Anybody having any luck on Palestine?

I'm fairly new to WB fishing but I booked a guided trip with a family friend awhile back to cut my learning curve and learned a lot. But I have not been able to locate many WB or hybrids. I'm not really interested in trolling. I have caught a few on the 155 sunken bridges on slabs but not many as they always seem to be underneath instead of on top or beside. Not having any luck on points and humps. Does anyone have advise on depth or general area? I've been trying humps, ridges, roadbeds and ponds from saline bay, to just N of 155 to island S of 155 in the 15-20' range. Any help would be much appreciated. Thanks!

Wish i could help you. All my known spots have been very inconsistent. I would say it sounds like your checking all the right stuff. This year has been the most challenging year ever . I think there is a big lack of bait and the fish are constantly on the move.

Every now and then the hybrids show up and you wonder where the he77 they've been. Then u think you've figured something out, they are gone and don't come back. Good luck and sorry I could not be more helpful. Will be out today to figure out the puzzle. That's what I enjoy about this game.

Well at least I know its not just me haha. Ill be out there again tomorrow and try my luck again. going to try points and humps closer to the dam, I haven't tried there yet. Post up how you do today! Good luck!

What he said. This past winter was terrible with what seemed to be several shad kills, and this spring has been very inconsistent presumably because of lack of bait. Two weeks ago I had my best day ever on Lake Palestine catching 47 hybrids over 5#, but went back the next two days and didn't catch a single keeper hybrid. It has also been unusual often finding fish deeper than usual for Palestine several times in 22-25 fow by accident. Went out Monday after work and pulled up to the 155 bridge to be greeted by hybrids chasing big gizzards out in open deep water. Took my parents back out there yesterday after work expecting the same but didn't find a thing. Even tried getting live bait at three spots that always hold it and there was nothing. Gave up on hybrids and went looking for whites on points and found a huge school in 18 fow but they were moving around a lot so we didn't catch near as many as we should have. Finished fishing and just started drifting while eating dinner and let the boys swim and look at graph and it is loaded with fish. 28 ft deep open water and you could just see them coming up off bottom. Dropped half oz slab and caught 12-16' hybrids as fast as could get the bait down. Drifted for quite a ways doing this and farther we drifted and the more boys splashed the more fish came in. Finally when the boys played out, the bite was over.

Sometimes you just have to get lucky on Palestine. The bridge is always a good spot to check. If you have side imaging you can almost always grind out some fish covering lots of water in 12-18 ft range but without it you are at the mercy of the lake. If you're not doing any good and you've got kids in the boat, don't be afraid to make them jump in and swim. If you make it out definitely post a report, good or bad. Doesn't seem like there are any reports for the lake anymore. Good luck out there! Hopefully if and when the thermocline sets in, it will help concentrate them because they are still in there.

Thanks for the tips! I will be out there Friday and will definitely post a report good or bad. Thanks guys

Oh, and no I don't have side scan just traditional and down imaging. Didn't think I really needed it but am wishing I had gotten it now especially for finding brush for crappie. Its like a needle in a hay stack with out it lol. Yeah the thermocline should really help when it sets in and with this hot weather it shouldn't be long. Nice fish by the way!

I should be out on south end tomorrow afternoon if you are still out in a 22 foot white Blue Wave. Feel free to say hello if you see me.

Will do, same to you. I'll be in a 17' dark blue xpress and my fishin buddy Dixie (redbone coonhound) will prolly be with me

Well if you want , I can tell where not to go. I found large groups of SB in 12-24 fow . Catch 1 or 2 and they vanished. Couldn't stand that and looked for hybrids. Would see lots of fish on my flasher but only caught goos. Cats and spotted bass. Why in the world spot are in 19-21 ft blows my mind. Just shows you how weird this seasons been , at least for me. I guess I need to upgrade the flasher.

You and your silly flashers. Gotta wet a hook to catch one!

I've tied up my top secret lake Palestine striped fish catcher, I'm gonna get at least one goo tomorrow. I hope.

Yeah the small groups I have been finding are gone after I catch one, sometimes before I catch any lol.

Yes, as stated, I've been having a very tough time finding and catching them too. May be partly because of my lack of experience and not fishing for several years but I don't remember it being this hard in the past when I was fishing it more regularly.

I usually catch them with a trap or crank bait early in the am around rip rap or retaining walls toward the main lake. Then I look on the graph for feeding fish. Shad is key. I found this yesterday. caught the minnow and then a few solid whitties. Confirmation of what's on the screen.

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Forget trying to find the sandies and hybrids-just drive around the south end until you see a white Blu Wave and tie up to his boat. You cant go wrong fishing next to ATM and it's easier to spot a boat on top of the water than it is to find a school of fish in 18ft of water. I speak from experience-ATM and Sanbasscamp absolutely know what they're doing. And based on prior reports, let your dog jump in and swim around a bit.

I'll be out there tonight and see if I can attract them with the lights. Usually have good numbers in the dark, plus not to mention fewer boats and jet skis flying by you because they aren't aware of the stumps.

Well, looks like it's gonna be tomorrow before I can go out. Had to pick my daughter up from the sitter cause the sitter is sick, so I won't be gettin off early. I'll be out all day tomorrow though

When ur night fishing do you post up on points, humps ect or do you go to 155? I've been thinking of puting lights in my boat for crappie fishing at night but would love to sandbass fish too

Good report Martin , I have been fishing Cedar Creek and catching limits of sand bass and lots of short hybrids. We Caught 42 Sunday released another 40... Caught 32 Wednesday caught and released another 25 from 3:30 until 6:30pm both days all fish were feeding near the top of a hump in 23ft to 25 ft water ,with 33 ft water around the hump. All fish caught on #4 Gold Mepps near Key Ranch area.
I have not been to Palestine lately but plan to go next week.

When finding em gets tough and you have submerged bridges with rails as Palestine does, go to rail fishing to catch white bass. Here is a description:

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 bottom then crank it back a few turns and let it go to 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 slack and crank several times as usual. If no bite, try a 2nd crank on top of bridge. You catch the most fish on the 1st crank this side of the rail. You will also catch a lot as spinner comes over top of rail and on 2nd crank after you come over 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 rail and on top of bridge close to the rail all the way back to boat. All the bridges (at Lake Livingston on Old 190) have in tact rails except the 1st one east of the river channel. The rails are OK on each end of it but the middle section of bridge is out.

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

They are there Dennis. Its def a guard rail. But catching. 15 when your used to 100's is different. I honestly believe we have not had very good spawns. Even though we are full to the brim this year. When you to catch , they are real good size SB. Usually you can find 5-10 inchers pilled up.. Last 5 years I'm not sure of what we spawned. Got a good survival of small hybrids. But they are learning fast what lead tastes like.

Rkt , good to hear from you . I guess I'm getting old and losing my touch.

Thanks for the tip on rail fishing. They are (have been anyway) stacked under the bridge but hard to catch slabbing just outside of the bridge. I'll try ur technique if I can't find any tomorrow. When I went with Dick Strother we did catch good sized WB but only about 13. We ended up mainly catch 14-16" hybrids, prolly 25 of them in one spot, but not one keeper

We definitely have some good sized wb. Caught one today that was right at 18" that pulled a little drag. Was tough sledding today. Graphed alot of water to find two schools of fish. One cooperated for about 45 minutes catching fish almost every cast. Caught probably 30 good whites, two hybrids and probably a 30# op that came off at the boat.

There are definitely loads of whites, under hybrids and crappie at the bridge. I tried to entice them for a while but failed. A couple of weeks ago we did really well running swim baits down the bridge but have not had much luck with that since. Thanks for the detailed description Dennis. Will have to give that a try that next time out. I remember you caught crazy numbers at the bridge doing that when you came a couple of years back.

Caught about 35 WB between 9pm & 1am. Even had some crappie slabs find their way into the boat. Once the 6" Channel cats moved in it got tough to get a bite from the whites. The smallest WB was 16". Had a blast! Will post pics if I can remember how to use photobucket.

Do you mind giving any info on where/what depth you caught them? Trolling?

I went out yesterday morning and the wind was kicked up pretty high, tossed my little aluminum boat around like a tin can so I left about 11 after not being able to find any fish. Got back out around 4 after the wind died down and as bad as I hate to say it I got skunked. I Had one fish break my line, I threw out a roadrunner on my crappie pole and it got hit first cast at this spot. As soon as it hit the drag went to screaming, without thinking I cupped the spool, as soon as I touched it the line popped. Only had a couple other bites but couldn't hook up on the slab. Only fish I found were on the bridge and they were very small schools and were usually gone by the time I got set up on them. Got off the lake a little after 9 with an empty livewell and a sore pride. Better luck next time I hope.

Its been kinda tough somewhat, the lake is off with the lack of bait. Have not had any easy trips in a while, only catching a couple hybrids here and there, even sandies can be difficult at time. Get a good trip or two, then the next few trips will be next to nothing. Catfishing is great, even the Blackbass have been pretty good but Hybrids and Sandbass is another story.

Sandbasscamp: Agree with you on the poor spawns. Fished out of my kayak on Neches & Kickapoo
in Feb-March last 5 years. We haven't gotten 2-3" warm flooding rain events during
Feb 25-March 15 time frame during the last few years. 5 yrs ago went with Gilbo to Kickapoo
during Spring Break, we observed many spawning sandy's after a mini flood event. Didn't
see many spawning actions this Spring. Timing is a rush of new water + water temp....
just hasn't happened enough. Too many La Ninas.

I've fished Palestine the past three years. 2012 was a pretty good year. I didn't catch a big number of Hybrids, but caught some really good ones drifting the flats with Assassins/jigs. I was happy with what I was catching. 2013 was a very bad year for me as I never really found them and the ones I did catch were small. So far this year has been a blank. I haven't tried drifting yet but have been skunked out looking for schools.

This lake is tough!! Thank God Tawakoni is close by. It hasn't let me down yet.

Well, the wind started picking up right after we launched, so I ended up tieing up under the bridge. The fight was on then. Keep reading a bait kill happened on the lake? When did this happen? Once I put my submersible lights in the water, I was completely surrounded by minnows and shad.

Since I fish year round , I was out in Jan. Mid lake had thousands of gulls scooping up dieing shad. Don't know if it was a big kill but I saw lots of shad , struggling. That is just an observation and I could be totally wrong. Just this week is the 1st time I've noticed large groups if bait. I did not witness a shad spawn where I live and I usually see one.

Nature has a way of fixin stuff. Glad you saw lots of bait.

I have been seeing lots of bait balls on the graph just no fish under them, I did see more than I have been Saturday though. Also I wasn't having any problems cast netting bait for catfish about a month or so ago when I was catfishing. Not saying your wrong just my experience this year.

There is definitely bait in the lake but it is just not as plentiful as what it usually is for the spring and early summer. You will see balls of bait on the graph but there is usually entire coves filled with bait or in past you could see schools of bait fish that would stretch hundreds of yards and that is just not there. There was at least five times I can think of in January and February where you could see tens of thousands of gulls picking bait off the surface from flat creek island to eagles bluff after 2-3 days of bitter cold. There was so many birds it looked like it was snowing across the entire lake. Water warmed up and all the birds were gone overnight, probably because there was nothing to eat. I remember reading the post from the guy on the forum that caught the lake record blue this winter and he thought a large portion of the weight was just threadfin from a kill it had gorged on. Usually in april and may there will be so many threadfin spawning on every point that you will foul hook shad just about every cast, that just didn't happen this year. Usually the whites and hybrids will just sit on points and humps and wait for the bait to come to them but they are definitely on the move looking for bait this year. Finally a lot of the fish you do catch will just not have the weight they have had in the past for this time of year. Fish caught in april looked like it was already July they were so skinny. Palestine is certainly not the only lake like that this year. A lot of guys are seeing the same thing at other lakes based on the posts on the TFF. All you have to do is look at the LTSA weights and reports from their sand bass tournament this year. It will get better but this has definitely not been a good spring.

Good info guys! I feel like I'm getting a crash coarse for Palestine WB. I really appreciate it! Correct me if im wrong but the shad will spawn several times through the summer? So we should see a rebound pretty quick? and when the thermocline sets in it will concentrate the WB on the points, humps ect at the depth the thermocline is at?