Launched at 4am, and pulled out at 9:15pm. Long day but fun. A good friend was in town, and he met me around 6:30am for some sandbass fun. We caught around 340 fish, about 40% keepers at meadomere. We started at the east main point, but wasn't that hot, wake boats were out in full force so I eased over to the drop of the main flat. Turned on the Bluetooth Thumper and they just wouldn't stop. We caught our first 100 in 47 minutes, the second in about 50 minutes, and at 85 Admiral John Slade said Im done, his back was worn out. We estimated about 65 were caught before we went to the drop, and it was a very memorable day. Using a med size cordell spoon, with a second homemade lure which is made out of an old rooster tail blade. Nothing spectacular seen on the graph, they just liked the thumper. Talked to several boats, and shared some lures to help others. Saw the moon go down when I was fishing early, and saw the moon rise at the end of the day.. Just eased out to around 22ft on the drop and spot locked, nothing special. We were knocking them dead, and we had a grand time. We used to go hit Lake Powel every year and wear out the Stripers.. Was fishing 8lb flouro on spinning gear so it would get down quick. Sunday fishing is brutal, village idiots are out in gangs. Saw a wake boat swamp a kayak, and then another boat just come by and not even slow down for them. Caught a nice bass, and many chunks..




First Texas fish


First 100 fish.

Yes good job! That's the spot for sure. Will be out Wednesday after 5 pm to see if they are there to play.

That Cotten Cordell is my favorite! Fresh and saltwater!

I fiahed yesterday from 4pm to 6am this morning. The fish were not out there in the afternoon. I stayed in mid lake area until dark, then ran spots. Shad spawn going on at Meadomere boat ramp when i left this am. You can catch shad off the dock early and late. Caught some sandbass on a crankbait, but didn't find them like i did on sunday. Lots of shad in this area, so they aren't far.. forgot to mention, when my battery on the Bluetooth speaker died the fishing also died. Thumper is your friend. Just spot lock or anchor on the drop. Drifting will only waste your time. Let them come to you...

Btw, caught catfish on the main points with a crankbait in about 10ft of water. Thought i had a big bass, but when your catching catfish on spoons or crankbaits its a good tell your in the spot

East point of meadomere in the morning from the crack of dawn (@ 545am) is good up close to the bank with a shallow diving crankbait. My fishing mentor put a whooping on them while I threw an "un-named" bait. Brutal hard day fishing, but a good day practicing my casting. Wind is strong out of the south, we didn't cross paths with them anymore after we moved chasing the green fish. Didn't look for sandbasss, but I would think the north main points would be a good start after the morning bite died down. We checked the east point of meadomere later in the day and it was a ghost town.

Working 3 days, take care all..


Prosise

I have just bank fished using waders this past week at Murrell catching enough sandies to make it fun. These seem to want the smaller lures I can catch some on a spoon but heaps more on a smaller bait like a Rooster Tail. Normally that bite is very early and over very early. i am retired so fun to me just to catch/release a few fish and make the 8 minute home and do other things

Fished Monday, and Yesterday (wed). Fished for the green fish but I crossed paths with the sandbass on the main point of meadomere on monday for a brief sprint. Looked out on the drop but just a few here and there which were right on the bottom. Didn't see any schools. Crappie are out in full force, if you know of any brush in the 10-15ft range it has crappie on it.

Yesterday 5-25 the wind was coming out of the Northwest and going right down the lake. I caught some sandbass on some wind blown points on the notth side of the lake early, and on the secondary points in meadowmere cove at the end of the day. Wind was brutal, and not a day to be out on main lake.

Bass fishing was really good, landed 31 bass.

Fished yesterday from 5am-4pm. Wind wasn't bad in the early morning, i was pounding the sandbass on the rocks at the mouth of twin coves for almost an hour. Wind steadily got worse and worse. Picked up my buddy at the Meadomere ramp at 745am and we went looking for some fish. Rollers were to bad to fish the rocks on the north side at twin coves. Tried to find some fish, but couldn't find an area with fish that was not in the rough water. We limped back to the south side, and hit all the structure drops that were semi protected. Nothing was working, so we pulled out some crappie jig and fished rock piles, and brush that we found. My buddy caught 5 species of fish, which turned out to be quite fun. Perch, sandbass, bass, crappie, and a gaspergoo (freshwater drum). He did catch a big black nose crappie, which was cool. We were forced to stay on the protected points on the south side, and it was a zoo. Pleasure boats were holed up in the projected areas, enjoying the day. If it wasn't for the wake boats it would have been not so bad. Never got into any sandbass schools all day, but caught a couple here and there. I had great intentions on working humps up north of the crusher, but the wind and rollers were stupid out on main like. The wind was blowing right down the lake from the dam to the beach. The water is tore up from the mud lines. Going out on wed, and will try again. Suprise of the day was catching about a 5 pound bass on a crappie jig, with 4 lb test. I was using a Garcia 3800 reel that is old as i am, and never been serviced. It was given to me from a retired Colonel from the Air Force. It was still in the box, with a sticker price tag on it. Been using for over 5 years, hokey as a rednecks checkbook with all the quirks. But it's fun to use things like this.

The thing that made the day fun started when we stopped thinking we were going to catch them like we did the time we fished two weeks ago. We caught @ 340 fish from 7am-1pm. We caught about 65ish before we started counting, then caught 285. Expecting to repeat this made it kind of suck, so I told him we were going to go fish for crappie. Setup a jig for him, and i fished my ultra light rig. I told him to sit up front, gave him the 5 minute how too with the livescope and it was "On like Donkey Kong!". We didn't slay them, but it's really cool to see how the fish react to your bait. I told him it's like video game fishing, and it's really unfair to then crappie . We just stayed out of the wind on the points of meadomere and looked around for fish. The crappie are out on main lake points, not so much on secondary points. Stay on main lake. He had a great time sniping fish on livescope. The person you fish with, and doing something different is what makes things fun. Telling someone to run the trolling motor, and them replying i can't do that is fun for me. In 30 second they are doing it, and allowing them to decide where we are moving is part of the fun. When it gets tough, put your kid in control of the trolling motor, or let them steer the boat while your idling looking for fish. We really just made the best of spots that were out of the wind, and we had a good day. I have many people i love fishing with, but i have about a dozen that have shared life experiences with me fishing. This man was the one that started out annual lake Powell striper trip. We would catch 1500 fish in 5 days back in the late 90's and did this trip many times back in the day when there was no limits. Imagine 7x 36quart ice chests completely full of fillets only. I was the last boat to pull out of hite boat ramp when the water got low and the upper end silted in. Mud was like chocolate pudding at the ramp and very dangerous.

Sometimes it's not what you catch, or how many, but how the day ends up. But who your fishing with is what makes it special. Many people ask me why i dont guide, and it is easy to answer. When you start making a passion into a job it ruins it. Don't want to mix my passion for fishing with a job. You just can't make the fish bite. I have been pretty mad at them Bass lately, and not spending as much time on sandbass but it's nice to take a break and hunt them down.

Now, the lake is going to be tore up for 4 or 5 days. In my opinion the bait will migrate to the off color water, as it's a form of shelter. So look in the deeper water humps where the water is a little stained. I have been catching big sandbass on the windy points in the morning, so i know they are somewhere mid lake, but i have to do some looking on wed. Take care all.





Caught on 4lb test

Great post! Lots of folks don't get that it isn't only about the fish that you catch. Love the old school garcia. I still use a Pfluger medalist fly reel of my dads. He has been gone for years but every time a trout jumps on that rig I can feel him smiling down at me. Thanks for all of your good posts.

Fished from 3am to 1:30pm today. Bass fishing has been off the chart this week, early bite is really good and I caught good fish today. Got a text from one of the usual suspects that was going to be out on the water. We crossed paths out on the water and had a god visit. He found fish and I went over and had a good visit. When it slowed down I went hunting and finally ended up at Murrell Point on the East side of the end of the point. Fish were there, and thick. The thing that was interesting to me was the way they were holed up on the point. I had standard down sonar going and saw something on the bottom, I dropped my double rig (large cordell spoon, and the smaller metal lure above) and after about 5 vertical motions picked up two fish. If you are not paying attention you will go right over them. I could see the sonar show multiple lines, so I fired up the livescope and recorded some footage. The fish are sitting on the bottom, you can get them excited and had some good fun. I sent a text to Mr "R" and he came over for some more fun. He was keeping fish for a friend and finished his limit of 12"+ fish. Me, Mr R., and a new contact had some fun with them, and when they called it I stay for a bit longer. Didn't see much bait on Murrell, but the fish were there on the bottom. If you look out on the end, you will see an occasional fish stuck to the bottom, just anchor or spot lock and see if you can get them to bite. I was running the Bluetooth "Redneck Thumper" and it wasn't bringing them in but I think it helped. Maybe 4 fish caught under 10" today, and most were over 11". Was really nice being out with the light winds, I am rendering a video and will add it when it's done. Today was a tripple digit day on the sandbass, but I wasn't counting as it was just fun fishing today.






Here is a video to show the fish on the bottom at Murrell point, they are stuck to the bottom.. Pay close attention to the two jigs in the video




5am small sandbass schooling at the discharge.

Texted one of the "Usual Suspects in crime" that fished yesterday. He said vertical jigging on the bottom wasn't working. He was casting out, and working it back on the bottom and caught fish. He caught fish on the south side of the lake until it slowed down, then he checked Murrell point and wasn't any good. He went back to the south side of the lake and found some fish for a bit. He checked Murrell point one more time but the fish were movibg thru pretty quickly. He usually leaves by lunch. He uses a slab with a jig above it. Think he was using a chartreuse curly tail jig on wed and he did well. Since wed the lake is up 2ft 3in from the rain, so be mindful of floating debris if you are going out before sunrise, or heading up. When the lake goes up like this a tremendous amount of brush is introduced to the water on the upper end, shad will flourish in this and will really help us in the long run. It sure makes bass fishing tougher, as the bass are usually focusing on rock piles. When they have brush in the water, they get up close and personal with the wood structure and can be tough to catch. Going out in the morning early, and will prob be looking for the green fish until my buddy gets his butt out of bed and meets me for some sandbass fun. Hopefully the wind won't blow 30 tomorrow, as the wind forecast is looking decent. Don't know what the water looks like but I would expect the upper end and creeks are heavily stained.


Here is the wind app I use for the grapevine area.

https://windalert.com/spot/574

Link

wind alert link

I was out on the lake yesterday looking for crappie. The water is already starting to get into some parking lots but the water color is good. Lots of floating debris. IMO, there is way too much bait in the lake right now and it has been this way for years since the lake is flooded each May/June every year now it seems. EVERYWHERE I went, they would cover up the screen and even black it out to where I could not see anything. More bait for the fish, the less they want to bite. I have said for years that some hybrids would do really good in Gvine and would help improve the fishing overall. The crappie are tough more times than not because all they have to do is open their mouth and let a shad swim in.

Fished from 3am to 2pm. I fished for the green fish until about 7am when the Admiral finally got out of bed. With the wind not blowing 30+ we had a great day.

If you do not have a thumper, make one or do like I do. I use the Redneck Thumper, a big bluetooth speaker and pump out a deep thump into the boat. It really helps. I have instructions on last years grapevine thread on the App I use (android) and how to set the app up. Long story short there are many areas holding fish, and they are tight to the bottom. Only a couple fish caught reeling up, you have to keep the bait near the bottom. We started at the mouth of Scotts landing picking up about 40'ish, scouted the humps by the Island and they were a ghost town. Checked Murrell point and did not find fish out on the drop. The cranes were working up close to the point at Murrell point, but I didn't see fish in numbers. There were a bunch of loners working shad, pushing them up to the surface for the cranes. I wanted to check the humps north of the crusher last week, but the wind was too bad and I couldn't hold on them without water rolling over the bow. We checked them today, and did well. We finished our first 100 there, and restarted the count. The wind started to pick up, so we went to the drop at meadomere and as I was side scanning the top of the drop i could see allot of fish. We eased up and stopped about 35 yards from the drop up on top and casted back to the edge and had fun. Vertical jigging did ok today, but casting out and working the jigs back to the boat like you were worm fishing really was fun. Still using the jig on the bottom, and the metal lure up top. We left there about 1pm with 60 and stopped back at the main point at Scotts landing (west side) and finished our second 100. We had fun, and I wish I could share the video but boys will be boys. Too much incriminating evidence. I posted the waypoints for the two humps that I have done well at (north of the crusher). Will post them below. We left the lake at 2pm with 202, and I am tired. Take care all.

The fish will focus on humps, or drops out on the lake. The fish we caught today were just stacked up on these areas. The bait wasn't in the area.

Area we fished near Meadomere park



Area near Scotts Landing




Humps north of the crusher.

Got many requests for info on the bluetooth speaker, what I call the redneck thumper. The bigger the Bluetooth speaker, the better it thumps. I ended up installing a buck boost converter in the boat. My bluetooth speaker charger runs on 19v, so I added this so I can run the speaker all day long if I want to. It was a bummer when the apeaker would stop working. Best thing about the redneck thumper is you can play music as well. We joke about how different songs do better. Orange blossom special is a real good song to fish to, and the faster tempo songs do better. Here is a link to last years thread. Just scroll down to the instructions.

https://texasfishingforum.com/forums/ubbthreads.php/topics/14199544/1

Link


Buck booster > changes my 13v to 19v so i can supply power to the bluetooth speaker all day. If your speaker uses voltages below 12v, just look for the term buck converter.

Buck booster voltage regulator > Amazon