I have read and read about what different people like for baits, I went out last weekend more to see the river than fish, but will be out this week and of course on Sunday... I was wondering what you would suggest I pack in my vest for the somewhat limited visibility conditions we're experiencing now???
The Safeway shrimp rings are on sale 2 for 1 ($6.99) and Safeway Select shrimp rings are on sale for $3.99 each (-$4.00 off)... not sure what the difference of them are, but are these the shrimp you're buying and procuring?
Thanks!
To answer your first question about fishing in limited visibility: I generally will only ever fish jigs and pink worms in high water. If I miss a fish I will fish over the spot again using a large roe sac or shrimp but thats only if I know pretty much exactly where the fish are sitting. I'll use a story from a few weeks ago for the sake of an example.
I the river I was fishing was extremely high and dirty and I was just fishing small pockets of slack water close to shore. First cast into a good looking pocket with a jig and my float goes down and I find my self with a steelie dancing on the end of my line. Unfortunately it ran off into the main current and I wasn't able to catch up with it. So after loosing the fish I took a few more casts through the spot with jigs but it did not yield anything. I figured there would be some more fish in this spot as it was the best looking pocket I had seen all day. It was a small pocket only big enough for one person to fish at a time so I let got fish fish through it next. We knew exactly where any steelies would be holding so he threw on a roe sac a drifted through the 'sweet spot' sure enough first cast in float goes down and fish on. This time we were a little more lucky and managed to get the fish to shore, unfortunately in the process we stirred the spot up pretty good so we decided to keep moving and hit the spot on the way back. Half hour later on the walk back up (I get first cast this time) we fish the spot again, once more starting with jigs and once again first cast in float goes down and I find myself with yet another fish on. This time I make no mistake and get it in to shore quickly and effectively. After we let the pool rest for a little while longer got fish goes through it again with shrimp then roe, then pink worms. Unfortunately it was nearly dark so we had to pack up and head home.
Point of that little story was to illustrate that in poor water conditions you should concentrate your effort to using searching baits and then if you find a spot that you know has fish in it then you should cover it more thouroughly.
To answer your second question, most of us here just procure the left over cocktail shrimp from our Christmas parties.