The good thing about tough fishing is that GREAT fishing is usually just around the corner! I think you are right and the fall or winter bite on these East Tx Lakes will be on fire! When the bite is tough like right now I personally like to use lighter weights, lighter line, and smaller lures for these pressured and inactive fish. For example a 1/8oz to 3/16 oz shaky head rigged with a natural colored Yamamoto 5 in Pro Senko is one of my favorites baits out deep, fish it very slowly across the bottom or near cover using 6-10 lb fluorocarbon line and spinning rod! In shallower water I will flip creature baits/jigs for bites from resident bass that live in dirty water and stay tight to shallow cover or in shaded areas during this heat.

The beauty of the kayak is that when lake fishing sucks you can go fish the rivers... it's starting to get very good below some of the dams around here now that the water's coming down a little

I'm 70 and retired. All I'm interested in is fishing. I live in west Texas. I begin every morning by launching at 1st light. If I don't fish in the morning I have nothing to do and that really makes me crazy. But I'm way past my personal record for not catching anything. When I think of the hours and gas I've burned since the rains and without ANY results. And I know that August/September will be tough too. I just tell myself that the lake is the prettiest place in the world in the early light and that one of these days I will break this bad streak.

You keep it in the right perspective. I admire you. Stay at it. Your luck will change.

with lots of new water and lots of dying cover, I think it suspends a lot of fish. they want to go shallow to the cover, but it begins to sour. they want to go deep, but with low light and high heat there is little food and little oxygen out deep. So they suspend at a comfortable range outside the cover. that's been what I have observed in these type of conditions. And it makes for tough fishing.

Yup!

Water temps are very high, oxygen is very low, lots of bait around, the dog days of summer are upon us!

I have had luck recently on schooling topwater fish and a few drop shot fish here and there.

But all in its been mostly slow.

I have started chasing catfish and bluegill on the side to keep my line tight its been that slow lol.

+1... That's what 70 years of wisdom gives you....I am not religious but dang close when I think how I am Blessed to have the chance to wet a line...

Fall is gonna be pretty nuts when all the shad start moving back into creeks and get in the shallow cover those bass will be chomping on them.

Sell the SRA some water treatment that'll fix that funk!

There's always golf!

The bass are there it's a timing deal this time of year. Took my son bream fishing and he was catching great for an hour then they stopped all ofsudden .I thought what 's going on . I through my shakey head worm over there and caught 6 bass in a row and he even caught some worms under a bobber. You could be in th perfect spot but if their full and not dinner time their not eating. This summer has been great . I did notice that the wind help a lot . I try to keep covering water and write down times when certain spots turned on so I won't be wasting time. I don't have boat but love fishing no matter the conditions. The bream population has exploded on a lot of lakes and kept some big fish shallow.

When it gets hot and like the Dead Sea, I like to troll a big DD22 over humps and roadbeds. Cuaght many fish doing this over the years at Fork...also lost my share of DD22's too.

Gman