Thanks for the optic reply ! A lot of shallow divers in the mix suggestion fishing schoolers ,tree tops ,shallow reeds or brush piles .

Square bills are really a cool crankbait. It gets hung up so much less than a round bill. If your not bumping something your spinning your wheels. Fished 5am-2pm and the bass bite is really good. Small bass are still easy pickings on the outside of Scott's Marina. The end of the marina closest to the tires is full of small bass, and small Sandbass. Kids will love it.

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I plan to be out there Friday morning. Taking a friend and his son out to see what we can find. Meadowmere is supposed to be open, so we will take off from there at 7 am. It has been so long since I was out there, it will be a run and gun day for sure.

My neighbor and I fished this morning from 6:30 - 11:00 or so. We put in at Ferris Branch and there was a lot of surface activity starting right by the ramp so we trolled spinners on the idle out to the lake. Fish were easy to catch - most were small but a couple were keeper sized. They were all through the marina and the kids would definitely love it. Just get them out early - when we came back to the ramp, there was no surface activity and we only caught 1 doing the same thing.

We tried the hump that Mr. P. referenced in the Aug 2, 2023 thread, the one that is a bit past the crusher. I had not fished that area and it is always fun to try new spots. We did catch a few fish and they were good size but they were not stacked up. We tried the humps in front of Murrell and then fished up by Rockledge Park where we had luck last week but had to work for just a few this time. Headed over to the island and caught several fish on both the East and West side. We decided to try Sandbass Point and caught a few there as well. In total we only caught 27 fish between us and that includes a couple of large mouth bass so not as good as we did last Friday. That said, it was fun to get out.

Heard that Meadomere ramp, and Twin Coves ramp are now open. I would think Dove would be, but have not heard anything yet.

I can confirm Twin Coves Park and boat ramp are open. It was a nice evening with cooler temperatures.

Thank the Lord the lake is back down near full pool. The Green fish are pouting, and on the move from areas with cover back to the usual rock piles. Bait is very concentrated in Scott's, and will probably stay in there for a bit. Hoping to spot check some humps this week and see if the Sandbass are moving back to the normal patterns. Glad to finally not have to deal with Ferris for a while. My fishing buddy's trolling motor (Lowrance ghost) went south, heading sensor internal to the unit is needed. Parts are hard to find, and even under warranty he was looking at over a month wait "if" the part was shipped from Lowrance to a local warranty repair business. He had to find a part online and will have to pay to get it installed in order to stay under warranty. This is some BS, but with TM's that have so much tech, and so many parts that's the nature of the beast. Sometimes you "Gotta do, what you gotta do!" to keep on fishing.

Take care all, and hope to see some of you out on the water.



Meadomere ramp is open

Dove ramp is open, but the electronic pay kiosk is not installed, so you will have to have a yearly pass to keep from getting a ticket. Katy woods, Ferris, and Meadomere are open. Lake is going down quickly, and bass bite was good yesterday fishing wind blown banks. Hopefully I will cross paths with some sandbass today, as I'm fishing mid lake until 11:30am. After that the bass bite is rough.

Meadowmere was open Friday morning for sure. We had a slow morning on the north Rockledge bank, but moved quickly over to Murrell and it was steady most of the morning with 90% keeper fish. 24 ft - 26 ft depth and we boated more than 100 fish by 11am. We caught a few at the island but nothing like Murrell. Most fish were caught on slabs and a few on little George style baits.
P.S. Looks like the shut the gates down quite a bit this morning so the bite should be getting better for the Sandies.

I fished mid lake today, and checked the upper end humps which were empty. From Meadomere upwards the lake has a green tint and stained from the clay banks. Bass bite is still really good, and you can have a really fun time catching small bass and drum on the windy rocky banks. I used a rooster tail, and a very small crankbait on the north bank. I fished from twin coves up almost to the rocky point area. You have to stay very close to the bank, and you cannot cast shallow enough. The areas where you see the slight mudline on the points is the sweet spot. Don't go into the coves. As for sandbass, didn't see anything. Saw a ton on boats on murrell point yesterday, but I didn't stop. Take care all.

My neighbor and I fished on Tuesday 8/12 from 6:30 - noon. We were targeting Crappie using minnows and did poorly. However, I had not fished with minnows in years and forgot just how many fish they catch. We had a good multi-species day (a couple of Crappie, 4 Catfish. a bunch of Drum, a few Bass, 1 Gar and a number of Sand Bass). We had brought rods for Sand Bass in case we saw any surface activity etc. but we did not. The birds were no help either. While did did catch a few sand bass here and there at different brush piles, we ran into them a little east of Murrell Park. Saw them on the graph so we casted spinners in their direction We both caught fish on the first 2 casts and then bite slowed down a little as the fish were moving. These were larger fish which was a nice change. We chased them around for a while and caught them mostly on spinners but landed a couple on minnows. The bite dropped off and it was hot so we headed to the ramp.

Here is where we found them.

Fished this morning for whisker fish around the Walnut Grove Trailhead from about 0300 to 0900. Caught 5 keepers between 2-4 lbs and several runts that got tossed back. Most were caught before 0600 and then the bite slowed way down. Went to Oak Grove for about another hour and caughr a couple more runts. I was using shrimp and punch bait. I wanted to try and catch some bait with my cast net but there were too many rocks and limbs and i was afraid it would get ripped. It would have been nice to catch more keepers but I ain't complaining. This was the best day ive had at GV in a long time. And Lordy was the weather nice! ~80 degrees with a nice breeze. 'Twas lovely.

I fished this morning for about 4 hours. I put in at Meadowmere and checked the island. I caught a couple of small fish on the west side. I ran up to Sand Bass Point and again caught a couple. The same thing for the NE corner of the dam, East side of Rockledge, and the West side of Rockledge, I caught a 2-3 in each spot. I then went to the flats in front of Murrell Park. Fishing was slow but steady and there was a good mix of small and larger fish. It was a bit windy so I drifted through the area a number of times and then used spot lock where they seemed to be the best. I stayed for an hour or so and then had to head to the ramp.

While I was not out long today, I did not see any birds chasing bait or any schooling activity. Just a slow day of fishing.

I didn't post an update this week, as I have not found much in the way of Sandbass information. I checked the humps north of the crusher, and one on the south upper end. Hardly anything on them, other than small drum. I could see fish but they were really small, and would not respond to a spoon. The lake is two tone colored right now, as the clay banks have stained the upper end. From Meadomere up you will notice the lake has a green lighter colored tint, and below this is clearer water. It's hard to see until you get close to it, and you can see the color change. With that said I have not been catching much on the upper end in the way of green fish. I have been staying in the cleaner water, and focusing on big green girls. There was an overwhelming amount of bait on the south side of the lake late last week, and still the same when I fished (Sunday, Monday, & Wednesday). I spot checked Sandbass hump mid-day several times and there was so much bait that it was hard to see if sandbass were on it. I am sure you could force feed a few, but I don't like that type of fishing. I crossed paths with "luck on the Irish" at the dock one day mid morning, and he said his companion boat found some on murrell point. The few times I checked murrell, it was kind of a blank canvas with some fish hugging the bottom. I have to be honest, as I haven't been doing much looking for the Sandbass but I need to. The creeks (Scotts, cove north of murrell point) have a ton of bait in them, but I have not been fishing in the creeks at all. I am staying out on main lake. I fished two nights this week for the full moon, and it is a eco system that will absolutely surprise you. (What I saw on the south side of the lake at dove ramp main point when I was night fishing) All of the bait in the lake moves up to the surface of the water, from 1-5 ft the bait spreads out and is everywhere. You can still see some bait balls, but the top 5 feet is a diffused bait layer. I could see fish exploding all around me in open water, and I assumed they were gar. I could see fish on the livescope up in the bait layer, and they did not have the gar signature. spot tail gar & the alligator gar look like a long rectangle on livescope but these were not gar. I also noticed tons of larger fish out in the 20-25ft depths in large schools. I got lucky and threw my craw worm near one of the larger targets up working the bait on the surface. The fish whipped around and crushed it, and it was a big catfish. You could probably sit out off the drop on the point that extends out from dove ramp (in the 20-30ft water) and do really well on the bottom with the catfish. I also saw these same fish in large schools around sandbass hump at night, and they looked like they were migrating slowly cleaning the bottom. The strange thing was that when the sun came up, all the bait went down deep and I could not see anything like the eco system that I witnessed during the night. The night bass bite really was slow, and for a full moon was disappointing to say the least. With that said, something that is fun and I wanted to share is the small bass. When the lake leave got down to full pool, it pushed all the fish out of the brush. We had an amazing bass spawn this year, and all the little fish are playing the "safety in numbers" approach out on main lake. Find a windy bank that is rock, gravel, or a rock bluff wall and you will have fun with these small bass. I used a micro square bill, 1/6oz white rooster tail, and a tiny-trap rat-l-trap to beat up on the small bass. get as close to the bank as you can, and cast down the edge with these small baits. you will find the small bass, and in some areas huge schools of them. All the main points, or areas where you know of boulders under the water surface are really fun areas. When you find an area that is holding one of these large schools of 4"-10" bass, you can literally catch bass all day long in the same spot. Bass bite during the day was good for me, and I found some big fish deep. Caught one at 8.98 lbs, which is a unicorn for Grapevine in my opinion. Bigger bass have transitioned to the summer pattern locations, and are very elusive.

The small square bill on the left is what I am whacking the small bass with. I am using this on a spinning rod, and cast down the bank as shallow as you can. Try to fish areas where the banks are rocky, and have a good depth close to the bank. The mouth of twin coves is a good example. the smaller fish will be on the main point in the "nooks & crannies" of the boulders waiting to pounce. This along with a rooster tail, or a tiny-trap.








some funny clips of when I was fishing one of the areas that has tons of small bass. This was on a bluff wall on the north bank. The bass were staying under the boat, and I could just drop my bait next to the boat. I didn't notice but my rod was loose, and it twisted the upper half.