116 Mississippi Sportsman^ | April 2015
W
hen it comes to habitat preference, redear seem to favor hard
substrate. Sandy bottom works, as does man-made habitat.
For example, Cormier said he catches a lot of chinquapin in
Grand Bayou Lake, particularly along the Louisiana Highway
784 bridge causeway that crosses the lake’s west end.
Elsewhere, he’s fared well on lakes like Bruin, Concordia, Providence and
Black River, all of which have expansive shell beds.
“For some reason, the old oxbow lakes have a lot of shell beds on the shal-
low ends,” he said. “I used to catch hundreds of chinquapin on the False
River over the shell beds, while the bluegill were mostly in the grass.”
In the basin, Bill McCarty also targets
hard surfaces, but his objectives are the
those that rise from the dark waters —
cypress trees.
Catching one chinquapin per tree is
the rarity, McCarty said. The fish usually
stack on the cypress, so finding the right
tree can be a gold mine opportunity. ■A full-time freelance writer
specializing in sport fishing,
David A. Brown splits his
time between journalism and
marketing communications
(www.tightwords.com).Cracking the code“I use a brown-and-orange hair jig, and I tip it with
a chartreuse (Berkley Powerbait) Crappie Nibble,”
McCardy said. “I fish the jig under a slip cork. We’ll
peg the cork so the jig is 2 to 5 feet beneath the cork,
depending on the river level.
“If I have someone on the boat that doesn’t want to
use the Crappie Nibble, I can usually out-fish them 8
or 10-to-1 by tipping my jig.”
Casting to the base of a cypress tree, McCarty gives his
cork a pop to make the jig hop, action that grabs fish’s
attention.Flies
Cormier mostly uses heavily weighted flies and little
micro jig flies that reach bottom quickly.
Among his favorites are the Fluff Butt and the Bead
Head Hare’s Ear. Made of rabbit fur, the latter sports a
lot of subtle motion that fish seem to like.
For all of his fly work, Cormier uses a 5-weight rod
because it affords him optimal flexibility with the
types of flies he uses.
A standard floating line does the trick, even for
bottom-oriented fish.
“There’s no need to get down deeper than 4 to 5
feet because the most-active fish will be in the first
few feet off the bottom,” he said. “So if you use a long-
enough leader, you’ll be fine.
If I need to reach deeper, I’ll use a sink tip connector
because it’s just easier to work with.”
Slowly stripping the fly, Cormier expects most strikes
to occur right on the strip. He’ll typically count down
to about 10 before he starts stripping.
In most cases, that initial movement is what flips the
switch.
“In clear water, I’ve watched (chinquapin) gather
around the fly and look at it,” Cormier said. “As soon as
you move it, one will rush out and grab it.” ■Sinking flies are most common for shellcracker,
but bedding fish will smack a popper.continues from page 112 >
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