darbwa

We caught a few largemouth near docks but we caught more around structure in very shallow water (1-5 feet).

The fishing on Grand just keeps getting better. The weekend before last was good. Not great, but we caught plenty of fish - mostly largemouth and a few whites. This weekend was windy and you could tell fall is just around the corner. We were catching whites and LM all morning long. I would like to think that would continue if I had the good fortune to fish all day. We were catching everything in shallow water. We would catch whites on points and then LM as we would head into coves.

He was pumped. I was giving him a hard time because I picked the place to fish, he was using MY newest rod and reel set-up with a new jig and pig that I just put on. So, I was accusing him of steeling my fish. Plus, I was able to rub it in that the fish I caught a couple weekends ago was just slightly larger. It was a fun morning.

Thank you to Bird Watcher for tips that paid off. We caught several LM both shallow and deep both Saturday and Sunday. More shallow but bigger deep. My dad pulled in a 6 pounder in a spot that we have not fished before this weekend. We caught a few whites too but never really got in to them like I would like. The water is as clear as Grand gets right now. It is beautiful and refreshing when you get over-heated.

Quillback and Birdwatcher, You guys aer both middle to upper lake dwellers right? I am a mid to south lake guy. I often wonder how much fishing conditions differ between north and south lake (and when I should head north to increase my bite). I would think that there can be a fairly significant difference because there are times when I take a drive up-lake and the water color and clarity will be much different in the north than down south. The water tends to be clearer down south from my experience. Any thoughts?

Thanks Bird Watcher. This is good info that I can use. This stuff is why I am on this forum - I want to learn more about how to find fish on the waters that I frequent, grand being the first. I hope that we get more activity on the Grand portion of the forum going forward. Thanks again BW. I will keep at it and let you know how it works out.

Did my typical weekend routine: stay up too late having cocktails with family and friends, get up too early to get some fishing in, float in the water with a beer in my hand and repeat. I pretty much fish only in the mornings because that is when my wife and kids can't keep me from going. Anyway... Saturday morning I jumped around a bunch, I fished deep off of points and I fished shallow around structure. I caught several fish, all shallow in and around structure. Sunday morning I did the same thing and I was shut out. With the lake being low this time of year there isn't much shallow structure to be found and there is little to no shoreline vegetation so fishing deeper on points seems like the logical place to find the largemouth. But I have had very little success fishing points. I know that others have success on the points but I guess I am not fishing them in the right way. If anyone has any tips for fishing deeper points on Grand, I would love to hear them.

I like the clip-on type that swivel but I lose the weights too easy.

Crankbait.

I got to spend several mornings in a row fishing Grand. I have been fishing every Saturday and Sunday morning all summer so it was nice to have the lake, seemingly, to myself (and a friend from KC) for a couple of mornings. It was my most successful days of fishing this year. I did not catch too many big ones with the exception of this hog in the photo. This one was 23" long with a 14" girth. Great stuff!! I didn't spend but a few minutes looking for the whites this week. I can't seem to find them on my end of the lake anyway.

Thanks for the report Bird Watcher. I will be up there fishing for the next 4 days. I'm after the largemouth but I will be happy to settle for whites. I will report back next week. What were you fishing for in 2' of water with a top-water if not largemouth? Just curious. The largemouth love to come up into the shallows after each bluegill spawn to feed (which I have read occurs each full moon in the summer).

I'm sorry that you didn't do very well but thanks for posting anyway. I sure would love to see more discussion of Grand Lake fishing but it is hard to find on any site. I fished Grand on saturday and Sunday mornings and did not do very well either. You will just have to come back and try again.

The first thing I though when i read the post was, 'that looks a lot bigger than 3.25 lbs!' I guess all of the 3 pounders I have been catching are 1 to 2. Nice Fish!

Last year my buddy and I caught 46 smallies on a Thursday/Friday float on that same stretch the week before labor day but we didn't do as well when we floated through a few weeks ago. We caught 21 but they were all little guys - only 1 over 12". I will let others comment on lure selection because it looks like you have my recommendations covered.

I used Silver Hill Canoes a few weeks ago and I think it was $40 per day for the canoe rental (maybe $45?) and they brought one kayak that we owned up river for us for a fee of $20. I would meet in Harrison and head down hwy65. The Margaret White to Tyler Bend or Ginder's Ferry is a great float that I have done on a Thursday/Friday overnight. I have only used one outfitter (Silver Hill) but I have no problem giving them a recommendation. They are just south of the river on highway 65, west side of the road. Have a great time!

Went out Saturday morning for a couple hours. Fished a couple points with worms. Caught a couple on the smallish side. Saw whites surfacing a couple times bit we couldn't sneek up on them. I haven't had much luck the last couple weekends.

Great trip. Silver Hill Canoes really took care of us once again! The fishing was not nearly as productive as my trip last year but I am not surprised considering we had 3 canoes and a kayak in our group whereas last year there were just 2 of us in one canoe. We couldn't exactly sneak up on them. Additionally, it was a paddle-fest going from Margaret White all the way to Maumee (I estimate that to be about 30 miles?). I was happy to see a great deal of the river but the headwind that persisted for all 3 days (especially day 2, Thursday) required us to put in a tremendous amount of work through those long pools. Only had to get out of the canoe a couple of times (once due to low water and once due to a pretty good strainer). I sure love that river!

I just did a 3-day, 2-night float from Margaret White to Maumee with 7 guys (3 canoes and 1 kayak). The water was low but we did more scraping than dragging - meaning we would touch bottom but rarely had to get out of the canoe to drag and we were loaded down with gear. The water has continued to drop though. Those spots might require dragging now. I would highly recommend Silver Hill Canoes. Call them and trust their judgement on what section to float. Ron knows the river and is very helpful. They even came down to Grinder's Ferry to bring us additional provisions on day 2 of our trip (mostly ice, beer and more ice). As far as camping spots go - the point across from Red Bluff is a beautiful spot not too far down from Gilbert. If you are farther up river, there is a beautiful spot upstream from Baker Ford. I don't know the name of the bluff off the top of my head but you can tell where it is on the map because it is the hair-pin turn in the river just up from Baker Ford.

Just looking for some last minute info. Has anyone been on the river lately? I am hoping a little rain might let us start farther up than Woolum. If you have any opinion on where to start or even more importantly, what to fish with, I would love to hear it. Thanks!

I plan on using Silver Hill Canoes for my trip next week. They recommend that we put in at Margaret White again this year (starting a 3-day next wednesday 6/30) due to water levels. I was hoping to get farther up river but if the water is too low, oh well. I just thought if there were any opposing opinions. Also, I am thinking that if we put in at Margaret White, we could make it to Maumee on a 3-day trip. Any thoughts on our entry/exit points for next week would be appreciated.

We used Silver Hill last year and were very happy with them. I would love to get on the river ealier in the season so we could go farther up river. I would certainly love to use Buffalo River Canoes. All the info Bobber gives to this forum is great incentive to use BRC.

There is a lot of good info in that piece. Thanks for passing it along. Unfortunately, it doesn't really help me out. I am trying to find out what portion of the river is navigable by looking at USGS stations that are quite far apart. Al addresses this problem in the last part of the article that you copied, but the I guess the knowledge I am looking for comes from experience that I don't have on the Buffalo. I am trying to tap into the wisdom of others on this forum and their experience on the Buffalo. I guess I could ask my question more simply - what river level would you look for at the Pruitt station to put in at Carver? At Mt. Hersey?

I am planning a 3-day trip for the end of this month (6/30 - 7/2) and I am trying to decide where we should start our trip. I would like to start as far up river as I can without having to drag the canoe repeatedly. So, I am trying to get a better understanding for where on the river that point is depending on the info I get from the USGS stations. How far upstream could you safely start under current conditions (3.93 at Pruitt and 4.47 at St. Joe)? Last year we put in at Margaret White (downriver from Woolum) and took out at Grinders. The first mile had a few spots where we bottomed out but we were fine after that. The gage height at the USGS station near St. Joe was reading 3.65 then.

I guess I will have to report for myself. I went out Saturday and Sunday moring and caught some fish. Saturday the wind was blowing steadily out of the south and we did well on wind-protected points on the north end of the lake fishing texas-rigged senkos and classic texas-rigged worms. On one point my dad and I caught 8 or 9 nice largemouth in a 30 minute period. A couple of them were around 4 lbs. Sunday we tried the same thing, fishing points with worms. The wind was a little stronger but this time out of the north so we fished protected points so we could feel the worms. We were on the southern end of the lake and we didn't have much luck so we decided to hit some windy points with crainkbaits where we got into some whitebass. The school we were fishing seemed to be on the move and we couldn't catch them all in the same place but we moved around and caught them sporatically.

I have had the most luck (in my limited experience) on the back end of faster moving water, particularly where faster water dumps into deeper pools. I like crawdad crankbaits quite a bit. I can't give very good advice for fishing in high, muddy water but I could use some. If you are going soon, you will likely have those conditions.