Hard Rain In East Texas

[Big Jon]

Hey everyone, I live in east Texas. I was out at Lake Holbrook this morning from about 4:45am to 7:45am. The rain and wind were doing a number on everything. A couple trees fell down. It was pretty dark. The sound of the rain on the water was almost deafening at times.

 

I don't have a boat, so I was just fishing from shore and the dock by one of the boat ramps. With the direction the wind was blowing, the side of the lake that had shelter from the wind was the side where there are houses and private property. I just walked around the areas I could. Oddly enough, I was wearing shorts and flip flops under the rain suit, and my feet were only warm when I waded in a little bit. 

 

I started off using a buzzbait and popper, as I have been wanting to become more proficient with these baits. I have caught a few over the past couple days on them. I read they are good in the rain too, but I could barely see the buzzbait this morning among the rain drops hitting the water, and I couldn't see the popper (or hear it). 

 

I switched to a black and blue jig around a boat dock a little bit, that was kind of sheltered from the wind and rain, with no luck. I also tried a black spinnerbait with a colorado blade on it. I did catch about a 1 3/4lbs largemouth on that.

 

I switched to a couple crankbaits. One of them was a shallow diving (0-3 feet) and the other was a bit deeper (10-13 feet). I caught a couple (less than a pound) on the shallow crankbait as the sun was starting to come up. The rain had died down a lot at that point.

 

What could I have done better out there? I know there's some good fish in here. I have caught a few 4 pounders out here. Was there anything I could have done better in these conditions? Do you think the fish were mostly out deep?

 

I was not totally unsatisfied with the decisions I made. I did catch a few fish, so it wasn't a waste of time, and I had fun. I have never fished in a downpour like that before. 

 

I went with mostly dark baits since it was dark (even when the sun came up). I caught all three fish on one side of a dock, just fan casting the crankbaits and spinnerbaits. The crankbaits I was retrieving as fast as I could when I caught the two, but I was slow rolling that spinnerbait along the bottom for the larger fish. 

 

I think I'm rambling now, but I'm just trying to process all this information into some usable experience.

 

What are your thoughts? 

[Slefler]

You said you caught three on one side of the dock? I would dissect that specific side and try to figure out why they were holding just on that side.

[Catt]

After casting the cranks & spinner baits I would have fan casted the area with T-rigs & Jigs

[MacDaddyFishin]

You said you caught three on one side of the dock? I would dissect that specific side and try to figure out why they were holding just on that side.

Just like Slefler said. Figure out why they are on that side via brush pile, or maybe even some rocks on that. Or even another thought the wind was pushing the bait fish to that side so the bass were hanging out on that side for that reason.