The past few days at Varner the fishing has been good. We have been catching both bass and hybrids around deep creek channels on swimbaits, jigging spoons, and crankbaits. The best bait for these deep fish for me has been a Mattlures Mattshad prototype that I have been fishing. It's a small swimbait around four inches long that looks just like a shad and swims just like a shad. The great thing about it is I have been able to use it as a swimbait throwing it to fish feeding on the surface as well as dropping it straight under the boat after the fish go back down and fish it like a spoon. I just drop it in front of the fish and it gets hit more often than a spoon does. We have also been catching fish on plastic worms on grass flats. We had a great day last Friday on plastics. I fished with Chuck Norton and his dad. We caught fish all day and had some good ones as well. We each hooked into fish over six pounds and I estimate our best five somewhere between 25 and 30lbs. We only stopped fishing long enough to weigh one six pounder. This is Chuck with a big one.

Chuck with another good one.

Chucks dad with a big one.

Saturday I fished lake Lucas with Adam Stanton (Doghouse here on Bass Resource) in a SJA tournament. I had never seen the lake before but we did OK placing 5th with a little over eight pounds. We caught most of our fish and all of our better fish on topwaters fished over suspended fish in deep water that were off the side of a hump. The rest hit trickworms on a jighead on top of the humps. We also went looking for some big fish suspended out in deep water where we had seen some big swirls on top. All we found were some big gar suspended near the surface. Since Adam and myself can't resist throwing at any big fish we see we had to try to catch one anyway even though it took time away from our bass fishing.  Adam hooked into one over three feet long and lost it at the side of the boat and we had a lot of big ones follow swimbaits and topwaters back to the boat. I might have to go back one day and just fish for big gar.                                                                                                                                       Sunday at Varner we had around ten fish fishing a half day with the biggest going around four pounds all on trickworms except one that hit a fluke over deep water. Monday I took two boys and their dad out on Varner. We started fishing for hybrids and largemouth around deep creek channels with a Mattshad and jigging spoon and it wasn't long before we hooked into some big hybrids but most pulled off at the boat. After losing one huge hybrid at the boat the young man in the photo adjusted and took a little more time to get this one close playing the fish perfectly so it didn't pull off. He was happy and got the big one he came after. Later in the morning we caught around seven more bass on trickworms and jigging spoons with dad as well as both boys catching fish. Here is dad and sons with a couple nice bass.

Here is a Hybrid we got on a Mattshad.

Here is the Mattshad compared to a shad a hybrid spit out. Perfect size.

The past couple of days I have still been catching them on plastics and the Mattshad but I found a new pattern. Wake type swimbaits over grass beds. If you think that nothings better than topwater fishing you haven't had a big fish follow a wake bait then hit it twice as hard as any topwater strike you have ever seen. I got between five and ten fish a day to hit different wake baits. I lost three or four big ones that looked between seven and ten pounds  :(but also landed a bunch of four and five pounders like the one in the photo.

I recognize those guys in the first couple of photos.  

As always,  

Awesome! What wakebaits where you using?

"Dead sea mafia",...is that an Altoona t-shirt?

Randall and Varner.

Kinda like PB & J.

always a good combo.

"Dead sea mafia",...is that an Altoona t-shirt?

Yep thats a Toona shirt. I was planning on fishing there some this year just for a change but its hard for me not to fish Varner even though "The Dead Sea" is closer to my house.

Awesome! What wakebaits where you using?

A lipless one I make, an ABT Wag Tail, Jackall Mikey and ABT Titan/ Strike King Kong.

Awesome fish Randall.  I haven't been to Varner since the last time we went out there.  Those pics make me wanna get up there a.s.a.p.

Is all the paint gone on the wagtail I traded you?  Sounds like you've caught them good with it.  I haven't caught any on the beast yet but I haven't given up.  LOL.  BTW, I still have some tickets left for seussical.....HAHAHA  ;D

I will pass on the tickets. The wagtail had to get a repaint. I painted it pearl white with a glitter clear coat and it catches twice as many fish. ;D

Awesome! What wakebaits where you using?

A lipless one I make, an ABT Wag Tail, Jackall Mikey and ABT Titan/ Strike King Kong.

Thanks alot! Got any pics of the one you make?

Thanks alot! Got any pics of the one you make?