Latest / Sac-A-Lait Talk / The Lake D'Arbonne Masterclass with Brad Black
Transcript
- thelakedarbonnemasterclass: Welcome back to Sackolane Talk. It's time for everyone's favorite look at the local leaderboard, our slab bite segment. Today, we are breaking down the legendary waters of Lake Darbones, and we've got the perfect man to guide us through the stumps. He's a custom jig maestro and master crappy technician and the brains behind L and B custom crappy jigs, the one and only Brad Black. Brad, welcome to the show, man. Thanks for having me again. Yes, I appreciate you you giving us a few minutes. Yes, sir. and breaking down Lake Dar Darbone for us, okay? Okay. Br Brad, let's let's head to the lake, man. We're locked and loaded tonight, okay? All right. Brad, first question, where where are the slash biting on Darbone right now? right now they're in anywhere from twelve to sixteen foot of water on the flats. Darbone has a lot of flats, stump flats, and right now that's where they're at. They've been there pretty much all summer. They're still hanging out there. The shad are there, and we're just kind of waiting on some cooler weather for them to move. But that's where they're at right now. Okay. All right. Brad, what is your signature setup that you're using right now? I use a 11 foot BM pole. I I like s I think it's a super sensitive pole is what I use. I just use six pound fluorocarbon and right now on the flats, I typically just use number five weight, just a pinch weight. And typically a sixteenth ounce jig. I will go to thirty second when they get spooky and and then go down to a real small B B weight, but typically I use a number five B B weight. that's what I'm using right now 'cause I like to flip to and and then drop straight down. I don't cast. I I've just never gotten into that yet. I'd like to someday, but I like dropping down to and just kind of flipping to So I I did buy some longer poles to try those. I have a a fourteen footer that I use sometimes. but I I really like that eleven foot pole. Okay. Okay. That that'll work. if it if it works for you, I mean I'll I'll I wouldn't change it, you know. Now when I when we get around the trees in the spring, I go to a twelve foot B and It's a little longer. Right. a little a little stiffer but could to get out from under those limbs. Right. but but when I'm just out on the flats, I like I like that eleven foot sensitive pole. Hey Brad, when you pull in on a spot, what are two or three things you are looking for to to determine if you're staying or leaving? Bur well, you know, now with the live scope it's a lot easier than it used to be. You know, used to, you know, we'd have a pole in each hand and and we we had the we had the hummingbird or the Lorants and we could see we could see fish below us and we could see the structure, but but we were you know, we were really trying to figure out the color and and depth and and all that. And so, you know, it took us a while to figure all that out. now, you know, when I pull into a spot, when I throw that trolling motor over and I've I've got that live scope, you know, I'm I'm I I troll pretty slow against a lot of other people that troll pretty fast. I I take it pretty slow. And, you know, I I don't necessarily I'm not necessarily trophy fishing. I I I I just like to fish and catch So it doesn't really matter to me, big, little or medium, you know. Right. I'm just looking for fish. And the the great thing about Darbone is pretty much anywhere you drop your trolling motor, you're gonna see fish. And if there's a ch on the off chance that you don't, I mean, pick it up and move, you know, but but most places you go on Darbone, you're gonna see fish if you know, you know, the the basic time of the year and where they should be. If you can find that water off the GPS or off of a map, if you can find that type of water, they're probably gonna be there. If not, pull up and go find another spot like that, you know. So basically you're looking for the next fish. You're not n necessarily looking for the biggest fish, right? That's right. That's right. Well, there's nothing wrong with that. I mean I like catching the big ones, but you know You can only keep seven over twelve inches on Darbone anyway. So Right. That's you know. That's what Wesley told me a couple of weeks ago. Right. Yeah. Let me ask you this. Are are there any guys spider rigging Darbone? Or they pretty much single pole okay. There's still a few. I I see I see one every second or third trip. I saw one last weekend spider rigging on the flats in those stumps. Yeah. And and I had a buddy that we used to spider rig all the time and and he got a a live scope and decided he didn't like it and he he, you know, gave it away and ended up going back to spider rigging. He just liked that, you know. So there's a few guys still spider rigging. Yeah, I've I've done some spider rigging Lake Larto, man, and it's if you're just one person it's it it can get get hectic, you know, keeping up with you know that spider rigging system. Yeah, for sure. Okay. when you're not catching on a spot immediately, how long do do you fish a spot personally before moving on? I'll give it thirty. Thirty, forty five minutes. really? Okay. Yeah. I mean, you're talking about not seeing fish or them not biting? No, they're not biting. They're not biting? Yeah. They're just not biting your You know, the thing about the the thing about me, I don't carry anything but but my jigs in my boat. Right. So, you know, I I don't have any I don't have anything to change but color and size. So that helps me in in in one way. And I guess if if they're not biting hair jigs, you know, I I guess I load up and go to the house. You know, I don't ever use shiners. The guy that taught me never use shiners and and we just never used them, so I never use them. So you know, I normally give three fish a shot at a color. If if that color, if they're not if they're not hitting that color, I try another color. That's why you'll see a lot of my Facebook posts. You know, I'll have one color one weekend and one color the next weekend. you know, whatever color they're hitting the weekend before, that's whatever's on my on my pole, that's the one I start with, you know, unl unless the the the waters change drastically or the the You know, it's it it went from, you know, bright sunshine to cloudy, then I'm gonna change, but you know, if if they were biting one thing last weekend, I'm gonna try it. But if I get if if the third fish isn't not interested, I'm changing colors. You know. Okay. And I'll I'll give thirty, forty five minutes before I move. All right. Good enough. Brad, when you're when you're dialed in on a brush pile, walk us through your exact technique you're using to trigger those slabs to attack your jig. To be honest with you, I don't fish a lot of brush piles. There is so much structure in Darbone. Okay. It there is so many stumps. There is brush piles that people have put in the lake, and I'm sure there's a lot of them that I don't know about. I've never searched I never searched out for because I never had to. That's what I love about Darbone. You know, Caney On the other hand, which is not far from me either where where I grew up, I grew up on Caney Lake. There's no structure in Caney and you have to have brush piles. A lot of those guys down there that fish it have all marked and everything. But even with a live scope and and side image and all that, if you don't know where they're at, they're not easy to find, you know. If I come across one, I'm I'll mark it, you know. I I know where three or four are, but you know, I hit I'll hit those flats and there's so many stumps. I mean, it was right now the lake is a foot low and it you'd you'd go down the channel and it will scare you to death when you look out across there. There's so many stumps. I mean it is just they didn't cut any trees when they built they built Darbone. They left every tree in that bottom. And so there is stumps everywhere. And so I I basically pull onto that stump field and I I s I throw that trolling motor in and I start trolling and I'm scanning and I'm looking at those stumps. You know, a lot of times they're on the stumps, sometimes they're out, you know, just in the just kind of sitting out there floaters by themselves. And I just kinda go from stump to stump. That's kind of how I fish the flats. Okay. And then when we go, you know, here, once it starts cooling off and we get on the edge of the channel, it's kind of the same thing 'cause those same trees Even when you're in twenty, twenty-five foot of water, there's still trees on the edge of the channel and they're still stacked on those trees. So it's the same thing. Okay. Well yeah, I mean stomps mean that that's a good thing for Sackle or crappie fishing, you know. Absolutely. Yeah. Absolutely. And you know, if there's if there's two or three on one tree, you know, sometimes in in the winter when they're sluggish. You know, you might catch a couple off of it, but you know, like right now, I was just looking back at some footage from this past weekend and there was like four on on one tree and I caught one off the tree. Well, you know, as soon as you set the hook on that one, they scatter right now. And plus you're only like in twelve foot of water. Now, you know, every four years they let Darbone down. Every presidential election year they drop Darbon. They dropped Darbone four feet. And it's a great time to come fish the lake if you're you know, you have to be very careful. Right. But but the last time they dropped the lake, I f we we found a a a treetop that had fallen, a big tree that had fallen out. You could tell it fell out over the channel, and there was just fish underneath that that treetop. And I just sat there all morning. And just one after another, one after another, one after another. You know, and they they were they were probably they were twenty foot deep in thirty foot of water and you know, they never moved. They just stayed there and just, you know, it was a great day. You know, it's one of those one of those awesome days you have, you know. Right. You ha you have once in a lifetime, maybe. Yeah. My buddy calls them epic days. Right. Epic. You know, when they lower the lakes, that's a good time too to like visually you know, take your camera and visually take some pictures to s to see you know, the structures of of of of the lake, you know? Absolutely. You can really get a good you can really get a good idea of all those right stunts and all those trees that are normally under the water that you can't see. They're They're above the water where you can see you know. Right. Mr. Brad, I think you touched on some of this, but I'm a I'm gonna go go over this question and you might be able to add to it, okay? Okay. with the current water temperatures on Darbone, are the s are the Sackolates still holding deep in the main river channels and slots, or have they s started transitioning into the shadow flats and timber? They're still on the flats and They'll you know, we'll we'll need a couple of weeks of of of cold weather, kind of consistent cold weather before they move to the channel edge. And I and I I'm seeing some people starting to fish on the edge of the channel, but they're on the back side of the trees. They're still they're still in six, you know, fourteen to eighteen foot of water. Okay. So those fish are are getting closer to the channel. But they're still in 14 to 16 foot of water, you know. Those shad, those I I tried the channel last weekend. I went out there and tried the edge of the channel. I saw a few fish, you know, in 20 foot of water and I heard some shad hitting the top of the water, but I didn't see a lot of shad in that deeper water. So the the temp this weekend was 75. The water temp was. So it it's still pretty warm. Okay. Yeah. All right. No problem. let's see. They're very aggressive right now though. The the white perks are very aggressive right now. When when you're scanning the the lake right now, what specific type of wood structure is holding the most active schools of slabs? Just the just the stumps. Yeah, just the stumps. I mean, there's a lot of in in that in that twelve, fourteen foot of water, there's just a lot of eight to ten foot stumps. And, you know, you'll come across you'll come across some, you know, low stumps that are only, you know, two or three feet off the bottom. a c a fishing trip a couple of last weekend. I I I seem to s I seem to catch more kind of closer to the bottom. And I don't know if that was because, you know, it was it was high pressure and they were just pushing closer to the bottom. That was probably it. this past weekend, you know, it was it was sunny, but the wind was blowing, so that probably helped some. And they weren't really they were mid, you know, they were mid level, you know, eight to ten feet. And they're just on those on those trees, you know. They're just on those on those stumps. Okay. It's pretty if you've got a live scope, you can see out there. Okay. Mr. Brad, are you finding the fish heavily concentrated in certain areas or are they spread across the lake entire lake? Mm. They're spread. They're spread. They're spread. I'm pretty much every spot I'm I'm going to, I'm seeing fish. You know, it's heavier in some places and you'll get a concentration, you know. One of the spots where I've been doing fairly well here lately, it's around a s a a flat that's it's I guess really a slew, but around around the edge of it, it's probably two hundred yards all the way around the you know, it's a circle and it's probably two hundred yards around all the way around it. And I can fish all the way around it, but there's probably about a fifty fifty yard section. where it just for whatever reason there's more of there. I think it's probably because it's it's closest to the to the main channel, you know. I think they're more kind of coming and concentrating there bef you know, 'cause they're getting ready to go to the channel. So I think, you know, as as that slew goes back or that flat goes back towards the bank, you know, I think all of those those fish are pulling away and pulling out to the middle. starting to pull out towards the channel and I think that's just where they're starting to concentrate. So I think probably if you're gonna fish a flat, any flat, you know, one where you can start on the, you know, closer to the edge of the channel is probably gonna or closer to the channel is gonna be the place to start. I know up the arms, the there's not as many flats, but there's a lot of We I I c always called them dump outs. It's just, you know, little places that it was a little slough that dumped out into the channel, you know. you know, you'll see on creeks all the time, on littler creeks, like when you used to go squirrel hunting or deer hunting, you you walk in a creek, you'll see just a little slough that that dumps out into a channel and and those spots seem to hold up up the creek arm seem to hold fish really well this time of year as well. Right. So when I go up the Creek Arms, that's the kind of places I fish. the the flats are more down on the main lake. Okay. Hey, Mr. Brad, as a custom jig maker, what body profiles and headweights from L and B jigs are you tying on first to trigger to trigger bites right now on on Darbone? they've gotten aggressive again, so just a sixteenth ounce head is doing fine. And, you know, my baits are about an inch and a half, kind of a standard size. You know, I leave mine a little long. my jigs are I I put a little I all of my jigs are made of feathers. Right. And I I my hair jigs are a little I guess the word would be thicker or fatter maybe. one of the things that when I started tying was that I always heard people say that, you know, well hair jigs are too thin, you know, and th they don't have they have a little bitty profile which I think a lot of people didn't understand that's kind of the point of them, but you know, is to have a different p profile. So what I tried to do is I tried to do something in between a plastic and a and a a typical hair jig. So so mine have a little more body to them, I guess is the way to say it on the back end. And so I leave a little long. They're a little thicker, they're a little heavier, as far as the body of them. So Those they've been working great. They can always be trimmed, you know. and they can be thinned if if, you know, in the summertime we do we do trim them back a little bit and make them shorter. But you know, it's kind of that measure twice and cut once rule, you know. You can always trim them, but you can't make them longer. That's I let other I let other people decide whether they want to trim them or not. Yeah, that's right. Measure measure twice and cut once. Yeah. Sixteenth ounce head is is doing is doing great now. And if it gets colder and they go deep, we'll go eighth ounce just because they're so deep. Right. You know, just to get it down there. And you know, that's the only time I use the eighth ounce. Just and and every once in a while, you know, I'll have to use like a one thirty second when they're deep like that and good grief, man. You know, you got a lot of time to think about all your bad decisions on days like that. Cause it takes forever for it to get down there. but, you know, if that's what it takes, that's what it takes. You know exactly. But You know, we you know the the it never fails. You know, you'll they won't bite the eight. So you go down to sixteenth, they still won't bite it. So you go to thirty second and but you know, I you still got that big weight on there and it's they still won't bite it until you put a little weight on there. I mean, you know, these things get so finicky sometimes, you know. yeah, absolutely. Yes. You I'm pr I'm pretty hard headed myself, so I'll I'll stay out there with and try, you know, I'll go down to a little bitty head and let it take a minute to get down there to you just to see if you'll bite it. Right. You know? I'll be hard headed with you. Hey, Mr. Brad, let's talk about water clarity for a second, okay? All right. what is your go to color color palette for the stained or muddy sections versus the clear water? that pink, purple and and green chartreuse is my number seventy-three. That one works on anything. That's that in the fall, that's what we start with. That's what I start with generally. that's what I'm gonna start with. I've number 43, which is pink, kind of a baby blue and gray, gray and white tail. That's another great one in the fall. works in both. So those are the two that I'm gonna start with and see what those do. Okay. When it's muddy. When it's muddy, I'm gonna try black and chartreuse. I'm gonna try that. If it's if it's cloudy, you know, I've got I've got a black and orange that I like to try when it's cloudy. number six, it's kind of a crawfish color. when it's sunny, I've got I call it Cajun chicken. It's it's pink head, orange body and orange and green tail. I like to use it on sunny days when it's when it's real muddy. And then I have the Cajun the orange and yellow Cajun cricket color, you know. That's just that never was my favorite color, so I don't use those a lot, but a lot of people do. and then, you know, on the if it's not real bad mud if it's just murky water on clear days I like the shad colors I like the 93 the the gray ghost that I like that on clear clear mu and murky water on clear days and then the my glitter critter color which is it it's got gold man that's that is killer on cloudy days. It's it's gold with a yellow tail. And I've got a black head. That's the one I prefer. And then I got an orange head for when it's really muddy. And then we've got a gold head that I got my buddy calls Goldilocks. That's that's good in muddy water too. He likes that one. we've got We've got s you know, depending on whether you I caught him this past weekend on number eleven, which is pink head, silver body and yellowtail. And it was bright sunshine and and and Darbone stays kind of stained. It gets muddy muddy in the winter when it rains a lot and in the spring when it rains a lot, but it stays stained. Okay. And so you know, that and and I'm and I've been I'm gonna s I'm kind of starting a little series on my on my Facebook page of putting different colors on there and the times of when I I like to use what. 'Cause that's one of the biggest questions I get, you know, what colors are best when, you know, of people starting. That'll be I was blessed to have a a guy, you know, I spent ten years in the back of his boat. And that's how I learned. And, you know, he was doing it twenty years before that. So, you know, that's how I learned. But a lot of people don't have that. A lot of people don't get that opportunity. Right. Brad, I know you had talked about the fish are being aggressive right now. do anglers need to tip their jigs or are they just so aggressive right now that's not really necessary? Yes, not necessary right now. My the guy I was telling you about his name was Ray Arthur. He he passed away this past this past September and he used to we would go back to the truck if we didn't have if he forgot his crappie bites. His crappie bites. Right. You know, and and I was a big believer in him too, because I fished in the back of his boat for, you know, fifteen years. Yeah, ten years. Right. And man, I believed in him. And I I swore to and I would I'd you know, I'd fight you tooth and nail about But but now with the Live Scope, I I don't use anymore. and I like I say I've never used Menace, so I don't I don't never use shiners. I don't ever tip with shiners. Now up on up on Busy in Bastrop, you know, a lot of times when those guys are trying to catch those bigger fish, they'll tip but to to give it a bigger profile. Right. But right now If if the day's right and and they're aggressive, yeah, you don't need anything. There's no need. No need. Okay. moving on. For the guys utilizing forward facing sonar or side scanning on Darbone right now, at what depth range are you seeing the fish suspend? And how high above them do we need to keep our jigs? Yeah. In that twelve to fourteen foot of water, I'm seeing anywhere from eight to ten foot deep. Mm-hmm. And and that how far above them just kind of personally, this is just me. I don't have a whole lot of luck keeping it way away from I like to get it pretty close to Now I spook some fish sometimes. But it's it but, you know, and that depends on how aggressive they are. You know, when they're real aggressive, you don't have to. that's why I like dropping to The the I I don't mind flipping to you know, the casting I've never gotten really good at, but you know I I put a I put a a a a video on my Facebook today about one I I flipped out to and it was just it was one of those perfect ones. I hit it, I threw it just right and it brought it right down. And maybe he was just real aggressive. Maybe it had nothing to do with me. But I mean I brought it over him and it was it looked like it was about six inches over his head and he just came right up and bam hit it, you know. but I I've got tons of videos and I put videos on my my Facebook page sometimes of where I throw past them four or five times and they never even move, you know. Right. and and sometimes I put it on them and and it spooks them. So, you know, again, I'm not fishing for money. So and and there's there's another one ten feet away. So there's no use getting upset. It used to bother me, but it doesn't anymore. You know, there's another one right around the corner, so there's no use getting upset about it. You know You're just fishing because you because you love crappie fishing and you That's right. Right. That's right. That's you know that's that's why I fish for him. Yeah. If he spooks them, you know, I I try to learn from it and move on. and just move on to the next one, you know. Yeah. When I go out I when I go out, I just want to take a few home t for supper. I don't I have no intention of keeping a hundred or you know yeah, you know. Well I give a lot away. you know, and I don't mind cleaning 'cause like I said, I grew up on a lake, so I've been cleaning fish since I was, you know, fourteen years old. So, you know, so I have a lot of friends 'cause I give a lot of fish away and it's sometimes I wonder if that's why I have a lot of friends. Right. You make a lot of friends. You may have a point there. You know? Yeah. Hey, there's nothing wrong with catch and release too every now and then, you know? I I do a lot of that too now. Trust me. I throw I throw fifteen back at least fifteen back just about every time. Right. But the state makes me do that. Right. Hey, Mr. Brad, for the guys heading out to Darbone this weekend, what size what size limit weight or slab average should they realistic realistically expect to find in their live whale? A pound to a pound and a half. Okay. Yep. Man, there's there's nothing wrong with that. Yeah. You know, that's a nice fish. There's a there's that's what that's what we've been catch or that's what I've been catching. And I mean it's twelve inch fish. They're everywhere on those flats right now. Right. Everywhere. Let me let me ask let me ask you this, Mr. Brad. What do you think that makes Darbon such a great crappy fishery? there's a lot there's there's a lot of area on Darbone that cannot be fished. I think is is one of the main things. and and it's it's big. Now it does get a lot of pressure, but where I f where I fish in the spring up up the lake, up up the arms of the lake. There's a lot of places that by the time it gets to spawning time, you can't get to it because there's grass there. Or you just can't get to it. well you mainly can't get to it because there's grass there. Or you can't get to it because there's there's current around that messes it up. I think that's one of the biggest things. it's got tons of bait fish. I mean tons of bait fish. In the in the winter, sometimes we can't fish the channel because there's so many bait fish. You can't see the fish. wow. You'll be s you'll be sitting in thirty foot of water and from ten feet down to the bottom is solid bait fish. And it'll it'll be for hundreds of yards just solid shad. So they have plenty to eat, there's plenty of structure, plenty of places for to hide, and there's there's plenty of places for when they spawn that I believe that can't they're safe to spawn, you know. Right. So it's a it's a it's a great fishery. I'm blessed to live as close to it as I do, and I'm blessed that that I knew Ray and he knew it as well as he did and he he let me fish with him and taught me as much as he did about it. Awesome. Well, we're down to the last question, Mr. Brad. Okay. Where can the Sackolake Talk community follow you and stay updated on your latest adventures and catches? Yeah, my Facebook page is the place to stay Stay caught up. It's L and B Custom Crappie Jigs. L and B custom crappie jigs. If you'll just type that into your search bar, I'd love a follow. I'd appreciate a follow. And you can if you're if you're ever coming up to Darbone, I put every weekend when I go, I I try to put a report of the depth I'm catching them. I put a report of the colors I'm catching them on. And I put a you know, pictures of the of the jigs and there's several places around town, around Farmville and around West Monroe, depending on i if you're coming up to stay, where you can, you know, purchase those. you can also purchase them on the on a website, on Honey Hole's website. And, you know, if if you're coming up this way, you know, message me on Facebook Messenger and I'd be glad to, you know, kind of give you a try to point you in the right direction and let you know where they're biting. You know? Well I've never I love I love I love I have never been to Darbone, but I definitely need to make a trip. Yeah, I'd love for you to come up here. I think you'd enjoy it. Absolutely. Well Mr. Brad, I can't thank you enough. I appreciate you you dropping all your knowledge on Darbone and And giving us some some valuable information on on the lake. Sure thing. Till Mr. Brad, till next time. I'll talk to you later, okay? Okay. Sounds good. All right. Later. And that wraps up today's slab bite segment here on Sacklay Talk. A massive thank you to Brad Black for stopping by and giving us the winning blueprint for Lake Darbone. If you want to put more slabs in your live well this weekend, make sure to check out LB Custom Crappy Jigs and get your tackle box right. Until next time, keep your lines tight, watch your electronics, and go get that thump. We'll see you right back here next week on Sakalay Talk. Chasin dreams Scotted's own hill, a song of the bow, the brave, and the grim. Every drop of shine tells a tale on told. Hands that bliss Thing.