I was excited to head to a new area of my home lake today., there is a bay of the lake that eventually turns into a creek.

I thought I was going to do good, there were cranes stalking, the baitfish were there in mass up in the mouth of the creek. Little splashes were happening all around.  The day was overcast, gusty 8-10mph wind (but not that bad up in the creek).  I mapped new area and found a lot more structure with the creek channel getting to 12 feet in some areas.  There are 4 bridges, one double lane freeway at the entrance to the bay, another highway bridge at the entrance to the creek, and a railway bridge over the creek.

I tried a red-eyed lipless shad (until I lost it) cruising it through the breaking threadfin shad I was seeing all around.  I tried a pearl colored rapala jerkbait for a while, also a silver shad crankbait and a gold rattle trap.  My other rod had a weightless senko on there the whole time, but I couldn't even buy a bite on that!

I fished the bridges a lot.. hit the shores not 20 feet from the deepest areas of the creek channel.  After about 3 hours I went back out into the main lake to fish some docks but the wind blew me around too much.. gave up, accepted the skunk

I arrived about 10:30am and fished until about 2:30pm.  Depth finder recorded water temp at 73 degrees.

Anything you folks would have done different?

Almost forgot, I did catch a turtle on the silver shad crankbait.. not a snag either but he struck it from what I could tell. 

14 hours ago, bchase44 said:

I was excited to head to a new area of my home lake today., there is a bay of the lake that eventually turns into a creek.

I thought I was going to do good, there were cranes stalking, the baitfish were there in mass up in the mouth of the creek. Little splashes were happening all around.  The day was overcast, gusty 8-10mph wind (but not that bad up in the creek).  I mapped new area and found a lot more structure with the creek channel getting to 12 feet in some areas.  There are 4 bridges, one double lane freeway at the entrance to the bay, another highway bridge at the entrance to the creek, and a railway bridge over the creek.

I tried a red-eyed lipless shad (until I lost it) cruising it through the breaking threadfin shad I was seeing all around.  I tried a pearl colored rapala jerkbait for a while, also a silver shad crankbait and a gold rattle trap.  My other rod had a weightless senko on there the whole time, but I couldn't even buy a bite on that!

I fished the bridges a lot.. hit the shores not 20 feet from the deepest areas of the creek channel.  After about 3 hours I went back out into the main lake to fish some docks but the wind blew me around too much.. gave up, accepted the skunk

I arrived about 10:30am and fished until about 2:30pm.  Depth finder recorded water temp at 73 degrees.

Anything you folks would have done different?

Almost forgot, I did catch a turtle on the silver shad crankbait.. not a snag either but he struck it from what I could tell. 

Next time you see shad busting on the surface, try a topwater bait and see what happens. I've had a lot of luck with spooks and buzzbaits this year.

I like the river 2 sea rover 128, it has a great walking action. It doesn't just catch big fish either, I've caught many 1.5-2 lb fish on this thing.

Thanks, I tend to forget topwater since I am least experienced in doing that.  I will check out the Rovers.