Great Challenge day on Palestine

Dennis C and I fished Palestine today from about 7:30---3:00. Caught over 100 big magnums on Mepp's # 4 & 2's. Had 5 legal Hybrids and lost one that broke Dennis off. Also had two drum, about 7--8 yellow bass, 2 perch, and 1 big crappie.

Most of the fish were caught on the 155 submerged bride pilings.

Great day when we had seen reports of fish hard to find and make bite. We left bridge with them biting and decided to see if we could find them on other structures. Found some but couldn't catch them like at the bridge. If we hadn't left bridge we probably would have caught our target of 153. But we came for the challenge.

Always great when you can meet the challenge.

God is good all the time.

I'll post some pictures later. Have to get them from my phone to here.

I'll add to Cliff's post. Usually, I can catch fish on the submerged bridges on Hwy 155 and was wondering from the "no luck" reports from Palestine if there would be none on the bridges also. So, Cliff and I went over in his boat and went straight to the westernmost submerged bridge and began with a bang with Cliff tying into a 21-inch hybrid. By the time we stopped fishing the bridges at 1 PM, we had caught 120 fish. One hundred six of them were white bass and, as Cliff said above, most were magnums. I mean these fish were as big as the magnums we have been catching on Tawakoni. We were chunking Mepps 1's, 2's, and 4's. All caught fish. Let me hasten to add that you have to know how to fish submerged bridges, and I had years of experience doing it on Lake Livingston. Here is an excerpt from a TFF post I have made several times telling how to do it: Locate and set up at either end of the bridge and cast in 4 directions to find fish: down the roadbed, diagonally into the bar ditch to either side and down the middle of the bridge. Try not to let your lure land on the rails or it will likely get hung up. The whites hang out at end of bridges and within 2 to 3 ft of the rails on top of the bridge. You don't have to find them surfacing. They are down there. You can also intentionally fish over the side rails of the bridge. Here is another TFF post I have made describing how to do it:

Fall 2009

About "rail fishing" for whites: You have to use the inline spinner technique for this to work. When fishing is slow, try "rail fishing". Locate a bridge and position the boat directly over one edge of it. You will be right over one rail and the other will be about 20 ft away running parallel to it. You can fish the rail 2 ways. The most productive way is to cast the inline spinner far enough to go over the opposite rail out into the deep water. Let it go to the bottom then crank it back a few turns and let it go to the bottom again. Crank it in some more and when the spinner gets close enough to the rail, you can feel the drag of the line coming over the rail. Keep cranking at a medium to medium-fast speed so the spinner will not hook the rail. When the spinner clears the rail, you will feel a let-up on line tension (assuming a fish didn't latch on as it came over). Immediately release and let the bait drop just this side of the rail. When it hits the bottom, take up the slack and crank several times as usual. If no bite, try a 2nd crank on top of the bridge. You catch the most fish on the 1st crank this side of the rail. You will also catch a lot as the spinner comes over the top of the rail and on 2nd crank after you come over the rail.

The other way to rail fish is to make medium length cast down the bridge just inside the rail you are sitting over. Just work the inline spinner technique parallel to the rail and on top of the bridge close to the rail all the way back to the boat.
My family and friends have been using this to catch whites since the early eighties. When fishing is really tough, you can usually catch them this way. Good luck and feel free to ask questions if I didn't explain it well enough.

Here are some pics of today's trip:

Great day on a tuff lake. Congrats

I should add about fishing bridges that, in spite of efforts not to, you will get hung on the rails some. That happened to us at least a dozen times. By moving the boat over where the bait is hung and lightly giggling the bait, you can usually get it free. I think we only lost one or two baits on the rails.

Wtg men!!!

Those rails probably have 1000 lbs of lead slabs hanging off them along with an anchor or three.....don't ask how I know. One of the best BIG hybrid days I've had on Palestine was back in the 90's, middle of August, trolling a deep diving wigglewart right where the old dirt road connects to the sunken bridge. It was an 8-10 pound hybrid on every pass, 100 degrees outside, and totally slick calm.

That’s an awesome trip guys! I tried fishing the 155 bridge with a mepps several years ago after Dennis’ first epic trip but never could get the hang of it. Thanks for the report

Still needing to check out that lake.. Nice catch!

Nice post and fish. Good job.

cc spoon will kill em too

WTG Guys!

ATM97: You and I need a trip together!

I would like to do that Dennis!

Thanks again Dennis and cliffshot for the report. Have been off work this week because of covid and decided to give the crappie a break today and try one more time to figure out the bridge. Sat on the western submerged bridge for over 2 hours and finished with 25-30 wjites and 8 big hybrids. All caught using the rail technique Dennis described above. All came on #2 mepps. Tried the #4 but didn’t catch any on it. Really looking forward to getting out there with you Dennis and learning how to do it correctly