Dougw

Yeah... and sometimes they were only dirt logging roads and weren’t ever well defined... not much doing today! Spent more time in the truck than the boat. Started to cross the lake this morning. Got a 1/2 mile away from the north/south boat lane heading west when the boat started losing speed and vibrating. I figured the lost speed was a coil. Wasn’t sure about the vibrating. Long story short the loss of speed was indeed a bad coil. The vibration... slung a blade on my 26p Fury 4.

Caney Creek(Big Bass Marina) Caney Creek(Pirates Cove) Today I’m working mid-lake Texas side. Housen, Six Mile, Indian Mounds, etc.... The amount of bait fish I’m seeing on my electronics is stupid crazy. Absolutely huge balls of bait extending from 5’ to 25’ and 25-30 yds. wide. It doesn’t seem to matter where I’m at main lake or 1/2 way back in a cove. Fish are with them as well. I’ve taken a number of screen shots but no way to post them remotely. Tried working my way back in the coves but the water keeps getting colder as I move towards the back. 100% cloud cover Wed. and the same yesterday with drizzle/pissin’ rain all day didn’t help. With sun forecast for today I’m thinking the shallow water may heat up enough to pull fish back there later this afternoon.

Last Wednesday temps were 67-68 yesterday 60-62 today 58-60 tomorrow lower than today went to check out a few more roadbeds. I see them on the map but can’t locate them with my electronics. I check 50 yards either side of where the map says they are but no findee. Was on the water 8-11:30 caught on spot. Moving/running just wasn’t a lot of fun....

Setting in 14-16 fow casting to 10-12 fow. I was chunking an emerald blue baby brush hog. Also got bit on watermelon red w/chartreuse tail bbh and a chartreuse/watermelon trick stick. Only worked one road bed but caught, got bit, from one end to the other. All day rain may limit exactly how much running looking I can get done today!

Wellllll.... you were right!!!! Butttttt.... you dint tell me they were gonna be football spots. Mmmmm... let me rephrase that they were nurf-ball spots. Doubt any of the ones I caught were 14” but damnnnnnn they were fat!

Don't know about today but I'll be able to tell you something tomorrow.... Now.... where'd I' put my shorts n' sun tan lotion?????

I’m on it! I was in the area you posted the map of.... the 5#er came on the LA side.

Ok.. so my tournament(s) are the weekend of the 16-17th. Should’a known - weather wasn’t going to be crappy enough. But that didn’t stop me from driving over in the weee hours of Wed. morning. Saw some shad getting nibbled on early but couldn’t get bit that way. Soooo... picked up the 8’ Dobyns with a 10XD. Cruised over a main lake point, saw fish n’ started chunking. A few cast later a 5+#er jumped in the boat to give me back my 10XD. At this point I still thought my tournament was this weekend so I made a few more cast without a bite and left. Went to some main lake humps in the same depth range. The 10XD fish came out of 18 fow. Was throwing a blue back/white sides. Didn’t have many of them and now have one less. Soooo... tied on a barfish pattern 10XD. Caught a small spot on it. That one hit as I was cranking up to make the next cast. And I do mean small 10 - 11”s. Around noon I went to check out deep creeks. That did nothing for me. Earlier out on the main lake I managed to fool another small spot on a c-rig. 1:00pm I put it back on the trailer and took my dumb ass back home. Reckon I’ll be back next Wednesday....

Y’all better get your catching done tomorrow!!!!! DougW will be on the lake Wed.-Sun. At which time all game fish species all join in their fasting ritual and will NOT eat anything until next Monday - or Sunday evening. Whichever comes first.

unless you were within 5 miles of DougW. Then you be catchin': grinnel, catfish, and a blow'd out basketball!

I'll be in Eufaula, Al all next week fishing ABA Nationals. I'm going as a boater ranked 288th in a field of 500. That is, by far, the worst I've ever done over the course of a year in ABA. There won't be 500 fishermen there. Heck probably won't even be 288 there. About the Bend w/low water. I had absolutely no problems getting around - none at all. I did discover a few unmarked lanes that I laid down trails on so when the water comes back up I can run where I used to idle. Should have done more of it, marking running lanes. At least then I would have been productive at something. I did note on a E-W boat lane, #4 I think, that about 1/2 way across there is a tree pretty much in the middle of the lane. Might'a been a floater - might'a not been too. When the water comes up six inches it won't be seen.

Welp.... Spent Wed-Sat on the Bend. Tough'er'n'nails for me. Wednesday and Thursday spent about an equal amount of time shallow/deep. C-Rig is absolutely one of my favorite methods. Got a few pick-ups and put-downs but never caught a fish on the c-rig in 4 days. Chunked a 5-bait umbrella rig a lot on Wed-Thur. Caught one 8" fish on it. Tried letting it sink to the bottom and slow rollin' it back. At one point I had schooling fish around the boat. Chunked the U-rig right in amongst'em and it was like they were moving it outta the way to get to the food they were chasing. Next time picked up a 1/4 oz. one knocker and put fish in the boat - non-keepers though. Wed-Fri. there was a fair amount of schooling action. There weren't a lot of fish schooling at any one time and they didn't stay up long. For the most part catching them schooling wasn't happening. Threw a 3/4oz. Bomber spoon to the long range schoolers to no avail. Went to the 1215 area and fish were absolutely stacked up there but - couldn't make'em bite. Got over the top of them with a spoon but.... nuttin'. Wed-Thur. caught a fair amount of fish on a 1/4oz. one knocker. Maybe 2-3 keepers each day. Friday had 5 keepers(would not have culled in a tournament) that probably went 10-11#s. Sat. morning dawns.... Totally different than the previous 3 days. No clouds at all - nada. Schooling activity was pretty non-existent as was the bite. Threw the one knocker and a c-rig most of the day. Might have caught 4-5 fish biggest was 13"s. Zeroed for the tournament. There were 16 boats entered. Winner had the only 5-fish limit by Tater Reynolds @ 16#s. George Jean weighed in 3 fish and took 2nd. A single fish 6.9#er took 3rd and big fish. 4 boats zeroed and the other nine boats had either 1 or 2 fish. There's always next time....

Nah... wasn't fishing in the water. I was fishing over grass with a buzz bait until the home owner told me to get my *&^% buzz bait off'a his lawn. Then someone told me they were in the trees so I decorated all the trees I could afford. So you're suggesting actually fishing in the water may help? Where I've been fishin' - really. I'm starting my 4th year on Toledo. 1st year - I stayed in Caney Creek(pirates cove). Fished docks, humps, drops, the islands at the mouth, every pocket/cove in Caney creek. I went as far back into Caney as a body can go in a fiberglass boat. I caught some good fish that year though not many. Crankbaits, finess rigs, jigs, flukes, top water... actually just about everything but a drop-shot. Xcaliber 1 knocker is always on my deck in varying sizes. 2nd year - Started venturing out. Spent a lot of time in Indian Creek, areas @ the dam. Hit Dry Creek, had a particularly good spot at the mouth of Housen that to this day I've never seen anyone else fish. They've been close but not so close I couldn't Anchor Lock on my waypoint. Millionairs point produced some fish as did the shoreline starting at Millionairs Point. and workinig back into the pocket. Got a spot near the boat lanes about 1/2 back into Housen that produces a 7+ my first year - I was fishing the ABA Ram series then. 3rd year - Kept fishing some spots/areas that paid off in prior years as I started exploring further up lake. Had a good day in Negreet. No big fish but a quick limit. Caught some good fish in the cove BigBass Marina is in. Plus the point((s) off the main lake heading into that cove. 4th year - Next week will be my first trip back to the lake for the 19/20 season. I've caught some fish and 8+ was the biggest. I'm just not consistent and have never felt I had a grip on what the fish were doing or what they wanted. Last year I finished 2nd in Angler of the Year. I finished 2nd in the 2 day championship(had the fish on to win but....) but still felt it was more luck than any "I'm on'em" feeling.

Well.... I couldn't catch fish when the lake was above normal pool. I couldn't catch fish when the lake was at normal pool. I couldn't catch fish when there was grass. I couldn't catch fish when there was no grass. Crossing my fingers n' hoping low water is the ticket! I really don't care if it's up, down, in-between - I'm gonna fish it!

Anybody know if they're still working on the dam/spillway? Just wondering if 165 is going to be this years winter pool.... My first tournament of the year fires up on the 5th and I'll be there starting the 2nd. The lake may not be as low as it is now but I don't see any way for it to make any appreciable gains between now and then. Ought'a be interesting that's fer sure.

Seems they have fired one of the generators back up "Run 24 hours" been that way since yesterday.

Common Core - That's what's left after everyone takes a bite of the common apple!

Yup... wasn’t trying to bother you jest messin’ wid’ja!

I know but.... if you’re gonna leave your chain layin’ around like that welllll.... I’m gonna tug it a few times.

Let's see now.... Lake is down +/- 6.5'... Is this Louisiana fuzzy math we're using here?

Spent a lot of my time on the water trying to heal my Lowrance electronics - without success. What fishing I did... I flipped a lotta trees with an 1/4oz black jig and 5" trick stick. The trick stick came out the winner this time. Fished the tournament Sat. and well... I caught 5 with one weighing 4.11#s for a total of 10.22. Missed two bites back-to-back from fish that I'm pretty sure were good'uns. In the area I was in I hadn't caught anything less than a 2.5#er. But... that not what I wanted to talk about... I was just south of millionaire point c-rigging a main lake area. Then... the wind started building...and building... and building... Mmmmm... thought I... Maybe I need to get on back to the LA side. I had planned on hitting BigBass marina cove one last time before heading back. So that's where I went. Wasn't too bad running south and wasn't too bad crossing the lake. But then.... I'm in the cove and I finally catch my 5th keeper. It's starting to rain - I'm hoping it'll quit - it did that earlier but nope.... It might'a lightened up some but it never quit... I'm in a north shoreline cove but I can see the main lake... Rain.... wind... waves... Gotta hour anna half fishing time but figger I better get back to Pirates cove. So head out.... not too bad but getting worse. I was running about 30-35 mph when I punched the first'un. YeeeHawww. So back'er down to 26 mph.... slow but going. Then the front end drops off'a rogue wave and "KerrSplash" wet again.... So I maintain that 25-26 mph. I get better at spotting those rogue SOB's... But that just gives me time to duck. Where the boat lane jogs left at Arnold Bay I can see a pontoon boat ahead... It's a half-mile or so in front of me but I'm gaining on it..... So we make the turn to the right at Yocum Creek. The pontoon boat is about 300 or so yards in front of me - I quit gaining on it sometime back and just held a steady distance. I've speared more waves, dropped off waves... than ever before all combined. I quit caring. It wasn't like I was in danger of swamping or going down... I was just getting wet. Had the bow up but sometimes... ya' gotta git'er down to see where you're going.... Oh, I could see I was going alright - going to spear another roller. Anyhow.... I'm 300 yards or so behind the pontoon boat. We're about 1/2 mile from being able to cut between the islands going into Pirates Cove when.... YeeeHaww... Have you ever in your life seen a pontoon boat spear a wave????? d**n what'a sight that is. I swear I though I was going to be doing a rescue at sea! That pontoon boat when straight down. Huge splash. I'm assuming the driver/pilot got knocked away from the console. That pontoon boat was nearly 1/2 under water. Then the engine eventually came out of the water. The pontoon boat veered(while still under water) hard to the right. Then it popped back up did a complete 360 degree circle. The I could see the driver back in drivers seat. He made a 1/2 turn toward the shore. Kicked it in tha' ass an ran pretty hard parallel to the waves. Then turned back to the right to continue on along the shore line but well out of the boat lane. I cut between the islands and with the land blocking the wind kicked my Gambler in the butt until I couldn't stand the impact of the rain drops any longer.... I ran into the mouth of the Army ramp cove. Chunked the trolling motor up n' over and started c-rigging a spot.... It seems like 5 minutes later I saw that pontoon boat cross by headed, apparently, to Pirates Cove... I know they gotta tale they'll never forget!

3:30am... Headed that'a way... Checked the lake level and it's dropping. I'm stunned that SRA could get the lake to drop unless y'all simply didn't get the rain we did. I'm about 20 miles east of Houston and my weather station recorded 6.98" of rain fell yesterday.

Looks like I need to bring diving gear this time... Nasty chit is 'spozed to be on the way wed/thur and then actually the rest of the week after that.

Welp... I'll be there from Wed-Sat coming up. I've got my electronics back but don't have a clue as to if they're functional or not. Sure hope so based on the images coming from Bass_Fanatic. Worst case I'll at least have GPS and the Airmar TM185HW 2D transducer. Last time I didn't have anything but empty mounts... Last I checked the lake had jumped up .3' from the storm that passed through last night/this morning. Oughta be some current somewhere...

Yeah... I'm not much of a crank bait guy either. I wanna be. Got the equipment to do it. I have caught 1 or 2 on a 10XD but... Man, it's hard for me to put that c-rig down - real hard.