I have been delirious this weekend staring out the window at rain and snow and howling winds for 2 days. I couldnt make it down south for this one, hated to miss it. But while things are quite I was wondering if any body would discuss the way they caught there fish and depths and temps..etc..Looks as if most caught plenty and in need of some discussions on what techniques worked. OK Im bored.

Paul and Gary trolled.

We caught all our fish in 1-2' of water. We trolled in 8-10' pre-fishing and tourney day, but could not find any better fish than up shallow, so that is what we stayed with. We fished water anywhere from 59-68 degrees.

I wish we could water temps like that here.

With 29mph currents the fish we found were hiding from the current behind anything they could, shallow.
One short male got so excited when I caught him he squirted yellow fluid all over my hand. They are spawing down there, anywhere that they can.
Also I feel very convinced that they do pick food up from the bottom at this time of year. Stucky and I saw them do it last year at DeVine and they are doing it again at Livingston. It's a finicky bite, you got to let them smell it, lick it then take it. You have to put it in a spot the curret won't move it.

Caught our fish from 2-7' deep. Some right on the bank, others off the bank in heavy cover. All on jigs. Water temps mostly 60-62. We looked in deeper water that was 57-59 but no bites. Fish were moving and staging in different areas. Mostly males shallow with females holding off the banks in 5-8'.

Any bass fisherman will tell you they will pick up baits from the bottom. I was bass fishing 2 weekends ago and caught a couple nice crappie on Tx rigged lizzards. And had alot more crappie bites on the same bait. I have always heard that crappie feed above them because their eyes look up. Thats just not right all the time. I have caught allot of crappie bass fishing on the bottom.

We did so well we decided to skip the weigh in.

Friday we found fish on some bridge pilings on the SW side of the lake and up on the bank in the back of Jennings Branch. Saturday morning, we didn't get a sniff at either location. That had us questioning our judgement and our confidence was busted. Instead of sticking with what we had found we pulled up stakes and trailered an hour up to the north end of the lake and fished in Carolina Creek. This allowed us to pick up a couple of fish but, it was 2:30, raining, cold as all get out and we knew there was no chance of placing. So, we put our tail between our legs and headed home. Humbled and wondering if we just picked the wrong starting spot or if we should have stayed true to the pattern we found on the lower end of the lake and stuck it out down there hoping that they would have turned on later in the day.

Whichever the case, what we did decide to do seemed to be the wrong one all day long.

What didn't work for us? Jigs tipped with minnows fished 2-6 feet off the bank in structure that was 6 foot deep or the bridge pilings in 6 feet of water at the mouth of a feeder creek going into the main lake.

That's too bad Greg, I was wanting to meet you.
The currents made it tough but we stuck with what worked
the day before and last week.

We made it just short of the money but qualified for the TSCC and ready for the next one.
Maybe we'll run across each other eventually.
I'm easy to find since I got my new shirts.


Some of them spawned a little early.

I think we plan on going to Belton so maybe then.

Partner and I found some nice males on Fri. in about 1.5 ft of water. A couple were around 1.4 #.
We also caught fish around laydowns in the 6-12ft. range and did find some females. Partner fished minnows, and I fished mainly a 1/16 oz. thumpit jig cahrt/silver/chart. I call it "The Kubiak Special". Just give Skip a call if you want any, he will know which one I use. I have 16 more of that jig coming my way, it's that good! I even caught a 21 pound yella cat on it Friday.
Saturday, tournament time, caught more fish, but smaller fish as usual for us. Pretty much the same pattern with a small adjustment on depth as the females were caught between 4-9ft. a little shallower than the day before as far as fishing the laydowns goes.
We caught about the same amount of fish between us.
All of our fish caught in White Rock Creek.
We're still looking for that "kicker" fish!

I Know it was very peacful where we fished, Not sure if we saw more than 2 boats both days. We had lots of tugs and lots of slipbobbers sinking yet not much to show for it. Fishing penwaugh
had nice water with little to no current & after prefishing felt good that Sat would be OK. Realizing on Sat that maybe livingston crappie stay in the creeks year round due to the amount of big cats waiting to have lunch on them in water of any depth. Was a good time even with the lack of fish. Would like to fish the lake in Summer, see what they do?
ONE thing is very true the bite was as above, You had to serve it on the exact platter and even then wait for them to smell the year. Had fun.