Alex Heitman

Champ I will agree to disagree with you here haha. The reason being even though bass might be feeding on the bottom, their eyeballs are on top of there head and they see everything above them. Of course some will still see your bait if it is already on the bottom, but I think sink rate plays a big part in getting more bites. They may be on the bottom and watch it fall all the way to the bottom before they decide to bite. Same goes for suspenders. They may be suspended and follow it all the way to the bottom. Sometimes a fast sink is better and sometimes a slow sink is better. It does boil down to personal opinion and I would always throw what I have confidence in.

I love deep cranking. You have to be in the right location at te right time. You may not load the boat with a bunch of fish but you will catch some good ones doing it. I would recommend a 5xd or 6xd in shad colors. Throw it on 10lb Flurocarbon to achieve it's maximum depth. Over this past weekend on the rock I caught some big smallmout and a few nice largemouth. The smallmouth were on the bottom with some big boulders and the largemouth were in open water suspended but actively feeding. Post spawn all thru summer and early fall is when I throw mine with the summer months being the best for me.

If the government seen how much of my student loans I spent at tackle warehouse the last few years, I'm pretty sure they would cut me off haha

Line doesn't matter. We throw huge contraptions of a rigs and fish and still catch the big ones on the lake. I think line matters for what bait and style of presentation you are using plus cover there or not. It may only matter if you are using slow presentations such as drop shot or pesky bottom fish.

I have had more problems with trot lines this year than ever before. Almost everyone of them have been unmarked or they were old and left for some period of time. Lost some very expensive baits this way and has really ticked me off sometimes. I'm not saying everyone leaves them unmarked or unattended, but it is a real pain when you snag into one or are fighting a fish that gets tangled in them. I have to watch one honey hole particularly because someone hangs them in there regularly unmarked in different areas of a 100 yd stretch. I would like to cut them since they are never marked but never have. Maybe I will leave a note next time hahaha.

For some reason this year I don't think the fish really made it into there deep summer haunts. I've caught them close to where I was catching them during the spawn. Just out a little deeper. It's been a different year for sure.

Ness I knew you would be lurking somewhere haha

Its because the fishing has been tough. I'm sure a lot of us are frustrated. If you take into account the lack of courtesy between recreational boaters and fishermen, I guarantee you the recreational boaters are worse big time. It is not that hard to slow down and be aware of where your boat and where someone else's boat is. Countless times I have seen where a big boat has the whole lake where they could navigate safely but choose to get as close to you as possible. There is a reason for this thread and boaters need to be more aware of what's going on out there.

On the generation site it says bottom power pool of 881. Not sure if this is correct but that is what it says.

This is promising news for me. Good job and good report. I can't wait to get down this weekend and get way up in the river arms. It's been almost two months since I've been down there. I've been busy with college. I hate vertical fishing but will resort to it if I can't get them shallow. I plan on going up long creek and throwing a squarebill. I will have a report after I have fished. I will be in a maroon and white z-9 nitro. If anybody is up that way come over and say hi.

I was down at the lake in the dam area over the holiday weekend and only fished off the dock in the morning and after sunset in the evening. We didn't even bring the bass boat down because we didn't want to deal with the trafficI'm the morning. I caught several on a shaky head rigged with a senko that was red shad in the mornings and also some on pbj. They would just tick the bait and swim off. Caught a nice 5+ lb black doing this. Then at night I threw a big black spinnerbait and would let it sink on to the bottom in 20+ ft of water and slowly retrieve it while bouncing bottom. Had some pretty violent strikes doing this and most of them came within 10 ft of the dock. I don't know if I just happened to be in a great feeding area or what but most of the fish were taking both baits in less than 10 ft of water. I managed around 10 keepers in 2 days of fishing just an hour or so in the morning and evening. I can't wait to get back down and run way up one of the river arms to get away from traffic and target some resident fish. I love doing that this time of year and you can catch some bigger fish as well. I can drop shot and deep fish but that is just to boring for me.

I love putting big senkos on swing jigs. When the water gets up in the bushes, that's my go to bait.

I was hoping for the 920 personally. I hate fishing deep for them and at 920 there would be plenty of fish to be caught shallow. I can only hope haha

I have noticed both big gizzards and packs of bass following hooked fish. We have even thrown a lure down to the followers while the other bass was hooked and caught them that way. It's a weird year but I'm not complaining one bit.

I bet a lot of people wondered why the forum was so quiet over the last 3-4 weeks. Lots of tight lips because it was so good out there.

Pressure has been hard lately on the lake. That's why I just fish nothing looking banks that have t been fished and have done well

I have used this trick for years. It works really well.

This is why I have a huddleston trout 8 inch swimbait and have even caught many bass on it

This has been the best spring numbers wise for is. The fishing had been amazing. Just shows how great of a fishery it is and how many fish are in the lake

Bo good post. I have seen tons of fry and lots of busting in the early morning. It seems like they want different topwaters from day to day. It is hard to get the topwater bite to materialize for some reason. Personally I think a majority of them have spawned or a big wave is about to move in. I caught some big LM 2-3 weeks ago that were spawning out in 15 ft of water on the backs of coves with ledges.

They might have been dropping eggs but I did not see a lot on beds. The water was not as clear though so it was harder to see them of they were deeper. I found loads of LM and thought I might be on something but they were all spawned out.

Enjoyed the tournament but man could never get the big one. All in the 2 1/2 lb range. We probably caught over 130 fish total for both days.

Where can you find the King Kong bait? I've looked all over and can't find one.

Excellent champ. Glad you guys had a blast and caught them

I nanofil with a fluro leader if the wind allows it. Otherwise I will just stick with invisix if it is windy.