bishoptf

Well another day and another strike out...although it was a super nice day to be on the water, mid 50's just a slight breeze and sunny just an awesome day. Learned a little bit at least I think I did in relation to the shad. Last time I was out and the water was colder I saw the shad further out in the main lake. Today I noticed on my graphs that they had moved further back into one of the arms, water was almost 3 degrees warmer today. Last time I was out it was 39 and today in some areas it was hitting 42. The shad on the previous outing were out in 15-20ft of water and today in the back of one of the cove were in less than 10ft of water. Lots and lots of shad, pretty sure there were bass in the area but I could not muster a strike. Here is what I threw at them today, jigging spoon, flickershad, lippless crankbait, tail spinner, a-rig, berkley finisher, single swimbait and threw a spinner bait a little bit. Interestingly enough when fishing the flickershad back in one of the fingers the shad were so thick that I snagged 2 of the shad on 2 different casts. Pretty sure they are gizard shad and have attached the pictures to show the size and the swimbait that I think is a pretty close match. I think the next time I go out maybe I will just throw a ned rig,...maybe then I can catch something, lol. Won't probably get back out until after Christmas, cold frint coming through next couple of days and going to cool back down. Will wait for a few warmer days and go out again. Appreciate all the suggestions, maybe one of these trips will be able to put something together and catch some.

I have a copy of your Cosmic Clock but I am still not sure I know how to properly read it, there is a lot of information documented on the clock. Do you have a link to where yourself or someone goes into detail as to how to interpret the clock? lol, show off...although it will be a wee bit warmer come spring time and summer

Not sure what you mean by solid structural elements, lake it pretty devoid of structure, it's a man made community lake and more like a bowl. Going to do some more idling around and graphing and see if the bait has changed from where I saw them last time. Actually has been pretty warm last few days, but I need to idle some more areas and just see where the bait fish are in different parts of the lake. I tend to want to fish vs graph and need to do more graphing then what I have been doing so this will be good experience and try to figure things out.

Yeah its just September through November...but agree next couple of months down there will be pretty nice.

Yeah but where is circled as never forgets about all those hurricanes that come through...I dunno I'd prefer somewhere thats not hot or cold, just right in the middle,lol.

Yup I saw that for later this week, althought today is mid 60 but gusting to 25. Tomorrow will be mid 50 and light wind, going to go out tomorrow since it may be until after Christmas before it warms up again. I havent been catching much but will do more graphing and at least try to learn something.

I have a blade bait tied on, 1/2oz and one of the things i threw before my latest outing when I saw all the bait fish. I snagged a 10lb catfish. Not sure if he tried to hit the bait or what happened but he was snagged in the side.

So I guess the best bait to throw around the bait to just see if anything is home would be a spoon or maybe a little george bait?

Yeah I'm still not sure I have my gain on my 2d dialed in, since most of it is just big blobs, lol. One of the problems I have is that there is bait EVERYWHERE, thats an exaggeration but there is lots of bait in different places, makes it hard for me to know where to concentrate. Sounds like at least I am on the right track, I think FFS would make things somewhat easier once you find the bait to see if there are any active bass around but sounds like I should be able to see them on 2d also. Planning on going out tomorrow since its been several warm days in a row, will see if I can figure things out or at least catch one, lol. Yeah thats the problem with this lake there really are no creek channels per se or drains that I can see. I might have found one yesterday but need to do more graphing and see. Its pretty much a bowl of a lake, and fairly shallow throughout the lake. There are some humps but really no structure on the humps, even the points are not well defined. I am towards the dam where the deeper part of the lake is, even then I think the deepest part is mid twenties. I tried a finesse jig yesterday but maybe I need to put something heavier on like you mention.

The lake has a ton of shad, I assume its Gizzard shad since threadfin would probably be dead by now. I have some video's that I believe is the shad everywhere on the edge of the main lake. Not sure if your allowed to link to YT video's but they are to large to upload. Everytime put in a link it goes to moderation, never sure why but I will try again, if you look on the side imaging you will see lots of shad on both sides of the boat, at least that is my best guess as to what it is. https://youtu.be/I-qEWT6W-_w https://youtu.be/GO2hqasCaLk https://youtu.be/faVtmGFc0d8 Would like to know if what I am seeing is shad...thanks.

Bass- 1 me - 0...oof, I didn't even get a bite all afternoon. I did see some other folks fishing but wasn't able to talk to anyone so not sure if they were having better luck. Threw the following, berkley finisher, rattle trap, SK bitsy jig, shad rap, small 3" swim bait also tried a zoom fat albert grub. Obviously I was fishing the wrong places or with the wrong stuff/retrieves but I still have a lot to learn. I saw what i think is a lot of baitfish. On my phone now and snapshots are larger than I can upload but I see lots of fish, I assume baitfish but that is something else I need to learn better how to interpret my graphs. Water temp on the main lake was 39, back in one of the pockets was 40 so pretty cold.

I have virtually most all of the lures mentioned but main issue is to know when to change and where to concentrate. Something new that I am going to try is a Berkley finisher, after watching some videos it has a crazy darting action but it doesn't suspend so maybe to fast for this water temp. Going to also try a down size jig. Really i have so many to chose from just never know how to try them all. Once I get a bite I tend to stay with that lure and maybe thats not always the best option. Will post an update this evening when I get back, appreciate all the comments.

Thanks everyone I have most what have been mentioned already tied on and maybe add one or 2 to the mix. I am probably in the wrong location but going to spend more time graphing and looking for the bait fish. With all the rain we got I will probably fish some of the runoff culverts since all that rain water should be warmer.

Good point, we got a lot of rain yesterday and its warmed back up even overnight. But I think that is probably the best thing to look at and know what the water temp.may be doing. In my case as long as the day is warm and the lake is not frozen I'm going to go out. I may not catch anything but its another day on the water and this time of the year no one else is out there except for maybe another one or two crazy folks like myself. But when the day warms up to mid 40s or 50s and its not raining then I'm going to try to be out there. Older dog and well going to try to fish as much as I can while I can.

At least in mid Missouri last week when the weather warmed up for a couple of days I went out. My plan is to continue to go out when we get a few days of warmer weather, some deep coves had some ice forming but the main lake was still all open but water temps in the main lake area had dropped to 40-42 degrees on the surface. Planning to go out tomorrow, weather will be in the mid 50's and will be the same on tuesday supposedly. First year I have attempted to fish through the winter so lots of learning to be done. Would like to know for folks that fish in the mid 30's to low forties what have you done that seems to work. Only think recently that I have had any luck on was a rapala #7 deep shad rap. Last outing was skunked, well I snagged a 10lb catfish but that doesn't count, lol. Just looking for some suggestions to try tomorrow, pretty shallow lake for the most part, about 25ft deep and not that big. No vegetation, plenty of rocks and docks/boat lifts. Thanks!

I think i wrote that wrong, I live in Missouri now, grew up in NW Ga and went to Auburn. Company hired me out of school in Missouri and have been here since (30+years).

Missouri transplant, graduated and got a jobh hete and have been here ever since. Grew up in northwest Ga. though.

Yeah I dunno, I've just ordered 2-3 times and they have been really quick for me...

That made me laugh, Candy Randy...lol

Most of that stuff should be automated with tracking etc...all I know is TW stuff goes out quickly and arrives quickly...

I received my order today, looks like it shipped a couple days after I order it but they never updated anything so it was in transit but they provided no tracking information etc...must have been a glitch..

Funny I just posted yesterday and sent them an email since I hadn't got any updates and late last night I got a shipping notification and it says it will be delivered today...just the oddest order and shipping experience I've had. I will just keep in mind in the future that its not a quick process. Today is one week from ordering.

Welp I bit the bullet and ordered two Curado 70HG and one 71XG ( I know this is left hand and on purpose) from AE for 128ea. Hoping that they are the real deal but sounds like they are from folks posting. I also looked at the SLX 70 but with shipping they were about in the same ballpark and wasn't able to find the 7 ratios that I was wanting only saw 6 and 8. I saw some decent deals on the slx xt's previous generation and may circle back in the future depending on how these turn out. This will allow me to swap out couple of my citicas and maybe send them out to get cleaned up and then back in the rotation. Thanks everyone for the information!

Yeah I was just surprised a week later and haven't shipped, pretty unusual in this day and age but it is what it is I guess...was hoping I would have had them by now so I could fish with them....not sure I am going to see them by the end of this week either.

Anyone ever order from the Berkley website? They had some deeper discounts vs some of the other online tackle places and I ordered some stuff last week and its still awaiting fulfillment, almost 7 days ago. I dunno but these days I'm just not used to things taking this long before shipping. Just thought I would ask if anyone had an experience with the site.