Well i got the pics resized. the profile pic is one i caught on good Friday  last year in Sheldon Reservoir guessing 8 + but no scale that day. and yes that is a Pelican plastic boat with 2 big boys in it. 

@TexasTiger Hawg for sure!  ?

I fished Saturday and Sunday before the rain.  Saturday we saw a lot of fish and caught 24.  The biggest was around 3# with the best 5 being around 10-11lbs.  Sunday we didn't see near as many fish and caught 8 small fish.  Here are a couple of schools we found on Saturday but vanished by Sunday.

 

 

Fished Friday-Sunday, we also saw a lot of fish, but it was slow with only 3 keepers. Cat was right though about deep divers...caught a 7lb 7oz on Friday to increase the size of my biggest fish by a pound.

How deep were y"all's fish?  Heading back up tomorrow and fishing Saturday until the rain chases me off.  I think I will go poke around in patroon and Jane Gaines.  I looked in the blue lake area last weekend and it was dead.  I only saw one small group of fish worth stopping for.

3 hours ago, Amateur Hour said:

How deep were y"all's fish?  Heading back up tomorrow and fishing Saturday until the rain chases me off.  I think I will go poke around in patroon and Jane Gaines.  I looked in the blue lake area last weekend and it was dead.  I only saw one small group of fish worth stopping for.

The ones we caught were all in 14-20'.

2 hours ago, Amateur Hour said:

How deep were y"all's fish?  Heading back up tomorrow and fishing Saturday until the rain chases me off.  I think I will go poke around in patroon and Jane Gaines.  I looked in the blue lake area last weekend and it was dead.  I only saw one small group of fish worth stopping for.

Did you try the hydrilla flat in the cove not far from the boat launch in blue lake for early morning and late evening top water?

  No.  I stayed outside on the ledges.

TMac521 and I fished yesterday afternoon together.  To say the fishing was tough is an understatement. Didn’t see nearly as many fish yesterday that I’ve been seeing the past few weeks and the ones we did find were suspended chasing Shad.  Ive never had much luck on days like yesterday when you see little pods of 2-4 fish busting shad all over the lake.  The baitfish aren’t balled up real tight right now and the fish are very scattered chasing them.  When we would find a small group of fish somewhere, we had to hunker down on them just to get one or two bites.  The fishing was rough, but the company was great.  I always enjoy meeting guys from the forum, and TMac was no different.  Great guy!! Fishing should get much better with some rain and a cool front to start cooling the water down some.  Once the water starts to cool the shad will ball up and the bass will be right behind them.  

Another weekend at the pond and another trip full of rats.  We caught fish Saturday until the rain ran us off.  We fished Jane Gaines and Patroon and ended up with 16 with the average being around 1.5#.  It seemed like it would take finding 4 groups of fish to find one group that would bite.  But once you found a group that would eat you could catch several fish.  Sunday morning we went back and caught about the same size before heading home at 11:00.  I finally got a coupe of fish to eat a c-rig, but the majority were caught on dropshot.  Probably won't head back for a month.  

Can someone show me where Stewart's ridge is on a map?  I was trying to describe an area to someone and he said that it is around stewart's ridge.  

16 minutes ago, Amateur Hour said:

Can someone show me where Stewart's ridge is on a map?  I was trying to describe an area to someone and he said that it is around stewart's ridge.  

 

Stewart's Ridge is located on the north point going into Patroon out of Newell's Marina 

4 minutes ago, Catt said:

 

Stewart's Ridge is located on the north point going into Patroon out of Newell's Marina 

 

 

Thanks Catt.  In the pic below is it #1 or #2?

 

 

Gotcha.  Thanks Catt.

My TD trip is just over a month away!  Can't wait! Staying at the Fort Polk Rec area in Pirates cove.  Im going to be making a TW order soon to restock.  Anyone got bait suggestions for TD in early fall?  Are the fish usually getting into fall patterns by mid october?  I know this has been a hot summer, I hope we get a few fronts in between now and then to drop the water temps a bit.

2 hours ago, Troy1985s said:

My TD trip is just over a month away!  Can't wait! Staying at the Fort Polk Rec area in Pirates cove.  Im going to be making a TW order soon to restock.  Anyone got bait suggestions for TD in early fall?  Are the fish usually getting into fall patterns by mid october?  I know this has been a hot summer, I hope we get a few fronts in between now and then to drop the water temps a bit.

Kvd swimbait with owner flash spinner hook both 5 inch and 4 inch.

 

Trigged watermelon red anything soft plastic

 

Crigged watermelon red anything soft plastic

 

1/4 and 1/2 once chrome and black back rattle traps.

 

Pearl and black back bandit 100 squarebill cranks.

 

Hope this helps sir.

Making my annual fall trip to the Bend for a week beginning on October 5. I always catch the fish in the fall pattern in October. The bass are moving with the shad to the backs of coves and creeks. But, I’ve never seen a pattern where it’s still in the upper 90’s every day in September with zero cool fronts for at least temporary relief and cooling water.  Do y’all think the shad move is based on shorter days or is the move triggered by cooler water? If its the latter, we may not see “fall fishing” until December!!

Fish will start to go into a fall pattern even when it’s hot.  I personally think the shorter days are more important than cooler weather.  But, the transition may be spread out a little more due to warm water, so you may not have as many fish moving into the creeks as you would with a few cold fronts.  They are starting to move that direction, it just may take them a little more time to get there.

@Bass_Fanatic dead on! ?

 

Oh yeah! It's about the shad not the bass...shad move bass move!

 

Oh yeah #2! There's bass already in the coves!

Great information! Thanks guys. Hopefully  they’ll be a few reports over the next 3 weeks that’ll shed some more light on what the fish are doing, even with this ridiculous heat!

Let me ask y'all a question ?

 

We're told bass move into the back of creeks during pre-spawn & fall.

 

So what creek would the bass out on the main lake move into?

 

Let's say the bass out on the west side of Tennessee Bay, do they swim over to Lowe's Creek or over to Negreet?

I don't know how true this is but a guy my brother was working with said they catch spawning fish on the south end in 20-30 FOW.  He said they spawn in the forks of the standing timber about 10ft down.

 

Catt: maybe they go up to the bank and spawn in those little pockets.  Maybe some stay out there and spawn up on the flats.

I fish the main lake 90% of the time and when I go into creeks, I just about always fish the mouth.  I’m convinced main lake fish spawn on top of humps.  As for the fall, yall can have the backs of the creeks, Ill stay out on ledges on the main lake.  The shad ball up tight and the fish are active.  October is one of my favorite times of the year on the main lake.

All I can add is no matter what time of the season are weather I go where the shad are at the most.

 

It has worked for me that's all I can say, good luck to everybody this fall, I'm under the knife next tuesday so my fishing is done for the year and looks like my deer season is as well.