Not often that I get skunked at Fayette. I can count on my hand the number of times in the past 30 years actually. (I guided the lake for several years) Yesterday was tough. I took a saltwater buddy of mine who rarely fishes freshwater for a trip on his boat. I will say that I'm jealous of the newer fish reveal technology that Lowrance has and definitely will be doing an upgrade on my own electronics as a result. We marked fish everywhere we went, however couldn't get them to hit anything. I fished crankbaits in 7-12ft of water in the backs of creeks, tried Carolina rigged trick worms in the same area, fished shaky head jigs up by the intake area and the dam, tried a super fluke early in the morning in the grass and finally tried Tx rigged finesse worms around the reeds and shoreline grass...all to no avail. I do realize this was a post front day but they were absolutely shut down. Didn't see anyone else catching either so we opted for lunch at Orsags in Fayetteville. (that always makes the trip worth it) Still a pretty day on the water and better than working.

I went to Fayette the same day. Didn't get on the water till 11:00 am. Fished pretty much the same places and techniques. Not a single hit for 2 hours. I ran the boat around for a while to just cool off and get some time on the motor. Decided it was too hot for me and loaded up and went home. But as some say, a day on the water is better than a day at home.

We went on the full moon. Was tough except for an hour or so after sunup when we caught 11. Fished T-rigged but the last 3, all over 4 lbs were on drop shot.

Funny, I was there that same morning as well and had the same results. Not a single hit after 5 hours. Started out at Hogg Point with a frog at first light which is usually a safe bet. The near fog out around 8:30 or so kind of limited my travel to other areas for a while.

When I left around 10:30 there were only 5 other trucks in the Park Prairie lot. I forgot about the antique show going on and had traffic at 5:15 am rolling down 237.

Went out Sunday 10/14 and had similar results. On the water 7:10Am hit the known spots nothing. Only started getting bit when we moved to timber. Boated 2 went back to inlet, nothing again. Went back to the timber and I got a nice size catfish on a crank bait. HAHA was not expecting that. About 1:30 one of the guys caught a nice 3-4lbs on top water. So didn't get skunked, but was very slow.

Went on 10/17 before sun rise and stayed till 12:30. It was mainly miss most of the day except 2 hours around sunrise. I think you can be almost anywhere on lake around sunrise and at least get a couple of bites, but when it shuts off it is off. We ended up with 33, with most coming off of one point. Shad were breaking the surface all around us. Might have had more but buddy had multiple equipment issues. Fish were good quality with full bellys, most were around 3 lbs with a handful of 4s and over.

Tried fishing discharge but a cast netter was in the mouth. I think this is one of the reasons fishing in the shallows has been abysmal lately. There was a cast net hung up on the Oak Thicket dock. A park ranger removed it and entagled in it was a huge dead water snake.

Hope fishing picks up for everyone. Probably won't be back until after the new year.

The cast net guys are putting a big hurt on this lake.
But this lake in the fall will see several lake turn overs due to rain, colder weather and such. I think it has a lot to do with it being a hot lake is why it will turn over several times before it flat lines and fishing gets going great. I read a great article on this and Fayette as well as other hot lakes have these turn overs much more often than other lakes. Middle of next month it should be good, somewhat a steady bite.

Even the guides are having issues with staying on a good chew right now, so it's the water and fish that are all messed up right now, it has nothing to do with an angler not being able to located a decent bite or what the fish are looking for to strike at.

My buddys went on friday and only caught 12 fish. They were deep. They said the shallow bite was terrible