Crawling valley or carolside?

[VOYNO08]

Im goin after pike tomorrow! which do you think is better this time of year?

[TROLLER]

Depends on how far you want to drive.

[trapshooter]

On Saturday I am heading to Carolside, should be good!

[ArtVandelay]

My brother and I fished CVR on Friday and Sunday. Over the two days and between the two of us we caught 5 Walleye and 115 Pike. The best real bait was squid tentacles. Pike LOVE that stuff and one or two tentacles will last you all day, unlike smelts. As for cranks, anything lipless and greenish seemed to be the best. I really like fishing swimbaits and they were loving white ones, like the 5" Berkley flatback shads. With the exception of Sunday morning, it was windy both days. We were fishing the northern part of the lake, eastern side.

Hope that helps. Best of luck if you go.

[Chris84]

Carolside all the way....its my go to. Usually I start the season there every year, but this year thought I would give Travers a try.

[VOYNO08]

My brother and I fished CVR on Friday and Sunday. Over the two days and between the two of us we caught 5 Walleye and 115 Pike. The best real bait was squid tentacles. Pike LOVE that stuff and one or two tentacles will last you all day, unlike smelts. As for cranks, anything lipless and greenish seemed to be the best. I really like fishing swimbaits and they were loving white ones, like the 5" Berkley flatback shads. With the exception of Sunday morning, it was windy both days. We were fishing the northern part of the lake, eastern side.

Hope that helps. Best of luck if you go.

ya that pretty much sums it up for me haha goin to CRV ! So where could i pick up these squid tentacales and how would i rig them up, what size hook exc ? this should really help me and my fellas have an excelent day thanks for the detailed responce

[ArtVandelay]

I like to use a floating Lindy rig when I fish with real bait, much like this one:

http://i234.photobucket.com/albums/ee162/jayvee42/line.jpg

I use a 1/2 - 3/4oz bullet weight and a barrel swivel instead of split shot. I also like the bigger floating jigs; it gives the bait a little extra buoyancy. I've been experimenting with the line between the swivel and jig. You can't use light line - I've lost way too many jigs and fish that way. This weekend I used 20lb Maxima Ultragreen and didn't lose a single fish. I've used a flourocarbon leader but it's not as buoyant as plain line because of the hardware. Having said all that, my bro was using a plain ol' 1/2oz jighead and he did fine too, though the floater seemed to be a little more effective. I hate pickerel rigs but I'm sure they'd be effective too.

As for the tentacles, I bought mine at Superstore. They have 4-packs of frozen squids for around $4 (I think). A pack might last you all season!

[TROLLER]

What you have not said is what depth you were fishing and were you fishing from a boat or shore.

Curious that you could catch soo many pike vs. walleye esp. at CV One heck of a day must of been a ton of fun.

[ArtVandelay]

We were in a boat and fishing close to shore - no more than 5-7 FOW. We caught a lot in one of those small bays off the main lake. Yeah it was a blast catching that many fish on opening weekend. We usually do a bit better with the Walleye but never close to the number of Pike we catch. Not sure why that is - just haven't developed the skill for Walleye yet I guess. Or the areas we fish are dominated by Pike. I'm hoping it's the latter LOL!

[VOYNO08]

We were in a boat and fishing close to shore - no more than 5-7 FOW. We caught a lot in one of those small bays off the main lake. Yeah it was a blast catching that many fish on opening weekend. We usually do a bit better with the Walleye but never close to the number of Pike we catch. Not sure why that is - just haven't developed the skill for Walleye yet I guess. Or the areas we fish are dominated by Pike. I'm hoping it's the latter LOL!

Awesome info thanks again....one more question tho is it going to be worth it to be shore fishing for us or are the weed beds going to be cutting us of from the fish and do you still recomend the north east....i'll leave ya alone after this one haha:scared0018:

[ArtVandelay]

Weed beds won't be a factor out there yet. You should be fine shore fishing. It's hard for me to say which side is best from shore but there are always more people on the western side, accessible from Red Rock road, I guess, that's been talked about on here before. There's almost always someone fishing from here though:

http://i234.photobucket.com/albums/ee162/jayvee42/ScreenShot2012-05-14at91939PM.png

Awesome info thanks again....one more question tho is it going to be worth it to be shore fishing for us or are the weed beds going to be cutting us of from the fish and do you still recomend the north east....i'll leave ya alone after this one haha:scared0018: