My challenge for Saturday fishing

[GeneinTX]

The water has risen 3 feet so far in 2 days with more expected tonight. Weather is very unstable. alot of rain in central Texas in the past 2 days. Water is up into the shoreline brush. The dam seems to be closed right now. The lake is 12,000 + acres. Mostly structure fishing with some standing timber. We now have submerged vegatation. I can see the lake from the house but I am not sure about water clarity, I expect it will be murky.

Any suggestions?

[Catt]

Rising water will move the bass shallow and scatter the out, try ¼ oz Rat-L-Trap, Spinner Bait, Rogue, to locate the bass; then slow down with Jigs that have rattles

[Red]

what  lake? just curious i am going to be fishing on belton lake tonight for hybrids

Cliff

[Guest avid]

Oh man,  your gettin' rain?

Maybe there's hope for FLA.

My home lake is still down about 4' from normal.

I'm cut off from nearly half the lake because of narrows that are totally weed choked or so shallow that it can't be navigated.

I like to pitch jigs into the newly flooded areas when those big rains raise the water level by alot.

don't forget to work the line that WAS the bank last week.

For some reason the bass seem to like that area as well.

good luck and have fun.

And Pa-leeeeeeeeze send of that wet stuff East accross the gulf

[GeneinTX]

Thanks for the advice.

Cliff, we fished Belton Lake, it has risen 3 feet since yesterday and is still rising.

We caught everything on white flukes thrown into the vegatation.

My son caught his PB 5lb 9oz LM.

AVID, we are getting too much now. It just keeps coming! We were able to find good inside edges of weedlines where we got most of our fish.

[flechero]

My son caught his PB 5lb 9oz LM.  

That's awesome!!!!

Gene,

I was out yesterday for a little while (see the outings section   ) and again this morning... the lake came up another foot while I was on it this morning.  ...lol  We also had a white fluke bite but tore up the smallies on 4" & 5" storm swimbaits.  We caught the green ones on the flooded brush edges and the brown ones on the big rocks near steep banks and pushing also some schooling in open water, over secondary drops.

The white bass were schooling from the mouth of the cowhouse all the way to BLORA...  litterally thousands of them.  Made for fun on the fly rod.

Hope you guys got into them!

The gates were still closed when I was there earlier.... if they keep em closed and we get to 7'+ high, start pitching lizards into the lighter green broadleaf bushes (don't know the name) we killed em that way 3 weeks ago- every day the water was up.  The bite held until the lake got back to 6' high and less.

** I just checked the Corps page and we are 6.68' high!!!  Sweet!! I will be back out after Church tomorrow!  Spool up the XT, it's time to pitch!  (the stillhouse page says 18' high!   )

Oh man,  your gettin' rain?

Unfortunately we are getting lots of flooding.  We went from a 2 yr. drought to not knowing what to do with all the water!

[GeneinTX]

Keith,  

The level keeps on coming up. They chased the campers out of Westcliff today. I have a tree on the bank that I watch from the living room and it was way out there tonight. I bet it is 7.5' high in the morning.

We are heading out first thing in the morning. What color lizards were you throwing?

I will take my flyrod out tomorrow, I need some whites for dinner!

Thanks for the tips!

Gene

[flechero]

Gene,

Our best for pitching the flooded brush was pumpkinseed and some old faded cotton candy chartruse... the chartruse was pretty much faded out of it and the new ones with bright tails didn't work.  ...lol  Watermelon also worked alright but not as good.

The key seemed to be mid lake clear water... anywhere we had clear water coves and flooded bushes we caught fish.  From about Temple lake Park up to just shy of the water elevator was prime.  

Look for an older white Champion w/ a teal stripe - maybe I'll see you out there!

-keith

[GeneinTX]

Keith... I'll be looking for you. I plan on staying out for a while if it is overcast. We started catching at 11:00 today.

Last year I had a lot of luck with junebug colors but not this year. White and silver have been best for me.

Tightlines!