Here's the deal--it is absolutely pouring here  and I was planning on an early morning fishing trip--4:30 a.m.--The rain should be over within an hour or two. So the question: would you fish any differently after a huge rain? I am on sinclair in middle georgia. ONly parts of it get murky after a rain, while others stay fairly clear, so I don't know the total effect, but we have probably gotten four or five inches in a couple of hours. What would you do?

I'd immediately look for incoming water.  Look for the clear/murky edge and start throwing a spinnerbait with large colorado blades on it or else a very noisy crankbait.  Throw a contrasting color like a firetiger.

If the water rises and gets up on the bank a little,bushes and trees that are in/underwater would be where I'd start......bait to throw would depend on water clarity.Clear would be a buzzbait or Pop-R early then senko after sun gets up.Stained would be a Pop-R or buzz early,then spinnerbait or wide wobble crankbait (wiggle wart) chartreuse around the flooded stuff.

Not knowing if the lake has been down or up, constant level?????   If this time of the year offers new growth because of rising waters, I'm with 5basslimit, hit the newly flooded cover.

And here is a completely different take:

In June of 2002, I had a three day outing on Bull Shoals. Because of a legal agreement with certain counties in Arkansas, the Corps of Engineers were requied to hold the lake at maximum pool to relieve flooding downriver. Significant rains came AFTER the trees were in full leaf. Thirty foot trees were completely submerged!

When I arrived at my motel, fishermen were leaving. No one, including the guides, could catch a fish, not a bite, nadda. Well, no one besides my guide. For two and one half days we never went fifteen minutes without a "fish on!" They were mostly smallmouth, but we also caught largemouth, Kentucky and white bass. No one else at Bull Shoals Boat Dock caught a fish, not one.

Everyone was fishing the newly flooded cover, we fished what appeared to me to be the middle of the lake. We fished the perimeter of the submerged tees and the deeper water where the shoreline had been just a week or so earlier.

BTW, The weapon of choice was a 3 1/2" Mizmo tube (squash green/ Kent's Classic) fished on an inserted jighead, 6 lb line and spinning tackle. Of special note: Line size was critical, but that's another story.

Newly sub,merged cover was where it was at--did well on a buzz bait.

And that is some story about Bull Shoals! Nice. And thanks for the info.

Good news for you! Definitely fishing newly submerged cover is a prime target since baitfish and panfish would move in to gorge on new forage emerging there. Another target would be where increased current brings baitfish downstream past fish holding structure and cover along creek channels, but focusing on bends and saddles where current can bypass bends. I'd ignore straight stretches of channels. I'd also have to go up tributaries fed by the most watershed above the lake, shown on a map as having many long creeks collecting rainwater. Tons of nutrients wash into the lake there, so I'd locate the mudline encroaching into the lake and start there moving up into dirty water, but stopping when bass bites stopped. There's a zone between clear water and muddy water that holds the most bass letting forage wash down.

Jim

I love fishing in this condition.  The bass will move up and tight to cover when the lake level gets higher and water clarity get muddier.  My favorite thing to do is flip and pitch black/blue jigs tight to the cover.  You can also thow a spinnerbait with a big colorado plade or a crankbait with a fairly wide wobble.  As long as you get that bait in the strike zone of the fish tight to the cover you should catch several.