How is Rayburn?

What are yall catchingfish on? are they in the grass mats? Hve a tourney there this weekend, so what is working?

There are no such things as grass mats on Rayburn anymore.

Find a little grass and fish it hard.

You're not the only guy with a tournament this weekend. Good luck getting info.

Over tournament fished and the weights as TPWL published are going down - At Sealy's Big bass splash over 18,000 fishing hours and the winner was a 9 lb bass- if you fished 365 days a year at 8 hours a day , that would be 2900 hours a year so if you fished 4 years at 8 hours every day you could get lucky and catch a 9 lb er- does that tell you what 350 tournaments a year will produce

Not very much.

All of these people are 100% Right.. Rayburn has no grass and all of the big fish have gone away so, just save your money.

Good Luck

Nope no big fish in Rayburn.....but if you wanna win you'd better bring a mid 20s# bag!

I have to totally disagree. If you look at "normal" tournament results over the last 15 years they have stayed the same or gotten bigger if anything. If you don't have close to 20lbs with a 3 fish limit in Champs or 25+ for a 5 fish tourney you will not win most of the time. bags have not gone down at all.
I do believe it is a much harder lake to fish now than it was 10 years ago but those in the know can still whack big bags of fish.

10% of the fisherman catch 90% of the fish

Stats tell the facts - it use to take 30 lbs or close to 30lbs to win a tournament - there again ,check the records and the facts speak for themselves- the TPWL takes all the top pro tournaments year by year Tod Driscall the biologist for Sam Rayburn , wrote ( dec 2010 issue, page 13 ) that Sam Rayburn is no longer considered a big bass lake, it is a 4 to 6 lb lake - it was in the lake Caster and it is updated yearly and check the weights on Sealy's last 10 year tournaments- let the facts speak and whatever it says and the TPWL biologist facts that he gathers speak for the facts of the lake - personaly I want it like it use to be but it isn't as Driscoll wrote in his report and with 350 tournaments a year , it will never be-

It definately could use a break from tournys it gets pounded hard year after year. Fished last week and its the same its been for me the last two years a dink fest its fun but can't buy a big fish.

Just a thought but the rise of Rayburn from last year may have something to do with why big fish are not being caught as much. More water and more places to hide.

With 90% of the fish caught in a tourney being released back into the lake how does this affect the lake... Tourney or not it's more or less catch and release right? So how is it different then anybody just everyday fishing?? I fished rayburn for the first time last week so I don't know much about the lake. But now that I live only an hour from the lake it will be my main lake to fish... Just don't know how tourneys affect the size of fish being caught. Yes it makes it harder to fish but hell that's why we all do it right?? The challenge?? So why all the complaining... If I caught a 9-10lb fish everyday I went to fish catching one would be no big deal... Just a thought...

90% of the people are trying to fish Rayburn "in the past". They are looking for Grass Mats, Trap Fish, Frog Fish, Wacky Worm Fish, etc.... Many of these patterns are old patterns and have not returned to their "full glory". The 10% of people that do good in the tournaments are the ones that have adapted and adjusted to new locations and new patterns. Rayburn has PHYSICALLY changed from low water to current level conditions. Fishing is still ok but you have to be willing to change and adjust to the lake and then you also have to consider the seasonal changes.

I agree with this

I think we are way off from the original posted question...

But... What were the weights at the FLW last year...?
And... A lot of people don't realize how big Rayburn is. With its size it can be tough for some people to fish. Those big fish have a lot of places to hang out...

18.35 won the Bassmaster Weekend Series this past Saturday (the 11th) It's not fishing as good as it has in the past, but there are still good fish to be found. Cull through enough dinks and eventually you will find a good one. Find a spot you think looks good with grass and beat it up.

The big bites up shallow have definitely gotten tougher to get compared to 7-8 years ago, but there are plenty of big girls offshore. I find it much easier to catch a big one when I stay deeper.

I watched a guy pull out a bass the week before the big bass splash that weighed 10.4 on my scales. over by the 147 bridge...

Rayburn still has big fish but you better put quite a few piles off shore to be consistent in tourneys. The fish are always on the move and thats the only thing to hold a few of good size. But be aware, people will find them and fish them hard. Thats why most locals go up river where most wont go. Less pressure and the fish are more predictable up there. The lake still has good fish and plenty of them, they can just be hard to find and the next day they move.

Places where I used to catch large mouth I now catch Kentucky's. I catch about 22 evertime I go out, but only 4 or 5 are 14 inches. I think the lake is over populated with Kentucky's consuming alot of the food the large mouths used to eat.

Spot on, I could not say it better myself. Rayburn was never a "big bass" lake. Fork and Falcon are big bass lakes, rayburn has always been a lake to catch fish up to 10 lbs but not much over unless you get lucky.

Rayburn definatly changes alot but to say it's no longer a Big fish lake is pretty crazy. In Febuary Dicky weighd the all time biggest sack in a BFL from rayburn with over 36 lb's... that's a pretty good sack anywhere. http://www.flwoutdoors.com/bassfishing/b...-it-on-rayburn/

I've seen the lake change drastically over the past 3 years since I came to college. It's been fun and challenging keeping up with the fish and findng new ways to catch them.
You'll get your butt kicked out there if you try to fish the past.... can't think of many other times that I would be happy to not have years and years of experience on a lake.