Anybody familiar with this lake? Google earth shows a few promising spots but obviously can't see much under water.

Yes....I average around 8-10 hours a week on it.

How ya doin' lately?

Joe Pool is a real temptress.. If the wind doesn't big out of the south.. which it always does.. it offers lots of good places to fish.. but when it blows like it always does.. Joe Pool fishes really small. Since there aren't any real long arm creeks on the lake.. its really hard to get out of the south wind. Other than that.. its a nice lake.

BD

Lately I haven't done great at all. A fish here and there. Nothing like last year or this past winter. But, it will light up for me...it always does.

Going out on Saturday and the wind will be from the N-NW which I am hoping will lend to some protection out in some tasty areas that I foresee harboring some bass. Cloudy to start the day with the sun taking over a little later. Anybody been on the shad spawn there?

Weekend? Be prepared to play with the jet skis and party boats. I hate that lake on the weekend.

It's a tourney so I reckon we won't see many of those boats till the afternoon hours.

I'll be in the tournament too. It will be a windy day. Buckle up!

I fish it almost every week, but most of the time on Mondays and/or Tuesdays. It has been tougher for me this year, I have caught some fish just not the big ones I am always looking for. It should get better as it gets hotter, but like Bobby said, JP sucks on the weekends unless you go at daybreak and leave by 11. A buddy of mine goes out there more than me, he caught a 9# this afternoon and an 8# on Tuesday. To me JP is all about deep water fishing

What tourny is going on ??

Police benefit tourney. Lynn creek. 6:30-3

$100 a boat.
4 unders only. No overs on the tourney pot. Big bass side of the tourney is separate. One over allowed in it.

good to hear I'm not the only one.

I have been pretty tired of Pool lately because of the wind and also the fishing is so dang slow. Nothing like last year.

Been tired of the wind everywhere. Seems like every weekend is brutal.

I wasn't sure if it was all in my head or not, I am at work all week in beautiful weather then the weekends are storms and high winds on the lake lately lol

Atleast it's coming from a different direction

Sent you a PM..good luck tomorrow

A buddy of mine was out there last Saturday and caught about 25 fish from 1pm-6pm with his best 5 going 37 pounds. He's has been catching good fish for the past 2 weeks. In that time frame he's caught 2 9's, 4 8's, 2 7's, and several more between 5 and 6. He's been on a hot streak for sure but the fish are there, you just have to find them.

Hey....have him tell me all his spots! Thanks

I didn't get it try again

PM sent to HookinToads..the OP

I would tell you Steez but then I would have to kill you haha

Slade.. I know you fish JP a lot. Just a general question, what do you consider "deep"? I see fish on the graph all the time in 30+ but I have always thought that they were probably catfish or drum or something.

thanks
BD

Hey guys what won the tournement? Police benefit

Well I guess deep is a relative term because I rarely fish deeper than 25'. My preferred depth is 12'-15'. I guess what I meant is that fishing JP by just working the banks and visible cover can be very tough. But if you fish a little deeper cover and structure it can be really good. Example when I fish Fork, I have a few deep water spots (less than 20'), but unless is is the middle of the afternoon on a 100 degree day, I will fish shallow first on most trips but at JP it just doesn't work shallow for me unless I go south of the bridges. And then it's still not that great most of the time. So I concentrate on deeper water. And sometimes that can be tough too but I have caught some pigs doing that so it's worth the painstaking agony for me.

I forgot to add. I try to fish through sandbass
Schools also. I have got a few nice ones lurking around those sand bass. A big swimbait has worked best for me when doing that. Sometimes a drop shot. But if you see big schools of fish in 30' especially in the summer I would bet there are a few nice bass in there too.

9something won big bass, and 5-1/2 won the 4 under tourney.

I had a 6.89 and 3.92 worth of unders. I was out of the money on both parts, but I won some stuff in the raffle.

Had, overall, one of my best days on Pool. I caught 6 overs, a bunch of slots, and culled 18 unders to get my losing bags. Haha. I just never found the right size anything. My biggest over was a jig fish....everything else was a Carlos Rivera paInted SB or a lizard on a Carolina rig.

Every fish was caught deep. 20+ FOW. Except for a few in the SB that were suspended in wood over 15ft.

We caught a bunch of unders in 4ft or less only weighted 4.07 tho. I hate targeting small fish but it was for a good cause

Was pretty windy Saturday but overall was as a decent day of fishing. We didn't hit the shad spawn like I wanted to but found some deep, some shallow and ended up placing 11th out of 34 I believe. Not terrible but we had a fun day and it's always fun catching!

Thanks very much for the replies... I like to structure fish much more than beat the bank.. I just have to keep looking for good water out deep.

BD

There's good water and plenty of fish to be found. Most of the guys i fish with want to beat the banks, so i'm very slowly learning to find the right deep(er) structure. I've found that when things get slow, i can always drop shot and crank the bridge on either channel for some decent numbers with a few good fish thrown in to keep it interesting.

We ended up 2nd with 5.23. I live right by the lake so I fish it a bunch. Like the others said try a little bit deeper and you'll find them. You don't have to find one spot deep and sit on it. You can find a contour and follow it just like if you were going down the bank in certain spots.

Great info guys! If deep is where it's at this early in the year then those shallow fish have to be pressured like crazy. Makes sense to go deeper. We got out on the water at about 5:45am and marked some really nice drops and lay downs that had plenty of yellow bellies on them and when the tourney started at 6:30 we assumed beating the banks looking for the shad spawn was the best place to start. By the time we went back to those waypoints in the afternoon those fish we gone. I'm thinking maybe they were inactive when we saw them early (even though there were baitfish on the finder) and they went foraging sometime in the morning thereafter??...