My recent fishing

[merc1997 Bo]

have not had a chance to post for a bit. have been working night and day getting orders out. but, i did get out for 3 hours thursday last week when we had the run in coming in. 12 17 to 18 inch keepers in 3 hours of fishing is a great trip. caught all of them in the run in on 3/8 NuJig brown and blue with a small green pumpkin trailer. these bass were in about 3 to 4 feet of water.

got out last night in the big m area for some night fishing. had the boat back on the trailer at 1 a.m. and we ended up with 10 keepers with at least 4 in the 3 lb. range. vertical bluff walls produced the best. why?? because the lake is dropping. tried the flat stuff with no success. caught them on two lures - a 1/4 NuJig with orange hair with an 800 spring lizard pup trailer. by the way, this combo works great in the day time in the colored water. the other was a 3/8 SpinJig with white skirt, #6 nickle colorado blade, and small green and white trailer. fished both lures pretty parallel. with the jig, a coast type retrieve, and was slow rolling the SpinJig. most bites were in the 8 ft. range, but i did catch one of the spinner bass just as soon as i started the retrieve.

until they quit dropping water, i would be looking for bass where the channel is closest to the bank. if the lake stabilizes or starts back up, then many of them will start back out onto the flatter areas again. if bass do remain around a flatter area with falling water, i have found they will be out a bit and suspended. with falling water bass tend to suspend more and keep water under them and above them to not get trapped.

bass this time of the year are like a pack of dogs, here one day and someplace else the next. they yo-yo with water temps and the weather. so, each day is one of figuring out where they went.

bo

[dtrs5kprs]

Good deal Bo. Glad to hear you are busy with orders.

Good points on the dropping water, with apologies to Champ. Wonder how many folks have seen a spring lizard chunk, either size?

[Champ188]

Dang, Bo, you sure have a knack for putting the boat in the water and going straight to the right spot(s). I haven't caught a dozen 17-18 inch keepers in the last five trips combined and you do it in three hours.

Way to whack 'em!

[merc1997 Bo]

Dang, Bo, you sure have a knack for putting the boat in the water and going straight to the right spot(s). I haven't caught a dozen 17-18 inch keepers in the last five trips combined and you do it in three hours.

Way to whack 'em!

champ, it was basically knowing that the perfect storm had arrived. i just wished that i would have been able to have fished all day that day, but was certainly glad to get to fish for the three hours. there are days that you have been whacking them on a jerk bait that i sure wish i could have been there.

one other thing that goes to show that we just do not have any number of BIG bass in the lake is the fact there was not one 5 lb. plus show up in those dozen bass. normally with that set of circumstances, i would have expected a good portion of those bass to be over 4 lbs. it was the perfect situation to catch the biggest bass in the lake, and i feel that i did exactly that. they were pretty much as big as what there is to be had. hopefully in couple of years, we will begin to see more numbers of the big one again.

bo

[merc1997 Bo]

Good deal Bo. Glad to hear you are busy with orders.

Good points on the dropping water, with apologies to Champ. Wonder how many folks have seen a spring lizard chunk, either size?

uncle josh at one point quit making the spring lizard, but you could special order them a case at a time. i use the 800 series most often, but does come in a bigger 900 series. that slender trailer is more effective this time of the year. the bass just seem to go for the more slender profile.

one thing that i did not mention is the fact that even though water temps were around 57 last night, every bass felt like an ice cube. that should be telling us something.

bo

[dtrs5kprs]

uncle josh at one point quit making the spring lizard, but you could special order them a case at a time. i use the 800 series most often, but does come in a bigger 900 series. that slender trailer is more effective this time of the year. the bass just seem to go for the more slender profile.

one thing that i did not mention is the fact that even though water temps were around 57 last night, every bass felt like an ice cube. that should be telling us something.

bo

Think we get worked up about those surface temps before the fish do.

Used to fish a lot of the old U2 split tail (the small one) on hair jigs and little 1/4oz jigs. You might very well be on to something about the profile. Hard to find trailers anymore that aren't craw/critter shaped.

[willyfish]

champ, it was basically knowing that the perfect storm had arrived. i just wished that i would have been able to have fished all day that day, but was certainly glad to get to fish for the three hours. there are days that you have been whacking them on a jerk bait that i sure wish i could have been there.

one other thing that goes to show that we just do not have any number of BIG bass in the lake is the fact there was not one 5 lb. plus show up in those dozen bass. normally with that set of circumstances, i would have expected a good portion of those bass to be over 4 lbs. it was the perfect situation to catch the biggest bass in the lake, and i feel that i did exactly that. they were pretty much as big as what there is to be had. hopefully in couple of years, we will begin to see more numbers of the big one again.

bo

Where did the big fish go? I remember Mike Webb had a 10lb a year or two ago, plus I recall some stringers pushing 28lbs in some tournaments, a-rigs I'm sure. If people are keeping all these a-rig fish then that's a problem.

[Champ188]

Willy, I really believe there are more out there than we know. Of course, the big-fish population is probably still not at carrying capacity because of the virus that hit around 2000.

Bo and others have made some good points about the natural deterioration of cover as the lake ages. We also know there are certain bass who are born deep and live offshore for all of their lives, which creates an accessibility factor. That factor is compounded when you have oodles of shad in the lake, creating an offshore buffet that leaves those big uns with very little reason to ever come shallow.

I really believe that the only time that most of the truly big fish come shallow enough to be reasonably accessible to anglers is 1) when they push a school of shad up on a point or flat, 2) when they get hungry for a crawfish or 3) when they come in for a couple of days to drop their eggs and leave.

That's just my layman's opinion.