Need help on Gibbons Creek.............I usually need help, but I REALLY need help on this sorry lake..........fishing a small tournament there in two weeks..............Thanks in advance.........

Sorry lake?? Gibbons Creek can be one of the top bass lakes once you learn how to fish it. For some reason white, dual willow bladed spinnerbaits always worked very well in almost all conditions. Continue fishing G.C. and, sooner or later, you will learn it. Once that happens you will love it. I miss G.C. every single day. Good luck.

ttt

I spent several days on Gibbons in early spring and managed two bites and one bass. I have heard the fish are smart and finiky and I may well just not be good enough to catch them. I can tell you keep your motor trimmed way up and idle when you cross the bouys, there are a ton of submerged stumps out there. Checked on another site and found these threads about the lake. Check them out, this may be why those who used to fish there can't understand why the lake is hard to fish now.
http://www.wmi.org/bassfish/asp_reports/search_for_lake_date.asp

True, I haven't fished there in quite some time. I don't understand the link though. What has happened to GC? It would kill me to hear that something has happened that has hurt the fish population there. We never caught boatloads of bass, but all of the fish we did catch were always good ones.

Figured out your link. So they allow skiers and jet skis on GC now? That sucks! The power plant poisoned the lake to kill off the grass? That sucks even more!! Really sad how things work out in situations like this. Seems odd that they would be able to poison anything in that area seeing as it is a Bald Eagle sanctuary, or has that changed as well?

I think the eagle sanctuary has changed as well. I have a map of the lake and it shows and eagle tree that has marker buoys around it that you can't cross and the buoys are no longer in the water? Not sure though. Most of the guys I talk to at the ramp usually only catch one or zero out. It has been a frustrating lake for me to fish. I'm by no means an expert but do well at Sommerville, Lake Bryan, and Fayette Co. and can't even get bit at GC. I would like some input from some who know the lake and how to fish it. Has the fishing really dropped off the last 3-5 years?

The lake has fallen off in my opinion. Once the grass disappeared so did the fish. Its hard to get bit on that lake anymore. 5 years ago my father and I would go a catch 3 to 4 a trip with at least one being over 7 pounds ( My dad has a 10# from GC). We would catch them on flukes around where the grass and timber meet up. Great times. Once the grass went away that pattern also went away. We tried moving out fishing humps and tank dams but it seems that pattern has died too. I dont know if they have an active restocking program so it could be possible the lake has hit a population lull. I am no expert but being an avid GC fisherman I do see some problems. Sad to see.

That really is too bad. Back in college, 5-10 yrs ago, I would have bet the next state record would have come out of GC. O well, another one bites the dust I guess. Unfortunatly I don't think any of my experience on GC will come in usefull. Good luck.

I've been having a little luck lately (about 5 a trip). The fish seem to be very scattered in 3-5 feet of water. I've been fishing a ton of water trying to learn the lake, and it seems most of the fish are coming off larger timber or laydowns.

I've been catching most of them on a tandem colorado/willow white/chartruese spinnerbait and a bandit 100 series (red or chartruese). I've also gotten a couple on a chug bug.

I'll second that. It seems like the fish in gibbons are always shallow. I know a couple places where we found hydrilla and you could catch them there. Other than I would fish the heavy timber in 3-5 feet right now. Right about this time 3 yrs ago I caught a 12 1/2 pounder(my biggest ever) in the trees. We also had success throwing wacky worms around reeds. Havent fished it in a couple years, but I love that lake.

Last time that we went for bass there, they loved those wacky worms, that was las summer...