Dougw

The reality of it for me is - I see fish virtually everywhere I go. On occasion I'll hit an area devoid of life but for the most part finding fish is not the problem. Now if ya' wanna talk about getting them to eat.... Those fish high in the water column and those that are stacked on top of each other don't eat. I'm thinking most of the fish I "see" are decoys that the bass set out to keep me guessing and throw me off their trail!

Bass are inquisitive - they hear something they're most likely going to check it out. I mean... what else do they have to do? Sooo... just because I don't see fish on a really good bottom I'm typically not going to move off without at least a few cast. If I make that cast and I'm dredging up muck/algae I'm out of there in a heart beat. But I also know bass will travel, depending on the conditions, quite a ways to check something out. That's why I'll make repeated Loooooong cast to the same place. Give's the fish a chance to locate what they're hearing. That's not to say I will "always" do that. I got a few spots on ColetoCreek, south of Victoria, TX, that I will float over. IF I don't see fish... I'm outta there! And... as good as today's electronics are they still struggle to separate fish from the bottom when they're hugging the bottom.

That's because they're FUBAR - It's a Lowrance option that you have to pay extra for. Keeps folks from spotting fish on your electronics! If you purchase the option they send you a special set of eyewear - Kinna like the old 3D glasses we used to get at the theaters! Glad to see it's still working!

Will... once I get my $8,000.00 worth of equipment back from Lowrance- providing it works. Tell me where the fish are in the following images...

Ok then... I'll come back and not catch those instead of not catching the ones you caught! And... I'm gonna be throwing a 12" swim bait!!! If I'm not gonna catch fish... I'm not gonna catch big fish!

Welllllllllp......no need going back to Toledo Bend any time soon'!!!! You dun kilt all’a fish in tha’ lake!!!!!!!!!!!!?

I can c-rig a hard bottom,(to borrow a word from AOC) like, forever. I just am convinced the sound of that 1oz weight draggin' across the bottom will call'em from across the lake! Just have to wait for'em to show up. Throw a c-rig where you think you see a hard spot. Won't take but seconds until you know for sure. I was there for 4 days and had '0' electronics on my boat. I'd get kinna lined up on some of the spots I c-rig and kept slingin' and moving until I felt the bottom I was looking for. Usually didn't take too long.

Welp.... fished Wed.-Sat. With results all over the place. Wed. I stayed in Pirates Cove / Caney Creek. Stayed dirt shallow except for two spots I c-rig on a regular basis. Caught one around 4#s off a dock with the jig. Then 4-5 others throughout the day with the biggest “maybe” two pounds. Pitched a 1/4 oz. jig most of the day. Chunked a 1/4 oz. one knocker quite a bit as well. Worked Caney front to back and just wasn’t happening for me. I figured it was going to be a stellar day when I got to the Army ramp just before 7am on Wednesday and there were already 6 trailers in the parking lot. Got on the water and I’d of swore Oilmans was holding their biggest tournament in the last few years - boats everywhere!!! Thursday... Nasty... front hit around 6am. What there was of it. For all the moaning and mashing of teeth... as storms go it was pretty mild - except. It did rain by golly! Literally rained all day. Hard at times but always raining. I hit the water in the rain aroun 8am. Started out with the 1/4oz jig dirt shallow. Wasn’t long I put a 4#er in the boat and shortly after that another’n Just like it. Took about a half-hour before the next fish came aboard, around 3#s. Then... it got tough. Did the same thing I had been doing for next 1-2 hours - nothing. Pulled out the c-rig on a spot I usually fish wasn’t there long then put a 6#er in the boat. Another hour or so of doing the same thing yielded only one short spot. Pulled up the trolling motor and scooted to the back of Big Bass Marina/Caney creek. Actually my map has it as Canely Creek but the locals say it’s Caney. I say... whatever. Threw the one knocker and jig all over the back of the creek. Did go under the bridge but it was pretty dirty back there so I didn’t stay long. Ended up pulling one more, around 2#s, off a lay down. Ended up with around 18#s in 5 fish for the day. Friday... WINDY!!! Never left Caney/Pirates Cove. Don’t think anyone else did either. Fishing sucked and I was off the water at 1pm. Saturday... A bit of wind early but then it actually hit the infamous “ light and variable”. Went to the dock I’d caught the 4#er on Wed. - not a bite. Went to a near by brush pile I’d gotten a bite at on Wed. - nothing. Pulled up the trolling motor intending to head to Big Bass Marina creek. Got near Blackland Cove and a spur of the moment deal put me at the mouth of that Cove slinging a 1/4 oz. one knocker. Had made a half dozen or so cast when I hooked up. That fish ran me all over the boat. Front to back and side to side. Pulling hard... such that I backed off the drag some to let’er run. Then I was afraid it’d wrap around something I couldn’t see so I tightened the drag back down and took my chances. Finally got it in the boat. Scales at weigh-in said 4.58#s. That was the fightenest 4.5#er I’d ever seen - well maybe except for some 3#ers on Falcon. Stayed in that area for 30-45 mins. And only managed one dink on a 1.5 square bill. shortening this up some.... spent the rest of the day around Big Bass Marina caught a few short fish but nothing close to what I had done there Thursday. Soooo... that’s it until the 11th of next month.

I have an Xi5 trolling motor and when I'm going down a bank I have it in "heading lock" and running very low, 12-25%, all the time. When... IF... I hook up I hit anchor lock until I boat the fish. Then continue on with heading lock.

You know.... that's an interesting comment. It will be interesting to see if I get more bites w/o any electronics!

Going old school... Ended up sending every piece of electronics I have on my boat back to Lowrance for repair/replace. I’ll be there, Toledo Bend, for 4 days, starting a week from tomorrow, and I may or may not ever leave Pirates Cove/ Caney Creek. Fishing an open tournament Sat. on a lake I’ve fished, a lot, over the last 10 years. Ain’t too worried about it. The fish are still shallow and I’ve got a pretty good idea of where they’re at n’ what they want. That said... 9#’s won a 2 day tournament there 2 weeks ago and it only took a tad over 6#’s to win a 2 day tournament last weekend. These ain’t no “beginners” fishing either. These guys know this lake well.

'Cept for one thing.... He already knew how much it weighed! Orrrr... maybe he didn't and was just guessing.

Was scrollin' through the recent post... noticed "somebody" had an x-ray of a skull on their profile... scrolled right past it... then thought "Mmmmm.... nobody simply post a pic. of a skull... gotta be more to it than that..." Scrolled back... did the o'l double take... Ahhh Haaa!" Good job! Hello.... This is Mr. WindChaser speakin'! Hahahahahaah!!!!!

When it’s your turn.... it’s your turn! Good deal Catt!

Yup duckweed is as you described it and not what I saw. I've been to a couple of plant identification web sites and can't definitively say what it is. Could be water pennywort but that's just a guess. Between what I saw and what I remember that I saw well.... kinna hard identifying it. But... whatever it was/is.... fish were liking it last week!

1st a question then a report. That stuff that looks like clover on the water - is that what's called "duck weed". Anyway - whatever it's called. Fish were crammed up under that stuff last Thursday. All quality fish between 3-5#'s. Bittin' a Netbaits trick stick(5") T'rigged with a 3/16"oz weight. They weren't bashful about hittin' it either! Also caught some quality fish on a lemon-lime 1/4oz. OneKnocker(xcaliber original). Didn't catch anything over 5#s and didn't leave Caney/pirates cove until Sunday. I caught good fish in the north bank coves and also in the back of Caney creek. Some of the fish were all the way back in these creeks/coves. Some were at the mouth of them. Some in the middle. That's the good news. The bad news... There were 14,632 boats on the water starting Friday - All fishing tournaments... all fishing... where I located fish on Thursday... Friday when the front went through all the boats in Caney creek hit the north bank coves. The one I wanted in never had less than 3 boats in it from before daylight until around 2:30. Saturday I spent about 20 minutes in it, with 2-3 other boats, and didn't get a bite - no big surprise. Sunday, after all the tournaments were done, I had a couple of hours in there by myself. But the damage had been done Friday/Saturday. I got three bites. The first one I thought I was hung up on some grass n' gave it a little pop to free'er up. Welp.... That fish didn't like that... I felt it move and bowed up on it but was too little too late. It was a good fish. Front to back I got two more bites but nothing like the first one. As I was coming out of that cove I picked up the 1/4oz one knocker n' give it a fling... Reeling it back in it felt "funny" I stopped crankin' but it didn't stop moving.... Broke out my handy dandy fishing manual. Looked up "stopped crankin' but line still moving" Discounted that it could be the current moving my bait. Got down to choice "B" that said "SET THE HOOK!!! So I did... and started crankin' again. Got that three pounder in the boat. That was in the morning. Early... then nothing... for a long time. Ended up running to 6 mile for no real good reason. Then headed to Housen to make sure the fish didn't set up house keeping on a few spots over there - They hadn't. Then came back to Caney. Wasn't anybody in the cove I caught the early fish in so I went there. Started on the right side going in.... Pitch, pop a few time, crank in and repeat - all the way to the back. Pitch around a tree w/limbs n' such... Felt it move... set the hook.... torpedo came rocketin' out tried to get under the boat then around the trollin' motor. Looked at the net and though "nah" boat flipped it. Went about 2 1/2#s. Got it in the boat and it came unbuttoned. Thinkin' nothing of it put I a cullin' bead on it, put it in the livewell and picked the bait up to re-rig it. Hook never penetrated the plastic. That fish sho'nuff wanted that bait. Or the free ride - not sure which. But that was the last fish of the day. Most of my damage was inflicted with a 5" Netbaits TrickStick. Green pumpkin' w/a tail dip in Chartreuse dye. The two spots came on a color called "Chartreuse laminate" it's chartreuse on the bottom half and watermellon on the top half. The front knocked 3-4 degrees out of the morning water temp and that hurt some but the sheer amount of traffic on the lake had the most negative impact last weekend. What I heard was: Oilman's tournament had over 700 boats. BASS Nation had 280. Then there were 5 other tournaments on Saturday including ours we had 15 boats. I know one of the other had 20 boats. Both Saturday and Sunday ABA winner had 12+ #'s. Saturday 12.75 - Sunday 12.32 or something like that - 5+#er took big fish honors each day. Saturday I had 3.38#s with 2 little spots. Sunday I had 5.19 with 2 bigger largemouth. Finished 7th out of 15 both days. The tournament, don't know who hosted it, that went out of BigBass Marina took 20#s to win.

Don’t know where your are but.... at the army ramp it’s partly cloudy n’ 74 degrees w/ gentle breeze blowing @ 2:30pm. But... fish ain’t biting(for me). Now that’s not to say they weren’t biting before the front blew through. Smoked’em early and shallow. How shallow? Boat was in 2.5 fow an I was chunking shallow. Can’t give away too much as I have 2 - 1 day tournaments this weekend. Biggest was ~4#’s. Best 5 maybe 15#’s. Don’t sound like much but... for this blind squirrel it was a pretty tasty nut.

Yes’er that’s correct! I prefer casting a 18” cinder block w/HD Flipping stick. But the real key is using 20# fluorocarbon - helps get the cinder block to the bottom don’t’cha’ know!!!

Yuppers.... gonna try those plus A-rig and 1/4-SOD! Thanks!

I'll be there Wed. - Sun. Kinna looks like I'm gonna spend a fair amount of time in Caney/Pirates Cove judging by the weather forecast... If not then I'll treck a lil' further north.

Which is the better ramp? What about with SW wind? Thanks... Sepulvado landing or the Blue Lake Launch?

Yes... That’s a true statement. But it’s also true in bright, cloudless days.

So... let me ask this. If it had simply been 3-4 degrees warmer, still raining but now it’s not white, does that make it acceptable? The photo is pretty graphic it that it’s showing an accumulation over time. But really, minute by minute, it wasn’t really all that spectacular or awe inspiring....

Some day are diamonds... Then on the other hand... some days are stones... So... I'm in a rocky patch as of right now! Got to the ramp around 7:00. Backed’er down and fired’er up. Engine temp when I turned the ignition key on was... 32 degrees. Set there for a few minutes and watched the temp climb to 50 degrees. Backed it off the trailer, idled over to the dock and tied it off. Left it running to warm up while I parked the rig. As I was walking up the dock I heard the engine miss a beat or two then it sounded like it sneezed, made a clinking sound and then died - a whiff of smoke curling up out of the upper vent... Mmmmmm... thought I. This can’t be good. Put the truck/trailer in the parking lot then went back to try to figure whut happened. Cranked the engine and other than hard to start it sounded fine. Turned it off and cranked it again, started as usual this time. Checked the gauges - no water pressure. Ka’rap! Ran the engine up to about 1500 rpm. No water pressure and no tale-tale. Ka’rap! I have a torque master l/u with low water pickup on the nose. Soooo... untied, got “close” to the no wake bouy n’ kicked it in the butt’inski. Got to about 40 mph. No water pressure and no tale-tale. Uh...Oh... Trailered back to BigBass marina, where I’m staying. Pulled the cowling and started inspecting.... looked like I had a fire on the back of the engine. After running the engine on a hose I discovered a high pressure fuel line leaking. Besides melting some plastic mesh harness and kinna heating up some of the starboard side injector plugs it also melted the line going to the water pressure sending unit for the smart craft/system link gauges. Called Carlson’s over in Six Mile. They had a new hose. Mercury wanted $262.00 for an 18” piece of high pressure hose with fittings on each end - INSANE!!! Fortunately they had a used hose off a 2016 engine for $130.00. 3 or so hours later new hose installed. Engine tested and put back together. Backed off the trailer at 2:00. Made a hard run to the mouth of Big Bass Cove. It stuttered coming out of the hole and I didn’t hit but 63 mph. About 15 mph off of normal. Broke out the c-rig and worked the point for about an hour and a half before I figured out - I just wasn’t that made at’em today. Fired up... hammer down... back to the ramp. No hesitation this time and performance seemed “normal” but I didn’t put any glasses on and when I got around 60-65 couldn’t see squat so I had to shut it down. Reckon I’ll fish the tournament tomorrow. Reckon I’ll make the run across the lake... Hope I make it there AND back.

Yup... All’a that and the fact I stayed in Caney all day. There were more boats in Caney than I’ve ever seen on a Wednesday, reckon the wind had something to do with that. Enough of yesterday... Today... chunked a trap on my way out of the army ramp. One on but came unbuttoned. 7:00am... Ran to six mile chunking red trap(one knocker) in/around grass. Boated two pretty quick. Both would keep but nothing to write home about. Left that area an went to miles creek. Didn’t go into miles creek opting instead to go into the pocket on the right hand side. Wind was howling out of the south right into that pocket. Deep water went pretty far back. Even cuts inside the pocket had 10-12 fow. Front to back with trap, jig and flashy swimmer w/3.5” Shadalisous sb. Nothing. Went back to my starting spot and boated 2 more. Started moving away from that spot and boated two more - still relating to grass. Pulled up the trolling motor and headed to Housen. Ran about 1/2 way back and c-rigged a spot that has been nice to me in the past - it wasn’t today. Moved a little ways to a hump and raked it with a trap - nuttin’. Was gonna go fish another hump but... the wind started blowing straight outta Housen. Having checked the weather before getting on the water I knew that west wind was going to be brief and it was ushering in the North wind and rain. Soooo... I beat feet back to Caney. Set down on a hump and lobbed a c-rig a few times before boating a short spot. Made a few more cast. Got another bite but missed it. Then... The North wind showed up with a vengeance, making me extremely glad I was back in Caney. Then I could see the rain coming from up lake - in a hurry. Sooo... I got in a hurry and put the boat on the trailer n’ called it a day. All pockets/ coves on the north side of the primary creeks, even early morning, is running 4-5 degrees warmer than the south side banks. 64-65 degrees for the north and 58-59 degrees on the south. Oh... And... Water clarity is not real good in Housen, Six mile, or Caney. The outline of the trolling motor is just visible. The prop on the outboard? You can tell it’s stainless but you ain’t reading “Mercury” that’s printed on it. Wind permitting I’ll fish Indian Creek and other areas South of Six Mile tomorrow.