pool 8

Is anyone catching any big fish on 8? Seem to be catching a ton of short and just keeper fish but nothing big. If anybody could point me in the right direction I would greatly appreciate it.

Yesterday on pool 8 I saw quite a number of small fish in groups also. Then I would get just larger fish. The large fish were with the 3 inch shad or shiners,(I have never seen these two prey move around as much as they are this year), and the smaller fish apparently were still on the slough minnows. Four days ago when the three prey were all together I caught nice fish right in among the smaller ones. Look for the 2-3 inch shad and shiners and I think you will find the fish you are looking for.( they were out by the mouthes of the sloughs and out in the open away from the pad fields yesterday), But honestly that is usually the type of prey you will find the larger fish around almost all year round. Hope this helps a little. Lawrence

thanks for your response. I’ll let ya know after saturday if it helped. I have been seeing the large shad but i think i have been fishing to close to the pads. thanks

We fish this little bay and there were many schools of big shad popping all over with the occasional bigger splash of what I’m assuming are larger predators. One problem: didn’t catch one bass there…not even one bite! Not sure if there are just shad, no bass; or, shad and bass, but no bite. Anyone encounter such a situation? I tried traps, Pop-R, buzzer, and a black plastic worm.

My wife and I fished a tournament a couple of weeks ago and we found the shad like you are talking about and the only thing the bass would hit was a white spinner bait. Needless to say after my wife had three keepers in the boat I switched to a white spinnerbait and we limited out. Now this weekend seemed like all they would hit on was a Pop R. If I could figure these fish out I would be a rich man. Good Luck

I had almost the same experience a few weeks ago with all small LM on one day and much better fish in the same area the next. The first day the small ones were racing from 10 or more feet away to grab anything white on top in the open water between pads and nothing in the slop. The second day the bigger fish wanted white again but most on slop baits and some on flukes in open water between pads near the slop. Shad were in big balls swimming in circles but the bigger bass were not anywhere near them. The bigger fish were near some kind of overhead cover (slop or close together pads) and were feeding (I assume) on little pods of shad that must have broken away from the bigger groups. I kept going back to the open water areas where the shad were but had very little action and what was there was small <10". Don't know why the bigger fish were not feeding in the open as there was much more bait there but it may have due to a change in pressure or some other environmental clue that I missed??