I felt it was a good time to go back and try to redo this portion of my website. I have now been slab fishing for about 6-7 years. Seems like I continue to learn something new when out on the lake with other slab fishermen, reading fishing forums, or just trying anything possible to get the fish to bite. Some of the tips and suggestions I will be mentioning will not all be of my own, as I have picked up some of these from other fishermen who have been slab fishing a lot longer than what I have. I mostly fish for sand bass on Lake Altus, Oklahoma and these are tactics that have worked for me. I love to get into the hybrids as well and have had some success with them, but I am still learning about them and hope to only get better at targeting the big hybrids. Stripers, I love fishing for these when giving the opportunity. Problem is I live 3 hours away from a quality lake to fish for them, that being Lake Texoma.
There are a few things that I would keep in mind when slab fishing and being new to it. Most people who use slabs already know these things, but when your new to it, like I once was you are really lost with it. I have had several phone calls and emails, and I thought this might be a good way to help out others in making there trips possibly be more successful.
One other tip. Your learning curve can be helped tremendously by using a guide on your local lake. Not only to help you better understand slabbing. But to learn how to better read your electronics, learn spots on your lake, and things such as seasonal patterns. I am not saying it cant be done without first hiring a guide, I know I did it without hiring one, but I sure did burn a lot of gas and spend a lot of time learning when I could have been catching more fish faster. Another tip might be to go with someone who has a handle on it, and offer to pay for the expenses on the trip in return for him sharing his knowledge. Either way it would just speed up the process. If you don't know of any guides in your area ask around for references etc. There are guides on my pro staff for down in the Texas area and one in the Oklahoma area, that I would recommend highly. If your out to just try it on your own, best of luck and the experiences in just getting the hang of it is trying but rewarding in itself. Here are my tips:
Location- When you are new to slabbing you get in your boat and wonder okay I have this lead bait and I keep reading about how others are making this thing work, what now. First thing you should think about is- Why am I even using this bait. Could be you read about it in the fishing reports for your lake, or read about how other fishermen keep saying they are sacking them up on slabs. Well I can tell you I have been there, and yes I read it in the reports and on the fishing forums so I know the feeling. So again your in the boat now leaving the ramp, where do you go. Here are some things to keep in mind. Different times of the year may cause you to use different methods. Look out for surface activity on the lake, birds working, fish breaking the water feeding on shad. To tell you the truth when I started I didn't even know that. I knew I had been reading about it, but where did they catch them? I was only used to trolling the flats, points, ledges, and wind blown shorelines and I was still pretty new at doing that. These are all good areas ,but what if they aren't there. I decided it might be smart to find out who was slabbing, watch those boats just to get an idea what was going on. So that is what I did, I saw about 3-4 boats out in the middle of the lake, dropping slabs over the side of there boat. But nobody was really doing anything. I couldn't understand why these guys were staying around these areas if they weren't catching. Little did I know the guys knew what they were doing, the fish just hadn't turned on yet. Before they turned on, I left for a bit checking out other areas. When I came back all heck was breaking lose, the boats in the middle of the lake were sacking up the fish in a big way. It appeared to be a lot of nice sand bass being caught. I started dropping my slabs over the side, still nothing. Finally after a good bit, the boats just left. I eased over these areas to see what the boats were fishing. When I pulled over the areas where the boats had been located, there wasn't any fish on the locator to be found. But I was able to see what they were working, and it was a hump on the lake bottom. Pretty neat I thought. I had never really given it a thought before. I did this same thing on a few other locations. In time I have learned a lot of nice humps, ledges, and hotspots on my local lake. Why do I mention this, well I once heard that 20% of the lake holds 80% of the fish. Is there anything to that, I believe that there is. You just have to learn those specific locations on the lake for the right times of the year.
Presentation- Okay you have an idea where the fish are at, but how do you get them to hit the bait. I can honestly tell you, there are a lot of times that it really doesn't matter how you drop it down there they are gonna hit it. Which can make it a pretty likable way to fish. Then there are times that you have to really work at it. There really is no wrong way to use the bait, only thing you have to find the right presentation for that day. There are times early in the year when the fish are less active and the water still cool when you may just need a small twitch of the bait. I mean just moving it ever so slightly. As the water warms and the fish become more active it actually gets a bit easier. You just have to find what the fish wants. If you have a few people in the boat it is best to try different presentations till one works. Then when it seems that someone is picking up a few, go with that method and just repeat. The thing to keep in mind when using the slab, that most of the time the fish will hit it on the drop of the bait, meaning you will want to keep contact with the bait as it falls. This is something that you will get better at with practice. If you can stay with the bait on the fall, it is amazing what all you will end up feeling. Some people cant catch the fish on a slab, unless the fish just catch themselves for you. There are times when the fish finder lights up with bait and fish on a hump or other location and I know that they are right under the boat. This can be the easiest time to load the boat if the fish are being cooperative on the bite. If they are biting you just drop over the side bump off the bottom if that is where the fish are located. Sometimes the fish may be a few feet off the bottom or suspended. In which case you will need to count your lure down to where they are at, or if possible you may pick up your bait on the fish finder and stop it where the fish are located and start working. Now if your drifting a hump or ledge you may want to cast the slab out to the area holding fish. Slowly retrieving the lure back to the boat, jigging the slab as you retrieve it. This casting technique can be deadly as you get more comfortable with the slab in not only feeling the bait but recognizing the bites coming from the fish. The bite may be a fish only picking it up, they may tap it , or they might nail it. Getting a feel for the bite is half the battle. Find the presentation that will work is the rest.
Confidence- The first two topics are very necessary because if you cant find the fish it doesn't matter what presentation you use. I think to become a better slab fishermen you have to have confidence in what your doing. Just like all other ways of fishing it is the same, live bait, trolling, topwater, throw crankbaits, etc. You will only gain confidence through success. Limits of fish is what your after. I think you really have to find a particular slab that you have a good feel for. I make many different types, I have learned that at different times I like to use different ones, sizes, colors etc which I will mention all later. But I have one particular, that when I start out a day of slabbing it is tied on every trip and I work my way off of it as the trip goes along. My confidence bait is a 1 1/2 oz casting spoon with char/white body and a blue back. Reason being I like a bigger bait, I like 2oz as well, but I have a good feel for this bait. I can feel the bite very well no matter how subtle with this bait. I once was fishing with a buddy and I told him I the shad were so thick down below, (for one I saw them on the fish finder) that I could feel them rubbing my bait as they swam by. Well you can only imagine what he told me I was full of, lol. But I was using a sensitive rod could easily feel them swimming and rubbing it, so I snagged a shad showed it to him and asked him if he believed me now. To become a better slabber, you just need a lot of practice. I have had days when I was a hero with them on the water, and I have had days when well things didn't work out. These bad days as I get more experience come fewer and farther between. But if your confident where your at what your using and how your doing it, you will try harder which will make you more successful in the long run.
Equipment- The equipment you use can help you in many ways. Fishfinders, well I am not a technical fella so I can't help you a lot there. I use a Eagle 480 and love it. I have gotten the settings set right to my liking, with the help of a friend who guides. I think you should buy all that you can afford and your better off in the long run. But when you have bought it if you can't set it up and understand what it is telling you it really doesn't matter. Over the past couple years, I have gotten to where I better understand what my finder is showing and what I need to be looking for. Rods, you need to get you a good sensitive rod. If you get the $20 rod, expect $20 results. With that said I am not a high dollar kinda guy, but you get what you pay for. I like a 6' 6" or 7' rod and I prefer it to be MH action. I like it to be sensitive and still have some back bone to it, plus I don't like it to be to limber. My good friend Van, showed me his rod one trip at Texoma, it was a daiwa rod from Wal-mart. I think it was like a $59 rod. It was one that had the blank where you could feel it through the handle. He told me he felt he could feel more, I bought into that. Once again he was right in my eyes. I found these rods on clearance back last February for $30 and bought all I could get my hands on. I am sure that as I keep fishing and upgrading my equipment I will buy even better rods, but at this point these rods are working well. You just need to have a comfort level with the rod though. Reels, I prefer baitcaster even like the higher gear ration. Fishing line, everyone has there own opinion on this one. I have been using the 12-20lb Berkley Big Game. If I feel that we may get into big hybrids slabbing I use the higher lb. My advice here, get a good rod so you can feel the bite. You will be so glad you did.
Techniques- As I mentioned earlier different times of the year call for different presentations. So what when where. To be honest with you I don't slab much in the spring. Reason being I like to cast or troll for walleye. That is the time of year I actually target something else. Here are my findings from this past year of slabbing.
Spring-This past spring I did more slabbing than I had any year prior. What I found was this. I liked the 5/8 or 3/4 oz baits worked very slow around ledges or flats during these times. I even managed some off the humps as well. The bait usually needed to be worked very slowly. I caught several sand bass, a few hybrids, many 16-18 inch walleye, and nice crappie doing this. I usually used the char/white. Even had good success using the 1/4 or 1/2 oz casting spoons casting along rip rap areas.
Late Spring/Early Summer- Over the past few years I never picked up a slab till about Mid May. This year brought about something new for me. I had never really used the holographic type slab a great deal. I began selling the holographic TNT Magnum Magnet at the Tackle Show in Arlington, TX. I did this because of having so many requests. I made a few tested them at Lake Texoma, caught a few during a tough outing but figured that they would work pretty good. Well I was wrong, but my customers and pro staff were right. They worked great. Mid May I was using the Magnum Magnet in char/white 1oz and was catching some of the nicest crappie I have ever caught off my home lake. These fish came off of areas that were rocks and old foundation from an old town that is now underwater off of flats. I don't target the crappie, but this was a nice surprise. This pattern went on for about a couple weeks on that bait, that suggestions came from a customer who mentioned the success he was having on the crappie, so I tried it and it worked. The holographic really surprised me at just how effective it really is. My finding was this, it worked better if the water wasn't stained to bad, and it seemed to only get better the higher the sun got in the sky. So by 10 am most mornings it really started picking up. I had several trips where we couldn't keep the walleyes off the bait to catch the sand bass. We had 3 in the boat one day and caught 60 16-17inch walleye in about 3 1/2 hours, this happened with all using silver holographic Magnum Magnets 1oz and the Limit Gitters silver holographic 1 1/8oz, the areas we fished were flats off of ledges on sandy wind blown banks.
Summer- I didn't fish as much this year as in years past. But we had some great days on the water. The fish become more active this time of year. When you are able to find them feeding on top which we did on several occasions. We liked using the 1/2 casting spoons or 5/8oz limit gitters. Color didn't really matter although I started using the silver holographic more often. We had some days when the fish were only up for a couple minutes and then down, and days when they stayed up as much as 4 hours. When using the smaller baits for this topwater madness keep the rod tip up high and retrieve fast if that doesn't work find the speed of retrieve that the fish prefer. After the feed would let up, we found fish hanging in a couple different areas flats shallow 10-17 ft deep, to be honest it didn't matter the type of slab as long as it was 1-2oz. Humps worked great at times, but ledges and flats seemed to be best for me this past year. I liked to drop the slab over and just pop it off the bottom, if that didn't trigger I would cast out and pop back to the boat.
Fall-Winter- Best advice I can give on this from my experience is find the shad, find the fish. Vary retrieves as well, some times it can only be a small lift of bottom. The water cooling back down can make you work for it. I like Texoma this time of year, because the stripers are more active then what the sand bass are on my home lake. Casting out and varying speeds or catching the fish right under the boat can be effective.
These techniques are all looking for one common thing, bait and fish on the fish finder make it a bit easier. I feel that if the fish are around the bait there is a good chance they are willing to eat the bait. Making the slab, which resembles a dying shad very effective. So just finding fish on the finder might not get it done. Something else I ran into this year that needs mentioning. I had a trip one weekend during early summer we caught well over 100 fish on 1 and 1.5oz slabs. The next weekend went same spots, and the bite was very tough. We caught fish, they were on the screen and tons of bait. But the bite wasn't as effective. Got to looking at the bait and it was so small, looked to be ghost minnows and I mean tons of them. May have been some small shad as well, but this was mostly ghost minnows. Down sized the baits to the 1/2 & 3/4oz casting spoons and the 1/2 limit gitters and we started getting inhaled. The bite was ferocious. Hard to believe that they would pass up our bigger slabs, but they did. This pattern occurred on a flat in about 10-17 ft of water. We ended up that day, matching the weekend before numbers but got some nice sand bass and smaller hybrids mixed in. So watch the hatch or ghost minnows they can dictate your bait selection.
Bait Selection- As you can tell I have a lot of different type of slabs. I can tell you this, what I like and have a good feel for might not be what you like. I hear some fishermen only like 1/2 or 3/4 oz. I prefer 1- 2oz , but that is me. I tell customers all the time to order different types and sizes, not trying to lay a sales pitch on them but feel is the most important thing. Size, color, does it matter. Yes it does, but if you can't feel the bait what does that even matter. Here is how I like to use the baits I make.