Stick Marsh with Chrissie

I managed to get a couple of days out on the Stick Marsh / Farm thirteen impoundment with Chrissie this week. The first day we caught twenty or so fish and some of them were good ones. The day started off with a fish on my first cast and I figured this was going to be good day on the water but the next couple of hours were a grind and we only put five in the boat. Chrissie had one of them and it was pushing six pounds. I continued working different sections that I knew could hold some fish and one of them was the deal. We hit about ten fish in one area about 100 yards long and they were all nice fat fish. We were off the water by two.

Yesterday I had some errands in the morning so we didn’t even get on the water until 10 am. The main parking lot was full and trailers were into the overflow area. There had to be fifty rigs parked and I figured this is going to be a zoo. We ran down to the south end right to where we had found the fish two days ago and Chrissie got a big one on here second cast. The wind was at our backs so I dropped the Talon and we picked it apart in sections, moving ahead about fifty feet at a time and anchoring again. There were still some nice fish in the area and we caught our share. Chrissie was catching them on a 7″ Speed Worm and I was using a soft stick bait. They both worked well.

We switched to another area that was similar but not quite the same and I ended up catching more on the stick bait than what the worm produced. In the heat of the afternoon the hydrilla gnats just about drove us crazy but the fishing was worth it.
We talked to a few other boats that we passed by and they gave us the impression the bite was very tough for them. We found the fish to be bunched up in small areas and you were either all into them or not catching anything. We ended up with about thirty to the boat and left at 3pm. Not bad for five hours of fishing.
As far as all the other boats, I have no idea where they were as we only saw about 15 on the south end. It must have been crowded at the spillway and the back lot.

I caught all of my fish on a green pumpkin soft stick bait and was using a new Curado 7′ MH spinning rod, a 2500 Stadic FK, 15 lb Power Pro and a 20″ Fluorcarbon leader and a 4/0 Gamakatsu wide gap worm hook.
Chrissie caught all of hers on a 7″ Speed Worm in Red Bug and was using a Shimano Exage 7″ MH spinning rod, a 2500 Stadic FK, 15 lb Power Pro and a 20″ fluorocarbon leader and a 4/0 Gamakatsu hook. I will change here up to a 5/0 on the next trip.
I was glad we were on fish because it was her first time on the Marsh in two years.

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