Tough day. 5 fish in ~4.5 hours. Sunny, windy, and surface temp in the mid 40s.

 

Malnourished 18 incher:

Thank You Lord! FINALLY! I caught my first and second bass of 2018. Went to Cross Lake, this past Saturday with my sister and brother-in-law, and fished some cypress trees near the bank. My brother-in-law had a 7/8oz white/pearl/silver Booyah buzzbait with a 3.75" green pumpkin Rage Swimmer trailer tied on and I had a black/chartreuse H2O Express hollow body frog tied on. Within about 15-20 mins my brother-in-law caught a 2lb 12oz bass(not pictured). I hadn't even got a bite yet. So I said if they're biting a buzzbait surely they'll bite my chatterbait. Took off the frog and tied on my breaking bream 1/2oz Project Z with the green pumpkin Rage Swimmer trailer. Within my first 5 casts got my first one when a 1lb 12oz bass hammered the Project Z. She put up a little fight and I got awful close to getting wrapped up around a bridge piling. Was able to keep that from happening. A few more casts later another 1lb 12oz bass clobbered the Project Z. This time she came right on in without much fight at all. I'm off today and plan to go back there in hopes of catching a really big girl. Cross Lake recently started stocking the Florida strain. If nothing else, eventually there will be some big big girls in there. Just hope I'm there catching one of them when the time comes. 

Purdy fish brother!

Today I decided to get out on the water and see if I could get bit. Dropped in at Franks Tract, water 51 and change, afternoon temperatures were supposed to hit the mid 60’s. In the distance you could easily see the snow this past weekends storm dumped on the Sierra’s. I threw reaction baits for most of the day, landing a couple including this skinny 5.8lb female on blades....

Went back to Cross Lake today where I was Saturday. Nothing to brag about. Caught this one on my new chartreuse sexy shad 1/2oz Project Z chatterbait with a Rage Swimmer trailer. Weighed almost a pound at 15oz. I lost my favorite chatterbait today, really sucks. My breaking bream Project Z is gone ? I'll get another one this weekend. Too good of a color. Gotta get another one. ?

Well, the Ned Rig works at night. Landed 11 tonight with some dinks mixed with a couple chunky monkeys. Junebug finesse TRD glued on a 1/15th oz shroomz jig head was durable enough to last the entire outing. Ned rig is a fantastic prespawn bait 

 

 

That might be the tiniest jig I’ve ever seen a 4#+ eat. Crazy

Blind casting to beds. 

Next Night experimenting with the Ned Rig. This time Green Pumpkin Orange and Molting Craw did some work. 8 LMB including one at 3.2# and a surprise Channel Cat. 

 

 

Big ol' head on that one for a 3# fish. 

 

I've been really surprised how good of a night fishing bait the Ned rig is, and it catches everything just like it does during the daytime. It really shines at night if there is a big mayfly hatch going on. 

Interesting what you said about the mayfly hatch hmmmm. I bank fish at night and never turn my headlight on, unless I'm unhooking a fish or tying. With that said, it's too dark to line watch so I'm kinda limited in the various retrieval styles I can employ. I have to fish it like a grub by letting it hit the bottom, then slowly reeling the rig slightly off the bottom with rod twitches. With braid and co-poly leader coupled with a sensitive medium action spinning rod, I can detect the slightest thump. It's so addicting right now.......at least until the weeds start to emerge 

I AIN'T CATCH $*^7 YET!

My brother caught this monster in Lake Fork fishing with me and our dad!

Brutal winds on Purtis Creek Lake here in East Texas today, 3/11/18. It was so bad, I was going to leave but then some other kayakers showed up and it gave me the courage to at least take off from the ramp and head to the adjacent cove, fish and hide out from the wind. I worked back and forth along the banks fishing shallow. I ended up using a drop shot and several different small plastics. 7 or . . . was it 8 LMBs, none large, males between 1.5 and 2 lbs. Lots of fun fishing, cussing the wind!

 

Brad

 

Nice little belly on that chunk Brad! And welcome to Bass Resource and the Forums! 

30 minutes ago, Brad in Texas said:

Brutal winds on Purtis Creek Lake here in East Texas today, 3/11/18. It was so bad, I was going to leave but then some other kayakers showed up and it gave me the courage to at least take off from the ramp and head to the adjacent cove, fish and hide out from the wind. I worked back and forth along the banks fishing shallow. I ended up using a drop shot and several different small plastics. 7 or . . . was it 8 LMBs, none large, males between 1.5 and 2 lbs. Lots of fun fishing, cussing the wind!

 

Brad

 

 

She likes to fish, but not to the point that I can't go alone or go with "the guys". And that seems to be an ideal balance

3.7lbs on a lipless crank. He whiffed on the first strike, came back and smashed it on the next cast. I love it when you seen them wake on a lure. 

 

 

On 3/11/2018 at 10:11 PM, everythingthatswims said:

She likes to fish, but not to the point that I can't go alone or go with "the guys". And that seems to be an ideal balance

It's just a trap! ?

 

 

 

 

Seriously though you've hit the jack pot. My wife loves to fish and we've made some life long memories on the water, and now our son's with us so it's a family ordeal. 

4 today, this was the biggest, ~2.5lbs. T rigged junebug Yum Dinger. I was instructed to smile. 

 

I went out today on my home lake, very little wind. Whew! Glad for calmer water after my last time out.

 

I ended up with 3 fish, one large female, all on beds. I missed bringing 2 in. So, not bad for a few hours, that and I didn't get on the water until mid-morning.

 

I used a wacky rigged worm and they seemed to be interested in it.   Brad

 

 

 

In post-frontal conditions just before sunset today, the Megabass Ito Vision 110 did the trick.

 

34 minutes ago, hawgenvy said:

In post-frontal conditions just before sunset today, the Megabass Ito Vision 110 did the trick.

 

That bait will always do the trick

Only the second trip with the boat this year, but everything running good. Needs a good cleaning when things warm up enough, though. Surface temps just 43 deg and change, but managed 7 bass in a little over 3 hours, so everything is good 

 

 

Got a few this evening with my G-daughter Mackayla. She got the first fish on a 4 inch red and green sparkle watermelon senko.

I got a couple more about the same size on the Zoom fluke. 

Here's another bad pic of a good river fish. They're starting to wake up around here...she pulled like a tank.

I went back out today to Purtis Creek in east Texas ended up with 6 or 7 small males. Not bad, just no size. Sort of all looked like this one. 

 

Brad