Thunderin Gobbler

The bad thing about it was that I had been watching the weather channel earlier in the day and they said it wasn't supposed to move in until after midnight. I guess they were wrong again. We watched the clouds for a while, and it seemed like they were moving east, and all of a sudden, they turned and came back south on us. But the main this is everyone made it out of there ok. Talked to one guy when we launched that hit something in turkey creek and put a hole in his boat though. needless to say, we stayed away from there.

Put in at Cedar Ridge Saturday night about 7:00. We went to our lucky spot and fished until a little after 8:00. That's when all hell broke loose on the "Stockton triangle". That storm front came over us and the wind picked up to well over 20mph. Like everyone else up there, we headed for the ramp. The water quickly went from calm to white caps to large swells. Right as we shut the motor down at the no wake markers, a bigger white bass boat came by us(with no lights on or anything) at full throttle and shot into the cove between the ramp and the fishing dock. They passed us within 20 feet and nearly hit another boat that was right in front of us. I just love jerks like that. Lucky for them the weather was so bad or they probably would have ended up with a nice little hole in there boat. Did anyone get stuck in that storm? Now I know why my dad says he sank 2 little boats up there.

hogbob, I know it's probably too late, but I fished mainly east of the bridge. We went almost to High point and found one of the spots. I think they are biting about everywhere in that area right now. Going back tonight hopefully, maybe we can do it again.

Yes on both Zac, but I caught the majority of them right before dark. The one that was around 6lb and broke me was in the daylight, the other one that broke me was around 11:00pm. Like I said, any color we threw was working, but they were only taking the 10" or longer worms. I threw 7" worms a little and they didn't seem to care for them as much.

I bass fished the Cedar Ridge area last night and the bite was really good. Started out fishing a shallow rocky bank, about 10-13ft deep, and had no luck. Later I moved to a deeper chunk rock bluff, 20-35ft deep, and they just tore the daylights out of plastic worms. There wasn't really a specific color, they were biting every color. I ended up putting 2 in the livewell around the 3lb range. Several were caught that measured right on the 15in mark, but I didn't want to take any chances so I released them. I got broke off 3 times on 17lb Trilene line. No nicks in the line or anything. One of those fish surfaced for a second after he broke the line and I would put him around the 6lb range. Tried to catch some crappie, but couldn't even find a bite. I think I'm going back out saturday night, so maybe the bass will hit like that again.

Great report Bob. Going up to Cedar Ridge tonight to do some more work on the boat. Gonna try some bass fishing up there. Been catching several lately on texas rigged worms so we'll see what happens.

I agree it can be done. It just takes some work. I heard something about 80% of bass will die right now after being kept in a livewell. Some may even take a few days before they do die. I don't know how true that is, but I will look into it some more and let you guys know what I can come up with.

On the topic of keeping fish alive in tournaments, I fished one about a month ago on Stockton that was a little different. Instead of actually putting the fish in the livewell, they would take the measurements and write them on cards. It is all based on the honor system and they alternate teammates each tournament to keep it somewhat honest. I didn't see any problems with it that time. I don't think it would be such a bad idea for some of these smaller tournaments to consider doing it when the temps are so high. Even with the best aerators, fish will occasionally die. The bad thing about it is you don't get to see the other guys weigh in and show off your catches. But all in all, it saves fish.

You got that right Skeeter. I'm going tonight, and it don't matter what we catch. At least I'm going!

Been seeing a little around Cedar Ridge. I was up there last Thursday bass fishing and saw probably 4 or 5 decent sized schools surfacing.

I bass fish that lake every weekend and still can't seem to find any keepers. I usually catch between 20-40 bass each time out, but have only caught a limit of keepers once in the past year. I don't really feel like "giving" my money away quite yet. But one of these days I will.

Took my brother-in-laws new boat out again Saturday night to work on it some more. Still didn't seem to be running quite right, but we finally got it figured out I think. We put in at Cedar Ridge thinking the water might be a little dirtier and the fish would be biting better, but it was just as clear as the state park. We fished several bluffs and caught about 40 bass all together on plastic worms. Only 2 keepers though. I'm not having any trouble catching fish, just can't seem to find the keepers.

Sounds like a rough night out there last night. Glad to know atleast a few fish are still biting though. How many boats were in the tournament. My brother-in-law just bought a new bass boat and we are looking to try and come up for a couple tournaments once we get it running right.

Great report Bob. Thanks. Fishing a tournament tonight up there, I'll definitely take your advice.

I completely agree with Straw Hat. It does seem like the few "bad apples" that fish bass tournaments tend to give all tournament fishermen a bad reputation. 2 weeks ago I was fishing from a boat with my dad and brother-in-law on a pretty popular point at Roark Bluff. We had been there since early in the morning and had been it the Mutton Creek area a little earlier. There were 2 tournaments getting ready to start there so we decided to get out of the way, being as we were in a smaller boat, and head back and fish that point. There were several of the "tournament" boats that came in intending to fish that point too, but when they saw us, they just turned and went somewhere else. One boat, a couple younger guys in a tournament, who spent more time in the trees than in the water anyway, came right up behind us and tried to cut in between us and the bank. When they realized we were catching several bass, they went around us and cut us off. It's sad to say that people like that give everyone else a bad name, but it happens. I am fishing my very first tournament Friday night out of the old state park, and I can tell you one thing. I'm only 27 but I am smart enough to know what respect is when it comes to fishing. Anybody else that is out there won't have any problems with me being one of the "bad apples".

I'm thinking about trying to fish that tournament next Thursday. What size bag won the thing last night?

I am heading up to Roark Bluff this evening to crappie fish, but after reading these posts, I may try my luck at the walleye too. I have only ever caught one short one, so it's all a learning experience to me. I caught a lot of bass last weekend on the point to the west of Roark Bluff ramp, where the S1 marker is. Would that be a good area to check out for walleye as well? If you all have any tips for me, I'd really appreciate it. I will post my successes and/or failures on here Monday.

I got up there at Roark Bluff about 2:30 am Saturday and did a little bit of night fishing before trying out the topwater bite. We fished the band just northeast of the H hwy bridge and caught several small bass. Once the sun began coming up we started throwing buzzbaits and zarra spooks and had absolutely no luck at all. Went back to worm fishing and started tearing them up again, but all small ones. I found one point where we were sitting about 20 feet from the bank but in 50 ft of water and caught about 20-25 bass myself. We had a few tournament fishermen come up on us ans try to get us to move but it didn't work. We just kept catching them and the guys finally got mad and left. Fished till about 11:00am and between 3 of us probably landed about 50 bass, but only 1 keeper. Great day, but I need to find the bigger ones now.

Thanks. That's kinda what I was thinking. My brother n law who owns the boat is a pansy when it comes to any wind at all. His V-bottom boat doesn't do too well, but I guess we will have to try it anyway.

I put in at Roark Bluff last night around 6:30 and fished until 10:00. There were 3 of us in the boat and we were just bass fishing. We mainly fished the bank across from the swimming beach with plastic worms. The bass were biting really well in that little cove, but nothing with much size. We caught about 20 bass, but all were short. I had a few that were shorter than the worms they were hitting (guess they were hungry). The wind picked back up pretty good and made it tough to fish anywhere. I am heading back up there tomorrow morning (early) to try and find some topwater fish. Anybody have any suggestions as to where we may find some? Jason

I talked to one of the guides on the lake a few weeks ago and he told me that the top water bite probably won't be too good this year. He said that with all the rain we've had, the lake is just full of bait fish and there is really no need for the big bass to come to the surface to feed. I really hope he is wrong because there's not much better than catching bass on spooks and buzzbaits.