Hey guys,

Coming from central Oklahoma today where we desperately need a good rain. I recently visited my in-law's pond & it looks bleak. I tried just about everything in the tackle box from the bank (can almost reach the deepest point from bank) with absolutely no luck. On Christmas day it was 65 degrees & clear skies so you would have thought I'd at least get a strike. I have fished this pond a ton & can count on one hand the times I haven't caught anything. The water level is real low, so should this not even be fished until we get rain or is there something I should have done better or differently? If it gets any lower my fat-in-law will need to consider diggin a pump for future problems.  From the looks of the dam & banks, it's down a good 4-5 ft.  It regularly sits at 13 ft at a good level.    

There are some bodies of water that just turn off completely.  I think fish go into survival mode.  A lot of lakes this year prove that theory.  I look at tourny results in years past with relation to water levels on drought stricken lakes.  Amistad, Choke Canyon, Falcon to name some good lakes.   The tournament weights were very sub-par as to eachs history.   2004 filled such lakes, in 2005, the same fish that was there 3 years prior,  more 20 lb + stringers came from the same lakes that had very few limits over 20 lb in the past years.    

The fish didn't pack and go on vacation, they weren't stocked, they had to be there.  You would say, lake has shrank 50% in size, so fish should be easier to locate and catch.  Not so.  Only after the rains did the bite pick up.  falcon didn't produce a share lunker in the last 4-5 years during the drought.   She coughed up the largest bass that went to the sharelunker program,  over 14 lbs.  

You 're right Matt, this year wasn 't a good one, my usual lake last year began spilling in June but it was only 3 ft below maximum pool, when it began raining in May the lake filled very fast and it spilled from  June to October, needless to say that it rained cats and dogs during last year; this year the rain was scarce and the lake is 9 ft below max pool when other years by this time of the year it was full, the fishing was really bad this year in that lake, not only in numbers but in quality, usually on a so-so day you could catch 20-30 fish between 1 and 3 pounds, this year you caugh less fish and smaller ones, no biggies this year ( biggest one 4.5 lbs ), and some days not even the kitchen sink worked.

The only good fishing we could find was in another lake about an hour and a half from my home town but the lake was almost full when it began raining and the lake began to spill, caugh my biggest one in that lake ( 7 pounds ).

My folks lakehouse in North Florida went way down a few years ago. And it isn't some dinky little pond, it's a decent sized lake. It's now slowly coming back, but when it was at it's lowest, the fishing couldn't have been any easier. The fish all huddled around any structure they could find. Mostly man-made brim beds. All you had to do was work ANY worm near it and you'd get a hit. It was like fish in a barrel. Now that the water has slowly come back up, the fish are a lot harder to catch because there's a lot more cover and places for them to hide.

In your case, my advice would be slowly work Senko at every part of the lake you can cast. If that doesn't get a bite....  :-?

A senko is exactly what I worked the longest -- The problem is their pond has a lot of cover.  Even so, I'm able to catch fish out there often.  It was what is was, a bad day.  

My experience is similar to gobbledog.  when the lake is high the fishing is very tough.  the fish spread out and bury themselves in all of the fresh weedcover.  Right now my lake is down about 3-4 feet.  This is a 200 acre lake that averages around 10 feet deep with a few deeper holes.  the bass are more finicky, but there location is easier to predict.  All in all I have to say that fishing is better when it's low than when it's high.

Man, it has been a dry year here in north Arkansas. How dry is it you ask. Well I saw a 47 pound catfish trying to hitch a ride to a lake with more water. :'(

It's way past my bedtime.... I was thinking an old crank telephone and a trolling motor battery. ;D

This summer, the level in the pond next to my house (only about .5 acre, a puddle, really) was WAY down.  The fishing, though, was way up.  Things got really hot in early October, then it rained for a week, and the water level went a foot above the highest level I'd seen.  Unfortunately, the fishing cut off VERY dramatically.  The only places I've been able to find fish is very tight to the bushes in the water and around one old clump of dead lillies, and those fish are exceptionally shy.  Gimme low water anytime 8-)

One of the lakes I mentioned yesterday, Amistad, coughed up a 15.68 yesterday.  #27 on the all time Texas Top 50 list, and a new Lake record.  #3 sharelunker donated this year.

The lake that I fish most often,Lake Geiger,has been drawn down 5-6 feet for its normal winter draw down.It's been down about two weeks.Most big bass rigs either can't or won't try to launch.A few of us die hards with lighter boats have the lake to ourselves.I would think that with the bass concentrated more the fishing might improve ,or at the least ,not get worse.Well,it's gotten worse.The first few days,the fishing was about normal for this time of year and the cold water conditions.Now for the last week the fishing has totally turned off.I've searched and searched using every cold water (and some not so cold water)technique that I know.The one good thing I can say about it is all of the good structure that I've found that I had no idea existed.So my point ,if you can call it that, is lake water down,fishing down the tubes.