Have not fished as much lately. This cool weather moving in has me pumped to get on the water. Because of work I can not get on water till about 5pm.

When do you think the fishing will be at it's best?

Between 5 and sundown tonight?
Tomorrow evening or Thursday?


Thanks

I would just do all of those if I was you. Then you bound to hit one of them right.

You may be running from the thunder storms this time of year. Then on the other hand that has been some of my best times. If it is cloudy and the lake slicks off that will be one of your best times to hit the water.

Sunset! that and sunrise are the magic hours... and I am with Donald Harper, go all three days if you can manage it

I went today after work, from 5:35 to 6:40. Caught 50 bass, all small, out at a pond in the grasslands.

I am going to follow Mr. Harpers lead and fish all 3 days.

I was out yesterday afternoon dodging the lightning(LOL) then the wind changed and slicked off and I hit it just right! Found the bigguns chasing huge Gizzard shad and pushing them up to the top!They were very aggressive and easy to catch with swimbaits and big topwaters! Get out there and be careful of weather popping up at anytime! Good luck and tight lines! Ron

We all have seen this happen just before daylight. Most fishermen will postpone the trip for a better day. It is about 4:00 in the morning and a good thunder storm rolls through. It is full of lighting, thunder, heavy rain and wind. It is moving fast and will pass as day breaks. All the upper level disturbances have come together.

Get on up and get everything ready. Proceed to your favorite spook lake. Sit in the truck and be safe until it passes. As day breaks you are finding that it is very calm, a light fog on the water from the rain, still very cloudy, and with a light mist still going on. That heavy grass line is just waiting for you to make the first cast with the Spook. It is one of those mornings if you were squirrel hunting you could hear one jump from limb to limb and the water falling farther than you could shoot.

It is hard to remember all the times that this situation has happened over 50 years of tournament fishing. Some of course have been much more productive than others. As I remember them they all were very good. This day on Lake Ivie produced the ideal conditions as above. Many of the other lake situations was good but there was a variable or two missing that did not produce the huge fish in numbers like that day on Ivie.

It was one of the greatest 8 lb. fests that I have ever had. Before the morning was over I had put eight Bass in the boat 8 to 9 lbs. but nothing over. I was fishing the KGKL Radio Big Bass Event on Lake Ivie. I had the first big fish so close to the end of the first hour I could not make the run in time with her so I decided to stay until the second hour to weight her in. By the middle of hour two I had 4 over 8 in the live well. It really didn�t matter when I got there I just grabbed two and weighed one at the end of hour two and the other at the beginning of hour 3. Then, it was back up the river to catch two more and back to weigh in with 4 in the live well again. This went on all day. I didn�t have a radio in the boat so I didn�t know until I got to the weigh in each hour how I had done. It was disappointing to read the board. Eight hours of fishing and catching with no check on any hour. It took a Bass over 9 lbs. to win a check every hour. All of my Bass were under.

THE TECHNIQUE was very simple. Bumping the biggest river trees was the ticket. I would throw the bait about 4 ft. past the tree, let it sit and sit some more, then two tiny twitches, let it sit some more, and then walk it up to the tree making the bait bump the tree them just let it sit. If there was a huge bass by that tree she would come and get it every time. I had to cut two of my Tournament Winning Spooks off in their mouths because they were too deep and took too much time to get them out risking killing the fish. I new that there was a station set up at weigh in just for that kind of help with good tools to get the job done.

My advice is to always have that lake in mind that you know the huge Bass are there and you just need that one morning when all the upper level disturbances come together to make it happen.

Me and my boy set in the truck for 45 waiting out the storm tonight... as soon as the thunder and rain stopped... set him up with a wacky rig with a bobber... perfect 3 yr old.set up and he crushed em....on the lake every chance I can after rain

After a rain when the air is fresh and heavy is my favorite

Headed out to Fork this evening. Hope it's as good as it was when the last set of fronts came through. Absolutely killed them. In a light drizzle.

Donald your killing me I have not been on the water since
monday ! It was topwater time .

Your the man Rudy. The season has just begun. You will have lots of opportunities. Here's hoping you get one of those days and are able to load the boat.

Weather changes are the key to putting huge Bass in the boat.
My two best baits for doing this are:
My Tweaked Spook
Stormy Weather Spinner Bait

I just can't say enough about this Spinner Bait it has all the Halloween colors and the stories are endless on it's success in catching huge stringer of Bass.

Hey Ron,
Glad to hear that you were out "scouting" and getting ready for our trips this coming weekend. I sure am looking forward to getting back out on the water with you at Fork. I haven't been fishing in 8 months so it's been WAY TOO LONG!
Your talk of the topwater action has me about ready to jump out of my chair here at work today.

--See you Friday afternoon

Now is a good time to fish

I'm still waiting for the weather to change.