Ford

Been to Long several times in the past week. Lots of fish, but only off beds. I'm going to Lake Austin while they have the ramps closed and may stay and take advantage of the lights for night fishing. I have seen some big bass in LBJ, but I haven't been there since I got serious about fishing. They had it drawn down last time I tried to go. I fish smaller lakes to avoid the weekend crowd pressure. Usually ends up being a generally shallow lake. I know Fork has giants, but I'm never going over there with the way that place gets hammered every day. Luckily Texas is packed with small lakes that aren't on the radar.

I haven't caught anything over four all year, so you're ahead of me.

I rarely go fishing on a sunny day. Never had a lot of luck catching anything but dinks. The Marina thing I do know to be true. So you throi your baits deeper or around deep water? I fish pretty much only shallow water year round and have caught my biggest bass in rainy mid-forties weather in shallow water, so I generally cast to swim the baits past cover. I use a kayak, but I think it would be the same situation. I guess I'll need to try it and find out.

I've noticed people talking about night fishing a lot. I don't know how you avoid hanging up in trees and brush. Are you casting further out or are you fishing a less heavy cover body of water? I'll read it. I didn't know about the wave thing, so that may be a big mistake I've been making.

Some have finished and some are still actively guarding beds that look like they were just made. Also saw some fish spawning at the lake and the river. The river is spring fed and stays 73° year round, the lake is a lower plant lake. Both have waves of spawning and I'm thinking maybe the biggest fish are done because the ones on beds are like 2 poundish.

I'm sure this topic has been hit before, but I can't find it so far.I recently started swimbait fishing. I currently have the BD Shad, Bull Shad 4x4, Hud 68 ROF 5, Bull Gill, Jakall Gantrell and a Bull Shad in bone color. I know the baits can catch fish. I have thrown them all in areas where there are fish actively feeding. I fish the San Marcos (tiny fish central) and a few Texas lakes that are confirmed DD factories. Other than bites on the Hud while tossing it in beds, I haven't had any luck ad I'd appreciate pointers.

I just started fishing big swimbaits myself. I've done it for days on end and realized that 1) getting swimbait reels was pointless because a regular low profile reel from one of my combos is now on my swimbait rod 2) fifty dollar hard baits are pretty useless. The soft swimbaits get bites ad smaller fish still grab them. I tried the Magdraft Freestyle and caught some, but they fall apart after one or two small fish. The Hud 68 and the weedless version swim great and get a lot of credit from everyone. I made the mistake of believing the hype on a few baits and I can say now that it was a waste of money to buy things like the Bull Gill, Bull Shad 4x4, and DB Shad. I fish water in Texas with a lot of fish in the 5-10lb range and they don't ever touch these baits. The Gantrell looks amazing in the water and you can make it do a lot of stop and go tricks, never had a bite on it, but that could be from not fishing it a lot. The Live Target swimbaits do okay and are a lot cheaper. They definitely out fish the baits I listed.