I've been hesitant to report lately. Mostly because I just could not say the fishing was good or bad or even mediocre.... We had a week or so of fantastic Fall fishing and then it just got really inconsistant. One day they would school and be easy to slab up later in the day, then the next day would be tough as nails. You could find fish, mark them on the graph, and not be able to catch them. I cant say for sure, but I belive the lake turned over. I wiped scum off my boat every day for a good week and talking to another couple guides, they kinda feel the same way. Looks to be clearing up the last couple days and seems the fishing has followed suit. All that being said, the water is about 68 degrees and we are now 7' low. If you are not familiar with this lake use extreme caution navigating. There are lots of points and humps way out in the middle of the lake to run up on and lots of stumps in places that look like open water.
Dont really know why, but the fish are still schooling up on the humps. They are usually schooling out in 35+' and in open water this late in October, but they are still doing it in the same old spots on the South end. Its no big secret where. I start each day looking for birds. Lots are just picking the water, but when they are over fish they will fly way faster and be really consentrated where they dive. Pay no attention to the birds out in deep water picking and moving. They are all over the whole lake. Most are very small turns. They will lead you astray. The big gulls will be out there when the fish move to the deep. I am pretty much throwing nothing but Banana Sassy Shad and a 3/4oz head from
www.moestackleshop.com all day. The schooling fish are SPOOKY!!! About as spooky as I have ever seen them. A big engine will make them go down, leave the hump, and not come back at all right now. I can usually tell if they will school or not pretty early on. If 4 or 5 boats idle all over the hump at daybreak and leave their motor running waiting for the fish to come up, the fish will not come up worth chasing. You may as well leave. I try to sit out close to the hump in 30 feet of water to wait and watch, motor off. If they do come up use your trolling motor. There is a reason most of us locals make long trolling motor hauls to fish instead of motoring to them. You catch more fish. Trust me, we could motor over and catch 1 and run to the school just as easily as anybody else. Thats a great way to catch 1 fish. If everybody could get on the same page everyone catches more. Saturday I did not get squat out of the schoolers. I always had boats between me and the school. If they come up on one side of the pack, the guys closest get to them first. Thats just the way it works. Dont ruin it for those guys.
The evening bite has been really good. I fished a few afternoons and was quite pleased to find slab fish willing to bite later in the day. The sand bass have been really shaollow on the points 6-10' deep. I think the fish really want chrome right now. I rarely use anything but green, but the #41 slab from Moe's is really getting more bites. Big fish schooled each afternoon about 5:30 to dark. They were really shallow on points and humps, but right up on the bank kind of shallow. I have pretty much used nothing but a banana Sassy Shad lately. When they get really shallow, I like a 1/2oz head. You can slow down a retrieve with it and not hang up so much.
I'm up early today waiting for the cold front. It hasn't hit yet and if it is not blowing 20 out of the North I am going fishing. Yesterday was awesome. I had TallBaldGuy and Scott Williams out with me and we caught fish pretty steadily, sometimes furiously till noon. Including a 20 or 30 minute blast of nothing but striper - bigguns
.......Impulse is Natural but Reasoning is Learned
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