I hit Texoma yesterday and had a reasonable bite till sometime between 9-10am then it shut down.

I was looking at the dam site and noticed they've been toggling the gates open and closed for 1/2 day at a time. Phew. It shut down the fish hardcore on me.

http://www.swt-wc.usace.army.mil/images/x-y/DENI.qt.html

The downstrean chart shows the release pretty dramatically.

http://www.swt-wc.usace.army.mil/webdata/gagedata/DSTT2.20091031.html

What do you do when the gates get slammed open?

It depends...if your power fishing crankbaits, you want the gates open. Get out on the mainlake at hit ledges and points. If your fishing slow, then it may have more of an impact. What was your pattern the day the bite shut off when the gates opened?

How high is the lake level? Plan on trying the dam area on Monday.

620.6

That's about 2.5 feet above average. Water still slowly rising this morning. Look for it to slowly start to descend very soon though.

I was flipping and pitching shallow flooded cover with jigs and finesse worms. The water level wasn't dropping so I grew puzzled as to why what worked in the early morning flat stopped. I did notice the creek arm shad activity stopped. Half the day I spent trying new water looking for structure and did notice balls of shad suspended mainlake. Should have tried those spots.

During the rain and clouds, the bite was really good. You might try a deeper pattern after the morning.

WIGGLE WARTS

tough... got into some nice spots feeding up on a ledge in about 4-8ft of water. Thats all and it died quickly. Then just a couple later in the day.

also i didnt get out till 9 so i guess that explains it...

Defintely a tough bite this weekend. We fished the Thursday nighter Jackpot championship out of Catfish Yesterday. 10 local teams showed up for the event. Our five fish limit consisted of 3 smallmouth and 2 blacks that went 9.85 with a 3.75 smallie. 10.45 took home the first place honors

Congratulations Mike!! I thought you only hunted this time of year?

I just got home from a quick trip and it was tough for sure!

john,

when you fished the flooded areas, once the bite stopped, did you try to fish just a little out from the flooded areas where the old bank is submerged in 2-3 foot of water?

Yes I did. No bites with anything. When the bite stopped I moved to new areas on the mainlake in search of cover/structure I hadn't fished before. Went up the Washita and it was extremely muddy above 70.

Yes, the water will be muddy up there for a little while. Most of the water came in from the washita. The west end is badly stained, but i dont imagine its near as muddy. Lots of bait on west end, as most of it travels west during the winter fall/winter months.

Thanks Vernon!

You are very correct about hunting season Because of deer season I haven't been out for 2 weeks up until Saturday. We might fish the next JC event if the deer hunting is as bad as it is right now.