BassinHog

Hey guys, been a while, my oldest has moved off to College and fishing there, but I now have been able to get my youngest (who is 17) involved and he is starting to get the itch. Anyway, been keeping up just not doing much posting. Bass, you finding a good number of bass moving out? Was there this past week (Fri & Sat), saw what I thought were good quality bass anywhere from 14-25', just could not get much reaction out of them. The few bites I had seemed to be short strikes. This was more Sat than Fri as the wind did not allow for much offshore Fri. What depth are you finding them setting up now and are you cranking, dragging, drop shoting or all of the above? Just pulling my hair out trying to figure out what that is down there and if I could just get one of them to commit I would feel better about my skills.

Funny thing was a little later, maybe 2-3 hrs we see several asian carp swimming 2-3' below the surface in this area. Could that be what we were seeing. We thew everything but the kitchen sick at them, and in practice had little issues at all getting the fish to bite. We really didn't spend much time fishing in practice because we would get bit so quickly. Still to this day I can't for the life of me figure out what went wrong.

Bass Awesome shots. If you get a chance send more. I am still trying to figure out what I am looking when I see something. Some are pretty obvious, other not. The more pics (not trying to find out location) the better. For instance, the following picture was from a tournament a couple summers ago. In practice we caught enough good sized fish 4+ lbs to feel like we had found a great spot. Tournament morning we pull up and this is what we see. We are going to wreck them. Nota, could not get a bite. This is a lot different then what we saw in practice. Would you think this is bass or something else. River Lake.

Catt Thanks, by reading into your comments I and I am sure most can tell that you're letting us know that we can apply that same tactic to many of the similar coves (not just Hurricane, as it appears may not necessarily be your favorite) and get similar results. This is why I am on here often, not to go get one of your spots to fish, but rather to learn and apply your tactics to the Bend if possible, but more often to similar lakes I fish near home (although much smaller) and see how well I can do. Do you feel the wind change was the major factor in triggering the fish to feed? Was it the mixing of the water that made more forage available for the bait fish to feed on? These are thoughts that pop into my head first. The fish had to be there, you probably fished around them all morning without triggering many of them to react. I will often check the major feeding periods, if we are talking about Tues Oct. 6th, according to my chart you really only touched the beginning of a minor feeding period. So, hard to say that was what was going on. Almost has to be the change in wind direction. Why? I hope to get up to the Bend and or Rayburn soon. Have spent the past couple of years taking my son and his fishing partners fishing in HS tournaments. He is now in College (fishing) and I am having withdrawals. The past 2 years we have traveled across several southern states competing and having a blast. I would say to anyone on here, if you have an opportunity to take a High School Fishing team out, please do so, you will truly be blessed, and it doesn't have to be family.

Catt You think it was the wind that blew the shad up in Hurricane, or just got them active. I have been on similar fish at local lakes the last couple of weeks. Wind helped. Just not getting many big bites out of the groups. Were you catching bigger fish when it turned on or just numbers?

Catt Did you do anything different when the wind changed, change location, presentation? Just wondering, wind (as long as you can stay in the boat) seems to really get them going at times.

Thanks Bass & C-Rigger Feel much better prepared for this coming week's tournament. Headed out this afternoon. Pre-fishing Friday & Sat. Coaching a couple of high school students (who have just graduated) one of whom is my son. Have been doing this for a few years but about to get kicked out of the boat. Thanks for all of your help and will not shy away from the 20-25' water this week. Lake is almost 8' above pool and probably will be by tomorrow.

Bass & C-Rigger Another questions that I always struggle with. If your catching fish pretty consistent but the size is 13" to 2.5# max fish and really nothing any bigger and your tournament fishing. Do you stay there thinking you will eventually get the bigger ones to bite (if they are even there) or do you pull out to deeper structure looking for the bigger ones. I always find it hard to pull off of biting fish, but when size matters I struggle to get myself to move. What would you do in this scenario? Are the big ones mixed in there with them just less active or are they in the same area but a little deeper?

What I meant to say was "Do the shad spawn at those depths or just on the shallower humps"?

Bass & C-Rigger What do you consider their predominate food source at that depth? Crawfish, shad !!!!! I would think the bream would be spawning closer to the bank. Am I correct or way off base? The shad spawn was going on for sure this past weekend, not sure if it will still be going on, but my thoughts were that they would be following the shad around. Do they spawn at those depths or just on the shallower humps?

C-Rigger, When you say deep are you saying 12-15-25? Reason I am asking, we fished this past weekend and will be doing so again this weekend. We looked deep, 20-25' and didn't see much. Fished it as well with no luck. May be that we didn't fish with confidence, but were a little confused. We caught several in the 12' range, but 2#'s were about the best we could manage. When you look out right now at the ridges and humps you have to add 6-6.5', so a 9' hump right now is in 15+'. Bass, Would you be shying away from the 20-25' water right now with the lake so high. The grass also seems to have taken it on the chin on many of our normal grass holes in the main lake. Sure is an awful lot of water right now and really has us a little confused as last year was really the first year we spent on the lake. Just like C-Rigger experience, our feeling is that most of the big ones have moved off somewhere, just not sure what depth we need to be targeting.

Heading up for a tournament this weekend. Looking like a lot of water. I am sure water clarity will be iffy, but temps appear to be good. Catt, any reports of bass moving up on beds anywhere. They should be licking their chops to get up there. Should be plenty of water to move them up into the brush.

Maybe one of these days I can get these boys or even myself on something like that. One thing is for sure, you can't do it sitting at home. Takes a lot of time on the water to find these spots or have some inside info with a weigh point. Don't get me wrong, if someone has been willing to confide in me with a weigh point I have taken advantage of it at times, but the hunt and finding on your own is very satisfying.

Texas Team trail was won with a 35.5# stringer. Sure would love to know that story, they had an 11.42# big mama. Would love to be part of something like that one of these days. Very few public lakes around with that type of potential for a 5 fish limit & there are two in that area within 30 minutes of each other.

Report from Sat. Fished near Hurricane & Bull Creeks, anywhere from mouth to middle ways back. The boys did week for their 2nd time on lake Caught close to 11 pounds, no big ones, just solid 2-2.5's with one 14" that we were unable to cull. A-rig caught most, strike king half ounce double willow spinner bait (chart & white skirt) caught largest, Toledo gold one knocker caught one. Pretty much caught all that bit, really had no big bites. Buck brush in the back of bull was covered with boats, did not really see any fish being caught there, but did not go their till around 11am. All fish caught were in the 8-10' depth in grass. Will be back in a couple of weeks March 7 & March 14th weekend. Had boats around us all day and we really never saw anything caught over 2#'s.