Hammer time

Mr Babler just wanted to say thanks for your kind words I have always read all your post and learn tons from them. You keep me positive and always wanting to learn.

Great job guys way to hang in there on those wind pounded banks. As you stated the rewards can be huge. Some of my best days have come when you have to stay on the trolling while landing fish to avoid getting blown on the bank.

Put in 39 bridge 8am fished channel banks in the white up to Panther creek had 31 and 8 keepers all on phantom green wart slow rolling with 8lbs test. Mostly spots, had 2 smallies and 6 blacks biggest was 3.9 black. Water temp 50.3 to 54.7

Nice job I have lots of old magnam warts but have never done any good maybe I should try em again

Thanks for the tips have been hitting north facings banks with rocks for many years but have not tried pausing that long. I'm lucky to wait 5 to 10 seconds. Minutes, tween twitching wow thats gonna be tuff.

Put in at Mutton 10am water temp 37.1. Tried stick bait, grub and jig from twin bridge area to birch and up to greaser on bluffs and swings not a bite. Tried main lake point 5 area on channel banks nothing. Went back to sons creek found some 40.6 water again hit bluffs and channel swings. Tried proven baits on great banks that have worked for me for years. Got skunked sorry no help.

Your braver than most,good job

Put in at Mutton at 3pm wind was blowing hard out of SE. Headed up Sons creek and burned a tandem willow leaf blade on shallow flats. The fish where very shallow, caught a bunch of shorts and two keeper blacks and three whites. Headed up mile long bridge area and covered a ton of water had two keeper brownies and some short blacks and two spots. Hit the rip rap at the dam at dusk with a 5/16th brown jig and had several short brownies and one keeper black. Night fished with single spin on main lake points and flats till 1:30 am and caught 34 with 7 keeper blacks 1 spot and 1 three pound brownie. Over all good trip but still have not caught any hogs, I think they are not shallow yet. Water temp was 67 to 68. Will try again next week during full moon and hope some bigger fish move shallow. Tight lines and good luck to all you guys.

Put in at Mutton 7pm water temp 77.8. Headed up mile long bridge area and caught two shorts on red worm on points 15ft deep. Went to the flats by point 5 to see if any whites were busting but too much wind didn't see any action. They must have been lately tons of boats waiting and trolling. Started night fishing with single spin caught 3 shorts and one drum on wind blown cuts on channel banks, wind was out of NW. Fished deep chanel banks not much luck. Changed to shallow chunk rock points ang game on. Fish were on the bank and biting. Caught 17 blacks 6 keepers 2 short smallies. Went to Greaser area and hit some channel swings and caught 9 on blade and 7 on 12" black neon worm 5 keepers on worm, even had one short spot hit the big worm. Had a great time, first trip since 7-28. Water temp was 73.2 at 2:30 when I left. Hope this helps you night fishing guys It won't be long and the big ones will be shallow and in numbers, can't wait! Tight lines guys.

Put in at Mutton at 8:30 headed north and started on a deep channel bank east side of lake. Started with 12" black neon worm and all I could get was pearch bites. So I picked up my single spin and right at dark bam 17" nice chunk black, then within the first hour 3 more blacks and another keeper. Wind really picked up so I'm thinking game on, WRONG. Went under mile long bridge and hit wind blown channel banks no bites, so went south and hit some deep pockets with a worm and jig no bites. So I thought I'd hit the bank I started on and caught a short smallie on the blade. Hit the points and pockets accross from Mutton and caught 7 more all blacks with 2 more keepers and one drum all on the blade shallow on pea gravel. Fished hard till 5am I was showing 87 degrees and I guees all the good ones are deep or eating shad during the day. Gonna hang er up for awhile and get new carpet installed on my rig she is a 96 nitro 896dc 200 mercEFI white and red so if any you guys ever see me out on the water stop and say hello. Good luck Walcrabass and Kevin and all you other guys during the next month. Tight lines and best of luck to all.

Wow guys does not sound like they are biting. I am going Thursday night and try my luck. I guess I will study my map and try some deep water humps. Went to the Rock on Tuesday night out of 13 caught one keeper before dark, my only bite. After dark tried everything, mostly bluffs and channel swings with 12" back worms, jigs, salt craws no bites. Changed to the blade and fished chunk rock banks near the channel with wind and struggled to catch 4 more 3 smallies one was a keeper and one short spot. It was tuff, stayed on the water till 4am. Walcrabas, sorry to hear about your boat problems, I hope they are finally worked out. I'll post a report Friday. Tight lines and good luck to everyone.

Thanks Kevin for the report, good to see night fishing reports since thats when I fish 90% of the time. I took notice from you and Walcrabass using bigger worms and jigs and have been using 12" worm with 3/8 ounce bullet weights hoping to get the big bait down faster, but still catching mostly shorts. I think the larger fish are really deep or in brush piles like you mentioned. I dont know of any brush piles so mainly fish channel banks and swings. Most of my biggest bass I catch is with a black single spin with a zoom swimming chunk trailer. Are you fishing your own brush piles that you have put in, or the ones marked on the bank with the signs? Thanks again for your reports.

Put in at mutton 8pm, started around twin bridge area. No bites on worm and football jig, noticed lots of boats out. Started night fishing in sons creek around powerline cove 1 short on the blade and on worm. Seen at least 7 boats out night fishing all in sons. Hit two channel banks past greaser and the worm was working using a 12" black neon, but mostly shorts with two keepers. Left sons 12:30 headed to cuts across from mutton. Lost a good fish right away on the blade on a point so I stayed there with the blade another hour no bites. Headed to point 5 area caught several more with 3 more keeps all on 12" worm. Loaded up at 2:50 still boats on the water, most out I've seen all year. Overall, 16 all blacks, 5 keepers. I thought the night should of been better, nice southeast breeze a bright moon. Oh well, get um next time. Tight lines and good luck guys.

You bet, deep and slow rolling on the bottom, making contact with bottom every 4 or 5 cranks. Headed back tonight, will post report. Should be good full moon is tomorrow. I agree with your thinking that big baits catch big fish!

Put in at mutton at 7pm, headed south towards birch and hit some chanel banks with a 8" strawberry translucent worm 5/16 bullet weight. Seemed like every little pocket would hold a fish or two. Had two solid keepers before dark both over 16". Fish were in 25-30ft Headed to piont 5 area to tie on night baits and to see if the whites would surface, I was not alone, but no sufacing, bummer. Went north under mile long bridge and stayed on chanel banks with 3/8 black single spin, slow rolling. Action started right away lots of shorts but strong and lots of jumping, many felt like keepers but I stuck them and they were short. Tried 10" black worm, same deal lots of shorts but more action, and schools on chanel swings 15-25ft deep.Had several back to back casts with 13" ers all over it. I mean they wanted the bait, no tap tap just bam. Moved to the deep side of the big island and caught two keeps on the blade, and then started to realize I was now surrounded by lightning on all sides accept the east. Decided to call it a night and headed back to mutton. I hit the main lake point on south side of mutton and caught two more shorts on the blade, and the rain started. Had her on the trailer 11:30, just in time, started pouring and rained big time all the way home to Republic. Overall caught 25 to 30 bass all large mouth with 4 keepers, I think if the rain would of held off it could of been a great night, thats how it goes. Hope this helps some of you guys. Sure would like to see more night fishing posts, but a realize that are very few guys out. Tight lines everybody.

Walcrabass, I us a 3/8 ounce blade unless huge wind then I go to 5/8. Mostly 10" power worms and 3/8 jig. How was Sat night trip? I'll be going Tue night and will post report. I forgot to mention that on my last trip I seen what I thought was a mountain lion on the bank, turned out to be the biggest bobcat I have ever seen. We checked each other out for what seemed like 20 minutes until the big cat slowly walked away. I was awe struck. Beautiful creature!

Awesome job, how long did it take to land her?

I remember watching a fishing show in the late 80's with a study on bass vision. The guy was a college teacher at OU I think and he invented the color c-lector. He proved that bass have both color and black and white vision. Color vision in the day and black and white at night Using a reward and punishment system he got bass to react to 3 different shades of blue, if they bit the right one a reward if not a shock. Also he explaind that the first our of darkness is when bass are changing to black and white vision from daytime color. Me and my buds have always called it the hour lull when night fishing, not that I have had trips were have caught them at dusk with no lull going into the first hour of darkness but most trips it holds true. At night I use a black single spin with a black blade and a black triler. Black has the most contrast in low light. Or a black worm or black/blue or black/red jig. Usually the blade because of the vibration to help those bass find and hammer it. Day fishing clear water greens, blues and plums and mostly translucent colors work for me. Just some of my thougts guys.

TThanks for the feed back, I have found that I always seem to do better around the full moon and my last trip was right after the full moon

Fish where in 4 to 10 ft on main lake points, tried a 10" worm and jig no luck

What a difference a week makes. Put in at mutton at 7pm and caught two shorts right away and was thinking gonna be another glory night, boy was I wrong. Fished a lot of the same banks as last week when I caught 68. Fished till 2:30am ended up 14 all blacks and one smallie, only 4 keepers with no size, all came on single spin. Also had one drum. Left scatching my head. I just wonder if a lot of fish have moved out to the thermocline, and did not move up to feed, oh well, will try again next week.

You bet, kinda surprised I have been on a strong night bite for a couple of weeks and rarely see any boats.

Went night fishing tuesday night from 8 pm till 6am launched out of mutton and fished main lake points all the way to the dam. Ended up with 68 bass mostly blacks a handfull of smallies and about 10 spots. Over 20 keepers biggest was 4.14 also had a 11.4 blue cat. Fish were in 4ft to 10ft caught most on a single spin and a few on a worm. Had two huge drum and one short walleye. Found surfacing whites at daylight and caught around 15 mixed in with small blacks. Never saw a boat after 11pm had entire lake to myself, what a blast. Released all fish unharmed.

Fished out of Mutton creek and could not get bit on a wart, so hit main lake points near channel swings and did well with c-rig, I know that sounds funny but it worked, baby brush hogs 15 to 20ft deep. lots of fish with only 3 keeps.

Night fishing for sure, all of my largest bass have come at night. I believe that those big ones only feed at night and stay deep all day because of all the boat traffic. 10.2 my biggest James river new moon on a jig bluff end.