Salem report

[Shaun Solomon]

On the off chance anyone cares-

I took the float tube to the big slough in Salem yesterday and did OK. I got eight LM's, biggest about three and a half pounds, most a bit less.

Six flipping, two on a homemade crankbait. Actual old-school flipping, not pitching. I was fishing the edges of emergent vegetation with a scaled-down punch type rig built on a Kaiju Baitworks skirt, 3/8th tungsten weight, and Yamamoto Baby Craw. Ozark craw colored skirt with a green pumpkin trailer.

Fish were positioned on little "points" on the grass. If the wind would blow, I would get a bite or two, and then it died when the wind cut out. All bites on the drop. Interestingly, several fish swam out of the weeds straight towards me, like they were ganged up in there and the bass were trying to get the "food" away from their fellows.

Man it is a good walk to get back there with a tube, fins, way too much gear, and three rods. :sad:

Anyway, have fun if you go.

SS

 

[Sketchmann]

Thanks for the info. Glad to hear u had fun.

Sent from my SCH-I545 using Tapatalk

 

[Raincatcher]

Would you mind me asking where you put in at? Not after your honey holes, just would like to know the area better.

 

[Shaun Solomon]

Yeah, no sweat. I think the whole place is a "honey hole," because there is not a lot of variety to the terrain. I wish I had a sonar I could take in there, because I would be willing to bet there are some rock piles, but the amount of grass would make dragging a C-rig or football head to locale the rocks difficult. Maybe in the early spring?

I parked at Minto Brown and walked in from there. I have never been to Minto Brown before, but I think the place I parked might be the closest lot to the entrance. I mapped the way I walked on Google Earth and it was about a mile to where I put in. There are not many places to get through the blackberries.

SS

 

[Raincatcher]

Thanks! Have you ever fished Mill Creek within the city of Salem?

 

[Berg03]

Shaun, there is an access point that requires much less walking. Puts you closer to the mouth of the slough though. Ive taking my toon down there before, great bass fishing. You park next to a hotel (on the road is legal parking) and walk down a hill to the water. The minto brown walk is pretty rough without some sort of wheel on your toon.

Believe its the intersection of Fir and Kearney st.

 

[Shaun Solomon]

Thanks! Have you ever fished Mill Creek within the city of Salem?

You bet. No, I never have. Should I? lol That was only the second time I had fished in Salem. I fished the dock where the paddleboat moors and caught the absolute fire out of bass... I went through three bags of 4" Yamamoto cut-tails fishing them on shaky heads. I got two to as many as a dozen bass per worm, and there are 20 worms per bag... most of the bass were pretty darned small though.

 

[Shaun Solomon]

Shaun, there is an access point that requires much less walking. Puts you closer to the mouth of the slough though...
Believe its the intersection of Fir and Kearney st.

DOPE! I was sorta sweating going back, it is a legit slog from Minto Brown. I tried driving/walking around for a while, but could not find a good place to park that did not seem sketchy. Thanks a ton for hipping me to the better access.

Cheers all.

SS

 

[bass]

Great report SS!