The secret to fishing spillways is...

stormy

You gotta go buy several gallons of dishwashing liquid (earth friendly of course) and dump it in above the spillway so that when it gets pulled over the spillway it creates massive waves of bubbles which confuse the snook and they bite anything :cookoo

So I think it was on friday I was in brandon and snookmeister got me talked into hitting a spillway before heading home. Of course I had all my gear in car so why not. Made a stop to get some freshwater snook/**** crack. Got some bread and threw out a few balls to get them in but the real secret to getting them is the secret ingredient which I can't name but it's something in this pic



After secret ingredient is thrown into the water I give it 5 min to activate it's magical powers and all the crap bait fishing needs... net, bucket, pogy saver, big a** air pump & lawn mower battery... geez, this bait thing is a lot of work but it's gotta be ready because the shiners die pretty quick if it's bot all ready.

I grab net and do the 5407 motions needed to throw the **** thing and heave it out thinking i'm going to have to do this a few dozen times for enough bait and then drag it in and...



sweet jesus the secret ingredient did actually work! I start emptying net and sticking some in bucket and throwing bout 75% of them back into pond. These were good baits too and I'm thinking it's going to be.... wait for it.... legendary night! I pack up and head the 5 min to the spot.

I get there and water is still moving so I deploy the bubbles (actually i didn't and just kidding so please dont do this) and change out lure for a circle hook and open up bait bucket and ****!!!! Looks like all the bait is dead, uggggg. I guess I put about 6 dozen too many in there lol oops, but I find 2 alive and stick one on and huck it into a known **** spot a few times then get



Just a baby baby ****. Go to grab other live bait and its dead now so threw on a 3" rt muller in redfish color and fish it fast so it made a wake on top and they were getting popped thru bubbles and got







Actually by then they were hitting anything on top in the bubbles but most were misses which im sure was bubble related mostly, I know one I got on a baitbuster. Snookmeister decided to join me and came out and the bite stopped, haha dang it.

Nothing for awhile even tho he brought some fresh bait so I put on a 4" shadflash with a 1/4 jighead to try deeper. We were talking and I was just heaving and reeling and blabbering about something secret and I get a hard thump to wake me outta my stupor and immediately feel some good weight and heavy tail kicking and know it's a decent fish so greyson reels in his line and after a bit grabs my phone and starts to video a bit. Wasn't a great fight but I didn't lose the **** thing



and some video... it was dark but oh well

[video=facebook;10151219476367018]http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?v=10151219476367018[/video]

if you dont have facebook heres a link http://www.bedeliciousphotography.com/stuff/fishing/video/snookbubbles.mp4

We got a few more but didnt take more pix, sadly you cant fish it again for awhile

perlman1234

Great catches, I love that spillway now. You fish opposite side I think. I was about to say, is the secret not getting escorted out? That **** helicopter ran us out last time as well.

Snookmeister

Lol, no Dave's secret is to throw in my Bait ponds. Hahaah, jk that pic does no justice on that snook, that thing was ridiculously fat. Dave and his shad flash always gets a snook. That spillway is the money, I am the posts helped you get on some snook Perlman.

stormy

Snookmeister wrote: »

Lol, no Dave's secret is to throw in my Bait ponds. Hahaah, jk that pic does no justice on that snook, that thing was ridiculously fat. Dave and his shad flash always gets a snook. That spillway is the money, I am the posts helped you get on some snook Perlman.

I'm going to throw in your bait ponds until you learn how to take an in-focus picture!! haha. Besides finding us bait is your job

It was pretty fat fish, was way out in middle of nowhere and it's usually the other other other other other other dave (bass assassin) who always gets them on the shadflash.

The spillways is good and always fish around but it's not so often you catch them. Like after I caught that bigger one it shutdown but they were there and we really weren't getting squat.



@perlman

Yeah I usually fish the other side, probably cause it's closer to dog food company so it stinks more lol

That might be the secret, it was just a weird scenario and it seemed more like someone had escaped and the poor sheriff parked on other side and walked down that side then scaled the fences on the dam and walked across then scaled them again to escort us out, the chopper was a nice touch though

perlman1234

I tried shiners there with barry but not that side. It seems like for the most part that side is always open. Didnt get anything on them, switched over to DOA shad and started to catch. From then on it was all about those DOA's. PM me next time you out fishing, spillway or not. You seem like you know what you're doing and have fun doing it. Thats my type of crowd.

johnD

nice fish fellas !! turn your phone sideways it will make videos easier to watch.

stormy

perlman1234 wrote: »

I tried shiners there with barry but not that side. It seems like for the most part that side is always open. Didnt get anything on them, switched over to DOA shad and started to catch. From then on it was all about those DOA's. PM me next time you out fishing, spillway or not. You seem like you know what you're doing and have fun doing it. Thats my type of crowd.

It's not always open but usually its the first to open. I'm more of an artificials guy but you never know what they will do, I've stood next to snookmeister and im throwing arti's and getting nothing and he's throwing shiners and getting hooked up within seconds every time or the other night where I got the **** on a live bait then the rest on artificials, just got to be prepared for either I guess.

We go out somewhere just about everyday so you won't have long to wait, where are you located? pm me with your #. We def have fun!

barrynfla

****.....that's a lot of shiners in that net!!! I'm thinkin' it was NOT in the pond you told me about. Or maybe it was? Perlman and I couldn't find anything in that pond at all. Secret ingredient missing, maybe? lol

So fishing may be okay this week and the whole problem may have been the escaped prisoner?

stormy

this was diff pond but any pond around should have them, just throw some bread around till you see them. There wasnt an escaped prisoner, it was us, so I wouldnt go there. If you get a sheriff in a bad mood he could and probably would walk you right over to the jail.

Anclote Key

Nice fish!

Dooze

As always, nice report. Your report reminded me that I don't need to read them when I have stuff to do b/c now all I want to do is go fishing tonight (and I probably will, although driving from Lakeland everytime I want to go fishing is starting to get expensive). That's funny what perlman1234 said about the chopper. I was there yesterday around noon with two other guys that work right in the area. We were there for no more than 15 minutes when I noticed someone on the west side of the tracks heading our way, minutes later there was that helicopter circling us. Well, we just kept fishing and the cop eventually walked up to the dam and said something like "they just wanted me to make sure you weren't escaped prisoners/protesters." He actaully said that, and he even seemed embarassed to say it. He went on to say he used to fish there which I believed until he saw a mullet jump and yelled "Whoa I see the fish are really out today!" It is unfortunate that you will run into this kind of thing from time to time being a shore fisherman, but at least he did not tell us to leave. The cop left after about a minute and it was back to casting. The water coming out of the spillway was not coming out in it's usual fashion and I wasn't seeing the signature tarpon rolls you usually see. I think they had the middle parts of the spillway open, b/c the water was swirling back to the dam instead of going out. I was dissapointed about this bc I finally found a bait spot and caught the biggest redear sunfish I have ever seen thinking I now had a 90% chance of at least hooking a fish, but ended up with nothing. I decided that catching bait is a lot of work, especially considering I might go through all that work only to end up getting kicked out when I finally reach the dam. Back to artificials it is. I will most likely be heading out that way tonight. If anyone wants to meet and throw some artificials anywhere tonight just let me know/PM me and I can give you my #. After yesterday, simply seeing someone else catch a decent fish would be good enough for me. I might give the spillway a break for a bit.

perlman1234

Dooze wrote: »

He went on to say he used to fish there which I believed until he saw a mullet jump and yelled "Whoa I see the fish are really out today!"

:Spittingcoffee Thats the funniest thing I have heard in a while. Kids do it all the time. But a **** adult...... hahahahaha

stormy

dooze... weird they didn't make you leave, I guess we were special! I'll pm you with where we're heading tonight.

Getting bait is a major PITA. Those fish are there but sit in a few spots but they are there.

Lilcthefishslayer

Love it guys! The net load of shiners is ridiculous!