10/20/2021: The finicky fishing has continued well into October. I don't recall it lasting this long before. By finicky I mean we can find good schools of fish on the bottom on structure and they, for the most part, refuse to bite. SO you catch a few and they stop biting and you have to leave all these fish and go find another school and hope they bite. Having said all that, w still are catching good numbers. Today 3 of us caught 101 fish between 9 AM and 3 PM. At each spot we stopped at, we had to try both #2 and #4 Mepps to see which they wanted because it varied place to place. Also, fish were constantly on the move adding to the difficulty. We are catching some fish on the 2 by raising the rod up and reeling slowly about 5 turns and repeating back to the boat. We are catching them on 4's using the usual point rod at the line and reel 3 to 7 turns trying fast and slow retrieves or by holding rod to the side and dragging it on a long slow retrieve - 3 to 8 turns of the reel. Using these two methods you can catch fish - but not on every cast even though you throw into the middle of a bunch of fish. When fish are not finicky, you can catch one every cast into a school of fish parked down on structure. Here are some pics from this week. Note the gizzard shad that bit a #4 Mepps spinner - 1st time I've ever seen this.

Thanks for the report Dennis. I had about the same thing this past Sunday at sunkin island. Got there around 8 that morning, and another boat that fishes that spot on a regular basis as well, said that I had just missed them schooling. Said they stayed up for about 20 minutes or so. Anyway, I was throwing a #4 sitting in about 10 fow and casting to deeper water bringing the Mepps up the slope. Like you, I would catch 1 every cast, then nothing. They would pick back up to every other cast or so, and then a few minutes later, nothing. Only stayed out till about 10:30 and caught about 25 total, keeping 18 for a small fish fry that evening. Only caught 1 fish on a smaller #3. As it got closer to leaving time, fish just shut off completely.

Thanks for sharing all of your variations to the Mepps method to give us some ideas to try when the going gets tough! Much appreciated!

Great report Dennis.

Great report Dennis.

I went out yesterday around noon until 4 PM. Started looking at Key Ranch North and found nothing. Went to Key Ranch Drop Off and marked scattered fish in 17 to 19 feet but only got one bite. Went to spillway hump and found a good concentration of fish in 17 to 19 feet of water but got only 4 bites. Went to Tennis court and found nothing. My final stop was the sunken island north of Prairie Creek. Found good numbers on the bottom in 15 to 17 feet. First 4 casts got magnum size fish. Then I got bit every other cast. I then had to fan cast around the boat because the fish were moving but they never went out of casting range. I threw both the Mepps #2 and #4. They showed no real preference other than they wanted a slow retrieve with the lure hugging the bottom. Two observations. First observation was that the fish took the Mepps #2 deep. Fortunately I did not lose any fish because they were hooked deep. The second observation was that you really had to pay attention while retrieving your lure. Many times during the retrieve, the lure would get light meaning momentary lack of resistance. If you stopped the retrieve and let the lure fall to the bottom. You would generally have a strike when you started your retrieve again. I suspect that the fish were striking the blade which caused the light sensation during the retrieve. I ended up with around 20 at that spot before I left and headed home.

I wanted to add one more observation. The water was very clear on the south end of the lake. The further north you went, the water was not as clear. That may account for the fish behaving different.

RoadRunnerTR21: Thanks for the observations. You are so right about the clarity of the water. The fish can see your lure presentation better, especially if you are moving it slowly as we have to right now. One time my wife was out-fishing me 3 to 1 on a small point at Lake Livingston. There hadn't been rain for months, and the lake was much clearer than normal. Finally, I stopped her and compared our rigs more closely. The only difference was that her line was noticeably smaller in diameter than mine. So, I think I recall putting a leader of the smaller line on my rig and started catching as many as she was proving that the thicker line was indeed the problem.

Awesome thread!

10/25/2021: Took friend Ed out with me and, after looking for a while, we found a good concentration of big white bass at Enchanted Isle Ridge. From about 10:30 AM to 1:30 PM we caught 110 fish: 106 whites. 2 cats, and 2 yellow bass. Most were caught on #4 Mepps, but we tried #2 just to see if they would bite, and they did but not as readily as the 4. Fish were in 18 to 22 fow.

Awesome. Thanks for the report.

Was searching "high winds lake" and one came up on YouTube. Might be a lite stained in areas.. crazy wind this week.

Even worse on south end.