Fished Grand

[Quillback]

Made the treck over to Grand, should have stayed home. I caught 2 bass total, 1 and 2 pounds. One on a jig near a dock and one on a c-rigged Zoom Ol Monster. forecast was for a cloudy day, but it was sunny, hot and humid. I knew the black bass would be tough, but the whites were also absent. I overheard a guide talking to another boat and the guide wasn't able to find the whites either, but they had been killing them prior to yesterday.

[darbwa]

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.

[Quillback]

Yep, I'll be back, but I'll probably start fishing for catfish and whites on Grand until we get into some cool fall weather. It would be good to get some reports here on bass at Grand, but I guess we'll have to make our own.

[rps]

Good lake. When I lived in Tulsa, Grand and Tenkiller were my most frequent destinations. Now that I live on Table Rock, I just don't have the gumption to pull the boat out and go over.

[Quillback]

Yeah it's a haul, about 70 miles from the house. So, based on your past experience, any recommendations for what to use in the fall?

[Bird Watcher]

I've caught 4 largemouths over 5 pounds in the last 2 weeks on Grand. 2 were on top water, 2 were on live shad. I caught all of these while I was fishing for other fish. They were either really shallow, less than 2fow, or really deep-20'+. The deep ones were on main lake primary points.-Outside channel swings. I have actually been catching more nice largmeouth than anything as of lately, but I only have incidental largemout catches to report as I don't fish for them anymore.

I have also been catching quite a few whites up the tributaries. spook jrs, white maribous, in line spinners, etc.-the usual suspects. It's a weird bite up the tributaries. They will be on fire one day, off the next, back on, then off. I've heard of guys catching them main lake on the humps from Gov. island to Sailboat, but until school starts I hide out in other parts of the lake. That mid lake bite should just get better this month unless we have some cold fronts slam through, but that doesn't look like it will happen at this point. Finding the whites on mid lake humps when they are not surfacing is a good way to practice using your electronics too. They are usually big enough schools that most any graph will show them and active ones will be bouncing up off the bottom so quickly that they are easily recognizable. I also don't fish for whites, but I seem to catch them about every night I go out.

I haven't fished for crappie since spring, but we always did well this time of year graphing them on the roll-offs and humps around Patricia Island and dropping slab spoons and jigs with minnows on them. Look for isolated stumps and stick ups in about 15-25 with fish stuck to the side of it or just look for them suspended on the roll off.

I have also been catching quite a few nice catfish on live shad. A mostly mixed bag of blues and channels, but a nice average size with the biggest being a 15#. Here are a couple pictures of the smallest one. Look closely at the lure...new top secret catfish pattern? I caught this fish in 2' and saw him come waking after it from about 10 feet away. He attacked it at the speed of molasses.

Maybe this will help you two out, maybe not, but it's all the info I have.

[Quillback]

Thanks for the info BW, I plan on chasing the cats once the weather gets a little more reasonable, I like September and October on Grand for blues. I use fresh shad myself, but I slow troll them on the bottom on the flats.

Pretty neat catching one on a surface lure, can't say I've ever done that!

[darbwa]

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).