Ah well, I guess I'll be out there again tonight with the kid. Hopefully he won't be trouble. But, he was having fun yesterday just floating in the water with his arm-floaties on. Maybe if I hit on a few sandies I can bust out his Scooby Doo rod and let him hook into one, give him the fight of his life. Either way, I'll be out there. Gotta stop by Academy and pick up a few new Rooster tails, need some heavier ones. They have them there for 88 cents a peice, of course they are not the "Rooster Tail" brand, but I don't think the sandies are that picky. If you see a guy out there in a light blue rangers cap and a little kid with green arm-floaties on, that's me, my name is Jeremy. Give me the TFF secret phrase. Or not.

I've been using the "Cocktails" from Academy. They are 99 cents and seem to spin well. Anyway, just lettin ya know. I'll be out there too. I think I'll pass on the secret phrase and just say hey!

I'll have to make a disclaimer:If your not using offical" Wordens Rooster Tails",I can't guarentee you will catch any fish. I'll be trying out a 1/4oz.lime green and I cut off two of the trebles to enable me to get the fish unhooked faster.So the challenge is on Wordens vs knockoffs whoever has caught the most fish by the end of the night wins!

But the question I still have, and I guess we'll find out here soon enough, is it better to be out further on the main point right below the picnic tables to get to the open water on the right and still into the opening of the cove and try to hit the buoys, or to be close to the ramp and in further in the entrance to the cove?

It is on then! I'll bring the knockoffs, (and a couple of Wordens too). I have another question, do you guys use a swivel for fast lure switching, or do you just tie a new lure on and go. I have tried both ways and see no difference in the way most baits work, in fact the swivel sometimes makes the lure work a little better. What do you guys think?

rylandhomie I would go with #1 ,for the exception of this morning they seldom get as far back as the ramp,but they are chasing bait so it's more which way is the bait going!
Jeremy I perfer to tie mine on direct to the line of my baitcaster !Although if you are using a spinning rod some folks will put a barrell swivel above the rooster to keep their line from curling up too much!Which ever way you go,just go for it!Our window of opportunity is normally 20-30 minutes max so there may not be alot of time to be second guessing!BTW,comeon 7:30!!!!!

Alright, the end of the day is almost here,I would say workday but I don't think I hit a lick today!I've got 40 miles to travel,once I get out of here so it's petal to the metal,I'll have to figure out where to change clothes!Let the weekend begin!

OK, here's my piddly count: 2 nice sandies, 2 LMB, 1 bream on the 1/8oz. Academy 99cent "cocktail" rooster-knockoff at Lakeview park, south-ish side of the 'Vine. (Couldn't get out of here early enough to drive all the way to Murrell).

How'd you guys do?

Hey Ditchbug,I didn't get there til 8:15.Donnie said a school had already moved in and out.agfisher,DH,JYFishes,rylandhomie and myself all got into the next school about 20 minutes later.They were more spread out tonite as oppose to their usual tight schooling action,fun just the same!I can't speak for everyone but I'm pretty sure I didn't get into double digits.So I would consider it a slow nite,but hey I'm spoiled!! Great meeting a couple of new TFF'rs and always enjoyable fishing with old ones!

Well, I guess the knockoffs win! I lost count at 13 Good to meet you guys!

ditch - where did you get into the LMB...and on what?

I am bringing a neighbor out there sat morning and he wants to chase LMB. were you fishing out from the boat ramp or around the little point there?

Geek, it was my first time to go to this park, so I was mostly just scouting. I parked at the first small boat ramp, and waded out in the shallow beach area just to the left of the ramp. Sandies were caught out from the point at the far left end of this beach, tossing out toward the main lake. Both LMB were caught inside the cove near the point, but tossing more in toward the center of the cove rather than the main lake.

I started out with gray/white 1/4oz roosters, but nothing for the first 30 minutes. (7:30-8pm). I switched to an 1/8oz white/black dots rooster and picked up a bass and sandy quickly after. Can't be sure if it was the lure or the time of day. All of my fish were caught on this lure.

FYI... Not sure if you can get to it, but there's a rocky point where I caught quite a few fish last year. Best way to describe where it is.... if you're standing on the first boat ramp, the ramp points directly toward Oak Grove park on the other side. About halfway across this sight-line, and just to the right of it is a rocky point that protects the small cove to the right of the ramp. I saw guys fishing around this point all evening last night. Couldn't tell if they were catching anything....

I looked on GoogleEarth and couldn't find any labeled roads on that point, but there's a boathouse just off the point with road access to it. If you can find the way to the boathouse, it looks like just a short hike to the point.

Good luck.

Yeah, I used a "knockoff" rooster tail, only hooked in to 3 total the whole night at the vine, but like Rudy said, it seemed to be a slow night. It was only my second time out there, so I may have gotten spoiled the first time out, I'm sure I had at least 9 or so that night. It was good to meet Rudy, DH and agfisher. I'm sure I will be out there often next week, will be out of town over the weekend. rylandhomie, if you can find some spots closer to you, let me know if you want to go give them a try. My sons mom lives out your way, so I can always swing out there and drop him off over there.

Geek... something else I just thought of. Last night as I was wading, I noticed something kept picking at my toes. Sorta tickled, but made me jump every time. I'm guessing it was crawfish, since minnows and perch usually go after the hair on my legs. Also, a couple of weeks ago I caught a nice l.5# LMB over at fishing trail 7 in Murrell that had a crawfish stuck in his gullet and the antennae were sticking out of his mouth about an inch. Putting 2 and 2 together...I'm thinking that with the dirt/sand/gravel bottoms at Lakeview, you might fix up your friend up with a light carolina rig and a crawfish plastic if he's after LMB.

Also, I noticed lots of topwater hits last night. Not sure if they were sandies or LMB, but it was just single aggressive hits in random places in the cove. I couldn't get any hits on the rooster when I threw to one of these blowups, but if I'd had my flyrod, I probably would have tried a white popper, since there were tons of minnows all around. Shallow water, baitfish, topwater blowups.... Could be clues to how to fish the area.

I guess my advice to all of us is to be keenly aware of the signs and signals all around us. It's the little things than can be the difference between catching and fishing. In my case, rather than thinking that the crawfish were just a pesky nuisance, I'm thinking that my legs were the only structure around in a dirt/gravel-bottom cove and maybe they were looking for a place to hide from lurking predators.

I could be wrong, Geek, so don't get mad at me if you try it and don't catch anything. I like guys your size to be my friend....

I was off this morning(Fri)so I stopped off at the point to see what was going on.When I got there"The Taxidriver"was already in the water.I've told a few of you about this guy,drives a gray and black Execuite taxi van,European dude speaks with a heavy accent,cool dude,Throws a popping cork with a 6ft.leader on the end he has a tiny 1/16oz jig head and a small bass asassin,he can chunk that thing a long ways and was catchin fair size bass on every other cast by the buoys . I could only stay for an hour or so he must have caught 12-15 bass while I was there.No sandies we would see a small school boil up every now and again but for the most part they were bass.Didn't want anything to do with my rooster tail,so I kinda copied taxidriver and used a pop-r with a 2ft leader and a grub on a jig head combo looked like it might work,butNoooo takers.Man I've got lawn duty,I've got to get to it before it gets hot.Opps it;s already hot!Got a birthday party for my daughter-in law so probably won't be able to sneak away tonite. may see some of you guys over the weekend,be safe ,see ya!