Pre-spawn Ray Roberts

Helpfull hents:February starts the staging process, if you
want to fish shallow put your boat where you would cast
toward the bank & cast toward the deeper water.
Search for the warmest temps you can find.Dark bottoms,
rocks,concrete( there are a lot of house foundations under
water)ramps weed beds. All these will retain radiant heat
better than others.A 3 degree rise in temp will make a
big difference. The first thing you should do is turn on your depth finder at the ramp. Idle out watching your graph. Look for the most bait fish or group of blips to see what depth they are consistently showing up. Let's say 15ft. don't waste time fishing deeper. Find a point,hump, or tank dam that tops out at 15ft. and go to fishing. In my opinion the big females feed heavy at day break and dusk, no matter what the temp.
Hint: Crawdad hatch is the full moon of March.
I've fished Roberts since 1989 and have kept records of every trip. These are just a few things I thought I would share with you guys that may be having problems catching a few. One final thing I always at this time of year like to fish deep close to shallow water.
Good casting....
RUDY

Good read
Thanks rudy!k

Thanks for the tips, Rudy. You are a true gentleman.

Thanks a lot for the info

Great Information

Thank you for the good read!

Thank's alot for the info.

Rudy--AS ALWAYS, YOU ARE ON SPOT, AND I THINK YOU KNOW ROBERTS BETTER THAN ANYBODY. YOU STILL GUIDING?

Hey White Feather !
Not guiding this year. Recovering from surgery. I am getting to fun fish for a change. No pressure. I plan on getting back into it in the fall. I will say this you don't have to run far north at this time. A north bank on a creek that runs east to west or west to east will produce. Those bass are not going to swim 5 or 6 miles up the creeks to find a north bank. They don't even know there is more lake, that is their home. They will spawn there,
she is getting full of eggs right now and she's hungrey !
Having fun.
RUDY

Too bad you're not guiding, but I know you'll have fun "fun fishing"---and I'll bet you don't run "up North." Plenty of uncluttered fishing where we go, huh?

I was there on sunday morning and had a very tough day. The water was rising and very cool 48 to 50 in most areas and I went up both arms. can anyone tell me what they prefer bait wise and color wise for mid march on this lake. I was thinking that red and gold in the grass and green pumpkin and black around the clearer wooded pockets. I would love the opinion of a guide and any other locals.

Okay here goes
For mid March, Lipless cranks red,orange or chrome
Deep diving cranks like 20+ or DD22, firetiger,Tenn shad
orange or red belly fished in 10ft or less.
Suspending minnow bait Rouge,Long A, Pointer etc.
Red shad, Tequila sunrise chartruse pepper have allways
worked on Roberts in soft plastics.
If muddy Firetiger 3/4 oz spinner slow rolled .
Good casting !!!

You are a good fisherman and I have followed your reports for years. I appreciate you generously giving information on RR. It can be a hard lake to catch fish consistently.

One thing I do is what you have mentioned. Finding the north bank of east west creeks or draws. The other thing that has helped on tough days is finding the rocks in the trees.

Thanks again

Great info.Thank you Sir.

Thanks for the info. I will apply it in about 4 weeks.

quote=bccougar]Thanks for the info. I will apply it in about 4 weeks. [/quote]
Me too.

Time to scout new water.

Went back yesterday and I have to admit, we tried just about every bait mentioned by Rudy mostly by accident...and the soft plastics in his recommended colors were the only thing we could catch fish on. The cove right around the corner from Jordan park has a LOT of grass in it. Finally found some! Oddly enough the majority of our fish (does 5 make a majority?) came from the main lake points between Jordan and the dam. TRigged plastics tight to timber and there were a few rocks around.

Rudy, I admire your generosity and appreciate you sharing your years of RR wisdom!

Rkd,
Way to go !!!