My largest Sunfish ever (from Lake Tetonka/Waterville, MN) came from a gold jig-head and a one inch bit of crawler… old habits are hard to stop… and I have now been using mostly gold jigs for the past four years. I think gold adds just the right flash and color in the stained waters here in Southern Minnesota.
I was ancohred in eighteen feet of water with my front anchor and had my back ancohr set in about three feet. By pulling and adjusting on the ropes, I was able to position myself in six feet, right on the drop, where the weeds end. These Sunfish were working the weed-edge with many other species… I also caught Largemouth, Smallmouth, Perch, Northrern, and several nice “keeper” Walleyes there. This bite was in the morning and in the afternoon! They seemed to be more active early though. Early, they were further up into the weed-pockets. In the afternoon, once set into position on the weed-edge, it was a “jigging off the side of the boat” kind of approach… basically a fish every few minutes. But… the bait needed to be quite still, for they were not chasing. This is why use of double anchors is so important, so the boat is not swinging in the wind. None of my fish came from casts… all were verticle and from setting the baits very still! “Hovering” the worms one to six inches above the bottom right at the weed-edge worked best.
I have placed a photo of the biggest Sunfish I caught, on my prior report dated 1/23/02. The photo was too large to include this report and for the life of me, I could not get it to “crop” any smaller. It is a full four fingers past my wrist… nine inches, but very thick! I caught several other big ones and lots of nice keepers. This spot should be good for some time now, till the weeds start to decline 
.
Hawger
Dave Hoggard
EFN Pro-Staff
August 26, 2002 at 2:37 pm
#1291975