Went to Benbrook this morning and caught 15 total. 14 nice sized keepers, kept 11 and threw back 3 fat females full of eggs. Could have limited trolling, but wanted to slab them up since I'm scoping the area to get my wife and kids hooked (they don't enjoy trolling) Graphed tons of fish but could only catch them trolling the Hell/ Pet. Tried silver, chartruse, and blue/ silver slabs but only caught the throwback with them. Tried little george's, hopkin spoons, you name it, they just wouldn't take them. Slabbed bottom, 3 cranks up, burning thru the school and nothing. What's going on with these stubborn sandies? Anyone have similiar experience on Benbrook? BTW, I caught most of the fish in the mouth of Richardson Slough.

You mentioned a couple of techniques, but did you try all of 'em?

I don't fish Benbrook but I know on Grapevine lately we've had to barely lift the slab right off the bottom. Maybe only 6" or less. Sometimes you had to lift it just enough off of the bottom and hold it there and shake it. It also had to be done slowly. Just lift and shake. Anything faster than that and they wouldn't take it. Also they wouldn't take it on a cast and reel. It had to be straight up and down.

Other than that which slab are you using? Are you using the Bomber type slabs or the Shad Slabs? The round ones or the long skinny ones?

I don't know what this particular issue was, but those are some other things that you didn't mention that I thought I'd throw out there.

Hope this helps

Jeff,

I was using bomber slabs(round type) and shad slabs. Didn't seem to matter, they were both ineffective. I will try the shaking shad next time I would just lift about 3 feet and let it fall to the bottom. I also tried to cast out and walk it back with a bouncing retrieve. Then, I tried to cast out, let it sit, burn it up a couple cranks then let it settle and repeat.

Thanks for your input

What does a Hell / Pet look like. I have used slabs, inline spinners and mepps and done o.k. but I have never fished for sandies this early. I have a graph and have marked fish only not to catch any. Do sand bass look different than others while schooling?

Here is a good picture of a HELL / PET.

Not time to use the hell pet yet, let the water get well into the 70's for several days and really we are talking about June.

Do not raise the slab over 1 foot off the bottom, think of the slab laying flat on the bottom and raise it up just enough to make it stand up, then shake it.

Let the slab sink before you reel thru them, especially at richardsons slough, but not too long, you will get hung. Throwing and buring back in is more of a summer thing at Benbrook

Weekendwarrior...you were using the right techniques that normally work, but I have found the feeding to be a little slow myself. JB has the method that worked for us the last time out...too much movement and they were ignoring our slabs and everthing else we tried...lots of fish, no feeding.

We did really well with the little georges. Throw it out, reach up adjust your hat, turn three very slow cranks, re-adjust hat, turn three cranks very slow ...you already missed three very light hits...good luck!!!

Also try adding a 1.5 inch white curly tail grub to one of the hooks on your slab as you are just holding it and barely shake it...the fish were wanting a slower presentation -- our trolling did not work real well, except it got the bigger fish...

Jimmy..that is pretty good...

We fished Tuesday morning and caught about 12 between two of us. We couldn't figure it out either. There were two other boats doing pretty well(one was really sacking them up, three guys had triples every time I could bare to look again). Both boats were using their electronics and trolling motors to stay on top of them. The one doing all of the catching were using silver slabs and shaking them right on the bottom.
We had to anchor, my buddy can't get in the habit of charging his trolling batteries after each trip! We had to cast and hop back to the boat. Caught mine on chartruse. We were up by Mustang point.
Fuzzy, are there really hybrids in that lake?

Yep...they were stacked up on the west side of the dam in a small trench. Look on the dam and there is a u-shaped piece of plastic by a bush, watch your electronics as you move through that area - take a few passes and keep moving away from the dam. If they ain't there - two bushes to the east is a hump - look on that hump. They will not hit you trolling the stupid white bass get the lure before the hybrids can get it.

We used a charteuse/white slab and a 3/4 jig with a glo sassy shad made by Phantom. Work that trench over from every direction very very very slowly on the bottom. If you got shad, two cranks off the bottom and drift through the trench. They hit very light, hold your rod, you will barely feel it.

The next spot is a little harder to find about 3/4 down the dam to the east. Nice big hump -- they are hanging out on one side or the other of that hump. Look for the big arches on your screen and fish those - do not fish the bait lines - they are not in the bait lines.

I would just have to show you the other two spots. Go get them - they were there Tuesday.

I am headed to Texoma for the weekend - let me know if you found them...

Just finished an article to run in the Hood county news this weekend on this subject. You may have tried this, but if not give it a try. I bet it will work. Many times the fish are feeding on real small shad, the standard slabs may be too big. Suggest replacing the treble hook with one with a teaser (flashy feathers/hair tied on a treble). The fish will hit the teaser, while the slab will draw them in. This has made the difference for me on many occasions. Many slabs already have the hair or feather.

Hope this helps,

MWA

Thanks for all the replies as usual, I will give all the suggestions a try tomorrow night if the weather holds up.. Hopefully, I'll just find the birds working and hit them with the topwaters.

Gottabefishin,

The hell/ pet is a deep diving Hellbender with a pet spoon (both can be purchased at Academy) tied to it on a four foot leader. Use the swivel that comes on the back of the Hellbender to attach the spoon leader. Take both treble hooks off the hellbender (to prevent getting snaged on the bottom) and hang a 3/4oz weight where the front treble hook was. I'll try to post a picture later.

Jimmye's picture is of the other rig we use to catch sandies Good one Jimmye....

BTW I saw a couple of guys cathing some good looking fish over on the west side of the damn where you were describing Fuzzy. One Hybird was at least 10 pounds. I stopped and talked to the guy and he was trolling Chartruse Sassy shad.

Good deal...Make sure your lure is near the bottom. I had a 4" sassy shad and a 9" white bass tried to eat it...unbelievable.

Here is a hellbender. Its real name is magnum hellbender according to anything I could find on the net. Its just mainly used to get your lure ( pet spoon ) down to deeper water. You can also use a pink lady. Its used for trolling as well and heads to the surface better when a fish is on.

magnum hellbender


pink lady


there are different thing out there as well.

pet spoon


you can get these in different colors too. Good luck. Sorry about the first HELL/PET. I couldnt resist.

who is going out on benbrook on sunday afternoon when we have the extra hour of daylight???

Thinking that is going to be a fairly regular routine for me when I can. Sunday afternoons out there.