Fishing for skipjack

[Ohhunter]

Can anyone help me out ? I'd like to go down and fish for skipjack at greenup dam. But I have never fished for them. Any rigs or bait tips ? And when is a good time of year ? I'd was wanting to have some for bait this spring for cat fishing. Thanks for any info.

[TheCream]

I honestly could not tell you a sure-fire time of year. We always catch 'em in the spring and early summer, and even luck into a few in winter when we are sauger fishing. The bait and presentation are easy: white 2" grub on a 1/16oz jighead, cast it as far as you can, and work it erratically across the surface. We catch TONS of them doing this. It is the best catfish bait you can find, so good luck!

[jackalope]

The best of the best
http://www.squidjig.com/fishinggear/sabiki1214.jpg

[Ohhunter]

I was asking some guys on cinypaylakes.com and they said to get the Sabiki jigs. But do you use two at a time or just one ? I went to basspro.com and was looking at them. Maybe I can find them at the out door show in ciny next week. Have you guys fished for skipjack at Greenup dam ?

[jackalope]

I was asking some guys on cinypaylakes.com and they said to get the Sabiki jigs. But do you use two at a time or just one ? I went to basspro.com and was looking at them. Maybe I can find them at the out door show in ciny next week. Have you guys fished for skipjack at Greenup dam ?


It's actually a main line with 6 drop line jigs. you put a split shot on the botom and cast it out with a jigging motion. gets em every time.

[buckstar25]

Mini-foo and straigh tail bass assassin's seem to work pretty good for us. Solid yellow/mustard, or pink have been the real killers for us. Good luck!

[Doctor]

I have used Crappie jigs on them but last year I switched over to Saltwater Sabiki, rigs and they are deadly on them, seems to be a better hook and they can't toss them like the regular jigs or Sabiki, plus the saltwater rigs only use 4 droplines so it is much shorter and easier to throw.

Skipjacks are known as the Ghosts of the River, one day they are in there so thick you can walk on there backs and the next day they are gone, where they go who knows, there main diet is Shad and there own kind, Cannibal bait fish, two things are required, food and highly oxyginated water, so they will be around powerplant discharges during the winter months and during the regular months they will be located in and around dams where there is flowing water, any dam thathas a working Hydro will also be loaded, I like the water to be slightly stained, these guys have great eyesight so you don't want them to get a great look at your jig, down in Kentucky I have seen them roar right up to a jig in clear water and back off, if it is stained they will have a reaction strike to your jig.

I normally just use a high speed reel toss it out and reel it back in they will run down any jig no matter how fast the retrieve is, there are times when they are deep under the surface and they want a slower retieve so you have to experiment with them.

I very seldom have fresh Skips, I vacuum pack mine and they are just as good as fresh, be sure to freeze them before vacuuming them a lot of people will put them fresh in the bags and vacuum them, that will pull all the blood right under the scales and when you thaw them out the tissues are not full of blood, freeze them first, then while hard Vacuum them, when you go to thaw them out pierce the bag with a hole, this is important because if you thaw them with the vacuum on them the pressure will squeeze the blood again right out of the tissues, thaw them out slowly, I just put the skips i'm going to use that day in a cooler and fill the cooler with cold water they will thaw very slow, if done right when you cut them the blood will be bright red and should flow freely from the body cavity, if the blood is a dull red or brown color they will still work but not near as effective as the bright red. Also I will scale my bait prior to cutting it up into chunks seems to get more scent into the water.

After cutting up your bait put it into another container and keep it as dry and cold as possible, if the blood leaks into the container that is fine as the bait will marinate in it's own juices, hope this helps you out.

Over the years I have switched from a live bait fisherman to all cutbait, I have seen my numbers of fish and weights increase from doing the above even with Shad as bait and I mostly fish the Ohio River and not lakes............Doc

[neocats]

The agree with Doc, the same meathos also works great with shad for lake channel catfish.