Texas Fishing Forum

Lake O the Pines, 155, 9/2/2013

Posted By: Chuck Goodson

Lake O the Pines, 155, 9/2/2013 - 09/03/13 02:38 AM

Tried to go fishing this morning before a mid day party my wife had planned. Ended up watching lightning hit the ground from the ramp and decided to scratch the Pines. Went over to Gilmer as the radar was clear that way. Got there, the boat ramp was pretty crowded and lots of people were waiting and watching. We launched, got out in the lake and could see lightning popping north of the dam. Checked radar again and a brand new cell had popped up right off the lake. We decided to call it a day and headed in. Sad part was, LOP only got 1/3 inch out of it all. We got quite a bit at the house though.

Well, after party, we decided to go out and try again. It was overcast, the rain was totally cleared out. Air temps were in the low-mid 80s at the house. By the time we drove up to the lake the skies were beginning to really clear and temps were in the low 90s! Water a bit more colored than Saturday, assume from the wind earlier. Water temps were in the upper 80s. Wind was very light and clouds just got thinner and thinner and it got warmer and warmer while we were out. Fished from 4pm until 7:30pm. There were only 2 boat trailers at the ramp when we arrive and we were the last trailer when we left.

We saw lots and lots and lots of bait moving and scattering around on the larger open flats along the creek channel. Saw some pretty small fish flashing under the bait balls and spooking them. A few occasional surface breaks, but not the norm. It was not the normal schooling bass pattern at all, but there was definitely lots of action on those bait balls. We never found a bait to trigger any feeding and there was so much bait with such scattered and subtle movement we elected to move on and focus on cover and structure instead of trying to figure it out. It was a good call.

We started out working a hydrilla line on a ledge near the main channel. Found lots of 2 lb sized spots holding in the area. A few times we got lucky, but mostly we were casting to spots where we saw some movement just off the hydrilla. Had several on flukes, couple on 4" senko. I missed a couple on a Havoc swimmer.

As we continued to move up lake we started working pad edges instead of hydrilla. When we started doing that dad just started whacking me. He was tossing a 4" senko almost exclusively all afternoon. I was tossing a 5" senko, chatter bait, and fluke. Caught fish on all. Also tried a spinner bait and buzzer with no success. Most of the hits were immediate on the bait landing near cover when we were working the pads, very few were caught while working the bait. We also started catching a few largemouth instead of the spots when we were on the pads.

The best one (not biggest) of the night was right on a laydown. Dad's bait hit the water, he muttered, dang I am hung, and we started easing the troller over that way. Then he got a bit excited and thought he had one, set he set the hook. As we kept moving in he was pretty certain there was never really a fish or the fish was gone. Then we see a bass move and jump 6-8 feet away on the other side of the log up in the pads, we just assume we spooked him, but nope, he was on dad's line, had run under a tiny space under the laydown and pulled line as we scooted in. We didn't realize he was still on the line until dad dipped the rod down into the water trying to unwrap it. It was entertaining. A great sales add for the Gamma line he has been using too!

I had big fish of the night, but it was a grinnel! bang

Here was one of dad's nicer fish:
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