What are you catching?

Well, for me..not much. I am catching a lot of small bucks (males.. )..

This weather has to have them all screwed up, but I believe the females are on the beds. Weather was really nice all week, mid 60-70..then thursday hit, and cold cold cold. It has rained non-stop since the cold front moved in. Temps are going to be in the 30’s tonight.

Tubes and creature baits, are the only baits I can catch fish on. I had a few monster hits today…but I am guessing they were “pick it up, kill/crunch it, and then spit it out before luke can set the hook” bites.. as I didn’t hook up with any of the big hits. It was a blast today, the males were picking up the bait, and taking off with it, I let some of them run 15-20 feet before setting the hook. (just seeing how far they would run with it..) This would leave me to believe they are taking the “predator” away from the bed, as far as they can..

I am just wondering how everybody else is doing, and what your bass are doing.

I’m not a bass guy but reports I have heard from last weeks eye opener till now are saying bass are hitting good around here. Top 3 bass in the Walleye Weekend were 5# and up at least 1 being a smallie. Waters way to cold here yet for beds I would think, mid 50’s is about tops on the big lakes smaller shallow waters might be 60. Your right about this weird weather water temps are doing the yo-yo and making things tough for about everything.

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Well, for me..not much. I am catching a lot of small bucks (males.. )..

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Trash that pink line and you’ll catch BIG fish!

Drizzle all day…getting to old for that stuff this early in the season. I know…I’m starting to sound like my favorite wife!

Glad you guys are getting out!

PS Happy Mothers Day Luke!

No need to fish slow around my neck of the woods. Even with the decline in water temps, the bass are still smackin fast jigs, spinnerbaits, and rat-l-traps. The fish are still up on the flats and in new weedbeds, and feeding good. Stong pre-spawn/ spawn conditions probably for the rest of the week.

7 day old rat-l-trap…

Yep Dave..we already experienced the pre-spawn bite…
Rat-L-Traps were working really well, for bass, and muskies.

Andy confirmed my thoughts yesterday, and saw big females on beds. I can’t believe the fish are in that big of “differences” only three hours away. But I guess we did have 68 degree water temps three weeks ago…

And Brian- this is not a stinky catfish forum..
Actually though, I will be visiting your forum later tonight…

I was out yesterday in the cold and rain and we slowed down some of our presentations thinking that would be the key. We never even had a strike on a tube or plastic. Our fish came on cranks and spinner baits, cranked as fast as we could. I guess the speed triggered some reaction bites.

I have caught fish fishing slow and fast. One of my better spots dropped from 59 degrees last wednesday to 48 degrees on saturday! I couldn’t even believe it.

Brian..we struck out on the big channels today, Andy and I each had a bite..but couldn’t hook up with the fish…
I was hoping for a good day…so we could visit your forum, and put up a catfishing report..
Bummer..

Keep trying there Luke! But I’m telling ya…it’s the pink line!

Water temps on P3 went from 61 last Thursday to 56 yesterday. I’m looking for an even 65 for a good consistant flathead bite…one step forward 5 degrees back!

I was out all weekend and found fish in a variety of moods. I was catching them fishing fast and had times when it had to be at a snails pace. Fun fishing right now except for the weather.

Bassman

Fished LAX on saturday. First time out there for me. Could not find much. Weather did not help. Water was up and current made things even tougher. Do you guys fish the main river and have success with the current this high? Seemed pretty quick to me but I don’t fish the river that much. I tried to find areas out of the current. I would have spent more time in the current if I was confident that I could catch fish there. Should I work harder in that current or get out of it to find them? Water temps were in the upper forties some areas as high as 52. Are pools 7 and 9 better? Any help?

Bass in the buck brush at the end of cuts/creeks. Not in willows unless only willows there. Bigger fish moved into the buck brush/willows later in the day. That was the pattern on Lake Douglas, TN as of 5/12 & 5/13. Ha! Just had to write.

Thanks,

OTW

You are not going to get a lot of information this week from people as the BFL is on 7-9 next weekend. I am sure after that, you might get a little more info.

Bassman

Onthewater..did you see my report from TN little river?
I wanted to fish douglas..but I just couldn’t get away from little river..
TN Report

Hey, Luke,

No, unfortunately I didn’t see your report. I gotta tell ya though, if the water’s in the bushes on Douglas, pitch jigs into the middle of them; then jiggle them a bit. If the bass it there, you’ll know it in the first five seconds. You’ll feel the thump, bam! Set the hook, and they’re there.

We took second in the VA Federation Region 4 tournament (FLW side). 1st (23lbs), 2nd (22lbs) and 3rd (19lbs) (I believe) were all fishing the bushes. After 3rd place, the weights dropped off substantially. Those doing anything else were not really competetive. I thing there were 40 boats.

Talk to you soon,

OTW

I caught a cold this weekend, does that count?

Fish have pretty much followed the water level and flow on pool 9 for 3 weeks. Clattershad,Mizmo tube and .99 spinnerbaits are grabbing 90% of our fish. Like some mentioned changing temps doesn’t seem to decrease the fishing activity… with the full moon there are absolutely fish on beds like was mentioned, and they bit when we checked on them. We try to get off them quickly and move back to prespawn/staging/feeding areas… still hard to beat long flat points,and finger bays, and those “end of the world” spots that will be dry again when the water drops.

I went out for an hour on Saturday, it was pretty slow. I slowed down, fished a 4″ Gonzo grub in green pumpkin and we got a few fish. caught another fish on a Fat Free Shad in shad pattern. BWSTA tourney this weekend in lansing, dunno where im gonna start out, i gotta get up there this week sometime and i suppose ill fish the day before a little.

Do you know how many boats are in the BWSTA tourney out of Lansing?

There’s 2 BWSTA out of Lansing this weekend. Both of them on Sunday.

Last year they drew 26 boats for the first tourney down there. the high water might affect that # this year.

Update..I was fishing walleyes (I know…shhh..) the other day, casting into 9 feet of water…and I was throwing BIG shadraps..reeling slow-to medium, chugging it on the bottom. And if I could keep a bass off my line, it was a miracle..

They are coming off the beds!!!!!

ditto – jointed Fire-Tiger crank baits have been great.

I dont think they’ve been moving off the beds yet. A few, yes. but the majority are probably still on. Everytime the water gets warm enough, it plummets back down. I really think this weekend should find quite a few fish still on yet.too early yet for the majority to be off.

Went out tonight…could not catch any bass shallow..I don’t know a ton about bass “science”, if you will, but wouldn’t that mean they are off the beds…?

i was out “somewhere” on pool 9 tonite, i was on fish fairly decently. all were shallow, with the exception of one in deep rocks. every other fish was in 5′ of water or under. A lot of small fish really shallow, like under 2′, but the keeper sized fish were deeper. It’s all about bottom composition. find some hard bottom(sand, gravel, rock) shallow, and you’ll probably be on fish. We’re getting some off mud bottoms, but they really just ain’t producing unless we’re on the harder bottoms. sunday, weather depending, we’ll probbly fish 50% of the time in 8-15′ and the other half in the skinny water. probably start shallow and work deeper. with this water being all messed with and the rollers wide open, the fish are fairly spread out right now too. we havent hit any good concentrations, i really think this strong current and high water has them spread out pretty good.