[Michael]

Saturday I headed out to Twin Brooks Park. Arrived at the first stop just before 3pm.

Started by playing with a custom painted red tiger Jointed J-7. Lots of bluegills and an occasional bass were following it whenever I'd do some constant jerking so I switched over to a perch X-Rap XR-6 for slashbait action.

The XR-6 had all 3 types of sunnies and an occasional bass going crazy after it but for some reason wouldn't hit even if I paused. Tried to see what a yellow perch Husky Jerk HJ-6 would do but they didn't pay much attention to it.

Eventually worked the rest of the pond I was at by also throwing a perch Pop-R but never got into any fish.

Next I went to a popular topwater area of another pond. Saw a few bass hanging out along the edge of weeds and also 1 crappie. First cast with the Pop-R and I get a double without even jerking the lure! One bass came off while reeling them in but landed the other. Fish was a cookie cutter 12". Had a bass swirl under the topwater.

Went down to the main pond and worked the island area. Had a swirl on the Pop-R. Threw the lure in a small cove and had many followers and landed a dinky 11" pickerel. Nothing happened in the larger cove.

Made my way down to the beach area and started playing with a few different Rapalas. Tried throwing a custom painted sunest tiger Shallow Shad Rap SSR-7 before switching over to a silver shad Jointed Shad Rap JSR-4. Nothing happened with the SSR-7 so I went with the JSR-4.

One of the first casts with the JSR-4 produced a 14.5" rainbow just under a pound.


Had another hit with the JSR-4.

Decided to start working my way out of the park by hitting a few spots at the larger pond with the JSR-4. Didn't get any hits or followers so I headed down to Bunnells Pond.

Arrived at the usual spot with the JSR-4 around 6:45pm. First cast out there and land a 12" rainbow.

Gave the JSR-4 another 10 casts or so before switching over to a shad Tail Dancer TD-5. That produced a small bluegill and an acrobatic 16" 1 pound 2 ounce rainbow. Lures shown in pic are 7cm Clackin Minnows to compare size.


3 other lures I played with included bleeding original shad Shad Rap SR-5, silver shad Jointed Shallow Shad Rap JSSR-7, and glass black Glass Shad Rap GSR-4. Those 3 didn't produce so I stuck with the JSR-4 and TD-5.

Later while throwing the TD-5 I had a hard hit not far from shore. Saw an average stockie come shooting out of the water before losing it.

Just before 8pm Park Police started telling everyone the park was closed so I hit the road.

2 nice fillets for the grill or oven from the 16" rainbow


These sunny hot days have recently warmed the water up enough to make the trout die soon after putting them in the water on the stringer. The trick the TD-5 and JSR-4 seemed to be doing for me was staying in the strike zone.

[Gee_Boog]

Right at the end of your post you hit the nail on the head for me as well. I've switched to a couple brands including some rapala products based on some of your reportings actually, and yeah you should totally be a rapala spokesperson lol. But stayin in the strike zone this year at times double the amount of time I was in it last year has REALLY changed my fishing this year. How bout that JSR line eh?

[Michael]

[Gee_Boog]

Sticking with natural colors for arguments sake, what kind of pressure do these lures put on a spot? I'll fish lakes with coves and medium to large brooks with depths near 4/5 foot mark. Everything I read is they are great for trolling with very little about shore fishing them. Fish'em real slow cuz the action is more intense?

[Michael]

JSR-4 is a shallow to medium diver good for shore and deeper brooks. Trolling would make it dive 4 to 6 feet while doing a slower retrieve from shore would make it dive 2 to 4 feet.

Sizes 5 and 7 are more for fishing from a vessel in bigger lakes or casting from shore at places such as Saugatuck Reservoir.

Colors that have always been good to me include Silver Shad, Shad, Perch, Yellow Perch, Bleeding Pearl, and Bleeding Original Shad.

Nice thing about the Silver Shad color is it's a shiny pearlescent silver grey.

Other than the rattle, the thing that really makes the JSR a very productive lure is the jointed swimming action which sends out the distressed minnow sound as a loud vibration that you can even feel in your rod while reeling the lure.

Look back at my private lake, Great Hollow Lake, and Hamburg Cove reports and you'll see how that JSR-4 is a killer!

[Shane]

Nice job! havent been down in twin brooks in a few weeks i ought to head down there nothing better than catchin trout