Heading up to Caddo for my first trip there. Need some advice on hotspots and running the channels following the markers. Launching from Shady Glade Marina and I have no clue about where to fish for lmb. Any help greatly appreciated!!

The mornings have been totally dead since the cold front. Caught a few on watermelon red senkos close to trees...but be prepared to go a long time between bites! But the bites we have had are quality fish from 3-6 pounds. Ames basin to the left coming out of britts gap has been the best area we've found. I'm thinking it will get better as the days and nights get warmer this week...unfortunately we're about to leave .

No tips but make sure you eat at the restaurant on the water and get some hush puppies and cole slaw. Those two things are going to be the best hush puppies and cole slaw you will ever taste.

I once had a local tell me to fish the trees. Sadly he failed to tell me which ones held fish

I can't help with specifics of where to fish since I only get to the lake once a year but don't get "lost" fishing the forests of cypress trees. Treat them like any other form of cover / structure and watch for irregularities. And pay close attention to when / where you get bit - like did you get bit on the front side of a single tree next to a cluster or the back side of the cluster.... that kind of attention. Once you get a couple of bites doing that, then you can pretty much cover water and fish just that type of spot the rest of the day.

Running the lake is easy - get the map with the gps boat lanes shown along with the gps coords of the intersections and stay in the boat lanes. Watch out at the intersections though. I'm sure some locals will come on and let you know about danger areas if the water is low.

+1

and go to Big Pines Lodge for the catfish

If you have a map... find BIG GREEN BREAK and fish all around the north and East sides. Hit every clump of Cypress tree's you can find. Jap Island & the north bank in front of Don Henley's house. throw soft plastics in Watermelon Red, Junebug, black like sluggo, senko's etc.. I use light weights 1/8 oz.

Stay in the boat lanes when running the big motor as there's tons of stumps scattered around and if you have a GPS on your phone or in the boat, I would HIGHLY advise that you use it. Very easy to get lost and turned around on that lake.

One other thing.. WASH your boat and trailer off BEFORE you travel to any other lake. GIANT SYLVANIA weed is huge problem and we don't need that stuff spreading to other lakes.

Jeff

Thanks for all the tips! I have a HDS-7 LSS with the insight maps for GPS. Nothing is listed as names for areas or anything which really sucks. Be headed there on March 25 so hopefully by then the water will be warmed up. Have plenty of frogs, senkos, jigs and creature plastics and even thought about tossing a shakey head with a 10 inch just to show them something different. Hoping to find them on cranks (spinners) and then work the area with plastics. I think I know from looking at google maps where gov't ditch is. Should be due north around the island from shady glade?

jf dawson...I ALWAYS clean my boat before switching lakes! The weed problem in Texas lakes has become such a nuisance you just can't take a chance at causing more expense for TPWD to clean up your mess. Lets keep those fishing lic prices down by doing our part!

Just pm me when u head over. Best bite is in Jeems Bayou right now but u can catch them on main lake. I'm going all weekend to scout

Friend boated over 50 last weekend so they r biting just might not b big but should get better. First big wave spawners just moved up last week

yes, do this mudd can catch'em

Thanks mudd! Will you be on the lake that week? I just bought a navionics platinum chip with google earth overlay and this lake just came alive! Got a hell of a deal from bass pro. The sales guy sold me on the chip then told me all he had was the display chip to sell at 10% off. After I left to go shopping for frogs he hunted me down and said he had a deal for me. He had two display chips and one was sold in the wrong package. So he had a platinum chip with a premium box. He'd sell me the platinum chip in the premium box to make his inventory right! Duh? I bought the platinum chip (199) for the premium price (149). Life is good!!

and the beans!

I should b on the lake Friday at some point to prefish for big tourney Saturday and another if one the 6th