Day on the Lake (South Central)

[cmclairday2]

If you consider your region to be South central U.S., please post your article here.
Texas, Louisiana, Oklahoma, Arkansas, Kansas, Missouri
Readers, please leave this thread open for articles only. Comments or questions should be addressed with new threads, or IM's to the writer. Thanks.

[Legend Chris]

OK I Guess I'll start this thing off.

Day on the Lake- Choke Canyon SOUTH TEXAS- 13 MAR 2010
- Chris Brewton/Rob Robinson
2009 Triton 21x3c/MERC 250 ProXS

Well I went out with a friend of mine from work and we got started about 7 am. The sun was already up and it was still pretty nippy outside, maybe 50+ degrees. We launched out of the FM 99 boat ramp as I knew the water was dirtier up there and I thought that it would retain the heat from the day prior a little better than the main lake. I cranked up the Triton 21x3c with 250 ProXS , equipped with Lowrance and Humminbird electronics and Minn Kota Fortrex motor.
We mad a quick trip in the cold air and fished the steeper bank going up the river. After numerous casts with spinnerbaits, crankbaits and soft plastics we finally picked off a keeper on a H20 Express squarebil crankbait. That bass was only about 1.5lbs. We continued to fish the river for around another hour or so then decided when the sun warmed things up we would check out some other spots going up the main lake.
We took off down the river and found ourselves at a rocky Point. After several casts with the crankbait and no takers we switched to a spinnerbait and WAMM! Rob hooks up with a good fish that went right at 4lbs even.


We fished the are some more and landed on other keeper bass, right at 1.5lbs again. We took off and decided to check out some other spot that I fished before that may produce since the water level had FINALLY gone up about 5 feet or so. When we got there I discovered that another angler was fishing there so we decided to no bother him and fished in the nearby cove. Not 5 minutes after we started fishing, I noticed that anger fighting a fish in the back of his boat. This guy was going around and around and I said to my friend, “Man he must have a seahorse on there”. So as we were still fishing and watching this guy go round and round with no one to help him net the bass he finally gets down on his knees and reaches down. He picked up that big ‘ol bass and yelled out “WHOOOAAAOOooo”. My friend and I give him a thumbs up. Turns out his bass weighed 11lbs even!

We then continue on and fish the cove some more and we hook into another bass, this one weighed 6lb 6oz. We release that fish and immediately hook into another, this one about 2.5lbs. A few casts later I hook into another about 3lbs. and one more around 2lbs After those fish we decide to check some other areas out as I was really out practicing for an upcoming tournament and was satisfied in what we found.

We take off to another area that is similar to the last place, but we blank out. Not trying to get frustrated and trying to resist the urge to wack some more of those fish we had just left I decided to make a long run and fish another area similar in nature.

We arrived at this spot and decide to fish this entire area. We started out the same throwing cranks and soft plastic and nothing. I was beginning to wonder if the move out of the river was the right choice or not as that water was warmer earlier in the morning than this water was at about 12-1 o’clock. We then caught a smaller fish on the small crank about 1.5lbs and then his twin brother a few casts later. Continuing on down the line I get a bite and set the hook, the rod loads up and I get about 4-5 cranks in and all of the sudden..nothing. I inspect my bait and realize that the claws off of my little otter are gone. We continue down and Wamm Rob hooks up with another good one. This one weighs 6 even as well caught on the H2O Express crank.

We continue to fish and we end up sticking 2 more 4lbers and another 2lber. Its starting to get late some we need to head back up the river. On the way back I show Rob how the side-imaging works as we view a river channel intersection and see some laydowns right on the “V” of the intersection, man what a good looking spot for post-spawners. We head back towards the ramp and decide to fish one last place. We hit the drop-off and notice the water is like chocolate milk. We fish anyway and no takers, just when its looking like its time to wrap up the rods, Rob hits one on the head with a softplastic bait, Wamm! One last 3lber for the road.

I tell ya we had a rally good day on the water and what made it even better was taking my good friend out. Thanks again Rob. Oh yeah Rob won the bet, I won a dollar for the first fish but he crushed me today with the Biggest and the Most, Awesome job!! But we had a great time and Its too bad Rob is moving soon.

[cmclairday2]

Greers Ferry Lake, North Central Arkansas- Clear, highland resivoir
Avg. Water Temps- Upper 40's
Date- 3/13/10

My tournament partner and I were fishing with a local club last Saturday.
Our prefishing had led us into a predominantly shallow pattern, with fish moving up into the brush. The days leading up to the tx were warm and sunny, with highs in the 70's. By midweek, we were seeing water temps in the mid 50's in the creeks and the backs of pockets. So needless to say, we were fairly stoked going into this after catching and seeing some fish moving around shallow for the first time in months.

Heavy storms and a massive cold front however put a halt to the warming trend that the lake was experiencing. We were still hoping however for some fish to still be shallow, but knew that a deep bite was probably going to be the main ticket.
Due to an off limits period for this tournament, all of our prefishing was done while the weather was warm and sunny, so we weren't real sure what conditions were going to be after the rain and cold.

Tournament day:
Prior to take off at 7:00 am, we were still unsure of what way we needed to attack the lake. Figuring on muddy water in a lot of our shallow pockets, we contemplated heading straight to the deeper, clearest end of the lake, near the dam. But, we also knew that we may have clear water running in some of the creeks, and that could have some bait and hopefully bass stacked up in those areas.
We decided at take off to run up lake to the mid lake area. We started out in Shiloh Creek and ran all the way to the back, where we found muddy, cold water rushing into the creek. The entire back of the creek had muddied up, but we still threw spinnerbaits and flipped buckbrush for a few minutes before making our move.
From there, we decided to run farther up lake, to see what the river arms of the lake looked like. We also decided to abandon the shallow bite for a while, and fish a small stretch of bluffs in the Devils Fork area of Greers. We picked up our first keeper on a dropshot in the first two minutes. A very skinny keeper black, but nonetheless, a 15" fish. We burned 20 more minutes on the bluffs without a bite, and moved farther back into the river. Muddy water greeted us as we moved farther back, along with dropping water temps. We spent a little time throwing jigs on brushpiles and along boat docks in the river, but after 45 minutes and one short black to show for the effort, we decided to move back toward the main lake.

Before we totally left Devils Fork, we hit a creek arm coming off the river, Hill Creek. We ran back into Hill Creek and fished another small set of bluffs with drop shots and jigs. We picked up keeper #2 in pretty short order off of the bluffs. A 13" spotted bass eat up one of our drop shots, and other than a couple of shorts that was it.

Before running back down lake, we decided to check out one more river arm of the lake, Middle Fork. This was at around 11:00 am. We stopped on a point that the river channel swings into, and immeadiatly caught keeper #3, a 14" spot, and then proceeded to pick up keepers #4 and #5, a 13" spot, and 13" smallmouth just off of that point. We also picked up several short fish, and so far today, that spot had been the most productive of all.
We knew at this point, that we had a 5 pound limit at best. So at around 1:00 we decided to run back down lake to try to find a couple of better fish to cull with.
Our first stop on the downlake run was at a hole I usually do well on this year in the Eden Isle area. There are brush and rockpiles all over this spot, and the fish are usually stacked up there in the prespawn. After burning 30 minutes on that spot, without a bite, we decided to go ahead with what our plan "B" was to start with that morning. We were going to run to Peter Creek and try for a couple of good fish. That plan was going well, until my lower unit blew out on the way down there. My partner caught a ride to the ramp with our fish, and I trolled to another ramp to wait on him.
I hated ending a day on a breakdown. But it happens to everyone at some time or another.
Looking at the day in retrospect, our decision to go uplake looking for the shallow bite to start with is what did us in.
We knew if we stayed downlake, the water temps would be cooler, and the water would be much clearer. So we would be working deeper and slower to get to the fish. But, we also knew that there was enough quality down lake to make it worth it. But the enticement of being on a shallow pattern kept us from making the right decision after the weather got bad late in the week. Even though we knew better, we were still hoping that we would get on some shallow fish and it didn't pan out.
The best sacks of the day came from the lower end of the lake. Although it was a tough day for most, our small limit wound up getting us 6th place, of 20 or so boats. Which pays zilch, but did get us points. But the lesson learned here for me is to sometimes just go with your gut, even if you'd rather be doing something else.

[cmclairday2]

Lake Maumelle, Central Arkansas- Clear to mildly stained highland resivoir
Avg Water temps- Mid 50's
Date: 3/27/10

My partner and I were Maumelle for our club's Spring Series opener.
Our prefishing was limited to one trip, but we got on a few things that made us have some hope of at least catching some fish.
Maumelle is historically a small fish lake. There are countless 13-15" fish in there, so 6 to 8 pound limits are very common. My typical target "gettin a check" weight is around 10 pounds over there.
We got on a good spinnerbait bite fishing mainlake points while prefishing. No big fish, but we knew we could probably put 8 or 9 pounds in the boat fairly quickly, leaving us the rest of the day to catch a kicker.

On tournament day, we had two other clubs going out with us, so there was quite a bit more traffic starting out than we had anticipated. Where we decided to start was a creek arm that opened up into a small lake at the back. The water temps in there were a degree or two warmer than anything we had found on the main lake. So we figured we would venture in there early to try for a quick limit, before venturing out onto the main lake.
Funny thing was, this lake is around 9,000 acres, and out of all the boats on the water, the only other boat heading towards the area we were going to start was another boat in our club. They went under the bridge right in front of us and as we were heading up the canal into the little lake, I asked them which way they were heading when they got to the lake. They said left, so we went right, which turned out to be good for us. We turned right, and immeadiatly shut down and started working a long rip rap bank with a spinner bait and jerkbait. On his second cast, Jason stuck a 15" bass with the spinner bait. Before we could get that one in the livewell, I stuck another keeper on the jerkbait. By 7:30 we had put a limit in the boat, weighing around 8 pounds. Time to go and search for a good one.

We hit the main lake, and the wind had gotten bad already. We were in the midlake area, and decided to hit a few of the spots down near the dam on the NE corner of the lake. We were hoping to catch maybe a 3 pounder to push us up to the 10 pound mark, and figured we'd have to weed through 100 small fish to find it.
Our first stop was a secondary point in a big main lake pocket. Jason nails a nice 15" spot with the spinnerbait, which culls one of our small largemouth. But after that, nothing. We were nearly ready to move, and decided to go to the mainlake point on the other side of the pocket, which had produced nothing during practice.
I throw the megabass jerkbait off the point, and after a few jerks, stick one that was close to the 3 pound mark. Great, there's our kicker. Or so we thought. Now we're up around 10 pounds, and it was only about 9:00, so we felt like we just needed to keep trying to upgrade, although it would probably be tough to upgrade much.
We decided to work the mainlake stretch of bank from the point where we landed the 3 pounder. After a little bit, Jason lands a solid 2 pounder on the spinnerbait. Another good cull. We worked our way around another point to just a dead looking bank. No grass, little wood. We almost moved, and then Jason has a big one hit his spinnerbait about 6' from the boat. Despite everything, we land the bass. Its a 4.96 pound largemouth, a giant for Maumelle. Its 10:00 am, and we knew we had around 13 pounds in the box. We had the feeling that we had it won at that point, but also thought that if we were catching them this good, that others are too. So we decided not to go to the dock and order pizza..lol
We worked mainlake stuff the rest of the day with spinnerbaits. We culled up our last couple of fish, and caught many that would'nt help our cause.
At the end of the day, we came in with 13.84 lbs. Good enough for first place and big bass.
This was one of the funnest days we have had on the water in a long time. Caught dozens of keepers, and put an official end to the Winter funk we had been in. The weather was very nice, although very windy. It felt good not to have to fish in coveralls all day.

[Mark Perry]

Location: Lake Lewisville, Texas
Tournament: Bud Light Trail
Date: 4-17-10

Weather Conditions: Overcast and scattered showers with cold front on its way. Air temps 75 degrees most of the day. Wind - 5-15 out of the NE

Water Conditions: Stained to muddy, water temps 67-70 and water level slighty falling with flood gates open. Lake has been over pool due to heavy rains over the winter and spring.

I'll start out by mentioning I spent 3 full days of at least 8-10hrs per day on the water prefishing in the 2 weeks prior to the tournament and had a very good practice even though according to reports the lake was fishing very tough. With our crazy winter the spawn on most North Texas lakes is out of whack and running behind. Couple the muddy water and cooler than average water temps and you get some confused fish.
Managed to find a solid jig bite up super shallow between the buck brush and shore. I'm talking 6-12" of water throwing through any openings you have. It was power fishing at its finest where you set the hook and pray you can get the fish through the brush. The outer edges of the brush was dead bite-wise and fish were hard to find in traditional staging areas. I felt like the first wave of fish had actually moved up and spawned despite the cooler water and these were bedders we were catching in practice. The patterns was good for 15-20 plus pounds consistently and the big fish were for sure up shallow. I had 3-4 solid areas where the pattern was holding up in practice and all were the middle to backs of smaller creeks and pockets that had little drains coming into them. Deeper water had to be nearby and needed to be 3-4ft at least. The areas seemed to all have a harder bottom and buck brush in the back of the drains. We concentrated on the western arm of the lake. Last day on the water I practiced was last Sunday and I hardly stuck more than one fish in any area and we still had 20lbs or so. The jig was still the deal and really put the quality fish in the boat. The lake website showed that they had stopped letting water out and I was praying this was true and also hoping for sunny skies on tournament to better position the fish. I got neither.

We arrived this morning to our first area and had it to ourselves. Right off the bait I get 3-4 short fish on the jig and the bite appears aggressive. However we notice the water level has fallen 6" or more since Sunday. Some of the better sweet spots were out of the water now. My partner get s a few short bites and finally the area goes flat. We had spent about an hour and a half there and never got a keeper. We are still confident the bite will pick up as the day gets on and decide to keep flipping the buck brush.

We make a move to our second spot which is our best area. We are flipping a park/camping area that is loaded with buck brush and has multiple ditches running through them. We get to see two kayaks full of live bait fishermen banging away on our best spot. We pull in behind them and start fishing slow. Same deal, the falling water has changed our bite. I do manage one solid keeper on the jig though and witness one of the kayakers catch one the same size. We stayed in the area for 2 hours and both miss a keeper fish. My partner's fish was a small keeper and mine looked to be 3-4lbs and both would have been nice to land. we got a fair share of short fish though. Bite goes flat so we sit down and evaluate the day. We are halfway through and only one keeper to show for it. We did get a few keeper bites and shorts but we feel like its time to scarp our plans and make a change. There's a slight chop on the water, the water temp is 70 degrees and obviously we have some post spawn fish since we feel like most of the small fish were males guarding the nest. Perfect time for a topwater. Partner starts slinging a buzzbait along shallow windblown points and nails a small keeper. No other topwater is working. We decide to start running points and hitting high percentage targets. We catch a bunch of short fish on a few baits including a chatterjig, shallow crankbait and a buzzbait. No takers on the frog or spinnerbait though. Its about 2:00 now and still only the two keepers with an hour till weigh in. Hoping some fish are moving up to stage we go back and check some deeper staging areas at the mouths of some creeks nearby and I finally catch another good keeper on a smaller Texas rigged soft plastic. I downsized a bit cause the jig was a bit bigger and that bite had diminished. Just wanted a smaller profile and a faster fall to get a reaction bite. We make one more pass in there with no more bites and decide to finish our day on a spot that had similar features cause we felt it was our best bet to finish our limit. The bait change and the location change paid off. We realized quickly just what they were holding on and managed to fill out our limit with another solid keeper or two. We culled twice and at 3:00 had an OK limit on the day.

We managed a Top 10 finsih and most of the folks in front of us were stout locals so we felt good. We realized that our practice patterns were not working and we made a change in our attack and it paid off. Only regrets were not making the bait change earlier. I think they got off the jig bite during the week when the water fell. It was an enjoyable day with a lot of fish caught in tough conditions. Had a good time and we live to fight another day.

[Legend Chris]

Well I wasn't going to do anything on Saturday as I THOUGHT we were all going to Six flags, But everyone anted to go on Sunday. So I figured I have the whole day to myself to fish. So I say Hmm let me go check out Falcon.
I got down there and the wind just picked up pretty good and the white caps were on..Man was the Lake rough but there were a few spots that you could get out of it after all no matter where you go on Falcon you'll get bit and even find you a good'n as well.
I fished some spots on the Mexican side until the wind calmed down a touch and caught about 15-20 fish with only about a 13lb bag around 1045 or so with one that broke my line that was around 6-7lbs. Once the wind died I decided to make a longer run and look for some bigger fish. Found a few spots that had some fish on them and culled 2 of my smaller fish. I ended up with a bag around 16-17lbs when it was time for me to get heading home.
All in all a nice day on the lake that could have been alot better if I was hindered by the wind in the early morning. All fish were caught on BB Crickets and H20 Cranks.
Here are the fish I had at the end of the day when I threw them back..