Jmax, Lake DeGray and Lake Balboa, Bass, 3/27/19 and 3/29/19, Solo

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Jmax

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Feb 5, 2023
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Greetings from Arkansas. Got a text from Mr. Whiskers asking me if I fish anymore. Decided I might need to let you guys know I still do and have been going a little. I think the issue with me is I do not catch the size I was catching there at the Chick so all these baby bass I have been catching are just not worth the mention. The lake I live on, Lake Balbao was lowered about five foot this winter so to clean up the shoreline, dredge the pockets and give the homeowners a chance to work on their docks, seawalls and shorelines. They do this every seven years. emoRolleyes The issue is my dock is too shallow to use when this happens. They also close the launch do to the drop at the end of it that people have in the past got stuck on. With that said using my boat on my lake has been out all winter and still is now while it starts to fill back up.

I took my boat to Lake DeGray which is about 45 minutes from here on Weds. Was looking for Spots and Largemouth but was for the most part not successful. I was passing over one deep point and my graph lite up like crazy. You could tell it was schools of shad with bass after them. I was in about 30 to 35 feet. First cast slow rolling a spinner bait and had a largemouth crush it. emoTongue Thought, "Here we go!". Then I proceeded to catch about 50 white bass one after another almost every cast. emoDoh It was fun but not what I was after. I changed over to a one-knocker and those whites were crushing it. I also was having a much better hook ratio on the trap. I grew tired of the whites and went looking for real bass. I managed three more largemouth and only one spot. Slow day with the exception of the whites. Water temp was 58 when I got there and 62 when I left.

Today I walked the bank here at Balboa and found a few that would play. The water is coming back up and it is finally starting to get up in the old dead reeds along the bank. I was throwing a frog in among them and had two really nice bass explode on it! emoDance One was 3 and a half and the other was a 4 lber. (Pic below) Got to love a top water frog bite in March. I also caught several on a worm and shakey in the deeper bank water. The bass here are really wanting to move up and start their spawn but we keep having cold fronts come thru and push them back out. Should not be much longer.

Will be heading you alls way on April 8th and will be fishing the Chick up until April 12th. Plan to leave out Saturday April 13th so that way we will not mess up anyone in a tournament that weekend. Now if anyone wants to help your ol'buddy Jmax out on where to fish and what to use just PM me on here. emoBigsmile I will let you all know how we do on a book post when I get back home. Tight lines to all you guys! emoGeezer Jmax
 

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 Great report Jim, whites are fun to catch, Tonya and I got into a few yesterday, throwing rig. You don't need help on the chick, but good luck finding fishing hole to settle in. Fish should be on bed everywhere when you get here.  emoThumbsup
 
Hey there Mr. Jim, good to get a report from you. As has been said you won't need any help on the Chick. It will be just like riding a bike, once you get on the water here it will all come back to you and you are going to ask yourself, "Now why did I leave this"? emoBang emoBang emoBang .
 
HA! emoLaugh Thanks guys. I already catch myself saying that. emoScratch When I catch five 2 lbers and someone here says, "Great catch!", or while I am catching one little one 1 pounder after another and they say, "Wow! What a day!" Or when I catch one about four pounds and they go off talking about how "HUGE!" it is, I tell myself, "Why did I leave the ChicK?" emoBooHoo You all need to count your blessings on size. I am looking forward to coming that way, does appear it may be raining most of the time we are going to be there. emoRain Jmax
 
thanks for the report Jim. Good to see report from you. I was wondering where your reports were too. and as mentioned above, im sure you will smoke them when you come visit....
 
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