Omtt 3/2/13

[Champ188]

This is a heckuva thread ... a guy would be wise to remember this one and go back to it year after year.

[Bill Babler]

We are on a totally different pattern from the Winter Pattern. The fish have moved from their Winter pattern and are starting to get into a staging pattern, that can take them into early May in degrees.

Late February thru early April the big females start to suspend and move into and along the channel banks, bluffends and major creek and spawning cove mouths. It's hard to say where on those channel banks they will be. I usually start where the channel swings into a cove mouth or the channel starts or leaves a spawing bank or cove mouth. I think alot of folks make the mistake when you hear the fish are say 12 to 15 feet deep. This for sure does not mean they are on the bottom up toward the bank at that depth. Most of the time this time of the year, that means they are suspended either over the channel or right at the channel bank rolloff suspended at that depth. I wrote an article 10 years ago on Bass Hwys. The Lake Biologist sent me a letter thanking me and telling me it was right on. I just kind of got lucky a little by experence and alot from listening to people that have fished like this since the 1960's.

Kind of a long winded answer to say I don't know where they are on the Channel Swings. One good indication however is usually at a transition. If you have gotten on a channel bank and there is a transition from bluff to gravel or a bend or turn especially if there is pole timber on it, these Big Gal's just love that. If you know places that have deep trees next to these locations, where the trees are coming up to within 20 feet of the surface these are also locations.

These big LM are not so much ambush feeders, but they seem to like the deep pole timber and the pole timber adjacent to the channel swings and transitions. Now don't take this to mean if your going into a cove and see pole timber everywhere and there is a channel bank present that it has Big LM. That is not the same thing at all. That is just a Timbered pocket. Been a ton of fish caught in these locations, but that is not of what I speak.

I did get a report today of one of the locals last couple of weeks catching them on the last channel swing bank back in the creek arms. He is really reliable and i'm sure he is.

Hopes this helps a little good luck

[dtrs5kprs]

We are on a totally different pattern from the Winter Pattern. The fish have moved from their Winter pattern and are starting to get into a staging pattern, that can take them into early May in degrees.

Late February thru early April the big females start to suspend and move into and along the channel banks, bluffends and major creek and spawning cove mouths. It's hard to say where on those channel banks they will be. I usually start where the channel swings into a cove mouth or the channel starts or leaves a spawing bank or cove mouth. I think alot of folks make the mistake when you hear the fish are say 12 to 15 feet deep. This for sure does not mean they are on the bottom up toward the bank at that depth. Most of the time this time of the year, that means they are suspended either over the channel or right at the channel bank rolloff suspended at that depth. I wrote an article 10 years ago on Bass Hwys. The Lake Biologist sent me a letter thanking me and telling me it was right on. I just kind of got lucky a little by experence and alot from listening to people that have fished like this since the 1960's.

Kind of a long winded answer to say I don't know where they are on the Channel Swings. One good indication however is usually at a transition. If you have gotten on a channel bank and there is a transition from bluff to gravel or a bend or turn especially if there is pole timber on it, these Big Gal's just love that. If you know places that have deep trees next to these locations, where the trees are coming up to within 20 feet of the surface these are also locations.

These big LM are not so much ambush feeders, but they seem to like the deep pole timber and the pole timber adjacent to the channel swings and transitions. Now don't take this to mean if your going into a cove and see pole timber everywhere and there is a channel bank present that it has Big LM. That is not the same thing at all. That is just a Timbered pocket. Been a ton of fish caught in these locations, but that is not of what I speak.

I did get a report today of one of the locals last couple of weeks catching them on the last channel swing bank back in the creek arms. He is really reliable and i'm sure he is.

Hopes this helps a little good luck

Have caught some better blacks on these places pretty much in any month of the year, including summer, but they seem sort of "random". That is not a good word to use, because as Bill describes there are places that sort of up the odds, and "random" implies something that is not quite correct. Just seems like at times one will come up out of an old tree and eat, and it is very hard to predict when or why.

Maybe it is a little like muskie hunting, where you try to fish the right kinds of places, with the right presentations, but without the constant reward you get fishing other ways. It can get pretty tedious, and I pass on the chance in favor of getting bites most trips.

All but a couple of my better TR largemouth were caught on these kinds of swings, including a couple of 6# and 7# fish back during the dark years shortly after the kill. Some of them were on obvious vertical swing banks, others on swings that were a little harder to identify as such. Really think these are just the places where the bigger blacks live most of the year, except the spawn, and would not be surprised if some of them spawn on ledge rock or big tops on the swings. For a fish, that is a pretty successful way to live, reproduce, and get big, with a minimum amount of effort spent on travel. Compare that to the way the K's, and even brown fish, will travel all over the lake.

Talking with folks who have fished the lake for much longer than I have, it sounds like they were catching these fish 40+ years ago with white hair jig/split tail pork combos and Little Georges at the same times and same places. Back in the green box days.

[abkeenan]

We are on a totally different pattern from the Winter Pattern. The fish have moved from their Winter pattern and are starting to get into a staging pattern, that can take them into early May in degrees.

Late February thru early April the big females start to suspend and move into and along the channel banks, bluffends and major creek and spawning cove mouths. It's hard to say where on those channel banks they will be. I usually start where the channel swings into a cove mouth or the channel starts or leaves a spawing bank or cove mouth. I think alot of folks make the mistake when you hear the fish are say 12 to 15 feet deep. This for sure does not mean they are on the bottom up toward the bank at that depth. Most of the time this time of the year, that means they are suspended either over the channel or right at the channel bank rolloff suspended at that depth. I wrote an article 10 years ago on Bass Hwys. The Lake Biologist sent me a letter thanking me and telling me it was right on. I just kind of got lucky a little by experence and alot from listening to people that have fished like this since the 1960's.

Kind of a long winded answer to say I don't know where they are on the Channel Swings. One good indication however is usually at a transition. If you have gotten on a channel bank and there is a transition from bluff to gravel or a bend or turn especially if there is pole timber on it, these Big Gal's just love that. If you know places that have deep trees next to these locations, where the trees are coming up to within 20 feet of the surface these are also locations.

These big LM are not so much ambush feeders, but they seem to like the deep pole timber and the pole timber adjacent to the channel swings and transitions. Now don't take this to mean if your going into a cove and see pole timber everywhere and there is a channel bank present that it has Big LM. That is not the same thing at all. That is just a Timbered pocket. Been a ton of fish caught in these locations, but that is not of what I speak.

I did get a report today of one of the locals last couple of weeks catching them on the last channel swing bank back in the creek arms. He is really reliable and i'm sure he is.

Hopes this helps a little good luck

Have caught some better blacks on these places pretty much in any month of the year, including summer, but they seem sort of "random". That is not a good word to use, because as Bill describes there are places that sort of up the odds, and "random" implies something that is not quite correct. Just seems like at times one will come up out of an old tree and eat, and it is very hard to predict when or why.

Maybe it is a little like muskie hunting, where you try to fish the right kinds of places, with the right presentations, but without the constant reward you get fishing other ways. It can get pretty tedious, and I pass on the chance in favor of getting bites most trips.

All but a couple of my better TR largemouth were caught on these kinds of swings, including a couple of 6# and 7# fish back during the dark years shortly after the kill. Some of them were on obvious vertical swing banks, others on swings that were a little harder to identify as such. Really think these are just the places where the bigger blacks live most of the year, except the spawn, and would not be surprised if some of them spawn on ledge rock or big tops on the swings. For a fish, that is a pretty successful way to live, reproduce, and get big, with a minimum amount of effort spent on travel. Compare that to the way the K's, and even brown fish, will travel all over the lake.

Talking with folks who have fished the lake for much longer than I have, it sounds like they were catching these fish 40+ years ago with white hair jig/split tail pork combos and Little Georges at the same times and same places. Back in the green box days.

WOW and WOW. This right here is why this is the best forum on the web. That is just top notch info you won't get anywhere else from guys speaking from experience. Truly awesome and stored into the memory bank. Bill and Dave, you guys (Table) ROCK!.

[Tfsh4bass]

I have had my best trips the last few weeks fishing creek pockets that have timber that runs about half way back then turns to pea gravel....pocket has to have good depth. I basically fish the last 50 feet of timber and the first 50 feet without it looking for stagers/feeders and move on. I tend to fish shallower than I should but these fish usually don't make me pause the jerkbait as long and you know if they are there. I haven't caught anything over 4 this way but have had a few 15-18lb bags....that should change this weekend with the warmer temps.