Grapevine Report 9/25/17, and hello!

First of all I am new to the forum. Thanks for having me!

Thought I would kick-off my first post with a report from Grapevine Lake today. The shad are thick and balled up above the airators at the dam. The sandbass are thick and stacked from the bottom up, to include busting all over the surface. My graph was lit up, should have taken pictures of it. Next time I will. The guys there when we rolled up were catching small schoolies so we decided to try to pull some of the larger fish from below. Caught a few in the 14-15" range deep on slabs and Mepps #'s 3&4. Very slow down below and nothing huge to speak of. Started working the surface with torpedos. Started catching fish on every cast, both of us, regardless if they were running the shad or not. There were also some black bass mixed in, hooked into three of them.

We were still slaying them when we had to leave. Kept 31 in the 11-15" range. Threw everything back under 11". Hopefully they hold there for awhile. Usually do this time of year. Happy jerking!

Great way to kick off your first TFF post.

Nice looking load of sandies!
Good report also.

Thanks For The Report!

Welcome aboard!

I will be out there this evening. I probably won't hit the bubbles but will be hitting the Murrel humps for sure.

I may be heading back out around 3-3:30 this afternoon myself. Give me a shout if you see the '89 silver and red Stratos!

I rolled by there yesterday about 11 am and watched about 6 boats working the bubbles and didn't see a single fish being brought in. I did see a big white cabin cruiser drive right thru the middle of the boats that were already there fishing. Saw some stacked up near the bottom on my side scan but we were just cruising and didn't stop to fish. Besides, there were already enough boats there already. Went on up the Murrel park area and didn't see much at all on the graphs. Big Daddy's burgers sure were good though and we went home with a full belly.

Nice haul BTW

Big Daddy's is on the menu for lunch Saturday for sure.

I will keep an eye out. I usually put in a Meadomere ramp. Look for a Black and White NauticStar bay boat.

Nice fish and To the TFF!

Seems like it has always been hit and miss at the Bubbles. Wife and I took off last week and fished there 2 times and got into them like the OP. Lots of fun and we left them biting both days simply got tired of catching them. Before that most times I checked there not much action. We are usually chasing LMB first anyway.

Another good run this afternoon at the Grapevine airators. Just a few shy of a limit. It was slow at first so I ran up the lake to check all of the usual spots. There were large waves and high winds. It was extremely hard to stay put. Once I returned to the dam they started hitting small swim baits. I only caught one on a Mepps #3.

Thanks for the daily reports-really appreciate the updates. I am going out this evening from 6-8pm so it's always nice to have a general idea on where I need to go given the very limited time frame. Will post results tomorrow.

Got a late start and only had an hour to fish. Went straight to the aerators. 7pm. Only one other boat there and they were catching fish steadily. Fish were definitely eating. Little pods consistently busting the outer edges of the bubbles. White slabs (small) and Little George worked best. Didn't have swimbaits or a small topwater but I bet those would have worked well.

We were up in the north end this evening. Very slow, but did pick up a 25" blue kitty. No, I don't have a scale (or electronics, or trolling motor just yet, either).
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They stayed in there thick last year because of the shad stacked in the aerator bubbles. When the aerators were shut of on November 1st. It was like someone shut off a light switch on the sand bass action. Enjoy it while you can throughout October.

I had better luck last year throwing smaller baits as that is what the fish are feeding on this time of year.

Tight lines.

Yes when they shut down the aerators the do leave the area but they don't stop biting. Move up the lake and search you will find them and yes get you a Thumper. Last year in the week after they shut down with the Thumper we caught over 800 in a 5 day span.

Had another good run out at Grapevine again today. My friend and I caught well over 100 Sandbass out at the airators! We lost count of what was in the live wells and ended up missing a 2 man limit by 9 fish. 41 keepers in the 11" to 15" range is not too bad though. They were hitting top water, #3 Mepps, and white curly tail jigs. We were catching them 2 at a time on the jigs. I still have not found the big fish yet. The Shad they are feeding on are between 2" and 3". Will post pictures of fish and the graphs later.

On a sad note they pulled a body out of the water after we launched out of the Katy's Woods ramp. About an hour after we were out at the dam the parking lot lit up with EMS. They were finally loading the body in the transport just after dark when we showed up to put the boat on the trailer. Very sad.

I'm about to hook up da boat and head out there bout 9 ish. White Tracker Avalanche. Gonna hit the pin point anchor and just sit on em. Might try a couple of umbrella rigs and see if'n I can get bit.

Anyone reports from the last couple of days? Also are the aerators still on and will the weather change do anything to the bite?

Headed out Friday morning with a couple of buddies that are in town visiting................

Went out last Thursday and they were schooling at the aerator. They would come up for bout 15 seconds and then poof --- gone back down. When they were up catching was easy. Jigging slabs was slow and I caught one skinny blue cat. Most of the time there were half dozen boats parked there.

I posted a short report from a quick outing one week ago-fish were at the bubbles and easy to catch but I know it's inconsistent, especially when they shut the bubbles down. I will be out this Friday evening for another quick trip. If bubbles aren't on, I will try all the points out in front of Murrell Park down to Twin Coves. Will send report back once the trip's over.

Today is Thursday the twelfth, sandbass were plentiful at the bubbler today caught my limit some were very large.

Went out this evening and caught 22 at Murrell flats.approx 21ft deep. 8" to 15". 5:15pm till 6:45. Slow and steady on slabs.
Never got a bite after 6:45.
Had the place to myself.

Thanks guys for the last two reports. I will have 3 kids with me tonight so this is a huge help. I will probably hit the bubbles first and then work my way back towards Murrell. Only going to have an hour or two at most but will post when I get back.

You will kill them on 1/8 oz. white roadrunners.

Friday evening-went to bubbles-two boats there and no fish were getting caught. Fish were definitely there. Shad were popping, birds were diving but no fish for any of the boats. My guess is we were using lures that were too big. I was in a pontoon so I didn't want to get too close. The birds were working out in front of Murrell for about an hour at sunset-schools were moving super fast which is hard to keep up with in a pontoon but we managed about a dozen smaller sandies reeling small slabs through the water column. They werent right on the bottom.....had to count down to about 15 feet and reel quickly to get bit. Saturday I took my son on his last tubing trip of the season and we ran over to the ledges out in front of Murrell just to see if there was any action but no luck. Windy. No birds. Middle of the afternoon.

RKD - yep lure size matters - So i'll contribute my bit concerning the bubbles report from Saturday morning taking my father there for the first time (his first time to bubbles) - I was out on Saturday and we caught over 22 keepers in about 3hrs of fun fishing - and another 30-40 in undersized that we threw back. They are picky on both size and color but especially size - out of the 10-15 boats that came/went over the 3hrs only 3 of us were catching. My dad an I were catching them on #13 Pet spoons. They wouldn't touch the mepps (size 1-4 tried - usually good producers for me). The other two guys who were catching were using small white/chartreuse jigs (I would have actually tied one in line with my spoon but had left all my crappie gear at home).

If you were using the right size lures action was almost constant with small lulls of 10m or so followed by 20-30m of action. We left them still biting at around 10:30 due to wind picking up and a stuck anchor that i ended up having to cut

I saw a lot of guys trying to throw large crank-baits (way over-sized) - and not catching anything.

some personal observations from this my first year hitting the bubbles with any regularity
1) fish are almost always there - and it is a fun way to get/take someone fishing (most of the reason i went there this year was taking family fishing)
2) lure size and action type is the most important factor at bubbles - you need action from an artificial that triggers a strike response.
3) they gorge on the bait... live bait directly on the bubbles is a losing strategy - there is just to much of it there. That said if your looking for a nice day on the water with slower fishing... live bait a few hundred feet away will get you slow but steady action all day long as various schools move in and out.
4) action will typically occur from early morning until late morning (12) and will restart late afternoon - depending on weather can continue all day.

Enjoy if you make it out before they turn it off!

They are about to turn the bubbles off it’s that time. Like I said 1/8 white roadrunners light tackle will catch all the fish you want this is not rocket science. Kcinjectionbaits

Ok Guys you really want to catch good size Sandies out of the bubbles ? Well we have been using the 3.5 inch whopper plopper in Crystal minnow. We have caught 13 to 16 inchers on them and they will come up to hit them. Caught 85 today and kept 15 that were 13 and above.

Do they shut off the bubbles mid day? Or are they off for the season? I was there catching nice magnum sandies on a #3 Mepps and the bubbles went off around 1 or 2pm....fish stopped biting.

Caught 18 large sandies, 2 largemouth just under 14" and one over 18", threw back about a dozen smaller sand bass.

Last month on a Thursday they were turned off from 11 to 12 then back on. usually they turn them off Nov. 1st. But we will see.

They turned the bubbles off yesterday? Bummer wanted to get out there once more, planned on tonight after work. We were out they Tuesday or Wednesday and fish were very active mid afternoon, then slowed for a bit then picked back up before sunset.

To your question of when they go offline. They will be off till sometime in the spring, maybe March or April, I believe.

I am hoping it was just a Thursday thing and we have a couple more weeks....

Fished GV today and the bubbles were not on.

Yes, I was there. Did not do well...

Very cool. Good posts

Has anyone been to grapevine recently to see if the bubbles are back on? Or had any luck finding the sand bass?

I finally get to get back on the water this Saturday. Does the bubbles being off kill the sandie action? Or does it just make them harder to find?

to windy for me

I just saw that......maybe I won’t be on the water Saturday

No bubbles = no fish (at spot where bubbles used to be, they just relocate). Fish the humps and look for birds.