1998 Lake Reports
Hit lake 7:00 fished till three HumBUG is the correct word 3 whites in Castle creek no size. Son Skunked DAD! Bryan Man Larry I wish I read your report first. I fished Barlett Flats and river end 12-30 5 fish all day.
Fished Christmas eve and twice since Christmas. Have averaged 20 to 25 fish a day to 4 pounds. Can't by a fish without scent. Some on garlic, but crawfish is the ticket and KB is the only scent to be using. Jigs from 2 to 50 feet on the main lake across from marina and at dam area. Good luck..they are biting.
Larry
Family and I fished Castle Creek from noon till 4 pm 4 fish three bass one white grubs, shad rap . trolling produced two on deep cranks . Lake getting high again 1669 level. All fish fat and healthy. Practice catch and release! Bryan Kelley
Was nailing trout with powerbait dipped in Kick n trout. 10 fish in 4 hours while others anglers watched in envy. The trout averaged 2 pounds.
Found a large concentration of bass 11-29-98 just on the right edge of the dam, off the end of the rock wall in about 25-30 feet of water. Caught fish spooning and splitshotting finese worms. It was a very windy morning, had trouble keeping boat in right position.
Terrible fishing. Activity was at 24-30 ft. deep, but couldn't manage getting a strike. Launched everything. Balls of shad were graphed suspended, but game fish were absent underneath.
Four days of tough fishing for myself and wife,son took all the honors with 5 fish 4 Large 1 Kitty. Wind on friday. I must comment on Cosmic's statement of 4-5 hrs of sticking with a lure or bait. As we did this Thursday fishing for stripers for 8 hours with no luck. Family like the Striper bite so we stuck it out tried 10 different spots but no luck. So Sat. after 1 hour we changed to bassin and hammered the shallows and points my son killed us using Yamamoto Grubs. I will rememeber this when his birthday comes up next month.!!
Got out with the wife at just about 7AM, nice morning, no wind and overcast skies. Started in some of our favorite spots and no go on top water or crankbaits. Tried chrome and tried crawfish, crank like crazy, crank slow...nothing. So I said they must be deep. Thank goodness we didn't waste too much time on that pattern because the second my football jig and twin tail hit the water..bamm. The wife switched from her green lizard to the football head (3/4 oz) and she was hooked up. Well that was all she wrote. Shelley was outfishing me with the crawfish scent, the garlic was ok,.but the craw was what they really wanted. Left at noon, lots of fish in 20 feet of water in the main lake body on the outside, didn't get a fish inside or shallow. Very nice day, even the small ones fought like crazy, and the three pounders were really jumpers. Love it. C>
One thing to be learned here is that as we were leaveing we met some guys in a silver Astro that were throwing crankbaits. Asked them how they did, they said zero. So let me ask you, why would you stick with a pattern for 4-5 hours and not catch a fish. Don't you think if they aren't hitting cranks they are deeper? We were graphing fish in 20 feet of water right out from the boat dock all the way down the lake. Hello!! Didn't see any heavy schools of shad on the surface. C>
Hit the water late. About 09:30 and I went to my usual haunts on the north ends. I had not been on the water in 6 weeks. Boat ran great and I finally was bit a few times near balancing rock. The best was later in the day near the dam. Most were dinks with a couple of 2 pounders. Made me wonder what they were doing running with dinks. There sure is a ton of bait fish in the lake. Is that it. Is there so much bait in the water that the big girls are getting lazy and don't have to travel far for a decent meal??? Or am I just on the water at the wrong time of day.
Went 10-22 and 10-23 Thursday and Friday with Mrs. Cosmic...well the fish were biting but it was tough. water temp was about 69-72 depending on where you went. Strong winds and high clouds. Got fish on green lizards in humbug with KNB garlic, Shelley got them on a spinnerbait, white with gold blades. There were no paterns. Fish hit next to the boat, fish hit in 20 feet of water, fish hit in 6 inches of water right on the bank at noon. Could fish the best looking areas and do zero and then go to a plain bank and pull off a few fish. The river was absolutly dead...!!!!!
The best area was the points and flats down by the dam. The fish were hitting topwater. number one bait was Pro Choice's green reaper. Second was a terminator spinner bait given to me by Larry White our new AZ pro staffer. The third best lure was a Pop-r. Just kept fishing and fishing, hard. some fish were 3 plus pounds, most were dinks and one pounders. C>
Went back to Alamo on the weekend of 10-17-98. Figured we knew the game plan and with a black moon we should be into fish. Guess again. Talked to some guys that were camped their for three days and hadn't gotten into any fish. When out and caught some fish but did it the hard way. Cast all day and cast some more. Spinnerbaits, topwater, buzzbaits and worms all caught a few fish, but not much. C>
10-22 13:30-19:00 water temp 72 Fished Humbug, Augia Fria sticks and Mouth 1 top water 1.5 at dusk. Wind was howling most of the afternoon. I real need to learn to fish slow deep C-Rigs any good training tips ?
Lets try again: left stateline 7:30 am 10-17 air temp 52 water 70's Travel to Anelope Is. fished in 25-130 FT water two 2ibs strippers moved to warm creek bay coves two smalls on Yamotto grubs. My kid caught them Mom caught Stippers DAD skunked!!
Got to the 10 lane ramp at Pleasant at sun-up Saturday. The wind was blowing hard out of the north so opted to fish the South Bay area first. Picked up a few nice fish shallow right away. Went over to the east side and fished Jackass Cove. Caught 4 or 5 more up shallow. Think the dark moon and cooler water temp helped the morning bite. The wind quit around 10AM so we went up to Castle Creek and started worming. Caught a bunch of dinks shallow. Tried fishing the 25-30 foot range without any luck. Altogether my partner and I caught about 30 bass all day. Nothing big. The 13 to 15 inch bass are real fat.
As a back seater I really don't get to fish as much as I would like to. Also, for several reasons I couldn't post this until tonight as I could probably get killed for speaking eailer.
Date: 10-10-98 Place: Roosevelt Lake Temp: Cold in the morning hot in the afternoon :) Water Temp: N/A
This was my first trip this year to Roosevelt Lake fishing a pre-tournament with Tom Eubanks and my brother Gary Fuller. We split up, Gary, heading to the Salt end of the lake and Tommy and I running around Windy Hill to the North shore along the rocks. There was an All Stars tournament in progress and boats lined up to fish the same area we were fishing. From the reports we had, a Raddle Trap was the bait to use, however, I had a Gila Lizard tied on and decided to just give it a toss. Still had enough Kickn'Bass from may trip to Yuma on it to stink up my company car, so I thought what the heck. First cast, first blood! Tommy was toss'n the R'Trap and soon came up with our second fish of the day. Both fish were overs. Do to the traffic of tournament fisherman we decided to let them pass our water and we would head for our next hot spot on the Verde side of the lake. I still had the Lizard on and Tom the R'Trap. We fished from Cholla almost to the dam along the points and reafs. Caught fish in all water from 2 feet to 30 feet both R'Trap and Gila Lazards.
Met up with Gary and Nic around 11:30 and then went to the East side of the lake Salt end. In a cove we found merky water and shad running the surface. From 12:00 to 2:00 we hit fish on top water baits as well as BuzzBaits. Wow! top water at 2:00 in the afternoon! What a neat trip to end my season this year( I hate cold weather fishing ).
All in all around 40 fish from 6 ounces to 4.5 lbs.
As Riff and Raff head west on I-10 for yet another fishing adventure. We comtemplate headed for either Lake Martinez or Alamo Lake. With coin in hand it hits the air. And Alamo Lake it is. After a Subway stop for a late night bite. We were on our way. After dodging rabbits, all the way we finally make it to the boat ramp. The wind the was calm as we launched the Nitro. As Raff reaches to the back of his truck for sweat pants, I Riff realize to no avail I made a big mistake. (The wife told me to "Bring some warm clothes") Being a man I told her I would be fine, I am tough and wouldn't get cold. WRONG!!! After wrapping a dirty old blanket around me we take to the water. If the first two hours were a sign of what was yet to come we would have been in BIG trouble. As sun up drew near; the fish turned on. After I Riff got the first fish to the boat we new our Luck had changed. Fish were hanging tight to the rock ledges in coves. And hitting Buzz bait and Spinner bait. Not soon after Raff was on the board. As competative as our fishing is, we started to count our fish. With Riff in the lead 18 fish to Raff's 11. We decided to move to the other end of the Lake. I Riff see what apears to be a nice point and Raff takes us to it. We started throwing small crankbait. And the action was intense. After adding 10 more fish to the boat, we dcided to go with a large crankbait....As they say BIGGER is better. We had double after double. It can't get any better than this. The over all totals to the boat reaching 55. And losing at least 20. Our arms were soar, our thumbs were raw. It was time to head back. After loading and wiping down the water rocket. We realized that we had close to 5 hours of pure Heaven....... We caught several fish that had been caught before, a true testimony that CATCH AND RELEASE can help the future of our fishing. This is Riff with another fishing adveture of Riff and Raff. GOOD LUCK fishing!
Hi Everyone. Went with Mrs. Cosmic to Alamo for Sat- Sun- Monday AM. the weekend of the 10-11-98. the lake was high and clear, about ten feet up from the low pool they have had it at for the last year. The water temp was 72-74 and clear by mid lake and just a little green in the south (river end). Got out Sat morning about 9 AM and it was dead. Fished until sunset, dead. Sunday AM dead, but some high clouds came in. At Sunday 4 pm all heck broke loose. You could not throw a topwater or a spinner bait without catching a fish. This lasted until 7 PM and was incredible must have got 40 fish between the two of us in the three hours of sunset. Rushed out the next morning at 5:30 and in the same spot with the same baits could not even get one bite. The moon was up until almost noon for the three days. Thank God the clouds came in for the one sunset and the fish turned on. I was catching a few fish each AM on spinnerbaits, then on worms at about 9 AM. I caught fish at high noon on green lizards in 25 feet of water at noon and also most of the day. Ten fish a day was about it. No one I saw was even close to that, some guys were skunked so we did a lot better. Going back this weekend and will blow them away. The moon will be black and the temp will be 10-15 degees cooler, so the bait will be up in the shallows even more and the Bass will be looking to feed befor winter sets in. You could really see the difference in the angle of the sun and the light penetration starting about 3 or 4 pm. heck sunset was 6 not 9 so there is a big change going on. Mornings were about 60 degrees compared to 90 a month ago. will report back this weekend. C>
I pulled out 13 large mouths the other day that had a full stringer weight of 98lbs 10oz to bad it was'nt a tournament.
Fished from 5:30-11:00pm Oct.2 w/ little action. Lost 2 dinks at the boat in Humbug using C-rigged Culprit lizard. On 10/3 from 5:30am, fished Coles Wash and landed a 1.5#. Nothing to brag about, only slow fishing this time out.
Just talked to Mike Burkhart my fishing buddy. he spent the weekend of Oct 4th on a two day camp out. Said he got on a good topwater bite early in the morning. One of the big surprises was he got into a school of 2-3 pound stripers. He found them off the main lake points down by the 10 lane ramp. He used topwater and cast to the breaking fish early as the sun came up. said the water temp was 70 and the bite stopped at about 7:30 . Then he went to worms with no luck until sunset when the fish turned on topwater again. He was using the Garlic scent on the a lure called the red pepper put out by Gary Yammato. They cost $20 plus but are a really good lure. Something like a zara spook but thinner and they float tail down. But he outfished the other guys in the boat three to one, they were using poppers. The wife and I are headed for Alamo next weekend Columbis Day. If anyone has any info on Alamo e mail me please. Cosmic>
Fished a West Coast Bass tournment on Sept. 20th. Had no luck with top water which I found rather surpriseing. What did work was 6"worms on rock piles in the lower end of the lake. We did pick up some fish in the tullies but not enough to keep us there. The hot ticket was the Kick'n Bass Crawfish attractant. We got fifth place and third place overall for the year.
Went to Humbug at sunrise, fish breaking along the shore. Threw top water and buzzbaits, nothing. Finally caught them on a spinnerbait (gold 1/4 oz), by 8 am the spinner bait bite died. Went to a c rig with Pro Choice hand poured green reapers. That was good. Got some good 2 pound fish and lost a nice one on the jump, never got the hook in her. Came up like a rocket and I couldn't reel fast enought. Fished the shore line on the way out. caught fish until the end. Use Kick'n Craw more then the garlic, but caught fish on both. C>
I fished Saturday September 19 spending most of my time in the back of brushy coves in 7 to 8 feet of water. I caught 12 fish, most of them on short brown Zipper worms or brown Yamamoto spider jigs flipped to the bases of green salt ceders. The fish were most active in the afternoon. In more open water a bright green/yellow crankbait worked well when fished through the tops of submerged brush.
The largest fish a 3.6 pounder was caught flipping in the thick cover. Spinnerbaits and surface lures worked occassionally in the morning. Total weight for 5 fish was only 8 pounds.
Went out Friday in the rain with my wife Shelley, we killed them. Rained all day and we were on a top water bite from the first cast. Finally quit at noon, we had lots of fish and a real good time.
Went Sat with Damion, new it would stink. Got up at 5 am looked out and saw stars, yesterday when I woke it was raining. Well we got there (bartlet) just after sunrise, he got to dinks on his first couple of casts and that was it for the rest of the day. Fished the same places Shelley and I killed them the day before and we got 0. Got a sun tan! Just one day and a change in weather and that was it.
Thursday 9-3...overcast and some light drizzle..Got there at 10:30 AM everyone was leaving fishless.. When out and tried topwater, spinnerbaits, crankbaits, worms, jig and pig, more topwater, flipping etc..you know the rest. Fished the river, some main lake structure deep drop-offs, rock, trees, sand, mud...0,,,got a good sunburn. Will go to Bartlet tomorrow, Friday, Tony said there were some live fish in the lake. Pleasant seems like it is dead. Even the birds are gone!!! what is with this lake??
Kicknbass on thesurface. 8-25-98 My partner and I caught over a hundred bass on rico's, sprayed with kicknbass. the weather was Hot and sunny! Water temp was at 79 to 80 degrees in some spots. The boat was in 20 ft. of water and we casted all the way to the shore, Pulling bass off shady side of structure. The best bite was an hour and a halph at sunrise, and finished out with a bang at sunset. My partner Robert P. landed a rare 12 pounder. My bigest was 9 pounds. The average fish was about 2 pounds.
Sincerly: Tony G. " bass extrordinare"
The Kingman Bass Club put 20 anglers on the water at Callville Bay on August 8. Rod Jackson took first with 9.55 pounds and a big fish of 3.18 pounds. Rod caught most of his fish early in the morning in Callville Bay using oxblood colored zipper worms.
Art Fuller took second with 9.33 pounds and a big fish of 3.97 pounds. His 5 fish were caught fishing 15 to 20 feet deep using salt and pepper ring worms. Jim Kirkley, Lee McElwee and Micah Jones took third, fourth and fith respectively.
Our next tournament is September 12 at South Cove.
Now water is strangely cooler but with a purple FLW Tour worm we were slaying them one after another!!!
Fished with Mike Burkhart from 5pm to midnight friday night. Met Danny Dew who said he was fishing a $25 big fish contest at the 4 lane ramp. We went to the 10 lane and headed for the dam area. mike got on a fish with a finnes worm and 10 # test spinning outfit. i was throwing my normal 17# test and big worm. Will we wound up 3 to 1 in Mike's favor. guess finnes is better then power right now. worms were green long and thin no tail, rigged with a mojo weight up about 2 feet. They seem to like the crawfish scent, missed about 10 good bite, mangled worm and all.
Fish two days 29)30 Lots of small bass.Did pick up 2 nice crappie all fish caught on 5"green Mr. Trister Jigs. If fish early Am.is much better.Kicknbass is a great but I Have to wash my boat. Tip use a spray box.
This river is full of trout , big ones to . At least 12 inches long and up to 3 Lb.
Fishing seems slow. We fished from about 2:00 pm until dark, and I only caught one dink. Missed one around 4 lbs on a Western Plastics Twitch-it. That was the highlight of my day. I'm blaming bad fishing on the El Nino.
Sunday afternoon 6-14-98. Got on the water around 4:00pm - nice afternoon/evening boat ride, practiced lots of casting. lots of fishing, no catching. Never did see the evening topwater bite turn on - would've been nicer without the wind. Left the lake @ 8:30pm.
Great fishing. Throw plastics and rip em out! Sucks when the wind is blasting but get out there over night and hit em hard! Good luck and tight lines!
Seventeen people entered the Kingman Bass Club tournament today at Topock Arizona.
Shane Molene took first place with 13.52 pounds and big fish with a 4.87 pound largemouth. Shane fished the main Lake at Havasu using jig and pig. He caught fish all day long. Second place with 8.40 pounds was Ed Walker. Ed fished both the Colorado River and the Lake using spinnerbaits and Jig and pig.. Third place was Art Fuller with only 3 fish and a 2nd big fish of 4.14 pounds caught on a spinnerbait early in the morning in a backwater off the river. Forth place with 5.47 pounds was local Kingman Guide Don Martin. He had 3 fish. Don also fished the river.
The bite was tough for everyone except for Shane. River temperature was 61 degrees in the morning and 64 in the afternoon. Some backwaters were as warm as 77 degrees. Our next tournament is at Temple Bar on July 11th
fished Friday, june 12 at 5 am, no birds, no fish, no shad no fish breaking water except some carp. got out of their at 9 am, put 28 miles on the boat from the dam to the n s e west, dead. gred says it's the full moon, i say el nino. got to try night fishing now.
Tuesday, June 9th I went to Topock on the Colorado River. I fished the Topock Marsh backwater and other backwaters off the Colorado River. The fishing was tough. I caught 8 fish, one crappie on a spinnerbait and 7 bass on worms, grubs and spinnerbaits.
The most productive bait was a black 4" worm fished with a fairly heavy weight. The tulies with spaces in between were the best habitat, if they were close to the backwater entrance or in deeper water. Spinnerbaits worked well if you bumped them against some obstruction.
I caught 3 bass that weighed 1.8, 2.5 and 2.6 pounds. The rest were small.
In the upper portions of Havasu the bluegill are spawning. Some of these fish will go 1.5 to 2 lbs. Bigger bass are often in nearby cover waiting for a smaller bluegill to come too close. I saw fish up to 4 or 5 lbs, but could not get them to bite.
I have a tournament there tomorrow the 13th. I will do a follow-up report on the results.
Good Luck
Below is the year 1998. Look and see what pattern was working this month back then.
Spooned most of the day in 40-50 ft. of water. Boated one largemouth and one yellowbass. Other than that it was a pretty slow bite. Can't wait for spring.
Went Monday 18th, not too good. Talked to a lot of people, very few fish, like 4 total. Nice day, no fish. I didn't fish, was just breaking in the new Astro, met lots of gusys, all 0. Some guys said there was a good crappie bite on minnows, but deep clear and cold isn't too good.
Found lots of fish on the graph towards the upper end of the lake in about 30-40ft. of water. Threw everything in the book at them and no success. Caught only one largemouth pitchin' a worm with a split shot rig against the bluffs. Bass hit it on the drop in about 10-15 ft. of water.
Waters are cold. Artificials are not doing well right now. Minnows are catching 1 to 2 pounders in and around the boat docks in the north part of the lake. Eagle Mountain is rough when the winds are from the North at 15 to 20 mph.
Started the day out by realizing that I had left the keys to the boat at home. So we could only use the trolling motor which really didn't help our odds. Caught 2 smallmouth on a night crawler splitshot rig in about 25-35ft of water. No other fish. Talked to other anglers and one boat said they had caught at least ten smallmouth. The bite here should really start picking up soon with the warmer weather.
2/6/98 9:39 P.M.
Just got home from the lake, 3 of us caught 27 fish. 52 degree water in coves protected from wind. Red rattle traps, ripping over grass. Biggest was 9.62 and most were in the 4-7 range. Good day to be so damn cold. Adios, please e-mail me at ttrammell@usa.net with questions or tips. Until Sunday the 8th I report again. Oh yeah, most of these coves had creeks and we fished in 5 to 10 foot of water.
Lots of fish on the graph in about 15-40ft of water. Started fishing at 10:00AM and hooked one 3lb. Largemouth on a smoke colored gitzit. It was in about 20ft. of water off of the main lake channel. That was the only bite of the day. Going to Pleasant next week.
Fishing was good flipping zipper worms w/ kick n' bass on em. Flippin into thick brush good for 1-4 lbs. bass.
Caught a total of 9 fish. 6 smallmouth, 3 yellow bass. The smallmouth were caught on inline spinners and gitzits in 10-15ft of water. The yellows were caught on live nightcrawlers in about 25ft of water. All were caught off the main lake channel.
water was 53 degrees, overcast w/ sprinkles air temt - 55 and wind out of the south - fished windy main lake points and finally had sucess using a very slow jerk bait. Leaving the bait still for extremely boring peroids of time. But it work. Several fish in 2 - 5 lb. range. If anyone fishes Cypress much please email me at Billp10582@aol.com. Take care and good luck.
Fished Alamo Lake on Saturday, 2/21, and got blanked! Water has risen 15 feet in the last two weeks and is very muddy. Visibility less than a foot in the north end and only a little better down by the dam. Water temp varied from 49 up north by the river to 53 in the south end. Weather was calm, foggy/overcast much of the day and it was the day after a front went through. Used lots of KnB and still didn't catch any. It was a very, very tough day. Guess I should have expected what I got. There's always next week.
Fished last thursday the 19th in between the storms. Started off fishing the islands off of the main channel with spider jigs. I immediately boated a 2 1/2 lb. largemouth. Only two other 2lb. fish were caught, all off the islands and points in 10-15ft.
Fished all day got two nice fish ( 4,5 lbs) castle creek area
Fished all day long. Caught 2 bass, both in Humbug. One was just under 4lbs., nice fish. Not too many other anglers catching fish. Water is super clear, use light line. Visibility is up to 10-15ft. in some areas. GL and GF.
Cold and windy! The weather has kept most anglers off the water. Maybe I can be of some help to fishermen wanting to brave the conditons.Please allow me to introduce myself to ya'll.My name is Wes Winget ,I am a full-time guide on Lake Ray Roberts in Texas and a member of the Scientific Bass Pro-staff.The air temp. here is in the lower 50's and the water temp. is less than that. If you still want to go fishing, try a light jig-n-pig combo around creek channel bends and tree-lines that run from deep water to shallow water. Black and blue is the best color. Be careful out there. 940-365-9549
Put in Castle Rock Springs went north from there. Dont know the name of coves.Visited one cove had drop offs to 30' you could see 15' down into the water. Man is the water clear. I saw one crawdad flip me off. I write all this bacause I was one fish away from being skunked. Caught on white spinner bait in the morning 2lbs. Lets go Sun! Where are you at??!!
WENT AT SUN RISE(BOY WAS IT COLD) FISH UNTIL 1, CAUGHT TWO FISH ON CAMO WORMS, HARD FISHING NOW WATER AROUND 55 DEGREES
Went last thursday and caught 8 bass. The fish have started moving up on the beds. All the fish that I caught I saw first. They were all orientated on the spawning bed. Most of the fish are from 1-2lbs. Only saw one big fish on the bed and she had lock jaw, just wasn't interested. Once you find the bed just throw a worm or jig right on top of it and shake it. It will drive them crazy. Be sure and practice catch and release during the spawn.
Got to Bartlett today Friday 20th, march at about 9 am. Day was high cloud cover but warm. Ran to the dam and fished some outside rock and points and coves and stuff with jig and plastic , worm and crawdaw crank, nothing. Ran down to the river end, water brown mud and 1 degree colder 58 degees. Got up real shallow, 2 feet and hit one and lost 2, all on jig and plastic. Talked to two other guys that said they started off by the dam in the AM and slow rolled spinner baits in 15 feet off of points and got 6 bass between the two of them. male i caught showed no signs of a scraped tale, just looked healthy. C>
Fish are moving up on the spawning beds. Caught a total of 8 largemouth on jigs in about 4-5ft. of water, the largest of which was 3lbs. Focus on the isolated backs of coves and look for spawning fish. Be sure and practice catch and release.
Heading out early am to kick butt. I'll be using kickn bass formula to help. I going for them deep and I have heard they are on the beds but inactive. I plan to fish back in the coves looking for beds and then use the fish finder in the 30 to 40 feet of water.I have been hearing stories about big strippers . Are these fish in the lake and if they are how do I catch these fish?
Went early Sunday, 3-22-98, got there just about 7 am sunrise. Went towards the dam and tried spinner baits off of some islands that were outside staging points for pre spawn bass, NG. then tried jig and plastic, missed three with the whole skirt pulled down and the craw feelers ripped of. Hard hits but nothing. Went to the dirty river end and tried flipping, deep water 15-20 FEET and stuff like that.NG. Never saw one single fish caught by anyone. i got one and missed about 4. Lake is muddy with LOTS OF FLOTTING WOOD AND TREES AND LOGS. water temp is 58-60. Ramp lines are 25 cars deep. have to pay $6.00 at a auto teller machine. parking lot was almost full. Lots of jet skies and big cabin cusiers. lots of boat traffic.
Went to Lake Pleasant on Saturday, 21 March, got skunked. Saw one fish caught all day. Decided to move on over to Alamo for Sunday. Caught 6 largemouth in two hours - most in the 1 to 2 pound range. All fish caught in 1-5 ft of water with soft plastics. Talked to some people catching white bass and crappie also. The water has went down some and there are two paved ramps open.
We were there bright and early 3/23/98. Water was calm and the water 58 degrees with very few boats on the lakes. The ten lane ramp was closed and we were told to use the four lane ramp at the north end of the lake. We did not catch one thing. there were fish on the beds but none hitting our jigs. The fish finder showed fish at the 50 and 70 ft depths so we bout kickn bass form. on our jigs with a full ounce of lead and tried that for a couple of hours. Nothing hit, not even a bump. This did not discourage us from the lake. The fish were not ready to do battle yet. We will return.
Caught 7 bass on pork.All males.Two of them about 3 pounds and another over 2 1/2 pounds. Sight fishing
Had a great time fishing in the Big Bass Days tournament at Lake Pleasant on Friday and Saturday, 3/20 & 3/21. The tournament in case you hadn't heard was sponsored by Bill Luke Dodge and Tempe Marine and benefited the Boys and Girls clubs of Arizona. It appeared to be a great success. I heard about 400 people had pre-registered and many more signed up at the lake. The tournament was run by the folks from Wild West Bass and they did an outstanding job handling both the crowd of people and boats as well as taking care of all the fish that were weighed. (Bass were placed in aerated holding tanks and returned to various parts of the lake via a pontoon boat.)
Now about the fishing....
The weather was great both days. Warm and slightly overcast on Friday, sunny and warm on Saturday. Water temperature in the north end of the lake ranged from 57 to 58 in open water to 59 to 60 in the backs of coves. On Friday, my partner and I fished the north end of Humbug in 38 to 42 feet of water. We caught and weighed in three bass at 3.5, 6.7, and 7.6 pounds. The 7.6 took 1st place and $300 at the one o’clock weigh-in. All three were caught before 9AM using water dogs. Live bait was legal in this tournament and most if not all of the big fish were caught on dogs. The last fish on Friday was caught at about 4:45pm in shallow water casting a sluggo and weighed 5.95 pounds.
Saturday was not nearly as productive. Started fishing the same location on Saturday and landed a 4.65 pound bass on a water dog again. No one was catching any really big fish in Humbug Saturday so we moved around the lake quite a bit but couldn’t find ‘em. Tried sight fishing for a while and that produced some small males. If you’re sight fishing this spring, we found that adding KNB to your craw, lizard or grub will get those bedding fish to really inhale the bait rather than just pick it up.
The winner of the tournament caught a 10.04 pound bass on a water dog Friday morning in 8 feet of water. He proved that you don’t need a big fancy bass boat with lots of expensive equipment because he caught it out of a small aluminum boat with a cooler as his live well. And he was fishin’ against some of the best Arizona pro fishermen, Greg Hines and Mark Kile were both there.
Pleasant is really heating up. Big fish are staged outside the spawning areas, you can catch fish on beds (please practice catch and release), or you can throw bass assassins, sluggos or spinner baits shallow around the brush about anywhere and pick up bass. Great fishing!
DATE: 03/28/98 TIME: 6:30AM TO 1:00PM WEATHER COLD 50 TO 60 DEGREES DRIZZLY RAINY AND WINDY
FISHED A TOURNAMENT SPONSORED BY BUDWEISER AND ENOCH'S SPORTS BAR LOTS OF GREAT PRIZES WERE RAFFLED OFF AFTER THE TOURNAMENT. HAD A GOOD TIME BUT WHO CARES RIGHT? HERES A REPORT: FISHING WAS DIFFICULT-CAUGHT FOUR SMALL ONES IN ABOUT8 TO 12 FEET OF WATER. HAD A VERY LARGE ONE ON IN ABOUT 5 FEET OF WATER . ID SAY THE BIG WAS AT LEAST 5 POUNDS, PROBABLY SPANNING. MANY PEOPLE CAUGHT NOTHING - MOST THAT DID WERE USING WATER DOGS SINCE IT WAS ALLOWED. I HAVE A COMPLAINT THOUGH -ONE OF THE RULES WAS THAT ALL FISH WERE TO BE WEIGHED IN ALIVE AND RELEASED ALIVE, MANY WERE BARELY ALIVE IF NOT DEAD ONE OF THE 4 BIGGEST FISH WAS TAKEN HOME FOR MOUNTING 2 OTHERS WERE IN SUCH POOR CONDITION THEY DIED UPON RELEASE. I STOPPED COUNTING AT 15 DEAD FISH AND THESE PEOPLE WERE NOT PENALIZED FOR THEIR DEAD FISH. THIS WAS ABOUT MY 10TH TOURNAMENT AND I FELT ASHAMED BEING A PART OF THE SLAUGHTER. I WONT FISH THIS NEXT YEAR. ALL BIG FISH WERE CAUGHT ON WATERDOGS AS DEEP AS 40 FEET. THIS HAD A LOT TO DO WITH WHY THE FISH DIDINT MAKE IT. EVERYONE THEIR WAS FREINDLY AND KIND BUT JUST DIDNT HAVE THE SAME COMMITMENT TO CATCH AND RELEASE THAT MOST CLUBS DO.
Mar. 29, 98: Tournament win with 3 fish total of 10.88# and Big Bass of 5.37#. Lure: Home Made Double Rattle Back Jig in Black/Blue with Zoom Super Chunk Trailer in Black with Blue Glitter. Fish Attractant: KicknBass Garlic. High Winds from the South with steadily falling Barometer. Water - Chocolate Milk in Color. Air Temp 62F. Water Temp at Marina on Start of Tourn. 51F. Fish were holding in laydowns within 6 feet of the bank and in 4-6 feet of water depth.
fished barlett on 4/6. It was very windy, the water was dirty, muddy and there were logs and trees floating all around the lake and shore.
Caught some largremouth and a few smallmouth using red plastic worms. 2 to 3 lb range.
Went out Friday and Sat, the 12-13 April. full moon, water up, wt 67-71. dam was clear, river end muddy and 3 degrees coolder then dam. Clear skies, no fish no nothing. No one i talked to had a clue or any fish. One guy said he had been there 4 days and caught 8 bass. i got a roll on a buzz bait AM Friday. threw back with a shallow crank and twitched him into hitting. Tried flipping , pitching small worms, craws, big stuff, red, brown, green and anything else. not one fish on a plastic. C-rigged to 25 feet, nothing. the only fish i got were on a rattle trap. none on rico's, buzz's jerkbaits or sluggo's. Fished at night under the full moon, nothing. i could see fish shallow, baitfish by the millions, 4 fish in 1 /2 days. nice boat ride. C>
Fished on Sat 11th at 6:00am to 11:00am nice and warm, around 75 deg but very windy. Fished with waterdogs and caught absolutely nothing. This is the first time I fished with waterdogs, maybe this had something to do with the result. Lots of See Doo & powerboat traffic too. Did anyone fish Pleasant last weekend? Please post a report! My buddy Mike Swag who's a manager at El Paso Barbeque on 43rd ave in Phx was throwing a waterdog last Tuesday at Pleasant. He was by the back launchramp fishing from the shore, kinda walking along when low and behold, he hooks up a big mouth over 13#. So much for my $30,000 worth of fishing technology. I hate Mike!( just a joke ).
Gilroy Bassmasters club tournament was held on April 18, 1998. I took 6th place with 5 fish for 7.81 pounds on 6" june bug worms and jigs. I used Kick N Bass all day long and it seemed that the fish hung onto the lure a lot better. My partner wasn't using Kick N Bass and didn't get as many bites.
American Bass tournament was held on April 19, 1998. There was a lot more teams in this tournament than in our club tournament. The lake was fished hard on Saturday so the bite was a little slower. We caught 5 fish on jigs for 7.09 pounds. My partner and myself used Kick N Bass all day long. Thanks to Kick N Bass for a great scent. I think because of the scent the fish hung on to the lure much better.
Thank you.
FISHED PLEASANT WEDS 042298.WEATHER WAS CLEAR AND HOT.WATER TEMP IN COLES BAY WAS OVER 70 DEGS.WATER IN COLES BAY HAS CLEARED UP A LOT SINCE I WAS THERE ON APRIL 8TH.DID SOME SITE FISHING AND FOUND BASS ALL OVER THE SHORE AREAS.ACTUALLY SAW BASS IN THE SPAWNING MODE BUT THEY WERE NOT IN THE MOOD TO EAT.WHILE IN COLES BAY,SAW A RATTLE SNAKE ACTUALLY SWIM UP TO A BASS BOAT AND CLIMB IN.I HAVE HEARD OF THAT BEFORE BUT NEVER SAW IT.NEEDLESS TO SAy,THE ANGLER WAS NOT HAPPY AND NEITHER WAS THE SNAKE AFTER IT WAS KILLED AND RELIEVED OF HIS RATTLES.WHAT A GREAT STATE.
4/25 and 4/26 - Lake Shelbyville in Central Illinois. Water temp was 60 F. With an aproaching cold front. Heavy stain with 1 foot visibility. High winds on this flat land resevoir of 25 MPH on saturday and 30 MPH sunday. Fish were tite on the lay downs both days of the tournament. Winning pattern was home made double rattle back jigs and spinner baits with a slow presentation. Naturally, KNB was the attractant used.
Date: 4/25/98 Time: 5:00am Got on the lake early last Sat. The bite was on! My partner and I started off fishing by the tires that block in the houseboats. The fish were hitting silver shallow diving cranks. We continued throwing other lures but they only wanted silver cranks. caught about 20 fish between 5:00am to 12:00 noon. We didnt need to go back to the river arms where all the fishermen like to go and stack up, kinda retarded if you ask me. We fished mostly the east side of the main body. There were no big fish hitting our shallow cranks but lots of little ones were happy to oblige. See you at Pleasant on the 1st.
Date: 04/25/98 Time: 5:00am to 1:00pm The water and weather has warmed up. Fish have become more active and aggressive. Caught between 15 to 20 fish between my partner Dave and I. Fish were hitting a little topwater in morning hours and Bass Assassin type lures the rest of the afternoon. It was good to catch fish again. Fished east side of main body.
Hit not so pleasant on Sat May2? Anyway, went to the back of the coves and got their late. All fish were caught on an early bite. Got a white bass, had another bass on a crank bait, missed two more. Nobody really doing anything , water tem 71 in coves, 69 by dam. nice boat ride.
Went Sat to get some sun, water tem 71, water had some color. water is up to top of lake, full. some shad in the back of the coves, got one white bass on a silver crank, missed three other fish. No one doing anything but a little flip bite, real little. still weren't turned on yet, don't know what it is going to take.
BASS ARE DOING REALLY GOOD AROUND THE ROCKS USING RUBBER WORMS.SOME ARE ALSO BEING CAUGHT ON JIGS AND LIVE NIGHT CRAWLERS.
Fished Fri. May 1st - Weather was warm close to 90's i'd guess - Got there at 5:00am and fished till 2:00pm. Mike and I counted this time and we caught 18 fish. Had 7 in the first 45 minutes. The bite is on!! We use two different lures all day and thats all they hit. What a blast . See you there saturday.
Seen numerous Bass on bed (50 apx),but fishing was excellent. 18 keepers,14 on a buzzer, 4 on a jig. Fish the Channels, the fish are stacked up. Never been to Maxintuckee,but will be back.
Hit Pleasant early and late over mothers day weekend. Fished the back of humbug and castle creek. There was an early morning bite and then nothing after 7-9 AM. One day it was all over at 7 the next day it lasted to 9. Fished hard after that but they just turned off. Shad in the back of coves, bass boiling underneat them. used a spinnerbait for the bigger bass around flooded trees in the back of the coves in 10-25 foot of water. in 25 foot there was still a topwater bite. Got a lot of whites on a chart rattle trap, full size. Tried night fishing, but with the full moon things were off. All the guys said it was real slow. go early or forget it. didn't find a sunset bite, just AM.
Sunday May 10 (Mother's Day) - temp range from 60's(morning) to 88 (midday), clear water (8-10feet vis.) Fished steep shores of Humbug channel and shallower coves to west. Boated 14 bass from 0530 to 1130, all but one on white pearl diving crankbait. Nothing large, average weight about 1 1/2 lbs. - Mix of largemouths, whites and a couple stripers(!)
fishing was good 5-16 morning. found fish on the creek channel next to flats at upper end of lake. also caught 6# at main lake point with flats near by in about 10-15 feet of water on tennessee shad crankbait
there is also a lot of driftwood at the dam end of bartlett most is on the shore line saw some but once in the main lake area was able to crank up the ponies to get to the back of the lake
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