New to Ray Roberts and sand bass fishing, from what I have read and heard, sand bass fishing is good on RR. I have several Ambassador 5000 reels and will they do the job for sand bass fishing?
Thanks in advance

Those reels ought to work just fine. I have one of those myself and it's been a good reel. I bought a couple of new reels this year as replacements for reels that were 20 years old and wore out. I bought the Shimano SLX-DC and it is a super smooth reel. Although it does cast much better and it greatly minimizes backlash, I've found you still need to adjust it, like you would, or close to that of any bait casting reel.
I've had a hard time with the sand bass this year, mostly at Bridgeport with my granddaughter. We are planning our next trip to RR so, going to follow your thread as I've been on the lake but have no knowledge of where to start.. We've done a lot of fishing this year, ready to do a little catching... lol.
Keep your lines tight!

https://www.cabelas.com/shop/en/shimano-slx-dc-baitcast-reel

In short yes your reels will work just fine. I mainly use spinning for sand bass unless I am using top water. Spinning I use a 7ft Med extra fast Shimano SLX rod 2500 series reel. For line I use 8-10lbs Sufix mono.
The rod runs about $100 a good spinning reel will run you about $80 so you can get a combo that works for all sorts of stuff for under $200 that will last you years.
Ray Bob can be very good for sand bass but your going to have to do some searching and moving around. PM me and I can give you some tips.

It has been years since I fished, retired now and wife about to retire. Live close by to Ray Roberts so looking forward to learning the lake and hopefully catching a few fish. Looking forward to fishing during week, early morning and late afternoon and evening, when lake is not as busy, hopefully.

Kates point in the summer, or sand bass pasture if you can get thru the timber. There is a guide at Ray Roberts who guides for nothing but Sandiies, his name is Jim White don’t think I’ve ever seen him complain about catching sandies as he’s cleaning fish every day for about 2 hours in the middle of the day.

David, could you point me to the Kate Point and sand bass pasture location. I used google and tried just looking at a map but had no luck finding it.
Thanks in advance!

Allen

Kates point is just the main lake point, Sand Bass Pasture is a huge wide open area about 1/2 mile north of wolf island, and south of the mouth of Indian Creek just idle thur the timber north of wolf island about a 1/2 mile, look for a big tree line that runs north and south, that will be the western side of the pasture, the main creek channel is the eastern side of it. I can't explain why that old pasture holds so many sand bass but it does and has for years. Lilndy Roberts use to take clients there every week and catch limits in just a few hours. Take some deep diving and medium diving crank baits and troll around that pasture till you start catching them or if your good on electronics just keep crusing and scanning till you find them. Once you find them you can then go to a jigging spoon and wear them out. Send me an email to davidwelcher98@yahoo.com and I'll send you some detailed boundries on a marked up google earth map. Can't do it though till Monday as my home computer is worthless.

This will get you to sand bass pasture

That specific area has held tons of sandies for decades. In fact Tim Wilke used to refer to the area as Hay Stack. An area that held sand bass even when the temps were in the 20's.

What size, weight, color jigging spoons should I start with for pursuit of the sand bass? This is a new method and species for me, thanks for your inputs.

the depth in that area is 20 to 30 foot, so your going to want a 1/2 to 3/4 oz spoon to get down that deep quickly. A flutter spoon will take a long time to get that deep. So get something like a cotton cordell or a hopkins spoon in chrome as your are mimicking an injured shad near the bottom.

David, thank you so much for the help. Trying to go in the morning.

David we made it to Sandbass Pasture and your description was extremely helpful. We trolled as well as scanned and found fish in several spots on graph but could not stir up a bite. Fished slabs, spoons and even tried a #2 Mepps with a split shot above it, letting it settle to the bottom then burn it up about 5 cranks and let it settle again. That norther came in and the morning temps were right about 60 and overcast/cloudy. By noon, we were still overcast and only at 62 when we got off the lake. One of the guides coming in said the sandbass that morning were hard to come by so he went to large mouth and caught a few. Couple other guides came in and they had a five gallon bucket each full of sandbass. It is an always an enjoyable time on the water and we know you don't always catch but we can always build those memories and enjoy Gods creation. We'll be back and thank you again for all the help!