I would like to get some thoughts on something that happened on Eagle Mountain in september and october this year.
Eagle mountain is not a very good lake for surfacing fish compared to other lakes. August was one of the best months for surfacing fish on EM I had seen for years. Fishing was so easy I could catch them.
Sept. and Oct. have always been fairly consident months according to my journals. Mid august it was like a switch was turned off. If you caught 4 or 5 you were wacking them. From mid sept. to early oct it seemed we had a very violet lake turnover and late oct .lake had large rise. But what happened the rest of the time. Other lakes seemed O.K. In fact some of them were hot. In reading post it appeared to happen on Ray Hubbard. Now begining sunday I have fished everyday and caught fish.
would love to hear some of you guys thought on this. I am hard headed when things like this happen out of the ordinary I sure would like to know what happened.The longer I fish the less I know about it.
I have a lot of spots that I fish that I have aquired in 45 years of fishing EM. Maybe there are some that I have not found.????
Johnny

you nailed it and all true i do believe. now can you remember it

I would like to know what happened myself. Hubbard was the same way. You know the fish are there becasue you have caught many and you have a couple of spots that almost always produce but nothing was there. Where did the fish go? I suspect that because of the weather the food chain moved to areas that we just don't think to look at. I know that the last trip I took with Chris we fished in an area that I wouldn't have given it a chance at all let alone go in there and try to catch fish. Hubbard seems to be getting back to normal but we still didn't find any large schools of fish. JV made the comment that it will be bad until they stop letting water out. You could hear the roar of water going out from the lake. Are they letting water out of EM?

Johnny, I think what happened over there was that you boys just
fished em out, they got to lay back and rest up for awhile.

No water being let out. We are still a 1/2 ft low. Dennis they may still be trying to recover when you cleaned out the lake years ago. I guess I am fooled into thinking I know the spots they hang out and I don't guess I know all of them.
Johnny

Hubbard is not the greatest fall lake, but this year has been tough. I usually maintain a good whitebass bite but they are really spread out. I do better with the hybrids as it gets colder and in November when it is cloudy and rainy We have had a lot of rain on Hubbard… I have to think that this does not help and when they release water and let water in I am positive it does not help. I do have to admit that this time of year I do a little more fun fishing at other lakes so keeping up with a pattern on Hubbard is a little more difficult when you are not fishing it constantly. I also believe that when the cooling starts and the thermocline breaks down that it gives the bait more lake to roam and the fish. When the water gets colder the bait bunches better and so do the fish. I would rather have the lake a few feet low… gives the fish less places to go. Or we could just blame it on global warming

IMHO, I think you will see where this year isn't really all that unusual if compared to other years that started with a severe drought that ended in the early fall. Lakes that had been shrinking for months made it somewhat easier to find the fish, but the populations of fish overall were dwindling due to loss of habitat and other reasons related to the drought. When the rains returned the lakes swelled so there are fewer fish spread over more water.. follow the baitfish and you will understand where and why fishing is what it is..

I'm no expert, but on Hubbard for instance as its gotten harder to find fish (September & October) I've switched over to waiting for foul weather. On a sunny clear day all you can count on is the never let you down yellow and medium whites, if its windy and raining the bigger fish seem to be going wild. I like the rough water and nobody else is out- you own the lake. Throw on your rain suit and watch your drag sing.

El Nino

David
www.davesguideservice.net

If what you are doing is not working , you have
do something else. I think we sometimes get in a rut
with favorite locations , methods or species.
When the hybrids are not active where I think they
should be , I will either crappie fish or scout
new water. I have found hybrids in the very back of
coves when I thought they should be on main lake humps.

I even fished the channel cat spawn this spring and
had a blast.
good luck
MO

We did not have a severe drought and the populations of fish are not dwindling or fewer fish. Because on nasty day we catch the [censored] out of them I am like David.... blaming it on the "EL"






Mo, I have tried other areas and new water along with some weired fishing tactics

Shallow.....the shallow water cools off the quickest in the fall and with a little wind and cool weather the oxygen saturation goes up. All summer the fish and bait has been fighting the heat and low oxygen levels so as soon as change is in the air they find the comfort zone.

Within a couple weeks it all "equializes" and things go back to "normal".

The problem with "shallow" is there is 50 times more "spots" the fish can be...everyone quickly learns the top 10 humps and ledges pretty quick but when they go shallow they can be anywhere and everywhere at the same time.

The same thing happens in the spring....except the water is warming just a bit which sucks in the bait like a magnet and along come the fish for a short period of time.


Or....maybe they observe a special fish holiday that requires fasting? LOL

I think that the high oxygen saturation in wavey, wind blown water is a big part of the reason the striped fish are jacked up when they are in it.

this explains why some of the my early spring spots hold fish in early fall.

MO

Hey guys thanks for all the comments and thoughts. Some of them I had thought of and some of them I had not. Eagle mountain had always been consident in that you could catch some fish but this year man it was brutal.
I went again this morning for the fifth day in a row caught fish well. The winds have almost been dead calm and on Eagle Mountain that generally means you are going to get skuncked. Like I say the longer I fish the less I know.
Thanks again Guys very interesting.
Johnny

Johnny, I started fishing Eable Mt in 1967. It sounds like you started in 1964, so you have me beat. I only fished EM once this year but was in June on a very calm day. Got on the water around 8:30 am and for a while all we saw was scattered, minor surface action. We checked out the drop-off south of the islands, the 25 ft hump over on west end of main dam, the point immediately west of that, and a hump 23 ft on top in middle of lake not on any topo I've seen. I almost always find whites on one of these structues, but nothing that day. Finally tried the point which is just northwest and across the lake from what used to be Lauderdale's marina and resteraunt. We searched back and forth across the point starting where top is about 10 ft and worked our way out. Found them in 18 ft water and caught our limit.

I guess I went through that to say I have almost always been able to locate and catch whites at EM, especially since I got newer graphics. Since I was not there in Aug/Sep, I can't say I would have caught them either. Things slowed down here also during that period and everyone it seems was longing for the fall bite. I was able to keep catching them by going to smaller lure (I used a #2 Mepps spinner with weight added to line to get it down to bottom faster). The guides were also catching them but only by trolling, which they don't like to have to do.

Sometimes I can locate fish, usually 20 to 25 ft deep, and the pattern is great - lots of fish and down near the bottom. But I throw everything - large and small - and can't get them to bite. When I find this I usually can have success by going to a shallower pattern - 10 to 13 ft water, and locate fish on bottom as usual, and they WILL bite. Can't exlain it - just learned that I have to go to shallower pattern to find catchable fish.

no..... EL NITRO

It is weird . I have fished six days in a row. As of last sunday the switch has turned on. You could not buy a fish on EM and the last six it is hotter than a 2 dollar pistol. Anybody can go out there and catch a boat load they everwhere.???????????
Johnny

I don't know what is normal this time of year but since it started raining over the last few weeks, I've caught Sandies on crankbaits while fishing for blacks back in the creeks. Something pushed them back there.

BASSCAT, that something is usually shad. Blackbass and sandies are both in there feeding on shad.

I know that I was way back up in a creek catching shad a week or so ago in a foot of water and caught a sandbass in my cast net. They're in there where the food is that's for sure.

Yep, that is what I was getting at. Didn't say it very well. Thankfully they don't pay pilots on how well we write.