ToledoMard928

In reference to muddy/stained water. I have caught as many "big" fish in muddy water as I have in clear water. It changes the way you approach things for sure, but the fish are still there. I believe Cat said this in an earlier post and it is one of the most true statements made on this forum; "Muddy water affects the fisherman more than the fish".

http://www.setxhighschoolfishing.com/pdf/tResults/2017-2018/February 25th Results.pdf Top 6 teams over 20#. Took over 19# to get into the top 10. Pretty awesome sight to see High School aged kids battling the weather like they did Sunday. My son and his partner finished 39th with 13.73, caught alot of fish just never got the big bite. Weather was horrible but fishing was great!

Nope dead on. John Murray had 24.15 on the last day, that is pretty close to 25 by my math. The overall average was down, but according to a comparison on Bass live not by as much as I thought. Fact remains, day in and day out it will take a mid twenty pound bag to win a tournament on the bend.

I started to not post this but what the heck. I had my camper at Fin and Feather for the month of March and was at the lake 3 of the 4 weeks of March. I believe I know where Mr. Root may have seen the grave yard he is speeking about. The fish cleaning station at Fin and Feather is by the boat ramp warf. Every morining when we would leave out there were fileted fish carcases on the warf, I assume the wave action hitting against the bulk head would wash them on the warf. The dump location and the warf are just a few feet apart. It looked bad, but seeing the amount of anglers at Fin and Feather during the spawn I would not say it is the norm, and I did not see any fileted 10 pounders. Maybe a coulple of 5's, harde to tell when it is fileted. The cleaning shack was busy, but it is March, it is always busy. The lake is fishing different for sure; level, warm winter, spraying, who knows what the actual reason is. Overall we still have had a good spring in our boat and it still takes 25+ to win a tournament.

That is what I call a school of fish!

Back a few years ago I fell in love with punching deep hydrilla. 1 oz jig or 1 oz tungsten punch rig was what I fished most of the time. Over the past two years that has obviously went away. I have caught a few punching Hay grass but that has been very hit or miss for me. The only pattern that has any consistancy is deep cover; wood, brush piles,etc.. I have burned more fuel this season idling around than running the Lake. The positive that has come from this is I have alot more confidence in my ability to read my electronics. Like Catt said "been hit or miss with no in between", that sums it up pretty well.

Finally made it back to the lake on the 7th and 8th of June for a little fishing between baseball tournaments. I have been seeing all of the reports of good fish being caught from 2 to 25 feet so I was hopeful we could get on a few fish before heading to Omaha, Nebraska for my son's world series. We hit the banks and outside edge of grass without much luck. After several hours we decided to head to deeper water and see what happens. The first spot we hit a school and my son put 11 in the boat on a dropshot before I caught a fish. Once this school slowed down we relocated to a deep point next to a creek bend. Once we found the direction the fish wanted to see the bait it was on, we caught 60+ fish over the next few hours. We were in 21 to 25 foot of water throwing Carolina rigs. When the bite would slow down we would switch to crank baits or football jigs to get the school moving again. My absolute best day fishing deep!! We conservativly boated 100+ fish in the two days of fishing with 5 being over 5 pounds. The picture is of a 6.28 my son caught. All fish lived to be caught another day.

Fished from Mill to Housen yesterday swinging for the fences. Flipped hay grass and buck brush until I could not flip anymore. Had 5 with the biggest being 3 pounds. Saw two on beds, one in Housen and one in Buck creek, neither would pay our baits any attention (water still stained). We did see a several balls of fry in Housen with bucks on guard! I did not venture deep this trip, I was trying to get my son on some bed fish before his time is taken up with baseball. Beautiful day on the water even if the fishing was a bit tough!

Last Saturday and Sunday my son and I were in the Housen/White Oak area. We did see a few on beds, but it was in those few places that had warmer than normal water. We caught fish from 15 fow in to the bank. Most of our bites came on the outside edge of the grass. I think what we were seeing was the first big push to the bank. We had a week of warm weather and we were fishing the day before the full moon. This week with cooler weather may slow them down a bit, but I think things are about to blow up in regards to the spawn.

My son talked about the show she put on, beautiful fish for sure. It has him fired up for sure, we looked for beds the rest of the day.

Fished yesterday and today with my son, unusual break from baseball. Boated 50+ fish with the biggest weighing 5.5#. Caught a few deep, but majority from 6 fow to bank. Witnessed a 10.6 caught off of a bed.

The last few reports I have gotten have all been on T-rig lizards or crature baits flipped in the bushes. There has alos been a consitant bite on wacky rigged soft plastics and fluke/senko type baits. These patterns are mainstays this time of year. In addition to the above stated baits I would have a top water plug (rouge type or chug bug) and a square bill tied on as well.

Fished Pirates and Housen Saturday with the same results Shaneus....Threw spinnerbaits early and went to Trigs and jigs around 8 am on outside edge and punching matt with little success. I graphed some of my traditional spots (main lake near creek or river) and found very little bass or bait activity. I did graph a large school of bait in around 35 fow in a creek channel with what looked like whites around it, could not get them to bite either. Finally after wearing my 12 year old out punching grass we transitioned to flukes, senkos and waky over and on the edge of the grass line. Caught two short fish...saw some bait but little feeding activity.....Just wasn't my day. Friend of mine was able to catch 3 keepers on spinnerbait and 2 on Jig...biggest around 4#....Crazy thing is he was within talking distance and we nearly scratched.. On a positive note spent about 11 hours on the water with my favorit fishing partner....and as tough as it was he had a blast!!! Once we were home and unpacked he was on Youtube looking up punching grass techniques on youtube....he is addicted.

I spent Saturday and Sunday in Housen and yes the wind was blowin. Finally able to get my son and his buddy up to the lake for a day or two. We started off on the outside edge of the grass line and was catching a few but thick grass and wind was more than two 12 year olds could handle. We move to the back of hurricane throwing flukes and t-rigs. We caught a few but the size was not as good as we were catching out deeper. All in all it was a great weekend with two fine young anglers. They were planning their next trip before we were on the road good headed home. Great time great memories.....take a kid, or two, fishing!

Livingston DM 14 crankbait.

A few more details about the big catch. Caught in Housen, 14 to 16 fow, on a senko. 15 fow plus or minus 3 feet....heard that a few times on this thread.....beautiful fish!!!!

Saw this picture on another forum....looks like Toledo put out another giant!!!! Fish weighed 14.66....that is all the details listed on the story....caught yesterday and to be released today....Great fish!

Made the annual family trip to the big pond Thursday-Sunday. Made a few trips in the mornings and afternoons around the kids tubing and swimming schedule. Bite was tough....really tough. Everything came on deep humps near the river channel or creek bends....carolina rig brush hogs was our ace in the hole. Did not get alot of bites but what did bite was good fish. My son and I had a 5.5, 3.7 and a 3.4 for our biggest 3. Lake is beautiful and there is a ton of bait in the 18 to 35 fow range.

I have not been in a while but a friend of mine did tell me he had a couple of good days on the inside grass line on a carolina rig. Not sure of the conditions though....cloudy, rainy, clear skies...etc.

Baseball is finally over!!! Headed up to the big pond Thursday-Sunday, not sure who is more pumped....me or my little man!!!!

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I have caught more fish during the spawn on this pattern than I can count. It is not the most exciting method to catch em but it flat works. Our trip last Thursday I reported on earlier used this exact pattern using watermelon red or watermelon candy zoom trick worms fished painfully slow, almost dead sticking. The bite was very subtle as well, most bites detected by seeing line move versus feeling a bite.

Boy was it windy...fished the big pond yesterday with my son in the housen/six mile area. The wind blew us off our main spots early in the day so we had to do a little scrambling! Ended up putting 23 fish in boat with 11 keeper size fish. All of our bites came in 2-5 fow on plastics.....mainly a fluke or wacky worm. Largest was 4 pounds, had one a little bigger break off.....overall a great day with my boy!

He was already addicted....he is ruined now!

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