Post by 31Airborne on Oct 14, 2020 13:30:37 GMT -5
Doods - apologize for my prolonged absence. Had a string of computer issues (none of which were operator related) that kept me off the grid. Good to be back in the saddle. To that end, I was on our beloved home waters this past week for our final FoM event of the season. BLUF: lots of fishing, not so much catching. I'm thinking the lake is in some stage of turnover.
Practice. My fall history on SML is all about topwater, moving baits, and a-rigs. None of these produced so much as a sniff (and I threw them a lot). Spinnerbaits, chatterbaits, and jerkbaits also proved fruitless. No takers on a jig (altho' I did get a couple of panfish hits on the trailers). The only thing I could get the fish to bite with any kind of regularity and consistency was a c-rigged creature bait. Smaller was gooder. I marked small pods of baitfish all over the place between the state park and R57 but there was no real pattern to this. Some in the back, some shallow, some deep, some in pockets, some over the main channel. Some creeks were void of any baitfish activity. I mean nothing. Points produced best. I managed a few off of off-shore structure and brush but, again, there was no pattern to it. It was really weird.
TX day. We started our day vic the 122 bridge and worked our way downlake, hopping main lake and secondary points as we went. We boated our first keeper at 10:20. Keeper #2 followed about 20 mins later. Both of these fish were on points and were caught on c-rigs. Over the course of the next 3 hours we actually got onto an active streak, boating a dozen or more fish. They were all short guys save for one barely-keeper fish. All of these fish were caught on points w/ a c-rig. We did mix in other baits throughout the day with nothing to show for it. We finished our day w/ 3 for 4.78 lbs.
Observations: 1) Water clarity was a mixed bag and had no pattern to it. One creek would be stained while the next was gin clear. Some places in creeks were clear while others were stained. Same same on the main lake. 2) WTs ranged from 67 at launch to 71 late in the day on THUR. Temps held steady at 68 on FRI and SAT in the clouds and rain. 3) Main lake points were better than secondary points for quality. Secondary points produced numbers. 4) We used natural colors - greens, browns. No glitter was better than a color with glitter. Nothing like a good ol' GP soft plastic bait. 4) While the bites were far and few between for us the bites we did have were vicious. They thumped it. We had lots of nips and pecks throughout the weekend. These were not the typical panfish hits. These bites were something different. If I had been on tidal water I would've guessed it was crabs (notorious for nibbling on soft plastics).
Wish I had more for y'all but this is it. Was great being out. Looking forward to things settling down on the lake as the fall progresses. I'll be back in a couple weeks.
peace,
B
Practice. My fall history on SML is all about topwater, moving baits, and a-rigs. None of these produced so much as a sniff (and I threw them a lot). Spinnerbaits, chatterbaits, and jerkbaits also proved fruitless. No takers on a jig (altho' I did get a couple of panfish hits on the trailers). The only thing I could get the fish to bite with any kind of regularity and consistency was a c-rigged creature bait. Smaller was gooder. I marked small pods of baitfish all over the place between the state park and R57 but there was no real pattern to this. Some in the back, some shallow, some deep, some in pockets, some over the main channel. Some creeks were void of any baitfish activity. I mean nothing. Points produced best. I managed a few off of off-shore structure and brush but, again, there was no pattern to it. It was really weird.
TX day. We started our day vic the 122 bridge and worked our way downlake, hopping main lake and secondary points as we went. We boated our first keeper at 10:20. Keeper #2 followed about 20 mins later. Both of these fish were on points and were caught on c-rigs. Over the course of the next 3 hours we actually got onto an active streak, boating a dozen or more fish. They were all short guys save for one barely-keeper fish. All of these fish were caught on points w/ a c-rig. We did mix in other baits throughout the day with nothing to show for it. We finished our day w/ 3 for 4.78 lbs.
Observations: 1) Water clarity was a mixed bag and had no pattern to it. One creek would be stained while the next was gin clear. Some places in creeks were clear while others were stained. Same same on the main lake. 2) WTs ranged from 67 at launch to 71 late in the day on THUR. Temps held steady at 68 on FRI and SAT in the clouds and rain. 3) Main lake points were better than secondary points for quality. Secondary points produced numbers. 4) We used natural colors - greens, browns. No glitter was better than a color with glitter. Nothing like a good ol' GP soft plastic bait. 4) While the bites were far and few between for us the bites we did have were vicious. They thumped it. We had lots of nips and pecks throughout the weekend. These were not the typical panfish hits. These bites were something different. If I had been on tidal water I would've guessed it was crabs (notorious for nibbling on soft plastics).
Wish I had more for y'all but this is it. Was great being out. Looking forward to things settling down on the lake as the fall progresses. I'll be back in a couple weeks.
peace,
B
