Here in South Louisiana we do not have much of a winter. Its mainly fall conditions with a few cold fronts here and there. Our water temp is 68-70* early mornings right now and will rarley dip below 55* most of the winter. This lake is pretty much 2'-4' deep everywhere. There are a few holes I know of that are 15' deep but nothing deeper than that. As of last weekend I am catching fish in and around the same grass beds Ive been fishing all summer only changing from frogs in the morning to Buzz baits and fishing cranks and spinners after early morning where as in the middle summer months we were punching the grass and flipping brush hogs. It appears the fish are holding in the same areas as of now but must be chasing shad as worm fishing has not been as productive as the shad imitation lures. I am fairly new to Bass fishing(seriously anyway) and trying to understand the transition periods and where the fish may be on this lake at different times of the year. There are not many places for the fish to go on this lake as it is pretty much an open lake with a few canals and the west side of the lake is full of flats and shallow areas which last spawn most of our fish were caught on the west side of the lake. This summer Ive landed a couple 5 pounders but this lake is full of 8-10 pounders and I want to take advantage of the pre spawn time as from what ive learned so far the fish are most agressive at this time, just can be tricky to find at times.The grass will stay pretty thick until around Jan then will thin out around the spawn in March/April. Should I just keep pounding the grassbeds in 2-4' water  with cranks and spinners until the fish move to the flats for the spawn?

On a side note I have been quite impressed with the Academy brand H2o cranks. Killing them on the shallow diving sexy shad color..

Send CATT a personal message and he can get you where you need to be.  He is the best I know of on lakes around south louisana, he knows them backwards and forwards.  He will help you all you need.

Frank Williams

What lake?  

What lake?

Google says Cataouatche.

Tom

I have one thought...

In some of the ponds I've fished I often found a switch in the bite as the dense weeds died back. It seemed the bass dropped out to the edges of the dying weeds and a smoothly swum or falling jig picked them up. I always pictured them somehow avoiding the dead weeds during those times -holding in more open water and the spinnerbaits we'd crushed 'em on through summer, just didn't look right. Worms caught 'em too though, but not like a swum jig, and more smalls. Just a thought.

Lake Cataouatche

Dude you could not have picked a harder lake & one I have no expertise on; all my trips to that area of Louisiana has been saltwater fishing or duck hunting. Let me make a few phone calls and maybe just maybe somebody is bass fishing. The one person I knew who had experience in that area passed away last year.

Thanks, Catt. Bass fishing has been nothing short of amazing the last couple of years here due to the freshwater diversion project from the Ms river. Plenty of grass and oxygen has really turned the fishing around here. Mark my word before long this will be a well known lake for many. They were just approved to build a 12 acre 5 ramp launch with bait shop and a stage and plan on trying to attract national fishing tourneys to this area. The number of 5-10 pounders pulled out of here this summer were amazing..Most of the big girls were caught punching 1 1/2 ounce T rigged creature baits through the grass. I caught several 4 and a few 5 pounders in the thinner areas but never really took the time I should have to punch the thick stuff. Thanks for any tips you could give for the fall to pre spawn fishing.

Hum sounds like I need to place a call to Steve Connor fast

The Central elite open was won this past weekend out of this lake and he let the cat out of the bag saying that we will host the 2011 Bassmaster classic here most likley out of the new marina they are building close by this lake.

Sweet