Th1317

I fish central Texas, and yes, I will go on a day like today. We had a situation similiar to what we're experiencing this week and i had really good results, but the pattern was very narrow. I was fishing Lady Bird Lake in Austin and what ended up happening was that i had to find the greenest and thickest vegetation or heaviest available cover and flip a 1/2 jig into these areas. Caught alot of fish doing this with multiple 5lbers. I also used a finesse worm in places where the water was to clear for the big jig; this also worked well. I went out a few days ago before it cleared up, and it was miserable. I managed one 6lber but it was so cold and wet that i was concerned about becoming hypothermic, and so called it a day.

Not sure if anybody else has tried this yet, im sure somebody has, but what i tried today with some success was using a small jig (bitsy bug in white) with a zoom split tail type of trailer. The action is very subtle, but when imparted with a rod tip action similiar to what one might use on a spook or jerkbait, the resulting action is great. Even looks good when slowly reeled; the tentacles gently quiver along. Anyways, this presentation seems to really imitate a baitfish very well, plus it's something different to show the fish. give it a try

Thats awesome man. Been bass fishing since i was a kid, but for alot of that time i had the opinion that buzzers were limited to specific situations. I've always known they catch bass, but im realizing that they are a very versatile tool. In my past two outings I ended up just throwing a 1/2oz clacker the entire day, after fruitless efforts with deep crankbaits, squarebills, and a jig. I'm defintely a faced paced fishman so it's a style that suits me well.

seriously though. I've been dying to catch them on squarebills and lipless cranks, but seems like they will only take the buzzer around here. Water temp is still low 70's so we'll see how things change in the coming months.

Fall weather has finally arrived in central Texas and so have the masses of shad. Huge schools of shad out here on the lakes i fish. Makes me just want to throw a spook or red eye shad right into the middle of these schools. WRONG. I've been seduced by these masses before, having spent many hours playing the odds that my one bait (I refuse to throw a bama-rig...yet) will magically get bit amongst the literal millions of other more lifelike options. As much as is pangs me, I move off the frenzy and go fish isolated cover in less that 2 ft of water. Theres still shad around these areas though, just not the same overwhelming clouds of them that im finding on the channel bends and flats. Over the past week or so I have found a buzzbait to be extremely effective up shallow. Jigs have been good too, and spinnerbaits have been ehh. I don't think people fish buzzbaits a whole lot these days, whereas spinnerbaits are thrown to death. That being said, I think the bass are less reluctant to bite a buzzbait. Anyways, been throwing around docks, pads, laydown, and emergent hydrilla, which has yeilded good numbers So as archaic and awkward as buzzbaits may seem, go give one a committed chance. I think you will be surprised.

I've heard multiple times that either mono or braid are more conducive for helping baits walk. Personally I'd be throwing braid. Also, ive had a few guys tell me that trimming up the legs on the frog can help it walk better.

I would say that LMB are the dominant species in this waterbody. In fact, it holds man trophy bass. I guess for the majority of summer the bass were really slamming these schools of shad all day long, so today just struck me as odd. We've gotten rain recently, which has kinda tinted the water in an otherwise gin clear lake. The bass might have just been more actively feeding up shallow due to this.

Shad everwhere today, right on a flat full of stumps, adjacent to a channel bend. Textbook, right? Literally could not get a bass to bite at all, nor did i see any indication that they were in the area feeding. I decided i'd throw a tube jig and squarebill up shallow and managed two 3's. I noticed among this massive school of shad there were a lot of really large spotted and longnose gar, it seemed like there was a dense conceration of them for sure. I'm wondering if the larger gar might discourage the bass from feeding in the same area. Personally i would think the two species would feed collectively considering the proliferation of forage today. I dont know. Ive heard of instance where stripper can domintate a structure and will drive of the largemouth. Any thoughts? Todays conditions: Air temp: upper 80's Water Temp: 82 -Overcast -moderate wind -Throwing red eye shad, 5xd, kvd 1.5, war eagle spinnerbaits, fat alberts, flutterspoon, smk colored tube, gunfish/spook, senkos

drop-shotting and senkos along the edge of the weedline

I gotcha. well im not going to pretend that i know alot about fishing your neck of the woods, because ive only fished texas. But if you have had any significant changes in weather pattern in the recent days/weeks, the fish' behavior might not be stable making it hard to target them. from what youre saying, it sounds like youre primarily targeting shallow water. to that end, try going deeper. find areas where the current meets calm water, and its a plus if you find structure/cover in these areas. the beauty about an area like this is that the current acts as a food conveyer belt (for a lack of a better term), and the calm water acts as a resting ground for the fish to retreat after feeding. here in texas the conditions are completely different so im not gonna tell you that whats working here is going to work for you. also keep an eye out for baitfish and birds feeding on the water, sometimes just paying attention to other organisms within the food chain will help you unlock the key to catching fish.

Fall is great for catching bass. The fish are gonna be feeding up for the upcoming cold weather, because once that water temp drops the bass arent going to be willing to chase prey very aggresively. hence, they get fat while they can so they can afford to be lazy during the colder months. spinnerbaits, lipless, squarebill, jigs, they all should work. In my experience here in Texas I have noticed that the fish just get plain aggressive and much less selective in the fall. Most peopel will contend that the bass chase baitfish in the fall so your best bet would be to use something that mimicks a shad or whatever type of forage inhabits your local waters.

It would be helpful to know more about the location that you're fishing. When you say you're fishing a river are you referring to a large river, almost lake-like, or a skinny one with fast current and shallow water?

For a while i was the same way about being to caught up on one bait, jigs coincidentally. One day i decided i would commit to a lipless crankbait, which after taking some time to become efficient with became my go-to. It accomplishes so many different needs for all situations.

Hey guys, I'm new to the site but i've started blogging about my fishing experiences recently, and I thought it would be nice to share some of my material here. Also, let me know some of y'alls experience with the things i mention here. Sometimes as humans we fall into ruts, seemingly unable to pull ourselves over the steep walls, no matter which direction we climb. At these times it is easy to let a negative attitude dictate your actions and further entrench you in your problems. This same kind of thing happens to fishermen when we fall into a dry spell. In both situations we have the ability to make a choice; to decide how we are going to define the situations we find ourselves in, and what we are going to make of them. Here in Texas we are at the time of year when we are in the most brutal stages of summer, and the task of putting fish in the boat feels more like trying to engineer and construct an intergalactic rocket ship. The heat, boat traffic, low oxygen levels, crystal clear water, and the fact that the fish have seen most of the lures you present to them by this point of the year are all conditions that make it difficult for anglers to catch fish. On my latest trip to lake Dunlap in New Braunfels, Texas I was struggling to get bites throughout the day. Despite a low-pressure system bringing rain and overcast in the early morning, the fish remained unwilling to pursue baits that are commonly successful in this situation. Topwaters were left unscathed. Crankbaits of all sorts ignored. Soft plastic and jigs--not even a consolation nibble. It wasn’t until around 10am that I started figuring things out. I found a stretch of bank with a good amount of flooded timber and was able to elicit a few reaction strikes by bumping a Strike King Red Eye Shad along the cover. Most of the bites that came from this method were definite short strikes. Besides one fishcommitting to my bait, it was pretty obvious that the fish were in a wary mood. Nonetheless, I was able to establish that I could consistently locate fish in wood on this day. Additionally I was able to locate fish on a hump in deeper water, using the same Red Eye Shad to get a few bites. Those few bites aside, the fishing conditions were really not conducive for success. By mid-day the air and water temperature really began to climb, the air was dead still, and the water visibility was at least 9 feet. I was really working hard to get bites, but within a few hours of nothingness, the stagnation became quite discouraging. As I began contemplating packing up and calling it a day I decided to try one last thing. Remembering my earlier established flooded-timber pattern, I went back to the brush, but with a slightly different approach. Knowing that the clear water would call for a presentation that was realistic I tied on a Huddleston Weedless Shad. Bam! Immediate results. On my first cast to a laydown in about 9 feet of water I saw the unmistakable shadow of a 7+pound bass stalking my bait, although, the fish never fully committed. From that point on I was able to recreate the same reaction from big bass on similar pieces of cover at different locations. Throughout the day I probably had drawn out 15 or more trophy-sized bass from their wooded haunts using this technique. Regrettably, almost all of these big fish never attacked my bait, but I did manage to boat four fish once I switched to fluorocarbon line. Despite not catching as many fish as I would have liked, I still managed to have fun simply watching these massive fish expose themselves! Not to mention, by discovering these fish I can now target them with more efficiency, with the confidence of knowing that I am in an area containing big fish. The moral here is to remember this: you never improve or gain anything by quitting. When you’re having trouble in a relationship, school, work, or even something leisurely like fishing it may feel easier to quit and formulate excuses to justify your submission, rather than taking accountability for your own success and putting in the work to be better. The truth is that there is always a way to be better, although, sometimes you have to challenge your own conventions in order find what works. If you can keep up your resolve, stay positive, and simply keep an open mind there’s very little that we can’t overcome.