I've gone from the best year I've had at Fayette through mid June in long time to the worst in 1 month. The last 2-3 weeks have humbled me past the point of mental stability. LOL
I fished yesterday afternoon and didn't get a bite. Fished some grass areas that looked really good out to 4-5', then trees in 10-20', then couple of humps and pond dam. Last couple of trips I have barely seen any shad on graph and yesterday the humps and pond dam looked deserted of life. There are very few boats now days so I assume it isn't just me struggling. Heck Saturday, there were only 8 boats by 8am at Oak Thicket and 6 of those were catfishing or cast netting. Which brings up my next point. I've seen more cast netters this year than ever before especially in boats. Yesterday there were 3-5 boats cast netting. 2 of them had 3+ people chunking. Could this be a factor? April-May the cast netting was out of control.
I know BCMD was doing pretty good in early July. Anybody else been fishing lately?

Fished Sunday 7/30 and had 21 in the boat by Noon. My buddy that I was with went again on 8/2 and also had 18. There was a FB post I saw from a guy fishing there on 8/1 and he had 77.

Lol. You aren't helping my mental stability or pride issues. Any tips?

With how hot it has been I would fish the areas on the lake with "current".

I was also out on Thursday. Very few boats out, and they were all moving about the lake. Plenty of popcorn fish, but no real quality. I also saw a boat marked ""SS Minnow". They showed at 9AM, and used two cast nets for over three hours. Another truck arrived at the launch and they transfered four ice chests to the truck, which then left. They went out again and loaded up another three 48 quart chests. They were not in the least trying to hide what they were doing. I went over to them and asked if they were commercial fishermen, to which they went pure barrio and would not speak. I did notice a few baby black bass in the bottom their boat. The park hostess said they were there all of the time, and that the the only game warden was to busy to persue these guys. What a shame that I can't even catch one 2lb. fish to make a fish sandwich, but these guys are profiting off of our tax dollars.

1 oz wt, treble hook, 60lb. braid & cross eye hook set will do a serious number on cast nets.

I definitely think they are keeping more than tilapia. Lot of dead fish floating too.

Agfisher- thanks for that tip. It's not much, but it makes sense and it's more than you had to and definity more than zero. Thank you.

Took my son out there last weekend and did pretty good. Caught some early where I would have expected (points, grass, wind related) then they kinda disappeared. Couldn't find them set up on anything where I have in the past or where I expected to.

Found some later unexpectedly suspended chasing huge bait balls. Bait seemed to be moving or relating to anything I'm smart enough to pick up on but the bass were there and catchable.

There is a lot of tilapia in that lake and I hope they catch the heck out of them.

These guy'are not netting for Tilapia. They are raping the forage fish that keep us all catching bass on this lake. TPWD has to stop this illegal harvesting. Big business for catfish ponds as a feed, or stockings for local tanks, ponds,etc..

If a lake has a good number of tilapia, these ba!@#*ds will be out there with their cast nets. These "fisherman" prefer power plant lakes such as Lake Fairfield, where I've seen them many times.

Did you call Operation Game Thief?

Guess I don't understand why they allow them to enter the park if they believe they are doing something illegal? You have to pay to get access. Game warden used to be on the lake more than any other lake I have fished. Its not hard to find anyone on that small lake.

The bite is slow as far as quality fish. The water is to hot. How ever, there are some being caught early in the morning and anglers off the water by 11am.

We need to all write to TPWD. Cast nets should only be used for catching bait fish to fish in the same lake. What's the difference if you are removing the fish from a lake if you are using a cast net or a straight line net?

Have you seen this post on the main menu? http://texasfishingforum.com/forums/ubbthreads.php/topics/12034056/1