
…lee s.
Thanks Donald,
I'll give them a shot. Nothing
ventured, nothing gained.G
I put just over 10 miles on the kayak
today and found no fish. Started off at 36
degrees and paddled until it finally warmed
up to 52 degrees with 20mph NE winds. Good
workout and none the worse for wear.G
Saw two midge hatches and one hatch of the
smallest mayflies I’ve yet seen on the lake.
March Browns? No sign of fish all day. Not
yet moving up on the flats. Couple more
weeks I guess. Sunday it’s offically Spring. Want be as long as it has been.G
Warm regards, Jim