Anyone fish Bridgeport in the last week?

My first trip there was last Sunday. Small sandies by the truck load where the lake necks down also 1 legal hybrid and about a dozen goo fish.

I've never seen a lake more devoid of baitfish.

Weird, I guess something happened? I haven't fished it in two years, but two years ago I could find a creek channel and make one throw and have a net full of 6" shad, pick out the best 30 of them and let the rest go.

Zebra mussels have taken hold of the lake. Tons of Drum as they eat Zebra Mussels. It was a great fishery for Hybrids and Sandies.

"Devoid" is certainly an accurate description of the lake right now. Based on what I have observed the last few years, here is my unscientific opinion of what happened.

The Fall of 2017 saw more Shad in this lake than I have seen in 20 years here. At the same time the Zebras EXPLODED in the lake. It is known that Shad and ZM use the same food source (proto plankton). The Shad were already stressed going into winter, then it got cold enough to cause a MAJOR kill on the already hard pressed Shad.

At the same time the ZM died back quite a bit, but are starting to cycle up again. The Drum are certainly the main Predator of them.

I think both species took the hit over the lack of food. The Shad bounced back a little by late last year, but still remain very hard to find. I hope we didn't have a kill this year, but we really never know until looking for them.

Keith, it was nice to meet you even though we didn't get to talk much. I was in the Ranger Bay 2 Sundays ago. I hope all the zebra mussels die a painful death and the shad rebound!

Son and I went out today and caught at least 100 white bass. All large spawned out females. Also caught 2 hybrids about 17 in long and 7 or 8 largemouth to 3 lbs. All fish caught on rattletraps off wind blown main lake points in 1 to
6 ft of water. All fish released.

On a side note, I've been fishing over 50 years and have never gotten a hook in me past the barb.........until today.........and it happened twice in less than 20 min. Got each thumb. Luckily the 1st one was parallel to and just under the skin on the backside of my thumb so I just yanked it out with my needle nose pliers and it came out pretty clean, didn't hurt too bad and went right back to fishing. The 2nd one though, about 20 min later, was in the under meaty side of the other thumb and it went in perpendicular and deep. I figured the needle nose worked good the 1st time so i would try it again on this one. I knew it was going to take a good hard, quick and clean jerk to get it out so I psyched myself up and counted to three and gave her heck. It came right out but man this time it hurt like nobody's business. I may have said a four letter word or two. At least I finally got that experience over with. I should be good for another 100+ years now.

Nice ketch. Bporte can surprise you. Rattletraps being removed from a large Hybrid or Striper require two or three sets of needle nose pliers to grasp the fish and trap. Glad you are ok, pulling hooks out of your fingers hurts.

They're there but you need to be set up on top of em. Bait is tough in that lake. For me anyway.

Great day! Thank you for the report