Skipjacks 101

[Music] all right people it's the first week of October and title of this video is skipjack fishing 101 first of all skipjacks can be finicky skipjacks can be tough sometimes catching skip jets can really be rough the easiest times that I get them being a bank fishermen are in the spring when they spawn and again in the fall I can catch them quite often through winter summer they can get tough they tend to move more out into the main channels below dams and sometimes can be way out in the middle and some seem somewhere or all the way up next to the gates that you can't hardly get next to but spring and fall are my best options to get them and I'm gonna explain basically all the different methods I use probably the number one thing if you could only have one way to catch skipjacks that is making your own cebiche rig or tying a series of crappie flies I've got one there I've got one there I've got another one on the end I've got three on here I space them apart of good ways and what I like to do is I've got a smaller one a more medium-sized one and a heavier size one in the back I've got multiple colors here that's doing three things for me first of all skipjacks may prefer a certain size of lure that day I've got three sizes on here they may prefer a certain color of lure that day I've got three different colors of lures on here and the third reason our time this way is by putting a heavier fly in the back and the lighter one towards the front when you're casting this thing out there it keeps it from one to tangle up in loop-d-loop because the centrifugal force of the heavy one stays out front so if I could only use one thing for skipjack it would probably be the Flies the second best thing you can probably have for skipjacks are these curly tail grubs I tie them the same way I don't usually tie as many although I've seen guys tie as many as four to six that's too much work too much time too much tangling again I've got multiple colors here best colors to start out with are usually a white the chartreuse white heads pink heads red heads and you know you'll notice them probably hitting one or more of either one depending on what color they prefer now there are some days skipjacks are just easy and will hit absolutely anything you throw in the water some days they are more finicky option three the foley spoon I prefer the smallest spoon they make which is I believe a one and three-eighths I run a 1 ounce sinker and the advantage of this rig is with this 1 ounce weight I can cover long distances if the skipjack aren't close to me I can sometimes get them out to where they are and sometimes actually get them to follow this spoon back into me and start bringing them in to me but the foley spoon is probably my third option if i'm fishing somewhere i need long distances i always go with the foley spoon because the weight of it option number four is using a popping float and behind the pop and float you tie you there a fly you can tie a grub you can tie a spoon you could tie a whole series of flies and grubs in a spoon and what the pop and float does is it creates a splashing action in the water that simulates feeding fish on baitfish and it causes a reaction for them to start striking option number four it's live minnows on a float some days skip jacks are tough guys will be throwing everything under the Sun and somebody will be over there crappie fishing with the live minna and they'll be catching all the fish if you see them getting on minnows if you're not getting them on your lures don't be that guy that keeps throwing the lures go down to the bait store and get you a bucket of minnows [Music] [Music] what I'm doing right now is suing everything I got to see what they want so far I've had very little results I did have a couple bumps on my spoon now it could be a time of day thing could be in another hour they'll start feeding who knows sometimes hit the morning sometimes they hit at night sometimes hit the middle afternoon just got to keep experimenting sometimes you go into a Cove they're not there when that happens you keep going to different places until you find it sometimes these fish you can run a hundred fifty miles in one day trying to find them typically in the fall they will move into these backwater creeks off the main reservoirs that boat was in here beeping with this depth finder on that's the worst thing you can do on a skipjack [Music] you experiment between fast retrieves slow retrieves jerking steady reeling and you just keep doing everything under the Sun until you find out what's going to get it done right now I'm tangled up I hate braided line it's good for some things it's definitely bad for other things [Music] and the reason I'm switching rods back and forth with in case they are here and just being finicky because I'm giving them a different look all the time don't get tired of that seeing that same thing so far the only bumps I've had we're on the spoon [Music] I got hit again again I got hit on the spoon but they're not grabbing it they're being finicky they're here but they're being finicky got hit again my option now would be to pack up and move or sit and wait for a different time it's right around noon which is never a great time so I'm going to sit and wait and see if it don't heat up later this afternoon I have seen a couple break on the far bank I have been hit on my Foley spoon I just got hit on the grub I just got hit twice in a row on the grub there here I'm gonna stay there just not feeding for whatever reason they might have bit real good earlier they might be gonna bite real good later they're not feeding that are here I've done been hit too many times I'm gonna stick it out [Music] the grubs scored a small one [Music] they're running small but that's okay holy spoon just go [Music] [Music] and there's one on the popping cork [Music] when I'm looking for skipjacks not all these coves backwater creeks are the same you'll go into one and you'll look out there and there will be one or two schools of bait fishing the whole thing not a great chance of getting numbers a skipjack or white bass or anything else in there the skipjack are eating the small bait fish when I went looking for skipjack they were hard to catch almost impossible a couple weeks ago I noticed that this Cove had the most bait fish in it and I knew when it was time for the skipjack to come back here this would be the cove that I would most likely catch him now I'm going to be honest with you normally this is not the cove I do good usually I'm up it's some other ones but this patterns are different this year we've had a unusually hot here they're in different spots of the lake for whatever reason fish or fish you know patterns can change nothing's the same from year to year some things are the same and that is the methods that I'm doing here variety of lures like I say springtime flies grubs spoon fall once you get in your cooler water I think drugs work better then flies some days the spoon won't work some days the grubs won't work some days flies won't work some days it won't one some days the one all men carry a variety of stuff and the way I have the most success is I carry three skipjack rods with me all rigged up with something different I'm lucky and the fact that they're hitting everything but there are some days where they would I would come in here and they would only hit one of these things I've seen in the summer bite they're either way out in the main channel or below dams and the rule of thumb that I have learned is when the skipjack fishing is best that's the best time to use skipjack in the spring they're easy the catfish bite is great in the fall when they get easy the catfish bite is great in a mild winter if you're still catching them they're hitting the skipjack great if the winter gets super cold it's where it starts killing shad and you have a hard time catching the skip well guess what they don't even want the skipjack on a shad kill they want the shed now the only other winter scenario I can think of where skipjack is good is if you go to a steam plant where the water temperatures are warmer during a super cold winter and if you're catching skipjack at the steam plant chances are you will also get big catfish at the same steam plant where you're catching the skipjack basically if you're catching the skipjack that's the best place to use skipjack or the best time to use skipjack in the summer when I'm not hardly catching skipjack I typically don't fish much there either on the spawn there on the nest and the bite is slow anyway so here again you know I'm not catching skipjack with the catfish and ain't no good anyhow get on this little bit see if I can get me a few more I'd like to get a couple bigger ones basically what I done here is I first I came I established they were here I got some bites they weren't taking it that let me know they were here so what I've done is I stayed around long enough till they started feeding and I scored some bait [Music] one thing I did not mention is it when the catfish bite is tough in the summer the skipjack can be catchable even in these back basically anywhere there's thread fins or little small minnows that they can feed on they can be caught in the heat of the summer and what guys are doing is they're dropping lights down into the water at night and they're fishing below the light with live minnows typically in the hottest part of summer these skipjacks are feeding at night I can walk out onto these piers and stuff you can't catch a skipjack nowhere and then when it gets late at night you can just hear them feeding everywhere under you so sometimes in the heat of the summer you can get them at night under lights typically with the live minnow when I tie my skipjack leaders I'm typically using spinning tackle which tends to twist up your line so I will tend to run a tiny swivel at the top of my leader I don't tie a swivel on this popping cork because the popping cork has a built-in swivel right there at the bottom see it's spinning on this Foley spoon the trick is I'm running 20 pound no this is 15 pound braid sometimes I run 20 pound braid I'm running a one-ounce trolling sinker this trolling sinker I don't tie a swivel on because here again it has a swivel all this work with spinning tackle and to keep this weight from flip-flopping around and getting a big tangled mess what I do is just above the weight I tie some 80 pound mono to the way and then from my weight about two foot down I'm running usually about 40 pound mono that keeps saying from looping up and twisting up with so much extra line either way there's a swivel on everything I do because I'm using the spinning gear [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] they seem to be wanting a fast retrieve with a Foley spoon today hey skipjack also known as skip stinky also known as catfish candy [Music] a trophy cat fisherman's best friend is this kitchen if the skipjacks are feeding right in front of you and are willing to hit grubs and flies that is your best option because you can tie two or three on and it's possible to catch two or three skipjacks or even more at the same time today they're actually preferring the spoon so I don't seem to have that option of getting doubles and triples thirdly just today they're preferring the spoon but if they are hitting the Flies if they are hitting the grubs that is your best option because you can't load up on bait even faster getting more than one at one time [Music] I'm three for three on the bucket toss I basically explained most everything that I know you can buy what they call Sobe key rigs pre-tied flies from these bait shops are online and a lot of times those work great when the skipjack bite is good you can catch six at a time I'm on a slow bite I'm at the very beginning of October temperatures have been extremely hot so it's just now beginning but I hope I've explained everything the best I can this is skipjack 101 with catfish Dave signing out [Music] you

Channel: Catfish Dave

Views: 52,016

Rating: 4.9443774 out of 5

Keywords: Skipjack Herring, Foley Spoon, Braided Line, Crappie flies, Catfish, Fishing, Bank Fishing

Id: JQ92V-EsCC0

Length: 20min 16sec (1216 seconds)

Published: Thu Nov 07 2019