Amateur Hour

The hard stuff we fish is generally the higher spots on a break. When idling my graph is dark, but as I move up to a point or ledge it starts to light up indicating a harder bottom. That is what I think of when fishing hard spots, not necessarily rock or wood. If you had gills would you rather breath silt or water?

I have the V3 HD map and it is impressive.

Having fished with Bassfanatic several times when he says to fish hard spots that is where he starts searching. He will target these hard spots because that is where the majority of the fish will hold in that area. Spending time looking at a mucky bottom is not an efficient use of your time, because most of the fish are not there. When we fish together we mark some fish then start casting the entire area. Some of the fish we catch are what we saw and some are not. Your down imaging is only looking at a very small area of the bottom. If you see a few fish on your DI then you can probably bet there are more that you are not seeing. I am sure he will clear this up if I am off base, but that is how I understand it. Also, if I am fishing a group of fish with a dropshot I can feel when that bait reaches a soft bottom. You can feel the weight kind of bog down. When I feel that I reel it in and throw it back to my target. I am far, far from being someone that should be giving advice, but that is how I do it.

Funny you mentioned the drain fish leaving. We found a couple of groups in the drains on Wednesday and they were gone by Thursday never to return.

Got back yesterday from a long four and a half days at the Bend. Wednesday we looked shallow first then went look around deep. Got a few blow ups on a frog early. We did not see any fish deep so we went searching. We found a few groups in some drains in about 12 FOW. Caught a nice 2.75 pounder and left. Thursday was about the same on the frog so we went look deep. They were back and in about 19 FOW as seen in the picture. I caught a nice chunk on the drop shot and left them. We repeated this on a few more schools and felt we had a decent game plan going into Friday morning. Friday morning rolls around and that is when the suck began. Start throwing a frog and catch a 1.5# fish. My brother catches a 2.5# on a wacky. Three and a half hours later and that is all we have. We decide to go to our deep fish. We setup on a nice group of fish and about 5 casts later i catch a 5.5# fish on a drop shot. She was spawned out and beat up. I was worried she wouldn't make it, but luckily she did. That was the first time I have ever fizzed a fish. Anyway, at this point I am jacked thinking we were on to something good. My brother catches a 2# spot minutes later and that was our last keeper of the day. We finished with 4 fish for 12.37. Saturday we decided to forego the frog bite and swing for the fences. First thing in the morning we didn't see a single fish deep. So, we run to the bank and catch a few shorts. After the sun came up we moved out deep and starting marking really good groups but couldn't get a bite. We decide to run to the frog bite again and I start hearing rumblings from above. I look at the radar on my phone and the entire Sam Rayburn lake was covered by a red thunderstorm. I tell my brother get ready we are about to head in. We go sit in the marina and watch a great lightning show. After all that we go back out and catch more short fish. So, we didn't weigh a fish on Saturday. Overall, it was a fun time but a little disappointing after catching that good fish on Friday. Funny story, as we are sitting at the marina during the weather I show my brother the pic of the storm over rayburn. A guy sitting in the rocking chair next to us asks if it was bad over at Rayburn. I told him the whole lake was engulfed in a storm. He says his son is fishing the Basschamps on Rayburn and doesn't have enough sense to come in if it gets bad. I laughed and said to my brother, "I bet Josh (bassfanatic) is fishing that tournament." The guy next to us says, "my son's name is Josh." I tell him Josh's last name and the guy says "yep, that is my son." Super nice guy as is Josh's brother. Sure is a small world out there.

It was in a pretty high traffic area in front of a camper. The only camper around. I would think if he was trying to cheat he would be a bit more subtle. I mean it was a bright blue barrel that made a ton of racket while he was wrestling it.

I fished with Bassfanatic on Friday. We started shallow and he boat flipped a 2.5 pounder before I could get my rod out of my locker. That was the last shallow bite we got. We moved out deeper (15-18 ft.) and started seeing and catching fish. We caught a few good ones and some rats for a total of around 25 fish or so. I will let Josh give more details if he would like. We had a good time and as always shared a bunch of laughs. Anyone looking to learn their electronics and learn the lake better should get in touch with Josh. On a different note we saw one of the strangest things I have seen on the lake. We are back in this pocket chunking and winding and we see this older gentleman wrestling a blue 55 gallon barrel out of the water. He finally gets it up on the bank and it starts making a bunch of noise. He is messing with it and I tell Josh he must have a mess of crappie in there. Next thing we see is him emerging with this huge bass. Josh and I look at each other in bewilderment. Josh says, "that thing must be 7.5 lbs.". The old guy looks at us and says it weighed 10.5 lbs.

That is some pretty fish.

Nice Catt.

I always thought duckweed was those little green specks that float on top of the water. Is what you are referring to a plant that grows from the bottom? Are you referring cabbage grass?

Daggum.

Well, we just got back from another disappointing trip. We found nothing deep so went super shallow to catch a few. Thanks to both blaster and Ronnie to help salvage a trip. Be back up there in two weeks and I will go join the party south. The struggle is real y’all.

I am headed up today. I hope to play around a good bit in SM.

59* water today? Dang.

That is exactly what I thought when he first described it.

The grass you are seeing around Carrice, is it hydrilla? Not interested in your spot, but I am interested in knowing if the grass may finally be coming back. Thanks.

Nice write up. Hopefully I will be there this weekend, but every time I look at the weather forecast it gets worse.

It is a pretty fish that is for sure.

My dad saw 57* yesterday so you are probably not far off. He was there for 3 days and did not get one bite. Hopefully we can next weekend in my boat and find them off of the bank.

Daggum.

Yesterday just seemed like a tough day so I wouldn't give up just yet. There is plenty of good offshore stuff in lanan too if that creek doesn't produce.

It should setup good for next weekend though. Hopefully, I will be up there.

Yeah, my dad ran into two older gentlemen that said they were catching both bass and crappie back there pretty good last week. They weren't doing anything today either.

Beating the bank in hurricane in the back of Lanan. He threw moving baits and plastics. I thought for sure he could get bit back there.