Grapevine Newb

Decided to teach myself how to bass fish.
Have watched tons of videos on youtube, and done quite a bit of reading.

Been fishing on lake Grapevine 6 times since the spring started and have not caught one single fish.
I understand a few basic techniques. I practice pitching and flipping in my backyard. Have small Tupperware's at various distances to practice landing in. Getting pretty good at pitching. Don't really flip much yet.
I love pitching a jig or Texas rigged creature into cover along the banks. (This is the way I really want to fish the most, but I'll try anything.)
I put in on Denton creek in trophy club. I have fished the holy hell outta those back shallows everywhere on the north end. I have never even gotten one bite. (Soooo many gars in the north end). There is bait fish popping all ove the place up there though.
I still don't quite know when and where to use my dropshot / finesse rig yet. So I just randomly bust it out from time to time. Cast it out and slowly pull it back in. Have tried letting it land near large sunken trees or just in open water. I don't really see any grass beds in Grapevine, but maybe I don't know how to locate them yet.
Yesterday I went out to deeper waters. It's tough on Grapevine because its so rough, and I only have a 15' bass tracker.
But I found an area I really liked about 15-18' deep with plenty fish showing on my finder at about 10' deep.
I tried a round bill crankbait and my daughter used a lipless crank bait for a couple hours. I got one thump the entire time.
I also tried yoyo'ing a jig, and my drop shot rig in that area.

I don't think Grapevine is the greatest lake to fish (too much pressure?), but I live 5 miles from it, so I really want to learn how to make it work. Visibility is bad, maybe 6 inches. I could give Eagle Mountain a try though if it's easier to fish.

I have some basics in lures. jigs, a frog, Texas or Carolina rig plastics (creatures or worms), drop shot rigs, and a couple of crankbaits. (don't have a chatterbait, or spinner yet).

One thing I should work on is getting out earlier. I've been getting on the water around 10AM.

Advise welcome. Starting to get a discouraged.

Thanks!

Try around the marinas on the other end of the lake and report back to us.

Launch at Katie's Woods. Will put you about midway between the 2 marinas on south side, good protection from s/se wind. Can also hit rip rap on south end of dam if wind is not too bad. And go earlier - or much later. Personally never had any luck during middle of day on grapevine. No grass there either

Don't worry, you'll start catching them and developing your confidence! One thing I always recommend would be to hire a guide that can devote solid time discussing techniques, bass migration and patterns, structure, while at the same time catching a lot of fish!

Grapevine is one of the easiest lakes to fish in the DFW area. Once you get your confidence up and find some key spots, you'll catch them every time. When I fished there a lot, wind blown rocky areas would usually produce. The dam always holds fish, try a shaky head out deeper. Also, rather then hitting the early bite, go in the evening until dark this time of year.

You'll figure out how to catch them but they will constantly be moving too, so switch it up.

Go early and throw a shad imitating bait on wind blown banks and you should change the no fish thing very fast.

It can be frustrating. I still get frustrated with fishing. What you might try is to leave the boat at home and hit a few small ponds where there is less pressure. Get a feel for it and pay attention to what kind of structure and cover they are hanging around. Then try to go to the lake with the boat and duplicate it.

I'd also recommend getting in touch with James Biggs on here. He does instructional fishing. He would tell you what lures to bring, have a sit down before ever getting on the water to talk to you about patterns and reading a lake and then will go out and put all of what you were taught into use. I used him last year at Joe Pool and it really improved my fishing. His rate is pretty low, especially when you think about the time that he will save you just learning how to begin.

I've only been on Grapevine twice but most of my bites were on all the docks.

Pm sent

This is something I've really been thinking about also. I remember a small catch/release pond in the Arlington area that was really nice (Or maybe it was Hurst); for the life of me I can't remember where it is. I think there is a really nice stocked pond in Euless too off Bear Creek.

The pond by the Roanoke fire department according to parks and rec. is only stocked right before the big fishing contest and then is completely hammered. I went out there one day and there is absolutely no sign of life. Same with Bob Eden, called their parks and rec and it hasn't been stocked in years.

+1 JAMES BIGGS!!!

Trust me, you’re causing yourself more harm by learning from YouTube. Don’t get me wrong - some of it is good and useful information but if you don’t have a practical foundation to start with it becomes information overload and you’ll forever lack confidence and clarity. Been there.

Flip buck brush wherever you can find it from mid lake to the dam. On sunny days they are in em and eating. Went through 2 bags of Rowdy Bugs on my last trip there.... fished a half day and had 14 fish with 3 overs all on the flipping bait. Funniest thing ever, I started off fishing the shad spawn and killed an hour without a bite, not even a darn sandbass. I put down the shad baits, grabbed the Rowdy Bug and hit the bushes to save the day.

Throw finesse worms on shaky head or drop shot. In general points or rocky areas are the key. I’ll be happy to show you around out there sometime. PM me & we can coordinate.

Thanks for all the replies. Lots to take in. I'm gonna process all of this, and see what changes I can make. for sure I need to abandon mid-day fishing. And checkout the south end, and more rocky areas, and up my finesse game. Shakyhead finesse worms near rip rap closer to the marina's and the damn sound like a promising plan of action.

Getting a "little" better.
We tried fishing nearer the south side, closer to the dam.
I've been focusing on finesse fishing. Have some light XT 6lb line on a spinning reel.
I've been experimenting with a GYCB 4" Fat Ika with a EWG 4/0 hook Texas rigged. Letting it hit and rest for about 30 seconds and slowly methodically moving it a foot at a time.
I've been focusing on sitting on points, right around the edge of any drop offs I can find.
Played around with a wacky rig and a drop shot rig. But I think I wanna focus on Texas rig's right now and build up confidence in it first.
I have only caught a couple of white bass and nearly had a widemouth in the boat but he shook off while he was up in the air just over my boat.
And all those were on crank baits, after I get tired of finesse fishing. The white bass were on medium diving spoon nose cranks, and the WM was on a cheap $2 lipless, and he was hanging around a rocky point late morning on a hot day, when the water temp was upper 80's in like 10ft of water.
We are now trying evening fishing. Rigged the daughter up with 8lb flouro and a 7" Berkley power-worm (ring tail) T-rigged (Tequila sunrise).
We went to a real rocky point on the north side just north of Rockledge. at sundown. Water was about 84.5 degrees. I had her fan out starting near the shore on one side of the boat while I did a Fat Ika out the other side. First cast near the shore working her way back she hooks a decent SM. We were both stoked. It's the best fish we have caught since I started bass fishing.
She gut hooked it, but I was able to perform successful surgery without hurting him too much.

TLDR;
We are getting a bit better. Caught a couple. Trying to perfect Texas rigged presentation.
Oh, and I hate fishing the main body of Lake Grapevine on the weekends. Too many selfish idiots.

[img]http://texasfishingforum.com/forums/pics..._52575008202948[/img]

If you can't find time to go with Jigger, I will be more than happy to show you around the lake. I'm limited to Sundays and Mondays. You can PM me your number to shoot me a text. I keep my boat at Jigger's house

Sorry I forgot to reply to Jigger. I'd be happy to meet up with him and or you Justin. That would be fun.
I'll PM.

Good man, JD!

Try a shallow running crankbait off rocky banks and points.

Sent u a pm

Superb topwater bite the last couple of weekends too. Been fishing from 5am till about noon

When Monte Coon and I used to fish the Wednesday night tournament on Grapevine, our go to when it was slow was a 7" Texas rigged Blue Fleck Power Worm. Yes, it was a confidence bait for us, but it's also an old school bait that has been producing for years.

Went out again yesterday evening again. Was a little cooler so water temp started off at 82 at 7 and continued to drop.

And dude I was so stoked to get 3 fish. Two SM and a catfish. Giddy as a school girl in fact! I actually got all three on three consecutive casts. Also lost two fish earlier.

This one was obviously my personal best SM. Not sure how much it weighed, I need to buy a scale. But it was a fat sucker.





Sticking with one technique still, because I want to learn it well and gain confidence in it.
Same rig: Medium light 7' spinning rod with Triline XT 6lbs, and a Berkley 7" tequila sunrise Texas rigged with a 4/0 worm hook. (not EWG).

I just find a shoreline I like, cast parallel to the shore, let it sit for 30ish seconds, and slooowly and methodically lift the line and sweep it in 1 or 2 feet at a time. Paying attention to every little bump I feel on the bottom. Loose a few rigs that way but plastics and worm hooks are cheap. Plus not using a leader so re-rigging over and over is not a big deal.

Nice largemouth.

Thank you.
Is that a LM I thought it was small because of the one fin on the back. Still working on my identifications.

Yep, both largemouth.

Keep grinding dude..it took me years to figure out my home lake. Some days it's fire and some days it's cold as ice..either way your out doing what you want to be doing and that's what it's all about!

Nice catch finally! You'll get it figured out. Largemouth and smallmouth are really easy to tell apart once you've seen a couple. Be careful with that 6lb test, this is Texas and you're gonna set yourself up for heart break.

Agree. I dont use anything less than 12lb floro

I don't use anything less than 20

Ok can you kinda explain that further? You mean Texas has lots of structure the fish can break my line off in?


I went with such light line cause I'm teaching myself how to feel everything. I could go back to 10lbs braid with an 8 lb flouro leader again. Which should still have a lot of feel. And TBH I'm getting sick of the line twist.

Texas is big fish country. You hook into an 8+ pounder, you don't want to worry about your line strength. If I run braid, its 50 pound. Floro is usually 15 lb. I've used 12 on a few occasions, though.

March 13th 2017, I caught my 2nd DD (10.13lbs--24.75in long) on grapevine. it was a SUPER windy day and I probably should not have been in my kayak fishing near the dam, but I always have a fluke, TX rig worm, or a crawfish TX rigs (lightest weight I can) and almost dead stick it between my retrieves back.

hope that helps, grapevine for me is a hit or miss lake, but I love fishing around rocks in general so it has a special place for me.

Sent ya a PM.

Hey It's been a while. I'm still a newb, but still at it.
I have my comfort zone (Texas rigged plastics and floro around anything rocky)

Having a bit of difficulty this time of year understanding where the fish are. Went out Friday, big water too choppy when into denton creek. Was not able to find the fish there. But... I'm not convinced they weren't there. Bunch of sand bass were around, and carp and gar. Blanked big time.

Monday I went back to my comfort zone. The dam, and the rocky points around the marinas. I found nothing on the dam which surprised me. I did get one nice 4lbs SM off of one of the rocky cliffs. But in general it felt like they weren't in the deeper areas of the lake.

Surface temp near the deeper southeast end was 60 Monday. Temp in the mouth of and way up into denton creek was 65 on Friday.

So I guess my big question is any advice for me to narrow down what area to hit right now. Big water? Skinny water? Something between. I thought I read they don't like the sand (gets in the gills). Most of the rocky stuff on GV is nearer the southeast (deeper end). Is this considered pre-spawn, spawn, or post-spawn on GV? I trolled the banks looking for beds. They either aren't there or I was spooking them. Should I look for beds in rocky areas, or gravely areas? anywhere inside the mouth of denton creek is too cloudy to look for beds. I hit log jams there, and banks, nothing.

Here's a picture of my Monday catch just for fun.

Mather, GV is smack dab in the middle of the spawn....some are done, some are just getting started. On sunny days I would be pitching a creature bait to every piece of brush you can find in 3 ft.of water or less, cloudy days are also good for this and also a good time for moving baits. This time of the year I always have on: Spinnerbait, Chatterbait, Tx. Rigged creature, under spin w/ 3.5 to 5 inch Shad type bai and a Senior/Fluke. Start at the points outside each marina and work your way back. Lots of other baits will work, those are just my choices.

Just use James Biggs and your problem will be solved

Bobby, thanks I may try guide someday. P102, thank you for the suggestions, will try them and report back!

So I went out today around 4. Started at the points near the marina behind Gaylord. Worked the Rocky points with Texas rigged worm. Then hit the tires. Then inside the cove. Tried walking the worm around anything Rocky. Then went to point by dam and worked down into marina. Switche'd to pitching rod and started pitching to all bushes with Texas rigged blue crawdad. Did this for a long time. Tried wacky rigged worm on finess rod on points. Eventually went to the dam. Worked the rip rap for a bit but nothing. Then went to the Northside of the dam and started pitching a blue crawdad Texas rigged at all the bushes. Worked up the shores a long time. Then headed back to Katie's woods and pitched at bushes all around the cove. No luck blancked today. Talked to a guy at the docks he claimed all the bass are bedding up in the mouth of Denton Creek around the bushes. Might try that next. This is my first spring. Started fishing last summer. I just need to figure spring out. Slowly but surely.

SM?

try 8# P-Line CX

Thanks, I can give it a try.

Maybe not idk. Here's another angle

Largemouth for sure bud. Nice one too!!

The Vine is tough IMO. But i do enjoy it and its 10 mins ftom me.

Thanks. Yeah I keep wanting to go to eagle mountain. Maybe I will tomorrow.

When I first moved to the metroplex I fished GV alot, and it beat me down. It's a tough lake for sure. Good luck and stay with it. There are some guys who really have that place dialed in, especially Wednesday nights.

Thanks for the encouragement. After spawn I feel like I know where to go on GV. But right now it seems like they could be anywhere.




I took these pictures today. I spent most of my time as far up north as you can get in 1-4 feet of water.

Here:



I spent a lot of time pitching a crawdad at those bushes
And various things at the reeds. But there are miles of those bushes and reeds.
I tried to stop in areas where the bushes are off of rockier shorelines.


I did realize today I really need to work on my boat control and my pitching finess.
I can only get a soft splashless landing when pitching about 20% of the time.
And im getting my boat too close to the bushes and probably scaring everything.

I'm in the same boat - GV crushes me - I have gas money and can split the cost of a guided trip/