Guest
Recorded at Shangri-La Marina with Haydn Williams of Williams Guide Service (fishgrand.com).
White Bass
Haydn’s morning bite was strong — the last couple of weeks have been really good. Finding them on certain humps and drop-offs, plus some on shallow flats around Governor’s Island. Quarter-ounce Fish Lucke jig head with a 2½-inch swimming minnow; color doesn’t matter once you’re in the right school. Minnows alone have been staring contests unless they’re bigger shiners; he hasn’t bought minnows in a week. Rattletraps underperformed vs swimming minnows. Heavier heads get the bait down fast on spot-lock over a hump (you may only get 5–10 drops before the school slides) and let you reel faster while keeping the bait near bottom.
Paddlefish
Most of Haydn’s Spoonbill work is from roughly Tera Miranda north; even better from Sailboat Bridge north.
Crappie
Weird year — fewer fish than he’d like. The ones that will bite are deeper, about 25–30 feet on main-lake brush piles. Jeff ties it to how much water moved through earlier; once a thermocline and warm surface water settle in, late August–October often brings Crappie up onto ~10-foot brush.
Bowfishing
Lake finally back to normal; Haydn’s first bowfishing night in a while was excellent — lots of Carp and Gar, most shots his clients have had all year.
Toby Keith / Fish Lucke combos
Haydn has been giving the 6' and 6'6" casting combos heck — prefers 6'6" for White Bass (more backbone for Rattletraps/cranks) and the 6' for Crappie. Jeff is still working through testing before a big production order; the push-button spin-cast and 4'6" micro-spin (10 lb braid) are fun White Bass sticks. Haydn wore a test Fish Lucke all-over Crappie-print hooded shirt on the dock.
Dealers
fishlucke.com, Amazon, and ask area dealers. Jeff still needs to get Dinner Spinners into Haydn’s hands. Thank the GRDA when you see them.