100% Skunked this morning

[TcRoc]

Must say I got extremely frustrated this morning . When u have a good feeling when u head out and get slapped it’s like the fish saying season over go study your game book and better luck in the spring  ?. I don’t know where they were but I couldn’t find them and or they watched ever bait/lure cruise past and said nope.  Not even a dink wanted to play. 

[GaryH]

Looks like you had a beautiful day though. Better luck next time

[DitchPanda]

What are your water temps? What have you been throwing?

[TcRoc]

54 minutes ago, DitchPanda said:

What are your water temps? What have you been throwing?

 Low 50’s. 
When I arrived it was early , cloudy and heavy fog.. it cleared pretty quick .  I threw a assortment , Texas Rig , Ned Rig , Shaky Head , Football Jig, Swim Jig , Chatterbait, Spinnerbait . I was knocking off the bottom , rocks and every speed in between lol. Not a bite. We all have these days but today really shocked me.  I just could not find them anywhere I usually land them and a few other spots. One thing that has changed is the water is somewhat clear but the bottom is black in a lot of areas from all the dead leaves. 

[DitchPanda]

I find it extremely tough to catch them with bottom contact lures when the bottom is covered in leaves. I also dont have much success with chatterbaits or spinnerbaits in cold clear water.For your conditions I'd try weightless flukes and suspending jerkbaits. Heavy emphasis on jerk bait. Drop shot with a finesse type worm shot work as well. Swim jig should also still work at that temp...just change up the trailer depending on what your currently using for one.

[TcRoc]

Swim jig had a fluke on it.  Had no success with jerk bait other day not that today it wouldn’t have worked. If I get back out in morning before rain comes I’m thinking weightless wacky rig as well. 

[PhishLI]

Similar conditions here, but zero wind. Went Sunday 12am-3, then 4pm thru 7. We got spanked. A bazillion baitfish everywhere. Saw several killshots in the middle of the lake over weedbeds. They were keyed on suspended bait and wouldn't budge for anything else. Tried deadsticking jerks as a last resort, but no bueno.

[Koz]

They were still there but not feeding as much. That’s the really frustrating thing right now. When it’s good I catch 2-3 bass an hour where I bank fish. This past few weeks my biggest haul was three landed over a four hour period. I’ve been skunked more than once and had a bunch of one dink days.

 

What makes it really frustrating is that the weather is in the 70’s and perfect outdoor weather. I’m starting to look forward to spring.

[Bluebasser86]

Looks like you were fishing deeper portions of the lake. Water temps in the low 50's, they're probably bunched up in the backs of shallow pockets and coves.

[TcRoc]

7 hours ago, Bluebasser86 said:

Looks like you were fishing deeper portions of the lake. Water temps in the low 50's, they're probably bunched up in the backs of shallow pockets and coves.

This is just one area I was fishing. They have been tucking up against all that rock. Straight past the tower, that bank is the shallow I usually fish where the past month I  have been doing well. the far side of the lake the shallows is quite a large flat til it drops off.. but as u can see by the terrain there is limited access unless your good at standing on 45 plus degree angle. Would love to drop my kayak here but it’s a bank only lake. On top of that one main trail to get to a few other shallow spots .. if you look up u may see someone looking down at you not very happy aiming something at u with a pointy tip on it ???

[tander]

Don't feel bad, there are a lot of us in that same boat. To me this is a hard time of year to really catch them.

[Bankbeater]

This fall has been a rough one.  I've been skunked on about 1/2 my trips since the beginning of October.

[scaleface]

I havent been skunked yet but if I go again I expect bass to be grouped up and maybe in deep water .. Its going to have to be a light wind day because I will  be in a jon boat with electric motor only . I dont like to fight the wind in that boat . But yeah , this time of year I find it best to keep on the  move , fish the very  best structure deep then move shallow and cover water. Often it seems like every bass in the lake are concentrated in one spot . 

[TnRiver46]

1 hour ago, scaleface said:

I havent been skunked yet but if I go again I expect bass to be grouped up and maybe in deep water .. Its going to have to be a light wind day because I will  be in a jon boat with electric motor only . I dont like to fight the wind in that boat . But yeah , this time of year I find it best to keep on the  move , fish the very  best structure deep then move shallow and cover water. Often it seems like every bass in the lake are concentrated in one spot . 

Yeah yeah we all know you fish in a barrel 

[galyonj]

11 minutes ago, TnRiver46 said:

Yeah yeah we all know you fish in a barrel 

 

We need to find a barrel.

[TnRiver46]

2 minutes ago, galyonj said:

 

We need to find a barrel.

I know where there’s a few white bass barrels. I catch less largemouth in a year than @scaleface does in a day 

[TcRoc]

Well all I know is drastic turn in weather last couple days and forecast appears it will stick...not hanging it up yet but water temp is plummeting . 

[scaleface]

6 minutes ago, TnRiver46 said:

I know where there’s a few white bass barrels. I catch less largemouth in a year than @scaleface does in a day 

I doubt that . I do know one lake extremely well , been fishing it since the 70's and can usually catch them pretty good . Other waters  not so much .

[TcRoc]

Went out today . My youngest back from college for winter break so we hit the banks. 2 locations zero bites for either of us. All I know is I should not have cleaned out the kayaks and tucked them away so early. A lot easier finding them on the water than the bank or shall I say limited access from the bank makes it a lot more tuff.