Fishing bliss today, 11/5 The Chick.

[Jmax]

Guys I wished someone could have gone with me today so I would have a witness. I found the fish again and had a blast. It wasn't too hard, they actually found me. I saw them breaking and caught somewhere around 50 to 60 largemouth, 25 whites, couple nice crappie and a drum. No smallies or Kentucks. The biggest large mouth was a hair over three, the biggest crappie was 14 inches, the biggest white and drum who cares.emoLaugh I kept the crappies and had fresh fish for supper. I love the taste of fresh crappie straight out of the lake into the frying pan.emoTongue My thumbs look like they are shredded and it just doesn't get too much better than today.emoThumbsup

Got up this morning, just knew it would be good with 65 degrees at my house and when I got in the water it had a surface temp of 64.7 degrees. If you are a top water man like me, with overcast sky, a little rain and 65 degrees both air and water I couldn't have prayed for better conditions. At first I hit a couple large pockets and found only a couple small ones. I than went out to the main lake and started fishing humps that were around eight feet deep about a month ago but now only about three. I was useing my puppy and CCSM's rooster tail in white and those bass were killing them both. I saw them breaking and once I figured out where they were I just stayed on them. I also saw a crappie or two break so I switched to a red/chartruse jig and caught them on that.
At about 1:00 they finally slowed and I went up Wolftever. I was fishing the ol' finesse zoom in a junebug and caught a couple on it. A fairly large boat went by and just off a point in front of me bass came up when the waves hit the shore. I switched to a silver buddy and caught another good amount of them going back and forth there. Seemed like every time a boat came by the shad would get to moving and the bass would blow up on them. Left a little after 3 and called it a day.emoBigsmile Jmax

 

[DHaun]

Great Report Jmax - Sounds like you got on some major fish today! emoWorthy
Ain't it great when the boat traffic makes the fish hungry!

 

[ChooChooSnakeMan]

Way to go Jmax!!!!, After the fishing being slow for the last week or so, it is great to hear you found the fish. I'm glad that you caught some on the white rooster tail! It is an often overlooked bait. Don't you just love that shredded thumb "badge of honor" after a good day of catching and not just fishing! Thanks for posting the report.

 

[Jmax]

RE: Fishing bliss today, 11/5 The Chick. Hey CCSM.

Hey CCSM, as you can see I am not afraid to take someone else's idea and put it to good use. Today I was killing them on that puppy but they seemed to figure it out or something and stopped hitting it, so I thought I'm going to throw CCSM's rooster and see what happens. I knew they were still there and would you believe I caught three in a row on your rooster.emoCool After that I just started switching back and forth.emoIdea What I did think was a little strange is they wouldn't touch it in wolftever. I believe the shad were so thick they couldn't see it on top. I was letting the silver buddy fall down under the schools of shad and kind of bouncing it on the retrieve and I think they thought it was a wounded shad, easy meal. Only problem with the retrieve was I missed several, kind of hard to tell when I got a hit.emoBigsmile Jmax

 

[TBP]

I'm glad somebody is finding schooling fish. I went out saturday from grasshopper, first time in 2 months,and could'nt find any schoolers. I fished main lake pockets and humps on the river channel but could only catch a few small ones. Jmax ,have you tried fishing inside the tire reef at the marina in wolftever? That is one of my favorite spots this time of year.Have gone in there and caught 30 or so in a few hours. Hope to meet everyone saturday at grasshopper!

 

[Jmax]

TBP, I have seen people fishing it but never have done it myself. My wife was under the weather this morning and said she did not feel well so she did not want to go to church. As any good husband would do I felt it would be better if I left her alone so she could rest so I went fishing.emoAngel What a difference a day will make. Yesterday was great but today was slow compared to yesterday. I only caught about 25 largemouth and only two keepers in the bunch. I am not complaining about 25 but I thought today would have been another yesterday. I never caught the first fish on a puppy today. The two baits of the day were the rooster tail and the silver buddy. I found an area where they were still schooling but could not get them to hit.emoBang The ones I did manage to catch seemed today to be by themselves for the most part. Just picked one up here and there working the humps and along rock banks. I kept seeing them come up in bunches and a couple of times in casting distence but they were after huge schools of small shad and they never paid attention to my baits. Looking back on it now I should have tried a shad color tube lure and let it fall down under the schools like it was wounded and floating to the bottem. just could not figure out what they would hit today. Only caught one crappie and three whites. Still it was a beautiful day and was worth the trip. Just a little windy.emoCool Jmax

 

[polo-dog]

Jmax, sounds like great fishing. I was out for the last hour of the day Friday 10/4 and caught one 3+lber another over 15" and had one other fish. All back in the creek. The big one hit a spinnerbait with #4 1/2 willow blade shallow in wood along the bank/channel. The other two were on a flat that has lots of stumps and is 8ft on top where it falls into the channel that's about 12 feet deep. No schooling activity but I could see lots of bait on the flats where I caught them. They were caught on splatterbacks but in the 300 series. Thanks Jason for the info on the Bandit crankbaits. They really track well and bump bottom well in the nine foot range. The 200 series seems to bump well to about 6ft or so but not much deeper with the line I'm using. They have a small profile similar to the baitfish this time of year and cover flats that I am not used to covering well or at least I haven't felt that I covered well in the past. I think that covering flats quickly and well is one of my weaknesses, at least in the 5-15 foot range. I'm hoping that I will do better with these baits in my arsenal.

 

[Jmax]

Polo-dog those schoolers in Wolftever are over near your house. Just down from the springs on the opposite side from your house. They are wolfpacking in that small bay near the power lines. Some of them appear to be fairly large bass. You should go out and try it and let me know if they are still there. the shad are so thick in there I kept snagging them on my silver buddy on the cast as it sunk. I believe it will just get better if the shad stay in that area and the bass keep finding them. I would lay odd on the stripers being there also out in the deeper water but I never tried that.emoCool Jmax

 

[polo-dog]

Jmax, schooling activity tends to be there every year at this time of the year. It's a great part of the lake to be on right now. There are times when the fish end up back in the back of the creek but they usually don't stay there for long periods of time in my experience. I will plan to be out on the creek some next week and will let you know if the fish are in the area. Later in the year when the water is cooler, sometimes there will be huge concentrations of bait over the creek channel over 15 to 20 feet of water. Vertical jigging under them can be productive and fun then. I'm going to try to keep a close watch on the shad movement in the creek this year.