Cloudy wx made green fish bite slow, but I went up and beat the bank shallow and caught dinks. Didn't cross paths with the sandbass today, they were hiding on the lower end. Checked all the usual spots on the lower end, besides real deep locations. When the sun came out I was rewarded with a nice bass. Thanks for the kind words, much appreciated. I launched at the ramp on the mouth of Scott's, was real nice location. You could fish all day and never start the big motor. Kayak'rs this is a spot to take advantage of. Don't forget to update your fishing licenses if you are not using a year-to-date license. Take care all.


This one came out of 22ft of water

Never caught a small - in the lakes I have fished a lot in they are very rare with unimpressive lake records and such. Will you run into those on grapevine while going for other fish? Or do you really have to seek them out?

I don’t target them and have caught quite a few on anything from Baby Brush Hog to a 1/2 oz Spinnerbait and a variety of other baits as well. I am really not sure how you would target them anyway other than just fishing the rocky areas on the north side. I think this one was from last fall can’t remember for sure.

(Specifically talking smallies or largemouth on GV)
The way I see GV cycle, the dam is the go-to spot if you want to catch a smallie. Night fishing for me has been the best year round. I try to get one hour of dark in before the sun comes up. But during the dog days of summer, the full moon night bite is really fun. However, when the lake was way up this year the full moon bite was very poor. Now that the lake is below full pool, and the fish have been pushed out of the brush it will get much better. I don't think you can go and target the smallies, but rather fish in the area that they like the most. With that said, I have only caught some really small smallies on the dam in the past month. All the big ones I have found have been mid lake on the north banks. The one I caught on Sunday was in 2-4ft and caught on a micro square bill on light line. They are amazing fish, and a 3lb smallie will fight harder than a 6# largemouth IMO. They have broken nearly every spinnerbait so far, they are the most rewarding fish to catch. The spotted bass (I call them a spot) are a good second place pound for pound. When the lake was up close to 20ft over pool I went nearly 5 weeks without catching a largemouth, because I didn't want to go in and flip the miles & miles of brush. So I stayed in the rock piles, and known submerged structure and I caught large numbers of smallies (and they were big). You can prob go back in this thread and see them. I would say next year everything will go back to normal, as the lake is very different right now. I set a goal to follow the green fish for three years on GV alone, and was finishing up when the lake went high. The lake changed so much I decided to add another year. My wife says that I will probably never stop, and continue to add a year. But right now the lake is fishing like post spawn as the big girls are leaving the creeks. Sunday the surface water temp dropped 5 degrees, Tuesday was down 2 more, and yesterday surface temps were 81-82f. This should change the bite as well. If you want to cross paths with a smallie go out on a weekday night or morning and you will not have to fight the wake boats. If you go to any ramp, flip rocks until you find a crawfish. Match this color, and this has been the best tactic for me. The cookie changes slightly through the year, but green pumpkin never fails.

Here are some samples from different times of the year. Typically use a shaky Head jig head because my fishing mentor whoops me so bad, I have to say it's the way to go. You want the lightest weight that shows you to feel the bait, and if you don't feel rocks or structure your spinning your wheels. If your fishing a smooth bottom reel up and go find a rock pile that would resemble a pile of kids Legos. This is where you want to fish, and every ramp you launch at has this running down the edges.

Prosise has definitely put the work in. I remember when he switched from the sandbass and crappie a couple of years ago to start learning the green fish.....it was an occasional pic of a catch and now it's consistent catches! I used Brent's reports recently on an outing with my wife...we didn't catch a bunch but we were absolutely in the right areas. It was more execution on our end....Brent even saved us a valuable hours worth of fishing by strongly suggesting I stay away from a certain area I thought for sure would have fish. And between Prosise, JWC and a few others, when I get the kids out for some fun sandbass fishing and only have an hour or two to be the hero, the reports and details in this thread are MUCH appreciated. I ALMOST want to go fishing for drum now! Keep up the good work guys!

And that is exactly why I enjoy doing this. Much appreciate the kind words..

Spot locked in between Sand Bass hump and the island on the waypoint below in the picture. Caught Magnum Sandy's for 2 hours straight and left them biting. 13 to 14-in sand bass sitting in @ 20-22 casting to the South Bank down the drop, and slowly working it back to the top of the hunp. Thumper going loud helped I think. was casting med size Cordell spoon out, dragging it back. They wouldn't hit a normal size spoon. Also someone decided last night to take their boat Off-roading and drove their boat about 150 ft up a bank on the north side of the lake.

looks expensive

Looks like a Michigan boat. I'm sure it will buff out.

Great report! Hope to get out there this week. Big old sand bass are fun!

How fast do you have to be going to get a boat that far up on the bank? Someone must have been hurt/ejected from the boat I would think. I would also think this must have happened at night otherwise... how in the world? How do you get the boat back in the water? Going to have to maybe get a bigger boat to tug it back in the water and hope you do not rip a hole in the bottom of the boat in the process.

Not shocked to see it though. Every boat I see that looks like that one out there is driven by an idiot who has little to concern for others safety.... or even their own in many cases

And some say folks from the south are lazy , slow and not too brite ! I totally disagree !

Fished today and green fish was tough for me. Decided to pick on the Sandbass. I didn't see them on the location I fished yesterday mid morning. I worked toward and bass hump ( green circle in the picture below). They were midway about 400 yards west of Sandbass hump in 29ft. By lunch they were getting harder to catch. I have been using a med size Cordell spoon with a very small bait above it. Vertical jigging is pretty much useless, I am finding them and easing off them and casting over them. I will slowly drag the bait thru them, and occasionally reel three or four cranks, then let the bait fall. The sudden action seems to trigger a bite. They are big, and picky sometimes. Every spoon I buy I take the big hook off, and put a small (very sharp) hook. Most spoons you buy have really big hooks, and you will miss allot of fish. Later in the day I met a new contact, Mr "J", and we picked on the Sandbass at the same location I fished yesterday. We were about 50-60ft away from the top of the hump, and picking them off. Was kind of slow compared to yesterday but we caught fish. I was trying smaller baits, and put the smallest cordell spoonbI had on light line (6lb).
Picked this rod up when we saw something big blowing up on something on the surface. I could see some big catfish around the hump, but didn't think I would connect (But I did!). Mr J left around the first hour of the fight, and I got lucky and landed her just over 2 hrs. Think it was 2 hrs, 5 min but I have to check the video. 26.5lb blue on 6lb braid with a 6lb mono leader. The hook broke when I landed her, so I got lucky. Took pix, and she was released to fight another day. Stay between the island and the Katy woods ramp, for best results. Local big dog Sandbass hunter was out on GV today, Mr. R scouted around and didn't find much of anything except in the area I noted. This gives me a second verification that we are cornering them right now. Prob caught 100 overs today, but around 1pm they just got lockjaw. You really had to Hollywood the bait to get them to bite. Take care all.

^^^Holy Cow what a catfish…nice Prosie1

I have been catching some sandies early in Murrell from the bank but today they were a no show. Instead got a couple really nice LMB one on topwater and one on a Rooster Tail both fought like they were angry lol

Great reports guys and wow what a big catfish! I would love to catch one of those in the kayak. Go for a ride!

Good bass there Hard Rain. Especially from the bank... well done.

Nice reports, thanks for sharing. I don't hardly ever get up that way but if/when I do it's a spot to check! Looks like you had a couple fun days, congrats.