Troy85

Bradley is probably a spy sent from a competing bass fishing website to sow seeds of dissent in the BR community and bring us down from the inside! ? With that Said, I watch BASS mostly just because its what I'm used too, I will watch an MLF event if I happen to notice its on, but I don't follow it as closely as I follow BASS.

Looking to plan a trip to Gunthersville this spring, staying somewhere near Goose Pond. My timeline is sometime between the last week of March till Late May. I'm looking for the fish to be up shallow as much as possible. Any recommendations from some local guys as to the best time to go within my time frame?

Ah! Come on Catt, I was gonna head up to TB this evening and see if you wanted to do a little night fishing!

I support this 100%.

I never skipped. My dad was self employed at the time, and I remember many occasions where he would check me and my brother out of school early to go fishing if the weather was nice. He'd roll up to the school with the boat hooked to the truck. haha He isn't self employed anymore, but we actually work for the same company so we will occasionally sneak away from work and hour early so we can fish a Wednesday evening tournament.

For bottom lures I prefer braid with leader. I've tried straight Fluro, but the memory drives me crazy. I use 17-20 since I'm fishing around thick grass 95% of the time. I'm not buying cheap fluro, I've tried several different brands, Berkely, seguar and P-Line. I'm open to suggestions as to how to help reduce memory, with brands or techniques. I'd rather not have the extra leader knot if I can avoid it. When using spinnerbaits, crankbaits and swimbaits I have those tied on straight fluro with 12-15lb test.

You should start a thread about this. The way you stated it makes me think you have some real juicy stories. LOL That and I've been considering trying some kayak tournaments just to see what its all about.

Down here in the shallow marshes I fish, the dog days are all about frogs/buzzbaits and thick grass. You will see a lot of tournament guys just throwing a frog or buzzbait from start to finish. I prefer winter, since the water rarely gets below 50, the bass stay pretty active thru winter. The hardest days are after a big front when the north wind will blow a lot of the water out of the marsh and muddy everything up. The marsh where I fish water clarity is the trump card, even on a post frontal day you can usually get a good bit of bites if you have clean water.

Bummer. Well maybe this will be the trip where I finally make @Catt proud by successfully structure fishing. LOL

Sounds good. Has any grass popped up on San Miguel recently? I was last out there in summer of 20, and there wasn't much grass to be found.

Im looking to either go the weekend of Oct 17, or the weekend of Oct 30th. Which time do u think would have the most fish up shallow? I'd imagine if we have a warm early october it will slow them down a bit. Whats your professional opinion?

Here in SE Lousiana, Saltwater inshore is way more popular than bass, but in many areas you can catch bass alongside saltwater species. I grew up going inshore saltwater fishing just about every weekend, then about 5 or so years ago I discovered bass fishing and I haven't looked back.

Thats good to hear, I may be staying at WildWood mid October. Looking forward to catching fish that a bit more shallow, I tend to really suck fishing offshore. Last two times I went up there, I made myself try it just to learn, and I caught a few, but it would be nice to be able to go up shallow this time and just wack em. Fingers crossed.

How does it work in water that's 6' or less?

I’m getting up there Sunday afternoon/evening. I’ll let you know how it goes.

I’ll try that for sure, thanks for the tips. Any idea if there is any grass growing? I saw google earth updated their imagery to January of this year. Looked like there may have been little patches of grass starting to grow but it was hard to tell. I know you always say it’s all about structure, but being a marsh guy, it always helps my confidence to see a little grass thrown in the mix. ?

I was looking at hurricane. Thought it looked like a good area to try. Do you think most fish will be in hurricane or closer to where hurricane opens up to the main lake?

Not at all actually. Only the boat lane markings on my Navionics hotmaps chip. I was actually gonna ask if there was anything I needed to watch out for. I was thinking about trying all those flats and creeks across from F&F. Is any part of that red line I drew safe to get up on top, or just idle the entire way? I also plan to try around N. Housen if its not to rough, I'll have my 3 year old so I gotta keep it enjoyable for him. Any tips you have for boat lanes and fishing would be greatly appreciated.

I'll be Staying at Fin and Feather on Housen for a few nights next week with my 3 year old son. Not sure what to expect, I've never really fished the Texas side of the lake.

You've actually seen something hit? Duck hunting years ago paddling to the blind in pitch black, we had space debris come so close I could hear it rumbling across the sky and see the smoke trail it left, lit up the entire pond like it was daylight. for a split second I thought it was a flair, but it was going way to fast, and was gone almost as soon as it appeared.

I've run my aluminum bass boat thru some crazy thick hydrilla and water hyacinth, and still made it out. Sandbars, thats a different story, I ran up on one a couple months ago. Broke my pushpole trying to get free. Flagged down another boat who was able to get within casting distance, I threw a jig into his boat, and he attached a rope to it. I reeled the rope in and attached it to my front cleat, he pulled me off with no problem. It was annoying and a little stressful at the time, but now it makes for a good story.

Whats worse than high wind.....is when the weathermen predict no wind, yet you get out there and its blowing 20. Its one thing to go out expecting it to be windy, you can mentally prepare, but it really annoys me when I go out expecting little to no wind, and its blowing like a hurricane. haha.

Man that water looks muddy.

@Catt. Thanks for the videos, I've watched the first 7 so far. They are very informative, I'll probably watch them several times before my trip starts. They talked about spoons being a good way to figure out if the fish your seeing are bass or not. I know nothing about jigging spoons, so do you or anyone else have any recommendations for a good spoon to try?