Ray Roberts

[thediscochef]

3/19/22

GOOD

Some chilly, windy nights and windy days has made for slow progress in warming the water. According to a few different anglers this morning we are still sitting in the 48-50ish territory. Jerkbaits seem to be king with LMB still, at least with those I see catching fish. Crappies and white bass seem to be on the move.

 

The end of spring break has brought everyone to the lake, today and the 12th were huge boating days. Dangerous weather is likely on Monday, 3/21. If I can squeeze in between storms safely it should be good bank fishing weather. Not sure I'd want to launch a boat that day.

[thediscochef]

4/16/22
GOOD
Water 2-4 feet clarity
Warm enough that moving baits are back!
Chatterbaits are less used than others here; I see a lot of spinbaits, buzzbaits, and A-rigs, but not a ton of chatterbaits. Oddly enough, that's what I do the best on here when the water is warmer; chatterbaits. The MiniMax is kind of my new favorite as it has the smaller hook yet is still heavy enough to cast with a pretty standard baitcaster setup. 
Bass seem to be post-spawn, I'm not catching the big girls up shallow like I did in later March.
Crappies are in creek beds in the shallows, if you can find a creekbed with shore along each side you'll do well to cast on the deep side of the channel up against the shoreline.

[thediscochef]

Lake's all stirred up with the weather/season changing. Caught Smallmouth up shallow today working a chatterbait on the bottom. Topsy turvy fishing until probably december

[thediscochef]

December is here and it's not been kind
water is 53-55 in most places and the bigger bass are 20-30 feet deep. Maybe they'll come back up shallow soon. I dunno. I'm lost for now lol

[TnRiver46]

59 minutes ago, thediscochef said:

December is here and it's not been kind
water is 53-55 in most places and the bigger bass are 20-30 feet deep. Maybe they'll come back up shallow soon. I dunno. I'm lost for now lol

Nowhere to stand and toss into the deeps? 

[thediscochef]

On 12/7/2022 at 4:34 PM, TnRiver46 said:

Nowhere to stand and toss into the deeps? 

Very few that don't have significant fishing pressure, and they're on currently very muddy public hunting land lol

[thediscochef]

Brandon Belt tournament last week - Big bass was over 10lbs, biggest single day bag was 27lbs, three of the two-day bags were over 40lbs. 70 boats in the tournament. It is rumored that there was trouble at weigh-in, but those are only rumors to my knowledge and I don't think the specifics deserve repeating. 

Though it is definitely comparing apples to oranges, the Brandon Belt tournament did a good job of keeping the park clean and avoiding the litter that came with the 2021 Bassmaster tournament. 

Lake is currently up about 18" from where it's been, almost as high as where we started the 2022 warm season; by the capacity numbers, the lake is above 100% pool. A welcome sight for sure. Temps are in the 50s still but rising steadily, a couple of cold rains this week slowed that up but it's on like Donkey Kong. I'm already seeing signs of life near the state park again; about ten days ahead of last year. One small LM on a red chatterbait yesterday before the weather moved in. Fingers crossed for a good warm season here, I need it lol

[thediscochef]

Spawn's on. Throw creatures shallow into laydowns and catch pigs

[thediscochef]

so many tournaments this month, at least one every weekend in april. stick to the weekdays if you can

[Cbump]

How’s It fishing now? I’ll be out there the end of August. I’ve never been on the lake. 

[thediscochef]

On 7/30/2023 at 9:44 AM, Cbump said:

How’s It fishing now? I’ll be out there the end of August. I’ve never been on the lake. 

Very hit and miss right now, I'm mostly missing but it's tough on the bank this time of year. Seems like things are up shallow from about 3am till the sun touches the water, then out on main lake points in 10+ fow by 8-9am. I would expect to be fishing some dropshot between 10-20fow most of the day. You may do well in submerged timber along boat lanes or along the middle .75 miles of the dam. The weekly workingmans tournaments have not been bringing in a ton; last week 5 of 10 boats blanked, 1 of 5 had a full stringer, 1 had two fish, and the rest had one fish. Big bass was 6ish. I've seen a 20# three fish bag in those tournaments this year, big bass was like 7.5+. I think morning has a better chance of a big bite, but the window is very short unless you're in deep water. The only LM I'm catching shallow right now are on a T-rigged Z-craw and a red eye shad