Any thoughts on Livingston?

Hit it saturday with a buddy on a recon run.....launched at onalaska and ran north....nothing remarkable....any thoughts are appreciated

It’s a trash gar hole filled with some giant logs and gators

Yeah i saw the gar and gators.......

It’s a big lake. You ain’t seen the lake yet.

Well there you go.

Most of the fish live shallow even in the summer. Typical junk fishing. Spinnerbaits, squarebill, and flipping.

I used to fish it a lot and I always caught a bunch of good fish around rock or really it’s concrete on the south end of the lake on crankbaits

Grew up fishing Livingston. They should still be on the rip rap early and late, and docks mid day. Crome blue traps and white spinnerbaits will get you bit early, motor oil Texas rigged worms after that. North end is good until July after that stay on the south end.

I remember you asking about Richland last month. Must be fishing SE BASS Nation, lol.

The first season on the circuit leaves a lot of work to be done.....impossible to learn 1 lake, much less 6......i may just go back to golf.....was much easier......

Thanks for all the info boys

I'll tell you one thing ......
I got much better at golf with the TIME ON the COURSE than I have a fishing with the TOW.
The difference is the course does not CHANGE like a fishes movements/mood changes.
it is a lot easier to adapt to green speeds than it is a fishes mood is.

Keep at it. It’s a fun circuit and it’ll only get easier.

This

Yeah, I have a thought. My thought is that if the wind blows it is one of the scariest lakes I have even been on. We launched at 190 in our tournament and I thought I might run down to the state park...until we got out in the middle and saw the waves.

That's all I've got.

Took 16 lbs to win a small tournament this past weekend.

Spoken like a BFL/TTT vistor!

Lakes got some nice fish it in..but like any place, you will have to spend more than one recon trip to figure it out, or you could save yourself some time and just make your check out to the Sewells, or Jimmy Emmons and Jeff Stanley.

Well played sir. Those guys have livingston on lockdown.....

Yall should be happy lol I wont be back haha

I have quickly learned that there are a handful of sticks on every lake that have things on lockdown and the rest of us are paying their housenotes....lol....but i'm good with that knowing how much work it takes to be that good ....... #Respect

Very true, but those guys have bad days too...makes it all the sweeter when you bust a sack and swing it up on the scales.

This......I aspire to lock horns with guys like collins and matsubu and all the top sticks I can't remember and those guys on rayburn and toledo and the top sticks on all lakes, including livingston.

Phil Marks, Ken Smith, Dickie Newberry.......hmmmmmm.....shook&isles....so many good sticks, especially on rayburn......

Harold Allen......so many good sticks......

My son has caught two of his biggest fish on Livingston, a 7 pounder and one close to 10, both during the spring. He caught both of them out of a kayak on the same trip while we were camping at the state park. He’s fishrd two high school tournaments there and has only caught a few dinks.

Livingston scares the [censored] out of me because I have no idea how to run the main lake. I can run Kickapoo to the very back and that’s about it. I was given specific directions on how to get from Kickapoo to the 190 bridge. Go to this old boat ramp then I was given a course to steer to the 190 bridge. I got about half way to the bridge and saw a huge stump so I turned around and went right back to Kickapoo. I’d pay to have someone show me how to navigate that lake safely. I’m not talking about the floaters either, I just want to know how to get around assuming there’s not any floaters.

I sent you a PM. No money needed.

Livingston is actually a Great Lake. It is tough for the people that come from lakes with grass and an abundance of offshore fishing spots. It has always been good to me tournament fishing but I have more time invested in it than any other lake. We bought a place on Rayburn in 2014 and I haven’t fished Livingston near as much as I did before. I haven’t even been on that lake this year which is a first for me. Fish shallow! Texas rigs, spinnrrbaits, square bills and jigs. Find wood in shallow water and put it between the bark and the sap. If you can fish lake Houston any good, then you are a step ahead. They fish very similar. Boat docks are about to turn on there, if you get a bite on one pick it a part and the two next to it. You might fish 30 more before you get a bite but the ones next to where you get a bite usually have fish on them as well. Pretty common to catch a limit off of a couple docks in a row. Good luck....we love our mud hole!!!

Excellent Intel......Thanks

I got a ton of waypoints that form a bunch of trails all over the lake and a long way up the river. Believe it was from 2coolfishimg. If you can't find em there lemme know and I can help you out.

ChanceHuiet and 5X3Phoenix sent you pm's

Floaters rolling down lake make it a interesting experience.

Yes it does. I hit one in the river channel between palmetto and pools two summers ago that had to have been floating only a few inches under. Thankfully it was soft and only stuck wood pieces in my intake that I was able to get out. Scared the mess out of me though.

It’s definitely a lake you don’t want to be on when she gets rough waves are big and come from all directions. Far as bass fishing I hate it and will drive to Rayburn or Toledo before I go to that [censored] hole.

LOL L78. I was there during the best of times and the worst of times. As far as I know Livingston was the first lake in Texas to have hydrilla, the fishing was awesome for about two years until they sprayed it. Then it turned into the Dead Sea. People that lived on the lake would drive to T-Bend and Rayburn. I didn't have a d.l. yet so I was stuck there to grind it out. Randy Dearman was the big stick on the lake at the time and me and his son Slade would fish from dawn to dusk for maybe a few bites. They did mark the lake at one point from North to South with bouys, but they got washed away by storms and floods. The only place that consistently produced was a spring fed creek that stayed crystal clear and cold, and had some pepper grass in it. The bass would stack up in there this time of year.
Sure made fishing a lot easier when I was able to finally get on Rayburn and T-bend. Back in the day a 12-13lbs sack would get a nice check in most tournaments. Now it usually takes 17-20lbs. Still a tough lake to figure sometimes if you're not used to that kind of fishing.