Fished around Aunt's Creek 5-5 / 5-6

[dookie65]

We had a small 25 man buddy tournament on 5-6 I had a rough time but my partner finished 3rd and took big bass with a 5.54 pound LM..

Water in The James and Aunt's Creek looks like the Mississippi. As of yesterday, the water started to clear a bit around Kimberling with 1-2 foot viability The water from K.C to the dam continued to clear and looked pretty good I was told.A lot of guys ran from  A.C all the way to the dam with no problems, From A.C. on up the James still had quite a bit of debris still though. Water was near 62 degrees but found some 65 degree water up the creek but no fish.

25 guys weighed in close to 60 bass.Biggest bass was 5.54# caught on a spinner bait. Ned rig and  hula grub and grubs worked in the clearer water.No shocker there.

The spinner bait bite was a tough grind but paid off with the better keepers in the muddy water..Painted blades fished SLOW!! Some guys caught some with a War Eagle mouse color. All of our better fish were caught shallow less than 5 to 6 feet from the bank. Shade was also key, Not a lot of quantity but definite quality. 

A lot of the bass were still pre-spawn much to our surprise. Here are a few pics of what the water looks like in the James and Aunts Creek area. If you can get out there, do it!!  

[dookie65]

1 hour ago, dookie65 said:

Spinner bait fish

 

 

[Bill Babler]

Thanks, that's a very nice report and extremely accurate.

[Ketchup]

Good job guys. Back in Aunts was some nasty stuff floating just past the ramps. Good to see you guys caught them. 

[willyfish]

Great report just the kind of info I needed. I'll be staying in Aunt's next week, hopefully the floaters and debris clear out.

[Browning Guy]

"pre-spawn".  So true.  A month ago the dock talk was the spawn was "70% complete".  I fished seven days straight two weeks ago, each weekend since and a few days in between and yet to catch fish with bloody tails and we caught a lot.  This past weekend we caught some good fish that had huge bellies and didn't appear to have spawn.  Caught a few that were skinny as heck. 

Hopefully the fish that haven't spawned (30%???), can get in and take care of business before they drop the lake out from under their nests.  If nothing else, the last 4 - 100 year floods we've had has provided plenty of cover for the fry of all species. Another benefit of the high water is that the a lot of  tournaments were cut off during a portion of the spawn and the sight fishing was slowed. Now sight fishing is nearly non-existent????

[Quillback]

Spawn seems to stretch out for quite a bit for the largemouth.  Back in mid April I caught some spawned out smallies and spots, and a few largemouth that had looked like they were spawned out.  My speculation, at least for the upper White arm, is that the smalls and spots are probably done spawning for the most part. 

[dookie65]

6 hours ago, Bill Babler said:

Thanks, that's a very nice report and extremely accurate.

Thanks Bill!! Appreciate that!!  :-)

[dookie65]

5 hours ago, willyfish said:

Great report just the kind of info I needed. I'll be staying in Aunt's next week, hopefully the floaters and debris clear out.

Thanks willyfish!!  I ran all the way to the back of Aunts Creek  and Little Aunts with no problem. I didn't see any floating debris.

It is very murky though!!  You will have no problems by next week and hopefully it will clear up a bit. From Aunts Creek on up the James is where I saw the most debris but I only ran up about a mile.Everything up there is chocolate milk also. As I said, we had guys run from Aunts down to the dam and saw no debris. The water clears up as you go.

Hope you can get after them!!

[dookie65]

5 hours ago, Ketchup said:

Good job guys. Back in Aunts was some nasty stuff floating just past the ramps. Good to see you guys caught them. 

Thanks Ketchup!! We had pretty good wind  both days which seemed to pushed a lot of debris to the banks.We didn't experience any issues though I'm sure it was a lot worse before we got down on Thursday!!