First of all, my objective here is not to sound the alarm bells and scream out to everyone that the ole girl is dying but............I am curious as to what some of you think about Sam Rayburn this past spring and the weights or "lack of" it is taking to win tournaments. Is the old girl saying "enough is enough" with the tournaments? Is it water levels? Lack of Grass? Its my favorite lake ever. I dont get up there as much as I used to but that does not change how I feel about her. I know lakes go through cycles of good and bad but I cant remember it ever being this bad (as far as big fish go) on Big Sam. Your thoughts....

Nothing wrong with Big Sam. Just a change of patterns. Lot's of big stringers last year. Lake came up and not many people adjusted this spring. Most people are set in their ways and ONLY want to fish certain patterns (Traps/Grass) and didn't adjust. It's very tough right now but it's Post Spawn/Summer Patterns that the fish are adjusting to.
It's just a phase of the lake.

Rayburn is not the lake it used to be, not that it is not as good as it used to be, but in that the fish do not relate to the same stuff they used to. In the 90's it was FULL of hydrilla and well defined drains and ditches. It also would get 5 to 10ft high at least every other spring. The last 10 years has seen a yearly reduction of hydrilla, no more high spring water, the drains and ditchs have silted in a bunch and the water levels have been lower for longer periods of time than in the past. I think it still has the fish, people just have to relearn how to fish the lake. I have had some really good days this year with a couple sacks over 25lbs while prefishing all on water that I have never done any good on in the past. I do not think it fishes like a shallow grassy lake anymore, it is more like Kentucky lake to me now where offshore structure rules and a few get lucky up shallow.

Exactly what I was just atempting to post LOL

very nice responses fellas. What you are sayin makes a heck of a lot of sense.

Dito

Makes sense to me. I love Sam Rayburn such a cool lake

To say that Rayburn has been going through a transition is an understatement. She was down for a long time and low water levels took a toll on her as it would any lake, luckily she has size on her side and with time will come back to what we all remember.

There is no doubt in my mind that on average fishing pressure has incresed at least 5 times or more in the last 15 to 20 years or so. Hardly a weekend goes by now where there isnt a tourny going out of every boat ramp on the lake.

I just wish the COE would quit working on every ****ing bridge, piling and gate at the damn dam as an exscuse to draw the water down in order to create some work. The highway 83 Ayish Bayou bridge that was out for over a year is a perfect example of this. COE drew the lake down just so they could get a barge in there. I know they need to be able to work but C'mon.

It's been a warm winter, low water, and the fish got pounded. They never got a break. I found there to be fish in many areas I fished this spring but they were very shy to bite. They got their Degrees!