Particulars:

Bait - Jigs and Minnows
Water Temperature - 82-84
Depth of Fish - Tuesday deep...at least 20, Wednesday shallower 12-16....
Water clarity - about 2 feet...lake is clearing up..
Where - COE BPs


Tuesday - Fished the east arm of the lake - Launched at Isle DuBois and with the wind blowing 5-10 out of the north, I decided to try and fish a few main lake piles...visited three piles with no fish and I decided to explore the creek/cove south of the ramp...found three new (to me) piles, third one had some fish on...ended up catching 16 keepers, most of which were in the 11" range...depth was about 20 feet, nothing shallower...good story from Tuesday...I got on the lake about noon or so and launched next to a guy with a pair of jet skis...when launching by myself I tie a rope from the bow to the truck bumper...so's I'm backing down the ramp...boat gets to the water and is kinda stuck on the trailer so I back it up a little, hit the brakes and boat is free...get out of the truck and look...rope is broken and boat is drifting away about 6 feet from the dock...instantaneous decision...jump...I barely made it with my instep landing firmly on the gunnel...I didn't know it but the guy launching the jets was watching all the time...he said "I am impressed, do you do this all the time?" He said I looked like a leap frog when I left the dock...if the boat had been 2" further, I would have been wet...

back to fishing

fishing minnows and jigs...minnows got the best bite...

Wednesday - spent Tuesday night at the park, got up early, picked up what I needed at the Dam Store then headed to Pecan Creek ramp to fish the west arm of the lake...gorgeous morning - winds almost calm - headed to on of my favorite COE BPs and I marked a few fish - minnows...I just plain like to fish minnows...love to feel them wiggle and make the tip of my rod vibrate...three fish on the first three drops...could this be the way the day is going to go? I know one is a trash fish but still...and there are fish shallow too...6-8'...and there are fish 10-12'....but the larger fish are down about 16....





so the story goes like this...catch 4 or 5 or maybe sometimes 6, keep one...and the action continues almost non-stop for the next 5 hours...to 23 before I ran out of minnows...it slowed down one time for about 30 minutes when it seemed some small 1-2 lb LMBs came thru...caught 6 or 7 bass in a 10 minute period....I left this part of the pile with about a hundred fish down there with sore lips...

so I am asking myself....what can I use to catch 2 more on and where can I get them?

I decided to tie on a chartreuse Road Runner head, put on a chartreuse Panfish assassin 1.5" with a crappie nibble and I am ready...but where?

after raising my anchors and while collecting my buoys, I ran across another section of the pile about 50 feet from where I had been sitting for the past 6 hours...here is a screen shot...can you say loaded? I had to do a double-take and make another pass to see if it were accurate...sure enough...same track...



I'm saying top my self, wonder if these are crappie or sandies...so I position the boat (by the way, the wind switched out of the south about 1 PM) down wind of the pile and make a long cast past the pile....count 1, 2 3...10 and start a "slow roll" retrieve...top of the pile, there's the thump...set the hook...


that's 24..

reposition the boat and make another cast past the top of the pile and repeat the routine...another thump...another fish...25 by 2 PM...



OK...time to ramble a bit..

as most of you can tell by now, I like (read love) brush pile fishing...period...

to me, each brush pile has a sweet spot...get more than 5 or 6 feet away from that spot and your bite rate slows drastically...same thing with depth...what I have found is larger fish are below the smaller fish...I also (even though I have a good idea where it is) sacrifice an old jig to find out exactly where and how deep the top of the pile is by getting hung up....I was lucky in finding the sweet spot on today's pile when I first arrived...sure was cheap on gas and batteries...

I try and find new (to me) COE BPs each time I go to the lake, which has been quite often over the past month and 6 out of the last 7 days...and I try and not fish the same piles day after day...if you look at enough BPs, you WILL find fish...just how many piles do you have to look at? however many it takes...sometimes, like Wednesday, one was all it took to get a limit, but Tuesday, it 6 to get 16...

Hope everyone haves a great 4th...fish fry time at a friends this afternoon for some down time, playing some music, and great fellowship with old friends...

Great report sir. Thanks for sharing.

seems someone is tossing a ....uh oh .....
here it comes ....
KABOOM........ road runner head ...........
where on earth did ya learn such schinaniganz ....anyway?
LOL .....
good job there AJ ....
gots to bum me a ride soon ....
looks like a ketch fest to me ....
and stop it with the particulars in readable form ....
ya git in trouble in here rite quik for TMI ..........
ROFLMBO ....

I think I am becoming pretty familiar with the lake...just too bad I won't fish until Monday and no tellin' where the fish will be then...you can tell from the numbers of fish I caught that this front definitely impacted them...the front came thru about noon on Friday on Ray Roberts and it took me until 6:30 pm to limit then Sat and Sun were both slow...didn't fish Monday and the bite started picking back up on Tuesday when I caught 16 and yesterday the bite was back the way it should be this time of year for me

Jack great job and thanks for helping those of us who struggle with the brush piles. I fished some of the same piles Wednesday as you and watched many others also. I didn't see anyone catch fish. Seems like the afternoon was the time to be there.
Great job of working your technique and finding the fish. Hope to see you out there some time.

chances are if the wind is light or less than 20 I will be on a pile somewhere...stop by and say hello if you see me and I will share what I know about the day with you...

I will be back after them next week when they all head back to work.

nice fish.

The deep piles are my fav on RR, but this year they are extra skinny. I found a few on lake Arlington yesterday that put my home lake to shame.
It's good that you hit those main lake ones before the wake boats and skiers show up for the long weekend.
Nice screen shot too!

Good report and nice pics, especially of the stacked crappie. I fished R/R on Tuesday. Did not have a lot of luck. I guess the key was in your report of deeper than 20'. I fished the south end and Cade's Point mostly at 10' - 20' with jigs. Perch were active and chewed up several jigs. Also caught more small bass than crappie.

thanks all...

@Flipp...I don't think they have moved to the extremely deep piles yet...surface water temp is still cool enough for them to stay 24 or above deep IMO...another two weeks of this hot weather and the deep piles will be loaded I betcha...

Thanks AJ for the good information, looks like you had a great time. My Parents just moved to Texas and Dad and I are wanting to fish RR. We have been putting in at Pecan but have been wondering what bait to use and where to go. Nieces are coming into town in a week so looking for any suggestions on places and bait. Really appreciate your post, pics and detail. Anything else you can share would greatly appreciate it!

Thanks,

Nice Fish. Fantastic report.

Great report! Thanks AJ

I dont think fishing reports get any better than this...outstanding