First, Thanks to Brady Winans for doing "A Day On The Water", I know he took time out of his busy work schedule and I appreciate it.
On Saturday July 26th, I took Brady to Lake Athens witch is located approximately 5 miles east of Athens, south of FM 317 in Henderson County. The lake is 1,799 acres with a max depth of 50 feet, it was impounded in 1962. Lake Athens as you will see later is a unique lake in the sense of how it fishes, Brady really was put to the test Saturday with a lot of boat traffic and the Bass.....well you will see in this "Day On The Water"
6:10 We go to launch Brady's 21 foot Ranger, as I'm backing him down I noticed NO RODS on the deck of the boat NO TACKLE out. At this point I'm thinking he's not ready, he will take the first 30 minutes of his day getting rods ready. I get his truck parked and get onto the boat, and by this time he has already set his rods out in a strategic manner to attack his morning bite. I'm not talking about 4 or 5 rods, he has an arsenal rig up for morning bit, he has late morning rods and mid/late day rods rigged up in the locker ready to go.
He drives down the lake heading South, till he finds a Dock off a point that shallow and extends into the lake pretty far. 5 feet on top 10 feet on the sides. For the next 15 minutes Brady go through a variety of lures over the points around shallow docks with Duck Weed and Lilly Pads surrounding them. He has thrown Big Bite Top Toad, Yellow Magic, and on the third lure choice hooks up his first fish of the day, the fish shakes him off, but Brady knows he's on to something.
6:25 Within 2 cast Brady has his first fish in the boat, a 2.04 pound bass on a Chatter bait with a swimbait trailer. The fish was out away from the dock in 5 feet water. 86.7 water temp.
First Fish
Over the next hour and a half, Brady goes fishless. During that time he fished shallow docks, Bridge Pillars, Shallow Rip Rap and Duck Weed. He used T-Rig worms-H2O express CRS-Spro Fog-Strike King series 5 Crank-Strike King series 6.
Happy Fun Good Times with Brady (look at his FACE) wait till the end
7:56 While tying on a Carolina rig, He notices there BASS schooling out in 25 feet water. I will have to say we both looked at each other like what are they thinking being that far out like that. Brady quickly grabs a spook and ties it on. That would later tun out to be the DECISION of the day.
The next 35 minutes would be very productive for Brady 1.12 lb fish on a Norman Deep Little N 1.09 lb fish on Spook 2.01 lb fish on a spook 1.10 lb fish on a spook he also had 4 other smaller fish on the spook as well.
After a trip to two deep points with timber, and shallow dock Brady moved to the dam. As we pull up there He tells me there going to be fish caught around this area, he had no IDEA how true that would turn out to be.
BRADY gives tips on Football Jig
9:46 He starts cranking dam and after no fish heading south he turns the boat around and snugs up next to the drop off, he notice some large rocks ahead and cast to them. With a sweeping motion, he sets the hook into what will turn out to be his largest fish of the day....SO FAR....a 3 pound beauty. Brady says " Theres not a dam in the world that doesn't have a fish on it.
Brady DAM (a structure to hold water in the lake) Fish
10:23 This is where the CRAZINESS starts. Brady is fishing a shallow sand bar in 8 feet of water when he notices a school of fish blow up on SMALL bait fish out in the middle of the lake right behind us. We are in 10 feet of water and the fish are in 33 feet of water. What are they doing he ask. Theres nothing out there for them to relate to except bait fish.
He sees a blow up and cast to it as soon as it hits the water WHAM a 1.14 lb bass over the next 37 minutes Brady catches 12 fish that is topped with a 2.3 lb fish. All those fish came on spooks and one on Football Jig.
As he is getting ready to leave he sees a fish blow up on bait, he quickly stops and lands a bass that can't stay off his spook
He takes a few minutes to use his Hummingbird Side Imaging unit to see if theres any Brush piles, logs, or what ever that might be holding fish in the deeper water. He does locate some brush piles but nothing major.
1:15 PM It's been awhile since he's even felt a fish bite, he has picked apart deep brush piles, points with timber, docks shallow grass. This lake is weired theres no fish under docks there all out front in the first drop off. As he cast to a brush pile in front of a old dock I'm on the front deck preparing him for the questions I'm about to ask, I was going to ask what does he need to do to start trying to get a kicker fish. while turning on the camera settings he sets the hook on a nice bass.
3.10 pounds not bad, just need more of those he states.
Brady uses the rest of the day to catch small 1 and 2 pound schooling fish, but just can't catch that kicker.
2:06 PM I tell Brady he has 4 minutes, he has positioned his self on the outside of a water pump in the legal section of the area, making cast to a pole in the stirred up water
ALL I SEE NEXT is a bent pole and hear " Here we go"
A 3.14 pound bass....man I thought it was bigger than that.
Brady's TOTAL SACK WEIGHT #1......(2.04 lbs) #2......(2.05 lbs) #3......(3.00 lbs) #4......(3.10 lbs) #5......(3.14 lbs) Total...(15.01 lbs) * A new Day On The Water Heavy Stringer Weight*
Brady REALLY NEEDS HELP......Can you say Crank Bait support group????
Thanks Brady.....You need to teach me that trick of casting under the docks...Thats just crazy. Guys he would cast it to the back of a 30 foot dock and make it go were he wanted it to.
Solid limit, nice collection of baits, good tips, great information. Thank you Brady for sharing your knowledge and thank you Casey for bringing it to the masses. BTW Casey, your stunt reminds me of Grapevine slot fish.
He told me he had more, I think they were at home.
If you think thats crazy you should have seen him cast under dock. He must have spent months doing nothing but that.
Casey
Now you know why he is so good at Tawakoni.
That boy has a tackle collection that would rival BPS.
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They keep talking about drafting a Constitution for Iraq .... Why don't we just give them ours? It was written by a lot of really smart guys, it has worked for over 200 years, and we're not using it anymore.
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