Red_Ranger04

Nice report Dink2!

I have been reading a thread on another forum that I'm not a member of and it's about whether a 20 lb bass could be taken from a Texas lake. While I'm reading this a lot of people are commenting about how the trout population is why the bass get so large out west! I agree 100% about the trout! IMO I think the chances of catching a 20 lb bass in public waters in Texas are slim to none but not completely unrealistic! Me and a buddy of mine were fishing this past Friday and starting seeing these huge schools of something, couldn't get close enough to see it! Then off in the distance a huge bass comes out of the water busting on these schools, we put the trolling motor on high and head over to see if we can hook this giant! So when we get over there we start cast at this school of something and then I snag whatever this school is! It's the biggest gizzard shad I've ever seen in my life! They are huge! I just wanted to share this with y'all to see if I just seen something amazing or over exaggerating, but to see a bass feeding on these giants!

What's the fish doing on Rayburn? Shallows bite is hit and miss and so is the deep bite. Am I missing something or do they have lock jaw right now?

Thanks rob and fanatic, I'm just tournament cursed! 18lbs really isnt that good but considering how tough the bite has been it was a fun morning!

Had 18lbs flipping and frogging this morning by 9 am. Had a blast!

Funny you say that Rob, my wife was with me and she just couldn't believe how big the fish were and how many! It was fun for sure! If only I could do it in a tournament, doesn't ever go that way on Saturdays though!

Well I haven't been on here in a while but have got to get a little lake time in the last couple of weekends. Last weekend I won a small club tourney with a little less than 13 lbs, ten boats fished it and only 4 teams weighed in and the bite was tough! Went out today with the wife and wore out some quality fish. I caught 6-7 fish over 5 pounds, my biggest five would have went 25-30lbs. With the lake dropping like a rock I would have figured the fished would have moved out but went with my gut and started shallow frogging and flipping! Caught a couple nice ones flipping but got on a solid frog bite by 8 am and wore em out!

Went fishing this past Friday and caught 50-60 fish between flipping, frogging, and senkos. Biggest fish was right at 4 lbs! The frog bite is coming on strong! Did catch a hungry bullfrog to, crazy!

Fished a small benefit tourney today out of cassels. Had a decent day, but just couldn't get on any bigger fish. I did have a nice kicker though(7.5lbs). Couple of guys weighed in a 30lb bag, they weighed in a 10 and a 9 and said they were caught on back to back cast! Didn't get any info or details on how they were caught but I'm guessing they were caught out deep!

Yeah Rob, I accidentally ran into a few good ones! The bite is really tough right now, I fished from daylight until 300 and caught 8-10 fish. I've been throwing the frog at them to, they will swirl on it or just blow up on it and not take it.

Went out Monday and dedicated my time to strictly fishing shallow flooded cover. Bites were few and far between and very slow fishing, caught most of my fish flipping shallow cover with jigs and beavers. Here are a couple of nice ones from Monday!

It's bass champs tournament jmag1764. No it's not just on Rayburn they have tourneys on several different lakes.

300+ boats and 21 pounds won! You know it's tough!!

Were they biting moving baits or soft plastics Bass_Fanatic?

By adjust depth finder are you referring to depths on your maps? As far as I know all mapping such as contour lines, and lake geography, etc is set to when the lake is normal full pool. If the lake is say 2 feet above pool and your fishing a ledge with a beginning contour line of 8 fow just add the 2 fow to it and it's 10 foot.

I would start flipping bushes(or buck brush), I like flipping beaver style baits in black/blue or green pumpkin. Always keep rate of fall on your mind, I usually start with a half ounce weight and downsize according to what the fish tell you. Another good bait a lot of people forget about is the weightless senko, it catches fish big and small. Hope this helps, good luck out there!

In years past it was a matter of days and the water would start to clear, but with the lack of hydrilla in the lake it will take that much longer. In East Texas the spring weather usually brings heavy rainfall and high muddy water comes with it. The water was already stained prior to the heavy rainfall we just got so I can't imagine how muddy the water is now. So in a nutshell, if you plan on fishing Rayburn this year bust out your flipping gear and learn how to catch em in high muddy water. Long range forecasts are predicting a warm wet spring, good luck out there!

BLgarrison I would love to go fishing but can't afford to take off work. Surely someone on this forum would take you up on a free trip to the lake! Good luck buddy!

Nice to hear jmag1784, there have been several tourneys in passed years won out of buck bay. What were they eating? Several reports saying the big girls are starting to pull up!

Small a-rigs usually work really good. Research the double fluke rig, I have had really good luck on it when they are chasing shad. If you get fish that follow the rig back to the boat but won't commit try downsizing to a fluke Jr, this also works well from now until fall. Hope this helps!

Water temps are there but I still don't think the big girls have made the move yet. It's getting close, there might be one here and there but it hasn't busted loose yet. I spent two days this past week very shallow looking and flipping and caught a lot of bucks but no bigger females. Find green hydrilla and hit it with a trap, can't go wrong doing that. Hope this helps!

Got to hit Rayburn today and found some nice fish. Probably caught 30+ fish. Got on a trap bite early in the AM and went flipping later in the day. Had one of the best days I've had in a while, best five would have went well over 20lbs.

Buck bay is a very good area. The canyons are just north of the 147 bridge, after you come under the bridge the lake will split and the area to the left is known as the canyons. The arm to the very left of the split(the creek) is know as popher creek. If you have a smart phone I highly recommend downloading the navionics app, it is a really good tool on and off the water. Hope this info helps, good luck out there!

Fished the canyons and popher area today. Boated somewhere around 20 fish. I was flipping bushes with a beaver style bait, caught a lot of smaller buck bass with a few around 3-4 pounders mixed in. Big girls should be moving up any day now!

Went back out again yesterday to do a little fishing. Fished a different area and found some water temps up to 63 degrees, wow. The trap bite is really starting to pick up, guy at the ramp said he was catching them good on jerk baits also.