Lake Reports from 2000
The New Year has come into Florida with temperatures that are to us frigid with wind to make them worse.
We finished out the year 2000 with a full day on the water battling cold and wind but the catching made the trip worthwhile. Eric Johnston and party opted for a day with shiners and Scott took them to the spillway. With a bite that was slow, Scott decided to try the Ansin/Garcia side of the spillway and the catching was on. Several good bass were hanging around over there and they found their way to willing anglers. Also, working the areas where the hyacinth has bunched up on the Farm side of the spillway several others yielded to the beat of the shiner. 30+ fish make for a good day when conditions are as cold and windy. Temperatures at the ramp in the morning were about 33 with a 15-20 MPH wind and warmed throughout the day to a stellar 39 degrees with the wind never letting up. However, all had a good time and appeared none-the-worse for the experience.
Yesterday, Scott launched at first light and headed to a rendezvous with Joe Middleton to get their bait for the day. Bo White was ready, the shiners were ready and Scott headed for the spillway again. Using the same strategy as two days before they got onto a good bite and landed bass to 5 pounds. However, with none landed bigger than 5 pounds Scott moved out into the Farm and started working one of the irrigation canals. As the day wound to an end the Farm came through again and released another 11+ pound bass to the willing angler. The shiner Bo was using was as big as some of the bass he catches at home, but the bass here eat them readily. With some deft rod handling and careful working of the bass through hydrilla, Bo got her aboard, measured and pictured, and then released for another anglers bait.
I launched for an afternoon trip and Gerry Gault and Chris his son also opted for shiners. They brought their boat, which we took so that Gerry could safely navigate over the next few days of working the Marsh. Getting our shiners we headed for the 1st N/S ditch and worked an area I worked last week. We got several good fish when Scott called and told us about his catch. I don't think it took us more than a minute to pull anchor and be underway headed to where Scott was at. We got there in time to see the big bass released. We spent the next 1.5 hours at this site and caught several good fish with our big one being about 7 pounds. Gerry and son are headed there today and I hope they get the big one.
The baits of choice have been shiners for almost a month now. Only a couple of days have been good for artificial and hopefully the bite will be coming back this weekend. Temperatures are supposed to be increasing and I am looking for the barometer to fall. Shiner fishing for bass is a unique experience. As the bass play with the shiner, mouth it, turn it, and hit it, you need to have patience. If you hit too soon you get air, and if you wait too long you get air. It takes several tries for most to get the correct hook-up procedure down and actually land the bass.
Again a reminder: The water is low here! Idle through the Marsh to the canal before getting on plane. On the Farm beware of canal edges and of course stumps in the southern ends. Also, the stumps in the southern end stretch from the fisherman's shack on the west wall to the SE corner, so if you’re south of that line, IDLE! Another note: The irrigation ditches are not your safest place to run. Adjacent to these canals were fence posts and some of these are still present as either submerged obstacles or floaters. You are safer running in the open fields than in the ditches. Be careful out there, catch lots of fish, and be safe. Be sure to have layered clothing for this time of the year.
on the water at 7:30 hit the bank real hard with crankbaits, jerkbaits,topwater not a thing. at 10:30 my partner Rick pulled in a 1.5 lbr. out of 17 ft. water using a lizard ,real windy at times died down in the afternoon.wish i could say more.Good luck
As I am sitting here writing this report, the temperatures are in the 30's, the wind is chugging at 15 plus, the skies are cloudless, and Scott is plying the waters of the Farm with Shiners.
Sunday the 24th we had two trips booked for 1/2 day in the AM. Scott fished with R.L. Abaray of Apopka, Florida and had an excellent day using shiners in the NW Palms of the Stick Marsh. Good friend Jerry Austin came to our assistance as one of our boats was out of commission and took Eric and Josh Engle back to the Farm and also had a fantastic day using shiners.
Tuesday the 26th Shawn Leahy worked diligently at the bass in the lay downs and stumps of the NW Palms on the Marsh and left with good memories of the Stick Marsh/Farm 13.
Wednesday we again had two trips. With help from a great friend we had the use of a boat and I took Jamie Pride's group and Scott took Mary Beth and Eddie Revis out. Working with artificial baits in just about every area I could think of the inconceivable happened. We struck out. We could not buy a bite no matter what we threw. With head hung low and tail tucked between my legs I waited to hear from Scott on his day. Things would be different with shiners however and the Revis trip, which had scheduled a 1/2-day trip, converted to full day and had great success in the SE area of the Farm. The fish came alive for the shiners.
Things would prove to be quite different for artificials on the 28th as Wayne Issacs and party worked the Farm with me. Wayne was down through Saturday and went out to learn the lake, safe navigation, and catch some bass. Working the Farm we located willing bass along several irrigation canals, however the most profitable was the N/S ditch on the west side of the Farm. We boated over 25 with fish to 5 pounds and left one that would have gone to 7-8 pounds. With the wind rising and storms pushing their way across the Farm we headed for the ramp a little early with a great day to remember. Scott continued to work the SE area of the Farm with Mary Beth and Eddie Revis. Through wind and rain Scott said that they never gave up and with the last shiner of the day Eddie was rewarded with one over 7 pounds. Wet, but happy they came back to the ramp and left with good memories of our fantastic fishery.
On the 30th Sean Lackey went with me and opted to fish with shiners. Going to a spot on the N/S ditch that I had found previously with the artificials, theirs was to be a banner day on the Farm. We did try some other areas without great results but this location was to be the one. Located about 300 yards of the north end and on the east side of the ditch we found a school of bass and a half. The average fish that came into the boat was 4 pounds and one came over the rail at 10.2 pounds. After landing something in the neighborhood of 30+ bass we headed north in the Stick Marsh and set up at the NW Palms. The fish in this area however were smaller and less willing to bite. It seems that the big fish up here have finally spawned and moved, but to be honest we didn't try too long as the day was coming to an end.
All and all, the past week has been one of pretty good trips. The barometer still has Florida in a high-pressure grip and shiners are the better bait of choice. However, if you see the barometer dropping, grab the artificial and have a go at it. It doesn't take much of a drop to turn them on. We found the rattletrap to be the best artificial bait and we found the best bites on the north end of the trails of the Farm. Particularly we found the best bite on the western ditch, and on the northern end of it. One thing I would like to mention: the areas of heavy hydrilla have yellow algae on them. This alga eats oxygen and finding fish under these areas is unlikely. However, if you fish the edges of this hydrilla you will find fish. By casting to the edges with the traps and reeling back to the boat the bass we took hit within 4-5 feet of the hydrilla in almost every instance. Another point of reference: There are 5 canals that run N/S on the Farm. The two that run closest to the rip/rap are two that I never refer to. If you go to my page: www.imaginationbassin.com, you will find an aerial view of the Farm and the ditches that are most productive are the three that run N/S and located in the center areas.
Just a final thought: the water is low so be careful out there. Don't run if you're not sure and have safe and enjoyable days fishing.
Started out Sat am in Humbug Creek water is rising fast 1.5 LM on white Yamamoto Single tail grub. Second one on same grub back in shallows on new flooded area. Then the tails fell off and nothing else. They hit Garlic. Tried Drop shot but my boat hates wind so staying on top of maked fish was tough.
After reading the latest F&G report I grabbed the Grand Daughter and hit the lake. Even though the Tin Lizzie lacks the powerful appearance of many of the big rigs rigs it have a hint of character earned only through many hrs. of stalking the elusive bass. With chest (belly) inflated i try to impress this 16 yr. old newbe as to my uncanny expertise in the art of bass fishing. I try to impress her with expainations of knot tying and the different presentations required to catch these lunkers from the depths. For some reason I stopped by Kilmers for a few minnows just in case things got tense. After about 4 hrs. without a bite I resorted to the minnows off Windy Hill. Catch of the day- 1 Crappy. So---with tounge in cheek (hers), we returned to Globe as I bragged about the many successful fishing trips to the lake in the past. Oh, by the way- just between you and I, she caught the fish! Merry Xmas and tight lines.
Fished a noon till 5:30 two small bass on cranks and my first walleye ever 2 lbs on mistic shad crank bait. Bryan
fishing was slow at least for me, another guy that i know had 2 around 2.5 lbs. I saw a 5-7 lber swimming along shore.it wouldnt bite but stopped to look at a lizzard i thru to him. I threw spinner baits , jerkbaits, lizzards, crankbaits. had 1 about 6" on a crank bait. caught a huge whitebass 4lbs on a white spinnerbait with a green trailer. had a few hits on the spinner bait also.
Delw
Date Fished: 12/15/2000 Water Temperature: 64 Water Clarity: 0 Perseverance, history of last year’s bite, and changing weather all contributed to success with artificial baits these last few days. Although the weather looks like it's going to give us another slap you should be able to get some good fishing in. Over the last three days Scott has coaxed some ready biters out of the Palms in the NW area of the Marsh with rattletraps and spinner baits. Chrome/blue traps, (1/2 ounce), retrieved with a medium retrieve so that they were bouncing off the lay downs and stumps worked as advertised in producing bass. White spinner baits with gold willows worked in the same manner and although not as productive managed several nice bass. Largest bass was an 11.5 pound female whose weight composition was a large mass of eggs. Another area that has a good school of fish spread out is the twin palms area of the Marsh. This area is located about 1/2 way across the Marsh and slightly west of center. The same baits are working in there. One that he did not try but that would probably work is a Texas rigged worm pulled over the lay down. He did observe a very knowledgeable guide working with clients and getting hit after hit on shiners on the Marsh. On the Farm Scott found several areas that produced good fish. The first was the center ditch north of the intersection. Bass came on both Carolina rigs, (light 1/4 ounce weight and short leader) using watermelon/pepper seed worms and grape 6" straight worms. Also, chrome/blue rattletraps wiggle warts, and Yozuri minnows produced bass. Bass were also located in the SW area but not deep towards the shore. Working just west of the W/center ditch and just into the stumps bass came on all of the same baits plus a white spinner bait with silver willow/gold Colorado blades. In addition Scott tried the E/center ditch well north of the intersection based on some information a previous client, Doug Glisson of Va. Beach, had passed on to me. Doug had nailed down ten good fish on spinner baits last Friday and sure enough those and more were still biting. The bass are there and the bite is there but it does take a bit of work. Although Scott's catches were good his casts were many. Also, a good deal of the bites was light and speed of hook set played an extremely important part in getting the fish to the boat. This is not a time to be sitting down, as you need to react at anything that is the least bit strange. Remember, hook sets only cost a little energy, but missed fish cause a lot of mental agony. Also remember that the next big fish could be the very next cast. Good fishing and stop and say hi when out there. To those I don't see, have a safe and happy Holiday season. PS: I have added a new page to help you with events on the Marsh in the form of fishing Log. The link to the page is on my index page. If it helps you in some small way have a better day on the Marsh than it makes it worthwhile for me to do it. George & Scott Welcome are full time guides and full time fishermen on Stick Marsh/Farm 13. Our goal is to share these fantastic areas and our love for the sport. Two boats allow us to accommodate to six people. Contact us; you will be glad you did!
When the bite is Light it is the time to be sure you have K&B onboard.
500yards from the ramp I found a 10# floating belly up with a 1/2# yellow bass lodged in its mouth. Tried reviving the bass but to no avail. Ended up catching 3, 2.5#'s dropshotting in 30-40 feet. Recently I've been doing better on the steep rocky slopes, maybe the heat conduction factor? Good luck and good fishing.
who's going to the lake tomorrow.I'm going just like every friday.I cant belive there are no fish biting. let me know what type of boat you fish from if your going.I'm fishing from a green topped ranger with a white bottom.I launch from castle creek
Delw
Lake level 20.5 ft. low. Water stained. Black bass slow to 3 lbs.... Carolina rigged Lizards (rootbeer/green) working in 12-15 ft. of water on dropoffs. Dam/Spillway and west pockets of Four Fingers areas holding active fish. Strikes very light. Slow retrieve required. White bass inactive and deep. For more info or to book a guide trip, you can contact me at CJ's Guide Service (361)786-2377 or e-mail at cjsguideservice@yahoo.com .
Hit lake at 12:00 and fished till 5:00. River,Jackass,Devils point Worms C-Rig Cranks Drop shot near trees. Nothing cold and lite wind. Cosmic looks like Verde or Salt river lakes again this winter is where we need to be fishing. Only found two small shad balls on Graph. No takers on spoons.
Got out about 8 am, cold morning. lake dead. Could not find good schools of baitfish with the depth finders, fished Humbug, and the dam with the pumps on. Tried for whites, stripers and largemouths. Used C-rigs and spoons nothing. Saw 20 other boats and not one fish caught. about normal for this lake. Cos>
Lake level 20 ft. low and rising. Water stained. Black bass fair to 3.5 lbs.. Limits hard to come by. Fish very sluggish except for brief period in the late evening. Fish keying on 1" shad. Carolina rigged Jones Bait Co. flukes (watermelonseed) and 1/4 oz. jigs (watermelonseed) with 4" pumpkinseed craws working along the dam and northern face of the spillway. Some fish active late evening on west side of four fingers. Castaic shads (threadfin)worked along edge of remaining grass getting hammered when warmer water found. Key right now is a SLOW retrieve. For more info or to book a guide trip, you can contact me at CJ's Guide Service (361)786-2377 or e-mail at cjsguideservice@yahoo.com .
Carl Wengenroth
Fished Bartlett Flats, caught 4 Lg Mouths and 1 Crappie. A bit windy, bite would turn off with the wind. Caught most fish during calm periods. Not to many of them!!!!
Fished Bartlett Flats, caught 4 Lg Mouths, and one nice Crappie, found 1 shad boil in small cove. Took 2 bass out of that, 2lbers. Caught Crappie on Trolled Crankbait CD7 in Fire Tiger.
started off in the morning at daybreak top lures did ok 3 fish the first hr.used a r-popper blue top color orange bottom slowed down next 3 hrs then put on a fat-rap tossed on the shoreline and hooked a 24.5 in 5.9lb big mouth bass .it was on a downhill slide one side of the fish had been hit real hard by an object this was the biggest bass i ever caught in az. too bad it was sick .my partner Bob B. more expierenced than i put 5 fish in the well anyone with any tips it would be greatly appreciated just e-mail me
fished rosey last week caught about 30 on rattle traps all slot fish.only had one thatwould have gone 4lbs, lots of smallies in the slot this week went to rosey on friday and sat caught about 12 all slot fish and one about 3.5 lbs. sunday went to plesant caught about 20 on rattle traps 2 were over 3lbs, then went to lizzards in 40 feet, pulled in a 6.2 2 at 5.4 and 5.7, 5 over 4lbs all caught in less than an hour on lizzards
Delw
Lake level 22 ft. low. Water stained. Black bass fair with small limits being caught. Larger fish suspended over deeper water. Main lake points and humps holding most fish. Carolina rigged flukes with crawfish flavored KickNBass and deep crankbaits with front runners doing best. Jigging spoons working on suspended fish. White bass scattered by spillway area on crankbaits. For more info or to book a guide trip, you can contact me at CJ's Guide Service (361)786-2377 or e-mail at cjsguideservice@yahoo.com .
CARL WENGENROTH
Date Fished: 10/30/2000 Water Temperature: 77 Water Clarity: 0 The wind has finally subsided down here. As Hugh's reports stated during the last week you would be at a distinct disadvantage using artificial with the winds that we have had. Scott had a trip on Monday with Tim Sirota and Mom out fishing, and 25-30 fish were caught and released to 3.5 pounds. The wind howled but using rattletraps and working in the NW area of the Stick produced a reasonably good day. Working the trolling motor in these conditions was very difficult but using the motor to control the high-speed drifts paid off. The balance of the week we got some time off after spending almost a month of non-stop go. Saturday, with body refreshed we headed out onto the Stick and proceeded to work our way to the NW area again. Working rattletraps and Texas rigged worms produced 30+ fish to 5 pounds. The weather was great, the fishing was great and the sun got hot enough to warrant some SPF 30 for protection. We also went back to the Farm for a while but the bass in the front kept calling so we headed back and finished up the day in the NW corner. Sunday's trip was a 1/2-day afternoon trip and all the bass were taken in the NW area again. Using rattletraps produced all the fish, with 25+ being boated. Conditions here will increase through November and then I would think the Farm would be the area to fish. Thanks to all who are posting reports. Would also love to see some of you people that are fishing artificial baits putting up your results. Also thanks to those that come over and say hello at the ramp area. We appreciate hearing from you.
My sons and I fished Lake Texoma again last Friday. We started out with only 1 Prune Picker Slab. It caught all of the fish. Then we lost it on a stump. No more fish after that. We charted the stripers under the birds but they didn't want our sassy shads. See the pictures at: http://www.geocities.com/metromonte
Got a late start, 7:00am. Fished near Main Marina not much there. Moved to Acacia Launch, caught 1 nice Channel Cat @ 2.5.lbs. Caught on Rappla Crank in Fire Tiger. Had a huge Bass chase my partners White Spinner all the way to the boat. It was at least a 10lber. Caught one more LgMouth on the same Rappla Crank. Only fished 4hrs. Both fish returned to the lake.
Your_name:
Date Fished: 9/26/2000 Water Temperature: 87 Water Clarity: 1 foot I waited to post this fishing report in hopes that a few of the people that fish these waters would step up and relate their experiences out here. I know that I speak for a lot of people when I ask that some of you guys that come out to the Marsh let us know what you find that is or isn't working, the areas that you fished, the baits that you tried and a general overview of how your day went. Let's share what you have learned so that others can have a good time on the Marsh! We have basically only three people reporting on the Marsh - Hugh Crumpler, Jim Porter, and myself: of course we generally do well out there. Hugh and I fish full time for a living out there and Jim gets out most afternoons. We post our reports and hope that you have a good time and a good catch with some of the information that we pass along. I would really appreciate some feedback. The fishing on the Marsh using artificial bait is still good. For us that fish the Marsh on a regular basis, the numbers spoil us and we are always looking for that 70-100 fish day, but the fact is a 30+ day catch is actually quite good in any fisherman's language. The last three weeks have found us moving around a little bit more than usual to find those bass receptive to our baits. Different baits in different areas are the order of the day, however a word of caution about how much you move around is needed. I have seen a tremendous amount of excessive running around out there. When the fishing tightens up you need to slow down and fish areas more thoroughly rather than run around and fish more area. The bass are still busting on the shad and anyone paying attention to this detail and then get themselves into the area of play have had a good payout. Soft jerk baits, rattle traps, spoons are just some of the baits that will produce when thrown into the midst of the bust. Another word of caution on this one is: don't fall into the trap of trying to chase these busts around, as you will spend all day trying to catch up. If you see this kind of activity keep working your way about in the area until the bust occurs next to you. Texas rigs have been producing bass from the edges of hydrilla along the old irrigation canals. Only use enough weight to get your bait down and be ready for a hit on the fall. Most hits will be fast with the bait being rejected quickly so be ready for that hook set. Big bass fishing is happening in the southern ends of the Marsh. Many areas are more than open enough to get in there. This area of the Marsh has everything these big guys need and although it takes a bit more work to fish this area it can be worth the entire day to get back there. Now's the time to test some of those baits you never pull out. Fish slowly and fish thorough. Work the irrigation canal edges, the south end and the scattered hydrilla areas out in the middle of nowhere. On the Stick Marsh you will also find bass holding in areas of brush. Texas rigs have been working out there. Most important, although KnB is always important on those baits, when you have tough conditions it is a must. To those that walk up and say hi, I really appreciate it. Have a great day out there, stop by and say hi, and catch a biggun.
Hit lake at 6:00am. Fished near Marina, my partner slayed them, using 4" Cream Worms split shot rigged. Caught 7 Lg Mouth. I was skunked for the 1st time in a year and half. I did have two BIG Bass on and lost them both before I could get'em in the boat. I was bummed!!! Oh well another day!!! All fish returned to the lake.
Hit lake at 6:00am. Fished near Marina, my partner slayed them, using 4" Cream Worms split shot rigged. Caught 7 Lg Mouth. I was skunked for the 1st time in a year and half. I did have two BIG Bass on and lost them both before I could get'em in the boat. I was bummed!!! Oh well another day!!! All fish returned to the lake.
Glendale Pair Wins AllStar Bass SuperTeam Championship
(Phoenix, AZ - September 19, 2000) Besting a field of 45 qualifying teams during record high temperatures up to 112, Gary Senft and Jeff Guerrette, both of Glendale, put together a two-day catch weighing 40.36 pounds to win the no-entry-fee 2000 AllStar Bass SuperTeam Championship held at Lake Pleasant on Friday and Saturday, September 15-16. The team received the keys to a 2000 Stratos 295 Pro Elite bass boat rigged with a 200 hp Johnson outboard and electric motors on a StratosTrail trailer valued at $29,000 plus $2,100 in option money.
Senft and Guerrette fished points and coves on the east side of the lake from the dam up to the Agua Fria River using buzzbaits, spinnerbaits and Carolina-rigged plastics. They caught a six-bass limit weighing 23.74 pounds on Friday anchored by the tournament's Big Fish winner - a 7.91-pounder - and another limit weighing 16.62 pounds on Saturday anchored by a 6.26-pounder. The team is sponsored by Steele Marine, Mercury Outboards and Karolina Krystals.
Second place went to the team of Steve Czerniske of Mesa and Terry Conaway of Chandler for a two-day total of 30.80 pounds. They also received the keys to a 2000 Javelin Renegade 18 bass boat rigged with a 150 hp Johnson outboard and electric motors on a trailer valued at $21,000 plus $900 in option money. The pair fished buzzbaits and jigs on mainlake points and humps to catch two limits - 14.86 pounds including a 4.66-pounder on Friday and 15.94 pounds on Saturday. Conaway is sponsored by Yamamoto Custom Baits.
Third place went to the team of Tim Gallagher of Surprise and Charlie Hendershot of Buckeye for a two-day total of 29.32 pounds. In addition to merchandise prizes, they received $750 in options. They fished Carolina-rigged lizards and ribbed worms from 10 to 30 feet on points in Cole's Bay to catch two limits - 17.90-pounds including a 5.44-pounder on Friday and 12.23 pounds on Saturday. Gallagher is sponsored by Javelin Boats, The Arizona Boat Store and Fishin' Sticks Custom Rods. Hendershot is sponsored by Fishin' Sticks Custom Rods and A Chiropractic Place.
Fourth place went to the team of Jeff Walker and Butch Kimes, both of Phoenix, for a two-day total of 28.20 pounds. In addition to merchandise prizes, they pocketed $650 in option cash. They fished buzzbaits and Carolina-rigged custom plastics in the area of the Agua Fria River and on mainlake points to catch two limits - 15.99 pounds and 12.21 pounds. Walker is sponsored by Ranger Boats, Mercury Outboards, Hill & Sons Marine, Yamamoto Custom Baits, Fisherman's Choice Pro Shop, J.W. Custom Baits and Enders Rods. Kimes is sponsored by J.W. Custom Baits, Waterdog Willy's and Del Rey's.
Fifth place went to the team of Bob Hayn of Fountain Hills and Tom Loughran of Phoenix for a two-day total of 27.31 pounds. In addition to merchandise prizes, they received $400 in option cash. They fished homemade buzzbaits and Carolina-rigged lizards shallow in the morning and deep during mid-day in the mainlake. Loughran is sponsored by Phoenix Fishing & Camping.
Rounding out the top ten teams were (6) Jon Fonville, Casa Grande, and Ben McKim, Peoria, with 26.37 pounds; (7) Matt Shura, Gilbert, and Brad Cook, Apache Junction, with 26.32 pounds; (8) Harold and Patty Chavez, Roosevelt, with 26.27 pounds; (9) Tom Kilduff, Dewey, and Chris Payne, Prescott, with 26.05 pounds; and (10) Scott Guetti and John Courtemash, both of Scottsdale, with 25.72 pounds.
The 90 contestants weighed 500 largemouth bass to 7.91 pounds, including 75 limits, totaling 923.26 pounds - a 1.85-pound average. AllStar Bass events are catch-&-release tournaments.
The 2000-2001 AllStar Bass team tournament season will begin on Saturday, October 7, at Roosevelt Lake. For more information, visit the Arizona Hunter & Angler magazine website at www.azha.com and click on the AllStar Bass icon, or call (480) 894-2775.
AllStar Bass Fishing Tournaments, Inc., is sponsored by Stratos Boats; Javelin Boats; Johnson Outboards; Evinrude Outboards; Johnson and Evinrude Electrics; Berkley Trilene; Berkley Power Baits; H & R, 1871 Firearms; New England Firearms; Plano Tackle Systems; Zebco Quantum; Bill Johnson's Big Apple Restaurants; and Arizona Hunter & Angler Magazine. The AllStar Bass team tournament circuit is the only tournament circuit in Arizona where anglers can qualify for the Stratos/Javelin World Championship Tournament.
We have been catching schooling sand bass all week long on Ray Roberts. Monday morning they were going nuts next to the outlet at the dam. Tuesday evening we found em next to the Isle Duboise ramp. Thursday morning they were out from the RV camping area. Its been real fun! Visit our website at: http://www.geocities.com/metromonte
Wife and I launched from beach at 7 pm and fished river end 'til 1 am. Caught 12-15 Largemouth using 4" power lizards and 6" curly tail worms w/KnB Garlic. Bite was shallow, from shoreline to 12'.
Fished Alamo 8/22 to 8/26. Weather did not cooperate, moonsoons rolled in Tue and Wed only got in 6hrs total for both days. Still managed to boat 12 fish both days. All slot fish, caught on Zoom 7" curly tails in MotorOil and Chart. Carolina rigged. Fishing picked up on Thur, weather cleared up a bit, still windy. Thur was a mix of plastics and Cranks. Friday was awesome Caught 3.5lbLgM. 2.0Crappie, 3.0Channel Cat. and lots of slot fish. All fish caught on Fri were caught on Crankbaits in Fire Tiger color. Great lake to fish!! All fish returned to lake!!!! Be back again in the spring!!!
Had a night tournament this past weekend. Water is way down and there is only one real boat ramp to load out at so be prepared for a wait in the evenings on the weekend (about an hour or better). Anyway, we started fishing at 6 pm and went right to a cut across from the damn. Started banging unders and slots immeditately. We were throwing mojo rigs on light line with finesse worms in june bug color. Any major points held fish. Also threw red shad culprits that did well after the moon disappeared. Red westy's were working also. We only caught one over but others did real well throwing the same baits(all on points). The club had three 10 lbers, a 9, 8, and a couple 6's thrown in to boot. Even had a 4.4 smallie weighed in. It was a great night. Hope they do something to save this lake.
had a night tourny last night.Lots of 3's and 4's where caught(by other teams) and quite a few of them caught on crank baits. seemed like the only thing i could catch was flatheads on lizzards.My 10 year old daughter caught about 12 13-15" fish on 6" blue fleck I caught 0 then on 4" , went to 6" and caught 3. was extremly windy up there.most of the big ones where caught in the main lake lastnight. Delw
Oh ya want to know what i use to lol
Blue fleck worms and lizzards 4" only,6" doesnt work very well
Delw
Delw, R u gonna help us out on your report and tell us whatt to use at Bartlett or just boast? need your help.
Prefished bartlett lastnight, caught about 20 bass between 2 of us winds were terrible and the waves were worse.5 of the fish went over 3.9lbs and 3 were at 3lbs. the rest were the standard 13" fish
Launched off the beach about 5pm since ramp is out of water. Threw jigs down rock walls near dam without any luck, so moved toward river end of lake and picked up several dinks on topwater with soft jerkbaits. The action really heated up as soon and the sun went down. I started fishing 4" lizards off of rocky points, since that was where the topwater bite was, but found most the fish on the shallow, sandy beaches between points. When I ran out of 4" lizards, baby brushhogs where the ticket. Big fish of the night was 17 lbs, unfortunately it was a flatheat catfish. All bites were solid (no tap, tap), probably because I soaked every bait in KnB garlic.
Went to Ray Roberts on Thursday trying to put my son and his friend on the sand bass but couldn't get them to bite. I keep reading all those reports that say the sandies are all over the lake but I can't find em! Well, I see them on the graph but they wont bite what I'm throwing (Chrome and Chartreuse Slabs). Visit us at http://www.geocities.com/metromonte/ and take a look at my boat I'm selling.
Fished the nite-bite again, and yep, it's tough fishing on this lake. Thought the dropping lake level may have driven them deep, so I threw carolina rigged lizards/worms on deep structure with only one decent bite. Finally started picking up fish (all under a pound) when I moved into shallow brush on the reefs and islands using 4" black/blue worm Texas rigged with 6lb test and 1/4oz sinker. Those of you who fish the tourney Saturday night need to remember where you got that tip. Actually, if the pattern for this lake hold true, you could probably leave your little black and blue worms at home for this tourney. I gotta say that almost all of my bites came immediately after dousing with KnB Garlic and the hooksets where solid. Even caught a crawdad that just refused to let go of that smelly worm! Good fishin'....
Hey Steve, I know where you're comin' from. Fished the night bite 'till 2am and didn't boat a single fish. Threw lizards, worms, brushhogs and grubs in blue, black, green and pumpkin in both shallow and deep structure. They just weren't interested. This would have been a good time to downsize to a 4" finesse bait, but I didn't get a chance. This sure is a tough lake to catch fish consistently...
went night fishing at dusk.. launched from the 4 lane ramp and fished castle creek. also tried off shore in deep water within sight of the ramp due to bad weather. most fish were spotted in 60-80 feet of water, suspended around 20-40 feet deep. I figured the approaching storm would offer some good action, but there was none. we spooned, threw cranks, worms of all colors... at least we got to watch the lightening, get rained on, and blown off the lake by high winds. word at the ramp is that others caught maybe one or two all day. :-) sb.
Date Fished: Week of 7/16/2000 Water Temperature: 89 Water Clarity: 2-3 feet
This weeks fishing has added a new challenge in the form of emerging Hydrilla everywhere in the SE area of the Farm. It is going to force you to change your baits but you don't have to change location yet. You will still be able to work a chug but by selective casting but to cover more ground a jerk bait would be a better choice. I don't think the opportunity to catch big fish could be any better than it is right now. This week we have seen seven bass over ten pounds and lots of 6-7 pound fish. For baits we have been mixing it up using chug bugs, buzz baits, jerk baits, and Carolina rigs throughout the day. Yesterday's trip we ran the gamut, but 1 nine pound fish, and 3 over ten pounds came to the boat on chug bugs.
The numbers dropped a little this week but not the quality. I had one trip with Dean Conner and son's Jason and Ben that netted 82 good size bass with another 30+ missed, but the rest of the days the number were more in the 50 range. Yesterday we caught 32 and were off the water by 12:30.
As the Hydrilla continues to fill in the Farm you will need to rely more and more on working the very top or bottom areas. Weightless jerk baits and small buzz baits work great on the upside and jigs and Texas rigs work great underneath. With the cover the fish are spreading out away from the boat trails. Top water will continue through the coming month as long as you can find open space to play it.
Always check for moving water around the pumping station. I would like to say this about the pumping station. If the area already has a a couple of boats working it go fish somewhere else for a while and move in when someone moves out. This area is small and will not support many boats. Yesterday ourselves and another boat were working the area and not just one moved in within casting distance but four others moved in. This is what I call rude, un-sportsmanlike, behavior. Needless to say, we checked out to other locations that are also holding fish, but it just amazed my people on board that these people moved in the way they did. Be considerate out there. There are a lot of fish in these lakes so don't park right next to someone else.
Another occurrence this week was vandalism in the parking area. Don't leave valuables in sight. This vandalism is a new thing here so let's hope that it was a one time occurrence. We well be watching very closely for anyone with bad intentions.
Launched at Main (Dirt) ramp @4:30pm. HOT and WINDY as all get out. Could smell rain in the air. Fished anyways. Caught one dink in Rattle Snake cove. Had to troll, wind was real bad. Fished for 2 more hours near Main Islands. Few hits on plastics, no more fish. Got blown off lake about 7:00pm went home.
Fished Lake Belton Saturday. Caught some sand bass and one largemouth. Nothing of any size though. The sandies were schooling but they were on the move. The heat chased us off the lake after a couple of hours. Man it is HOT out there! Visit our website at: http://www.geocities.com/metromonte
Date Fished: Week of 7/9/2000 Water Temperature: 89 Water Clarity: 2-3 feet Another week has sailed by with enough bass caught to make any fisherman one happy fellow. The spillway finally was closed late yesterday. This morning, at daylight, a fleet of boats arrived hoping for the flow. Although there was none, some of the shiner fishermen stuck around to catch those bass that were still hanging around. Unlike times past, the spillway did not draw the strong numbers or size of fish. There was certainly plenty to go around and any trip in the spillway area exceeded 50 fish with weights to 8 pounds, but in the past when running, one could count on over a hundred easily and weights into the double digits. The Marsh has been a training bed for my 8-year-old grandson as I had the opportunity to get him out 5 times over the last 11 days. His best trip, (4 hours), Chris caught 15 bass with one that went just under 8 pounds. In those five trips he learned to cast an open faced spinning rig, use a chug bug, and use a Carolina rig. Yesterday, in just under two hours he caught 13 on a C-rig. Several friends fished the Marsh this weekend and all had a great time. Skip Hill and son Dustin had a fantastic time and caught plenty of fish. Subman, as he is known on the Internet, was down from Georgia and also had a great time. The fish are still holding strong to the areas of hydrilla adjacent to the irrigation canals (boat trail). Of particular interest is the N/S center ditch, south of the intersection. The schools that are along this trail have been there for over 2 1/2 months and they're still biting the same baits. Top water lures and baits will get them throughout the day. We have caught them using chug bugs, buzz baits, jerk baits, rattle traps, Carolina rigged lizards, Texas rigged lizards, and floating worms. You just can't miss if you're paying attention. Bass balling the shad goes on throughout the day and if you are nearby the catching is unbelievable. Another strong area to pursue is in the open areas south of the E/W canal anywhere there is emerging Hydrilla, which means just about anywhere. Some probing will get you into schools of big fish. Today, as an example, we found a school that didn't have many fish less than 5 pounds. Most of the bass that we caught were better than five pounds. I did have on double on a chug bug with one about 3.5 and one about 3. The wind was blowing pretty stiffly and we just redrifted the same area over and over. We caught 3-5 fish on almost every drift with fish to 10 pounds. I will have some of the pictures up by Monday on my pages. If your looking for some great fishing and don't mind the heat the Stick Marsh is a blast. Water levels are up which make it easier to get around, the fish everywhere, and your chance for a big fish is pretty darn good. Good fishing!
fished a sat. night tourneyment there last night , fishing was great,we caught in excess of 75 fish and so did a few othere boats.had 2 three lber's and the rest were 13-14 inches
Launched at 4pm with light showers and solid overcast. Expected a early evening topwater bite, but it never happened. I did pick up several dinks on crankbait bite before dark, and one one a buzzbait. There was a good bite going with green spider grub in 3-10 feet, as long as I threw deep into brush. They never would come out of the brush if the cast was short. Picked up 10-12 more dinks using this pattern. Finally started picking up 3-4 pounders on Junebug lizards in 15-25 feet off points. Caught and released 26 bass by 6am. I'm told this is average for Alamo, but it was one of the best nights I've had. The best hooksets always came after dousing with KnB Garlic, although I never got a chance to try Craw.
Went with Larry White, KNB Pro-staffer for a couple of hours in the AM. Got small 1# fish up shallow on spinnerbaits. Tried top water and got a few, tried football heads and got a few, they wanted spinnerbaits. Nothing big (2#) but lots of small fish. Nothing fancy, silver willow leaf with silver skirts, white skirts and green skirts. water is rising and ramp was in the water. C<
Headed up to the Powell 4-14 hit water sat morning around 10:00 am fished near Pump intake area with anchovies. 2 stripers by 11:00. Moved down to Pump intake and sprayed anchovie with Gralic KNB just to add some sent as we had 15-20 boats in area. 1:30 till 4:30 we land 25 stripers in our boat and the other boats landed any where from 15-22 fish per boat. Man nothing like a striper fedding frenzy to get your heat pumping. 3.4# was biggest we caught. Nick 8 fish Maria 6 fish Not bad for 6 year old Dad 7 fish and biggest 1 Mom 3 well its about time mom gets the treatment she has been handing out the last 3 trips. Bryan.
Fished the northern coves for White Bass and Crappie Friday night under lights. Consistent bite on minnows with about 15-20 Whites and about 10 Crappie. Stayed through Saturday morning to fish topwater bite, picking up 6-8 Largemouth using Bass Assassins and Shad colored cranks. Highlight of the day was sight-fishing for 3lb buck that finally hit a pumpkinseed Power Lizard after about 45 minutes of coaxing with about a dozen other plastics. It's a great time to be fishing!
Kick-N-Bass does it again!!!!!
Launched this AM at first light and I fished until 12:00. Not many people fishing Garcia these days but I sure don't know why. The bedding areas in the rear northeast impoundments are holding large numbers of bass with the average being 2-3 pounds. Texas rigs using a 1/8-ounce weight will get you a bass from the lily pads with almost every cast. The top water bite wasn't there but the worm action was great. I caught over 50 bass back there.
I decided to go out and check some other areas, so I headed west. I started fishing a grass line 3 impoundments over. In years past this area had some beds, so I wanted to give it a look and see what would happen. As I headed north along this line, I noticed some baitfish racing along the surface to my right so I flipped the worm ahead of them. It no sooner hit the water than I got slammed but I couldn't be sure if it was a bass or a mudfish. This fish took off in an arc headed for the grass line and had the drag screaming. I didn't know what was out there but I sure couldn't get it to turn. I was able to keep it out of the grass by using the trolling motor and by this time I was almost convinced that I had either a large mudfish, or even possibly a small gator. Whatever it was it just didn't want to tire out. The trolling motor finally did the trick however and I was finally able to get some line back on the reel. I fully expected to see a big mud, or a gator, but to my absolute delight a mouth big enough to swallow a football finally came out of the water, followed by a body that was thrashing for all it was worth. By this time the bass was so tired it could barely shake it's head and I had it along side the boat. Lifting her into the boat I couldn't believe the fight I had just had. 12 pounds 5 ounces of sheer muscle glared back at me as I weighed her. I had to travel into the next impoundment to get a picture and will have the picture up on my site: www.imaginationbassin.com later on.
Moving back to the same area after I released that gallant lady back into the water I continued on my path. Not ten minutes later I feel a tug and set the hook. Again the line screams off the reel and again this fish races for the grass. I remember thinking to myself that this felt like the same fish. She passed the boat on her run and veered back out into the open water. Two spectacular leaps confirmed another big bass was yanking on my arms as I played her to the boat. A few minutes later she tipped the scale at 11 pounds 8 ounces. Again I had to make a dash to find another boater to get the picture. Releasing this one back into the water I decided that I just couldn't do any better and headed back to the ramp.
I have fished Garcia for a long time and have, on occasion, gotten a big fish. One 13 pounds 3 ounces came my way 3 years ago and some between 8 and 10 since then, but never have I gotten two lunkers, in here, back to back.
To say this fishery is healthy would be an understatement. The water is clean enough to see the bottom in most places and the hydrilla is growing like crazy. In the Pit area the hydrilla is taking over. Most of the front impoundments have plenty of hydrilla and pads and by May should have plenty of fish. This water is a great top water fishery and I can't wait for that to happen. If you're looking for a scenic, healthy fishery, give Ansin/Garcia a try. Located on route 512, it is 1.7 miles above route 60 in West Vero, or about 10 miles outside of Fellsmere.
I never thought I'd say it but this lake has been the hottest thing going for me this season. I caught 20 fish between 6am and 8:30am on soft jerk bait...a fun bite! Most casts were either catches, short strikes, or followers. Numerous fish in the high 2#'s and a few right at 3# but nothing bigger!
Spent day with wife and caught 9 fish (largemouth, smallmouth, and crappie). Overall was disappointed in that given the conditions and season. When pulling out at the launch, however, people were claiming to be getting skunked and maybe a fish or two. So, I guess it was better than thought. 4" spit-shot power worms did it for me...my wife briefly fished minnows for the crappie.
Went with my good buddy Mike Burkhart. Got their Wed am about 7:30, clear blue skies and the "You should have been here last year" blues. Barometer must have been about 31, skies were clear and sunny. We tried spinner-baits in the am but no good. Got on a bite in 10 feet by downsize-ing to a 3 inch grub. In retrospect we should have tried flipping. It was a tough two days, lost one jumper that would have gone 4 pounds.
The hot bite was the crappie. the guys were hitting them in the day and killing them at night. I heard there were 2 pound fish and lots of them. We saw guys catching them all day long. Water had dropped about 6-10 below normal low pool, so the good old water corp is screwing up the spawn again. this may even be good if the fish didn't get off a good spawn because the lake is filled with dinks. Did not see any beds, saw fish up shallow but didn't flip to them. Had a good time just not a lot of fish. Lake is ready to bust loose any day now. C>
Windy and overcast, no luck on bass. Did manage to catch 3 huge Crappies, used 1/8oz White Grubs. Should have waited until Sunday, weather was much better.
Fished west and east banks of Humbug all afternoon w/lizards, worms, buzzbait without a bite. Very windy when front passed through so I went to fish some of the sheltered coves in Castle Creek as light rain started falling. Awesome topwater bite turned on about 5:30 to dark with a strike every 3-5 casts fishing an albino Bass Assasin VERY slow. Most were small bucks between 1-2 pounds. Hooksets were fairly simple with the garlic KNB because they just held onto the bait until I was ready to set the hook.
Lauched boat out of Cottonwood at 8:30 a.m.Ran to south end of the lake.First cove caught a 4 pounder on a Anglers technologies 1/2 oz. spinnerbait(red shad),caught 2 fish on a brown jig with purple super pork covered in kicknbass,a 2 1/2 & 3 3/4.Caught a 2 1/4 on a 4 inch robo worm,covered in kicknbass,(Aaron's magic)1/4 oz.pea head hook.Left lake at noon.Saw lots of fish in the shallows around Cottonwood Marina.Lots of fish on beds.Big fish!!Good luck!
Water Temperature: 74 Water Clarity: 1 foot
Fishing this last week on the Marsh has been very good with a couple of exceptions. One day we launched and then realized we were out of K&B on the boat and thats like leaving home without your tackle: We rectified that the following day! Thursday the wind got extreme and made things quite difficult and today there was a considerable case of close-mouth out there.
Fish are moving back out into the boat trails of the Farm and Carolina-rigs and fast moving crankbaits are just the ticket to get them into your boat. Schools are generally large so if you find a fish be sure to work the area thoroughly. Settle down and fish the area with dedicated effort and you will be definitely rewarded.
Run-and-gun techniques will ensure you a most unsuccessful day on this area. Find the fish, stay put, and don't leave until you are sure there are no more to be caught there. Also, when the bite slows down, don't be in a hurry to move as another school could be meandering over to see what all the ruckus is about. I have many spots out here that we stay on and don't move from until it's time to head in.
When using the Carolina rig I cannot emphasize the word slow, strong enough. This bait is moved by either dragging the rod sideways or by dragging the bait with an upward sweep of the rod. If you are cranking the reel to move this bait you are moving it too fast. If moving the boat with the trolling motor, pick up the bait and recast when it gets towards the rear of the boat. If you find fish don't be afraid to drop anchor to fish the are completely.
When using a rattletrap or crank bait you will hook hydrilla and if you are not you are fishing it in the wrong place or holding it up. Most often the strike will occur as you pull it through a heavy area of hydrilla. The strike is shocking as the lure will stop dead. Good fishing and be careful out there. IMPORTANT: DON'T LEAVE HOME WITHOUT THE Kick-n-Bass:
We are coming into our thunderstorm season. If you see lightening or hear thunder get off the lake. Ground strikes are as common as the bass in Florida and you don't want to ruin an otherwise perfect trip by having your ears singed.
Visited my childhood buddy who I haven't seen in 30 years, Jimmy the Fizz. What a trip. Got up about 4 am and we were on the lake at first light. Fished all day long. Oaca is only about 5 feed deep and just one big grass mat and weeds, weeds, and some more weeds. There are about 10 different types from lilly pads to buggy whips and everything inbetween. I got first fish on a spinnerbait and then Jimmy left me in the dust with a topwater bite. Big fish,,5 and 6 pound plus fish. We had a ball at sunset with three fish on three casts that must have weighted 15 pounds total. Then it was doubles nad more and more hogs until sunset. We went back the next day and got about half the number of fish, front had moved through. Got the big fish of the day on a a 4 inch plastic with KNB craw, 6 pound fish on 10 poound test line in eel grass and hydrilla. Lots of excitement. we had 5 fish limts that would have wnet 20 plus pounds with no problem. thanks Jim for a great time. Cosmic<
Started early in Goosebay with topwater, but not a single strike. Water was at least 4 degrees colder than it was Monday morning. Went to Castle Creek to flip a Yamamoto grub down the cliffs. Picked up one healthy 3lb Largemouth on the drop. That was it for the day and I didn't see anyone else catch anything.
Hit the lake at 7am, started trolling with crank baits. Rappla Count Down in Trout pattern. Fished for 15 minutes I catch a 3+lb Small Mouth just off the bouy closest to the Dolly. Great fight for a 3lber. Finally landed him. Put him in the Creel. Fished the rest of the day without a bite. About 3pm. talked to a couple of Pros, fishing a tourny. They gave us a couple of tips. (Thanks to the guys in the Blue Pro Craft) We went to where they told us to try and used what they suggested and wham my partner gets his only fish of the day. A nice LG Mouth. Lots of traffic on the lake. Was a little to rough for my 12ft Alum. We decided to call it a day. We did see some nice catches of bass being weighed in for the Tourny. To many crazies on the lake. Will try weekdays a bit less crowded.
Family and I fished Rosy for 4 days and had a blast. 19 fish 3 crappie rest bass most unders. 2 overs 1 2.5 and 1 3.5 son nailed on minnow in howling wind storm. As normal 4-8 pm wind was up. Pumpkin seed worms and lizards soaked in Garlic worked for most fish.
Went fishing after work.Launched at Hemmingway.Fished cove next to Lake Mead Marina.Caught 4 bass 1 1/2 to 3 pounds.6 inch robo worm (Aaron's magic)covered in kicknbass.Lots of bedding fish!Only fished from 2:30 pm to 5:30 pm
Team azbasspro had a blast at rosy although the wind was blowin' we were catching. check out our full report at azbasspro.com team azbasspro uses kicknbass attractant
Fished around Cottonwood Cove.Found lots of BIG bass moving shallow.Fish very spooky.Made long cast with brown J.R. jig & brown super pork (tadpole)smeared with kicknbass.Caugh 4 fish 1st day(3 1/2 to 5 1/4)2nd day 6 fish (2 to 4 1/4) 3rd day 1 fish (4#)caught by my 10 year old son.GOOD LUCK!!
went with a friend hooked 1 bass
Got a late start,11:00am.Didn't do much good till later in the afternoon,bass were on a crawfish pattern,shad patterns didn't work,10 to 20 ft.and a really slow retrieve with 4in. finesse worms splitshotted or on a jig head.Color in pumpkin/green/greenweenie worked the best,we ended up with 12 bass,nothing big.We talked to a lot of skunked fishermen at the ramp so we felt better after all,it was a great day on the lake.
went fishing for a couple of hours prior to the storm i had just received my Kick'n Bass i caught four fish on a black and blue strike king jig with a Rick Clunn plastic craw trailer in 5 to 8ft of water flipping the cattails i used my new KB scent i don't think that made them bite but it did make them hold on to the bait.the bite was so soft i didn't feel any of them hit they just swam away with it and with the wind blowing i needed the extra time.i just have to say i've found my new scent KICK'N BASS KICKS @#%.JOEBASSMAN NEW CUSTOMER
launched from take off point just north of Parker Dam we mostly fish north coves we caught 7 fish one of them a dink that had marks from a striper or cat fish six of the fish were 3 to 3/12 pounds five were caught on 6in power lizards in blue fleck in 10 to 15ft. of water and one came on a fat free shad in 18 to 20ft. of water the depth i was fishing in was 47ft i use 10 pound test on my crank bait rod to get the bait as deep as possible then slowed the retreive i also had a 4 pounder come off at the boat on the crank bait.no scent was used but as soon as my order comes in from Kick'n Bass that'll change.
today was a pretty good day we launched from Take Off Point just north of Parker Dam we mainly fished the north side coves we caught 7 fish one dink that had wounds from either striper or cat fish 6 fish were between 3 and 3 1/2 pounds so for this lake not a bad day.five fish came on a 6in. blue fleck power lizard and one on a fat free shad in 47ft. of water i think the key was 10 pound Stren it allowed the bait to get down to 18 ft were i slowed the retreive i also had one about 4 pounds come off at the boat on the crank bait.no scent was used but as soon as my order for Kick'n Bass comes in that'll all change.Email me if coming to Lake Havasu or the Parker Strip i'm the best free guide in town.
TEAM AZBASSPRO FISHED THE ALL ALUMINUM TOURN. AT ROSY AND FINISHED IN THE MONEY. TUNE INTO AZBASSPRO.COM WEBSITE FOR MORE INFORMATION AND UPDATES OF YOUR FAVORITE FISHING HOLES FROM THE ARIZONA FISHING EXPERTS.
launched from site six on the island and fished west side of the lake caught 3 fish 2 came from fish habitat in 15 ft. of water 1 came from a secondary point on a carolina rigged zoom lizard i saw the makings of a bed but not occupied i think the unstable weather pushed the fish to suspend.if heading to Lake Havasu send me Email and i can give you lake and river reports for Lake Havasu and the Parker strip also always looking for fishing partners i fish solo often.JOEBASSMAN
Thur. was a bust, wind blew like a tornado. Could only keep boat on lake for 30 minutes. Did catch one bass on Shad Rap. Fri. not much better wind still blowing like crazy. Fished hard all day no luck. Sat. warmed up some. Fishing started to pick up, caught 6 bass and 2 crappie. Sun. still warmer yet, caught 5 more bass, no big ones all in the slot. Stayed for Mon morning fish, didnt even launch the boat, colder and windy again. All in all a great weekend. Give it about 1 more month and things will really heat up. Practice Catch and Release.
Wind and stumps have made for very hazardous conditions for both fishermen and their equipment this week on these waters. Conditions on the Stick Marsh have proven this with trolling motors being snapped off boats and fishermen being thrown into the water as boats encountered stumps and came to a quick halt. Large fish holding in the stump fields in the extreme SW corner of the farm have drawn huge crowds of both artificial bait fishermen and shiner fishing. The mornings have been somewhat calm but within short order the winds have picked up and kicked in excess of 18 miles an hour making conditions tough back there. These conditions are expected through this weekend with a break coming next week, however east winds are part of the diet at this time of the year.
Fish in the SW corner are holding tight to the stumps and if you put the bait on target a good size fish will be your reward. Texas rigged worms using either no weight or 1/8 oz of lead are the baits of choice. Some early AM top water occurs but backs off quickly after the sun is up. Some of the fish that were deep in the SW corner are moving back out into the farm and rattletraps worked along the hydrilla banks and around the stumps and trees will get you results. Fish are also being found on the boat trails but fishing them has been difficult with the winds.
The NW area of the Stick Marsh still has fish and rattletraps ticking the brush on the bottom will encourage a bite here and there. Not the heavy hitting conditions of a couple of weeks ago but still some nice fish can be had in this area. The pump has been running a couple of days this week but the usual draw of large schools of fish did not accompany the pumping. We did get fish, but sporadically, and most were small. Yesterday some nice fish were taken on shiners at the spillway area by a friend, which shows this to be an area to always check out.
Be careful out there, don’t be bashful about trying different baits as many different things are working right now, and have great time fishing.
Bartlett Lake was as good as I have ever experienced it. From the first cast until the storm hit on Sunday we caught fish. Fish were on the edge of channels in 20’ to 25’. We used 4” Saturn Assault Worms in June Bug and Mocha Pepper with Crawdad Kick’n Bass scent. Tried some other baits made by Jerry’s Tournament Tackle at Lake Havasu (Saturn Assault Worms in Watermelon Black Copper MF and Watermelon Pepper also their Assault Duz-its (tube baits) in Mocha Pepper) with garlic KB with good success. The company makes one of the best softbaits I have used and KB always seems to help.
Good Fish’n
Left 10 lane at 09:00 fished islands in JACKASS and then shore line of HUMBUG plus SATAN's point. Two bumps wife caught small one in JACKASS. Used worms and lizards both Garlic and Craw. Left lake at 13:30 cold.
Dates Fished: 2/12-13/2000 Water Temperatures: 64-67Water Clarity: 1 foot
This weekends fishing was fair to good with fish moving and scattering about. Saturdays fishing found most fish located to be in the east-west boat trail mostly west of the intersection: Carolina rigged black/blue crawdads seemed bait of choice and netted us 25 fish. The parking area was busy as is usual for the weekend, but there is some increase with the crappie fishing being as well as it is. Largest fish of the day was about 4.5 lbs.
Sunday I arrived early in anticipation of what would be probably the busiest day I have ever seen on the Marsh. My clients did not arrive until 8:30 and I watched boats launch from both sides of the ramp from 5:30 till 8:30 in a steady stream. However, as has been the case for the last three weeks, most of these fishermen were out seeking crappie. The only concentration of bass fishermen seemed to be in the SW corner of Farm 13.
Again we found fish holding in the hydrilla of the levees of the east-west canal. One decent 5-pound fish came from the trail just north of the intersection. We fished the NW area of Stick Marsh in the afternoon and caught several more with an adrenalin building 10 plus pound fish breaking himself off in the brush.
The weather is improving rapidly here and I would expect the fishing would become dynamic as the bass go to bed. Be careful out here and have great day fishing on the Stick Marsh/Farm 13.
Date Fished: 2/8/2000 Water Temperature: 60 Water Clarity: 0
I would have gotten this report in for Tuesday's trip sooner but I had to first recover from the unending laughter and good times that I had. Two youngsters, (they both swore they were 35), arrived from The mountain area of NC, with what I believe was the express purpose of making my sides hurt so bad that I would not be able to fish. From the moment we met at the ramp and throughout the day their banter, tales, and jokes kept me in stitches. I would really like to give out their names with a caution label attached: Beware, a day fishing with these guys might render you incapable of doing anything other than rolling about the decks. Thanks guys for the great time and memories.
We found fish holding tight to brush and timber in the NW, which has been the pattern for the last three weeks. Chrome/blue rattletraps ticked off the cover would kick the bass loose. With the warming weather things should get strong back in the Farm again. Look for bass holding in the boat trails and the adjacent hydrilla. Spinner baits, Carolina rigs, and rattletraps are all good choices of baits.
Submitted by Sam & Mac (ip 205.188.196.48) Date Fished: 2/8/2000 Water Temperature: 60 Water Clarity: 2-3 feet
Not knowing squat about this lake, Mac & Sam made a great decision by hiring George Welcome, 'Imagination Bassin', to show us around these lakes. Despite a cold front, less than ideal conditions, and spending a lot of time getting great navigational info, we managed at least 40 bass just speed fishing R-traps.
The next day we went back to where George suggested and caught 35, while fishing in a 20-knot wind and dropping water temps. This included one 11-9 weighed on Berkley scale (30" long X20"), and lost one more just as big at the boat while having to fish anchored because of the wind. Many thanks to George for helping us navigate without tearing up any equipment, and especially for his great fishing instructions
Launched boat @0745 headed for Humbug cove...fished c-rigs, Jigs, spinners, & even live minnows ( all with Kickn bass garlic ) with only one good bite and none boated. Moved to coals bay around 1100 using same rigs with no resulsts.Went back to honey moon cove tried same rigs added some water dogs no luck not a bite. Called it a fishing day and will try back again. Hope you all boat the limit and remmember fishing is better than work...
Launched boat at Davis Wash, about 8:30am. Trolled into next cove, I catch the biggest Smallmouth Bass of my life fished for 2 hrs nothing else. Loaded boat and move to Burnt Corral. My buddy picks up a 1.5 LgM. about 10 minutes later bam I catch another SmM. almost as large as the first one. I decided to keep them and weigh them in at Kilmers Country Store in Globe. Wow was I suprised, the first one weighs in at 5.0lbs and the other one weighs in at 4.25lbs I dont think I will ever top this day on Apache. BBQed them for Superbowl, they were quite tasty.
We got on the water at about 8:00 am on both days boated around 25 bass and one crappie about a 2 1/2 lber!!! the bass were 1lb. to 4lbs. used 1 1/2in paddletails, pruple lizard,blueflick power worm,and crankbaits. The weather and fishing was great.
fish the first cove on the left side of the 10 lane launch ramp. Caught about 15 keeper Largemouths dropshotting a 4 inch mohave oxblood Anglers Choice straight tail worm.Then went to te back of Coles Creek about half way back on the left hand side, around the island, Used the same rig. Caught alot of dinks & 5 small keeper bass. Caught some on a TD minnow too.Also caught fish on 4 inch curly tail pumpkin & camo powerworms. I hope this will help someone out! I read some of the earlier reports and they really helped me out.Thank you for the honest report! Jessie
Fished the Lawman Club tournament today out of the 4-lane boat ramp. At least four clubs had tournaments at Pleasant today, so it was a little crowded at times. Still, it was much more pleasant with this crowd than the skiers and recreational boaters that will appear in about two months. Fishing was tough for us today, with only 2 lbs weighed. We spent most of our time in Coles Bay in 20-25 feet of water using worms and lizards. There seemed to be a consistent bite going, but it was very light and my partner and I just couldn't seem to get good hooksets. Several other anglers near us caught their limit using similiar baits while doodling and throwing Texas rigs. The top weight for our club was about 10.5 and I think all those fish were deep, as in 60+. If you're interested in fishing with a small, friendly club here in the Phoenix area, just send me an e-mail and I'll get you more info.
Travis is my son, he had been in Bosnia for almost a year, he is in the Army. He came home for Christmas Vac. Hadnt fished in over a year, I took him to the Lake at our Apt. On the first cast, with a Shad Rap. Nailed an 8lb bass. Two more casts and he pulls in a 5+lb bass. I was amazed. I have fished this lake for 1yr. Caught lots of 3 and 4lb bass but nothing like this. I was so happy he did well while he was here. Oh yea, caught them in front of his daughter, whom he hadnt seen in a year, what a Kodak moment. Practiced Catch and Release.
Air Temps: 50-70 Water Temps: 64 Mostly Windy conditions Water Clarity: Less than 1 foot
It will probably take me a week to get the wind out of my ears after spending 5 days at the Marsh. Friday's trip was delayed and then cancelled as the winds blew 30 to 35 MPH with gusts to over 40. The Marsh more resembled the ocean then a backwater pond of inland Florida. A few hearty souls did fish it wherever they could get some protection but the reports were of little success. Two veterans of the Marsh, working from a 20' Stratos, did report seeing a 14' Jon boat out on the Marsh at 5:30. Not a good place to be in these conditions, and hopefully they got back with just a soaking and no other disaster occurred. Saturday started out with a strong breeze with the wind steadily increasing. 20 to 25 MPH winds kept us fishing along the palms in the Marsh. Had a great time with Mike A. and friend Randy although only one fish was caught and it was not by me. The Marsh stung me that day sinking its stinger as deep as it possibly could. Sunday found conditions greatly improved as we launched and the promise of a good day was in the cold early AM air. The boat trails on the Farm held little for our proffered baits so I headed to the South end, and find fish we did. Sixty-three to be exact with all but a couple coming on rattletraps entertained us with their leaps and antics. We got plenty of practice in the art form of lure retrieval, as the trick was to have the bait banging off the bottom hitting the sticks and hydrilla as it was retrieved. Monday's trip was good however the fish had moved from Sunday's area and the search was done all over again. We found them moving out into the boat trails with some really nice fish taken on Carolina rigged worms etc. Tuesday AM started with a fog bank engulfing the Farm but using the GPS we were able to fish the N/S boat trail and put fish into the boat. As the fog bank lifted along came the wind. Again we went to the South end working our way along the south shore through the stumps and trees. Several nice bass were caught using Sunday's pattern plus two good size pickerel and one large mudfish. With the wind coming from the west we moved to the Stick Marsh and went to work with crank baits and rattle traps. Fish have moved to the front end of the Marsh and as previous reports have stated good fish can be found by banging the bottom and its associated cover. Fish were caught as the lure struck the cover and it seemed that you were caught on the cover only to find a nice fish when you moved up to retrieve the lure. Although some of the banner days we have on the Marsh/Farm didn't happen through the windy frontal passages of the last few days, fishing continued to be good once you got on them. It will be a long time before I forget the sting of the Marsh on Saturday but hey, I was out fishing.
We hit the lake at the crack of dawn and started in Butcher Jones. I picked up 1 nice 17 incher on a spinnerbait, real fat and healthy. Never spotted any fish on the graph, but went to mindlessly beating the banks. We noticed the one fish had puked up some crawdad, so stayed with worms and bottom bumpers. Finally at the very end of the day, we spotted a large concentration of fish in the main lake, but it was too late by then for us. It was a great day, light boat traffic, and good weather. I can honestly say I got a lot of casting practice in. By observing the make-up of this lake, when the spawn comes, this will be a fantastic lake. Good Luck.
Fished the lake both days with different results. On both days fished with new plastic lures made by a company called Jerry's Best out of Spokane, Washington. On Sunday we caught some quality fish on c-rigs, texas rigs and split shotting. The fish ran up to 4# range. The baits themselves were very impressive and I used KB garlic on them. If you'd like the 800 number of the company email me. Fish came from 2' to 15' and very aggressive when they bite. Monday fished deeper (25'-50') caught a lot of small fish using the same rigs and baits. They didn't jump in the boat but the bite was fairly steady for this time of the year.
Weather: sunny. calm, afternoon lite breeze, 74 Hi
Launched at Castle 11:30 am and went to cove off ent. to AUGRA FRIA arm. Graphed fish on bottom on edges of creek channel in 25-35'. Picked up 4 Lg. Mouth 1st hour on this pattern using "WACKY WORM". The bite stoped about 1:00. Tried deeper and shallower for 2 more hrs but only got a couple bumps. I was dousing my worms with Kick'nBass garlic. Three bass were in the 2.5# range and one was a dink. If you fish Lk. Pleasant during week write me a E-Mail
Left 10 am out of 10 lane after talking to a few WON guys looking for the ALLSTAR weigh-in time. Tried Castle Creek off big flat in entrance marked many fish nothing but small one for wife on minnows. Moved to Deivl's point worked drop off there for a while using 4" worms and lizards with both Craw and Garlic. I left a few on the trees. Will try again this week. Bryan
10 + FISH LARGEST 5 LBS IN 6 HOURS MOST WERE IN THE 2 TO THREE POUND RANGE
Several tournaments on the lake today, so we got a late start out of the 4-lane ramp. Fished main lake points in 25-40 feet with Carolina Rigged worms and lizards, but no success. Moved into back of coves and watched several anglers limit out using worms on split-shot or Texas Rig in 15-25 feet on flats. It took us almost an hour to get the presentation and color right, then we got hooked on the first cast. Hey Greg, if you've been out to Pleasant recently let me know what's worked for you (or didn't). Today is was a 4" curly tail worm in motor oil. Actually, it started life as a 7" worm, but I pinched several inches. Of course, with this lake it will be watermelon, punkinseed, black, ect., if you wait till tomorrow. Kick n Bass, garlic or crawdad, just didn't seem to make a difference today.
Got to lake about 10:30 am and worked Castle Creek with jigs. My partner got hit once and I never got a bite. Most fish were suspended playing hard to get. Went to Pauls cove at noon and we worked worms, lizards and jigs but come up empty again. We took my partners alum. boat because it works great for trolling so thats what we decided to do. Headed into Coles Wash towars back bay and trolled Rattle traps in 30' of water and started catching white bass that were suspended at 15 - 20'. Trolling traps coated with Kink'n Bass SUPER Garlic made our afternoon.
Water Temperature = 60 Water Clarity = 0
As the Holiday week wound down to the New Year's countdown fishing on the Marsh slowly worked its way back. Conditions through the middle of the week and into Saturday continued to be difficult but persistence paid off. Fishing was best throughout the week using shiners with some good size bass as the payoff. Temperatures have returned to more the normal range as the weekend neared and Sunday the bass finally started cooperating a little better. For those that traveled to fish the Marsh this Holiday week they got to see the Marsh at a period when it can be very frustrating. Fish would pick up a shiner, mouth it and spit it back out. The bass exceeded the word finicky. Typical catches ranged from 5 - 20 bass but with the weather improving each day you can look to improvements there. Sunday's trip yielded 30 bass with only one undersized and typical 3-5 lb. range. They were aggressive and full of fight and the catch was spread throughout the day. Carolina rigged crawdads and lizards with chartreuse seemed bait of choice with rattle traps accounting for a few. Pump house boat trail on the Farm seemed to be the area on the Farm and the Palms on the Stick Marsh was producing for shiner fishing. I would look for substantial improvement this week as activity returns to normal for this time of year. Hope everyone had a safe and happy Holiday Season.
Tried cranks early with nothing happening. They weren't chasing anything on this day. Went to Texas rig worms and jig with KB Garlic and that was the ticket. Caught a couple on KB Craw but they wanted the garlic. Had a great day and caught a lot of fish even though most were small.
Have a great 2000.
Fished lake both days trying different locations and different lures . Caught Stripers, White Bass and Largemouths both days. Used spoons, c-rig, jerkbaits,crankbaits, jigs and Texas rigged worms. Caught fish on all, but the fish were not jumping in the boat. Used KB Garlic on everything except jigs where I used Craw. Slow down the presentation and be patient. Seems the shallower I catch fish the larger they are.
I know I increased my catch by using KB.
Good luck!!
Got to the lake about 11:ooam.tried the 4way area close to the 10 lane ramp,did'nt have any luck so we went to Jackass Cove,same there,tried Fish Cove and no luck.I was sure the weather had shut down what little bite there had been when a couple of guys came up in a Skeeter and asked if we had a needle,they had a good fish but were having trouble releasing her,we did and as they pulled her out of the live well,the guy said he'd give her another try before we stuck her and luckily she swam off on her own and did'nt resurface,she was a 10#plus fish,so there went my cold front theory.We tried one other spot before we left and I caught one dink.We ran into friends as we were leaving that said they had caught 7,but all early in the day,the biggest being 3#. It was good to see a bass like the one those guys in the Skeeter had,also seeing them release her unharmed was great.
Went by myself and launched at Castle Creek about 9:30 AM. Graphed alot of fish both suspended and close to bottom on on steep point dropoffs into channel. I was targeting fish on bottom using carolina 4" lizards and shaking a finnese off the bottom. Picked up one small LM bass on lizard and got broke off by larger fish in brush. After lunch moved up to the bluffs by elevation sign and worked same thing in water from 20' to 60'. Caught two nice bass "deep" on pumkin/green 4" lizard. My lizards and finnese worms were marinated in Kick'n Bass Garlic which has been my favorite for AZ. resivors.
I got to the lake about 10am.started on main lake in about 30,to 35ft.with C.R. and 4in.lizard,tried several spots but could'nt get bit.Moved to fish cove and went to a handpoured jigworm and caught 4 in 20+ft.they were all pretty small,I graphed a lot of fish,but I guess they were'nt active enough.Still a good day on the lake,only two jetski sitings and no waterskiers.I Love Winter!!!
Left 4-lane ramp at sunrise and headed to Cole's Bay to check out the flooded brush. Threw some topwater and crankbaits for about 45 minutes, but no bites and very few fish seen on the graph. Then tried to worm the shoreline where Agua Fria and Humbug converge, but a strong, steady wind forced us to switch to crankbaits and drift the shoreline. Used shad colored deep-diving with no success, which wasn't too much of a surprise since very few fish were suspended. We consistently graphed large numbers of fish in deep channels and drop-offs (40-60ft) in both Humbug and Castle Creek, as well as off main lake points. Tried spooning and jigging but had a real tough time with the wind and waves. Left the lake about 2pm with a bone dry livewell. Gonna try again Friday after I get some 1 oz. jig heads....
The trip started when I got up at first light, about 7:30. I got to the lake about 11:00. It was really breezy all day, no gusts, just a steady strong breeze. We spent a while just driving around the north end and graphing. One very obvious observation was that fish were plentiful on the graph from 25-40 ft. Also they were hanging on steep drop-offs mostly at the mouths of coves as well as underwater cliff type structure and hanging in real close to it. We tryed everything that would get down to that depth, quickly, since the wind kept us moving quickly. I finally hit three small fish in the late afternoon when the wind calmed down a little, on a 4" worm with a 3/8's weight in about 25 ft. of water in Humbug Creek. These fish were also on banks that dropped off sharply to deep water and the river channel bottom. All were caught with KNB crawfish dipped each cast. I think that on a calmer day that you can hold boat position deeply fished rubber worms are the way to go, fished very slowly, and set the hook on anything that feels different. Other fisherman reported to me about the same as what I had experienced. I was surprised at the number of boats on the water, there must have been a tournament going on. Good Luck, try the crawfish, it seems to be working better than the garlic.
Just got to fish for about two hours from the 2nd dock. I fished with my friend Big Dan. He went for trout with chartruesse powerbait. Caught about a 13 incher. Then I had a pole out for trout/catfish with an inflated nightcrawler with BaitMate attractant. Last 15 minutes I jigged a small 1/8 oz spoon under the dock with Kick n' Bass. Hooked a three pound Largemouth Bass. Took off out towards the middle and dove under the line with the nightcrawler. While I was getting the rod under the nightcrawler rod, got just a little slack and the fish spit it out. Nothing else besides that.
Alex-----<* ((( ><
Fished Castle Creek flats and dropoffs during afternoon with C-R lizards and worms without a single bite. Moved to main lake points on west shore while looking for schools of baitfish. Couldn't locate the bite or the baitfish. Even the KNB didn't work today. Beautiful afternoon, but sure wish a few low pressure troughs would roll through. By the way, does anyone have a soap or cleanser that will remove the stubborn KNB Garlic from my hands. It lasts for days. Yea, I know I'm suppose to put it on the lure, but I'm all thumbs and always end up with it all over the place. If you have any hints, please pass them my way. Oh yeah, a few hints that will help me figure out this lake would also be appreciated....
We started about 8:30 am.where Humbug and the Agua Fria meet,picked up 2 dinks with a C.R.lizard,nothing much going on there so we moved to fish cove,picked up a couple more on the same rig,all were small.We did'nt try any hard baits,but did try everything else.It was a really nice day with only one obnoxious waterskier and NO jet ski's,hardly anyone fishing so all in all a great day.
The reports coming in continue to show that the fishing at the Stick Marsh is still absolutely dynamic. Water temperatures in the upper 60’s to low 70’s, and air temperatures in the mid to upper 70’s make this an excellent time to go for a trophy Bass. The keys areas are the boat trails in Farm 13 and the SW corner of Farm 13, as fish gather in pre-spawn patterns. Baits that are producing are plastics that are Carolina rigged and rattle traps. Saturdays outing gave us 60+ fish and one 10+ coming from the spillway area. Throughout the week most of the fish that were caught came on a Carolina rig working the rims of the boat canals. Colors used ranged from dark to light with no particular preference shown. Sunday’s best bite came to a chrome rattletrap worked in the rim areas of boat trails where the hydrilla was sparse. Don't forget to periodically check pump areas as they can be started at any time. When the wind picks up look for current between areas of heavy hydrilla. Boating population has increased with the Specks being caught in the center dyke canal. Be careful out there and give plenty of clearance when passing one another. Another thing I would like to remind everyone: Bass that are caught must be released immediately. This is a catch and release area and that means putting the fish back into the water immediately. Good fishing and great times.
Day started cold and very windy, with the main lake white capped. Started with crankbaits, buzzbaits, jerkbaits, sammies and spots in Honeymoon and Jackass. Only one fish between the two of us. We went to the flats on the north end of the lake that has been good for months. The c-rig was not the answer but when we found schools of shad and dropped pirk minnows smothered with Garlic KB, it was just like early fall. Every drop was a fish for hours. OH, did I mention when my partner lost a spoon and forgot to add KB to his new one nothing happened? He picked this up very quickly. KB stays on spoons, cranks, jerkbaits and anything else you use. It makes no sense to use anything else (it would only be a distant second anyway). The fish were in 65 to 75 feet of water. Fish were up to 4 pounds and feisty. The fish are there and will bite if the right thing is put in front of them. Increase your odds, always use KB.
Launched from the 4 lane ramp at 7a.m. air temp in the middle 30's. 60 mph, froze all the way to coles bay. no fish. finally Dan caught 4 dinks on a flat in the back of jackass cove with a silver fat rap crankbait. the bite is slow. we couldn't find any baitfish either. also no spoon bite. no worm bite, topwater dead.
yes folks, it's time to stay home and wax the boat, sort tackle, watch TV, ect...
sb.
Rather than write a report each day I am combining Monday thru today. Fishing continues to be absolutely awesome on the Farm. Three and a half days of fishing have resulted in catches of over 60 fish per day. Carolina rigged black/blue crawdads and worms seem to be the preference with same color jigs also getting the occasional fish. Several nice fish were taken in the boat trails using a Fat Free Shad. Moving the baits slow has been the trick as they don't seem interesting in chasing. Air temps have been quite cool here this week with yesterday and today starting in the very low 50's. Water temps are starting to go down and more and more bass are moving into the SW area for pre-spawn. I had the opportunity to try some baits from Hooked up Lures of NC and let me tell you they are super. If you're looking for super plastics at super prices they can be contacted by clicking on their link on our Partners/Sponsor page. Also you don't want to forget the Kick'n Bass as it sure helps to increase both numbers and quality of fish. We put some on every bait to go in the water and the results are dramatic. Continue to find fish in the hydrilla that borders the boat trails and the boat trails themselves. Be sure to check all the points such as the pump house areas and spillway. If you're looking for excitement now is the time to come fishing. If your planning a trip and staying in the Orlando area and need a ride we can help. Lunker time is here and you have a good chance of hooking into that fish of your lifetime.
I just wanted to report that I will be taking December off, with Christmas tree cutting and tamale making, shopping and such. I just wanted to tell everyone who's reports I enjoy and depend on to have a Merry Christmas and Happy New Millenium. I'll be back next year, hopefully tournament fishing with a club, still looking for one in the Tempe, S/W or West Phx. area. If we run out of garlic for the tamales I guess I can always dip into the Kick'N'Bass. Even with a hectic schedule I hope to sneak out to Pleasant the day after Christmas, my favorite Lake. If I make it, be assured you'll see my report by Monday, Feliz Navidad, Merry Christmas,
Four days of fishing on Stick Marsh/Farm 13 is a fisherman’s dream come true, and this long weekend Scott and I got in four days for us, and the fishing was fantastic all four days. We located the fish on Thursday holding in the hydrilla on the north side of the boat trail running from the Fellsmere Farm pump. From the first intersection heading west to the next intersection the bass were stacked. They were however very color conscious this weekend and if you weren’t throwing something black/blue you weren’t getting much action. Our best success was with a black/blue crawdad and when we ran out of them we went with a black with blue tail worm that did just as well. Carolina-rigged using a half-ounce weight was the ticket for a more than 200 fish weekend. Weights ran up to 6+ lbs. Water temps were in the lower 70’s with air temps going into the low 80’s. Water clarity was 6 inches or less. The wind blew three of the four days, which helped to keep the fish active. Fishing traffic this weekend was very high with more people out there than I have seen in a long time. I noted a lot of people having great success and ran into people from as far away as Alabama to the west and Virginia to the north. I got to meet two regulars from these pages that drove in from Alabama and they reported a terrific weekend. They fished both live bait and artificial and I think for fish producing both methods equaled out. To all my friends out there I hope you had a terrific weekend, a great Holiday, and lots of fish if you were on the water. If you are coming to the Marsh in the near future, check boat trails and the adjacent hydrilla: check the Fellsmere pump to see if it is running, and of course don’t forget to check the spillway. Fish are moving into staging areas for the SW corner of the Farm and you should be able to find them. Use Carolina rigged or Texas rigged worms through the hydrilla and don’t forget to try cranks in the trails. Don't forget! If you're fishing without K&B on your baits you're leaving half your tackle at home.
The wife and I fished Castle Creek from late morning til the evening and found all our fish pretty deep. Boated 2 and lost 4 using Yamamoto grubs and 4" lizards in 25-30 feet. Very few anglers we talked to were having any success at all. The most interesting side note from today's fishing was that we caught everything using Kick'n Bass crawfish after having blanked with garlic, which is totally out of character for Lake Pleasant. We fished a submerged channel for over an hour before switching to crawfish, then boated a Largemouth on the first cast. Just another example of how unpredictable this lake can be...
EL SALTO IS BACK.TOOK A PARTY OF 10 PEOPLE DOWN,FISHING WAS NOTHING SHORT OF FANTASTIC.NOT ONLY ARE THE BIG FISH THERE BUT THE NUMBERS ARE ARE BACK.FISHING 2 PER BOAT WE EASILY AVERAGED 200 FISH PER DAY WITH MANY BEING IN THE 4 TO 6 LB RANGE WITH SEVERAL 9+.WE LITTERALY CAUGHT THEM ON ANY THING WE TOSSED AT THEM BUT SPINERBAITS AND 10 INCH WORMS TOOK THE BIGGER FISH.TOPWATER ACTION WAS AWESOME THROWING POP-R'S,CHUG BUGS AND RICO'S THE LAKE IS LIKE I REMBER IT 5 YEARS AGO.IF YOU WANT MORE INFO CONTACT ME ON THE WEB AT DESIGNED ADVENTURES
Water Temperature = 70 Water Clarity = 0
Greg Cope from Tennessee and his brother Mark from Georgia are down with the families for Thanks giving and decided to get in a day on the Marsh with hopes for a big bass. We fished from daylight till 3:00 and caught 27 pretty nice bass. The highlight of the day was Greg's 8+ lber. The wind kicked up really strong in the afternoon which put a bit of a damper on the fishing but all in all it was a good day. Thre was one sad note to the day: Mark had what looked to be about a 12-13 lber within a couple feet of the boat when it threw the hook. You can see Greg's bass at www.atlantic.net/~acstech on the lunker gallery. Good day with great company: Thanks Greg and Mark.
Water Temperature = 70 Water Clarity = 0
Judd Lassiter and Bob From Indianna came down for a week of fishing and spent their first day on the water with me. Learning the logistics of a lake is important for safety and they wanted to catch fish as well as be safe for the rest of the week. We launched at first light and fished till 3:00. They should be writing a report of their weeks outing here in the near future. We managed over 30 with one dropped that would have been in the 8-9lb class. They are now hooked on using the Carolina rigged worms and a few other things that we were able to teach them. They also plan to make this an annual trip.Sundays weather was mixed with a couple of rain showers and a fair amount of wind but we did get into the SW corner where bass are starting to move in for pre spawn. Fellsmere Farms teased us by running the pump for about an hour and a half but it did turn on a few nice bass. The spillway is closed and unless we get a fair amount of rain will probably not open anytime soon. However, don't hesitate to pull a fat shad or some other crankbait around down there. Also throw a Carolina rig concentrating on points and west shore in there.
Fished out of the 4-lane ramp with the wife during the afternoon. Started deep in the main lake off primary and secondary points with spoons and jigs, but didn't have a single bite. I guess Greg had the right idea about moving up the Agua Fria because we moved up Castle Creek and found a canyon between two flats that seemed to be holding a lot of fish at 20-25 feet. We got a solid strike on the first cast and dropped a bouy because the wind was blowing pretty steady. This was just as the sun set and for the next 40 minutes every cast brought a bite or a healthy LG. All fish were between 2-4 pounds. I'm not sure lure selection really mattered at this point because my wife was throwing a 4" pumpkinseed lizard and I was using a T-rigged twin-tailed, skirted grub. We're both new at this sport, so this is the first time we've experienced this type of action. What a rush!
Went out to scope out the new lake, it's definately a lot bigger. I only fished for 4 hours and picked up three keeper fish, all released. My observation is that fall patterns are still producing. It's a tough bite but I think staying with what was producing a month ago will produce still as of this Saturday, you just have to be more patient. I couldn't use worms because the wind kept me mving at a pretty good clip, and it took a lot of concentration to hold boat and stay alert for a lite bite. Jigs (as usual) worked for me, with KnB garlic. All bites were gentle, just a little resistance on the line. I landed every bite I felt, there was just darn few, it is tough, but not impossible. If you saw a guy in a grey/blue Hydro-sport up in the Agua Fria, working on his motor on the water, it was me, almost got to spend the night. My boat gets sea-sick, at the house if you look at the key it fires right off, get to the lake, no start. Good thing the boat show is coming up in Jan.!!! Good Luck, be persistant.
Arrangements were made to pick up Sid Ryan, region 7 Bass Federation Director at 5AM and be on the Marsh by 6AM. The morning air was heavily laden with cool moisture and excitement climbed as I related to Sid the last two days fishing. There were only two boats at the ramp counting ours and we launched with air temps in the low 60's a mist enshrouding the Stick Marsh area. The wind was blowing out of the NNW at a pretty good clip and I kind of hoped that it would let up just a little. We were on our first location as the sky started to lighten and what a spot we had. The first cast broke the ice and then fish after fish was hauled to the boat. Carolina rigged worms produced 40+ nice bass by 9AM. From this wind blown point we decided to go in search of a record bass for Sid and moved to the Fellsmere Farm Pump house. Although the pump was not running we picked up an immediate 5 fish. We were getting ready to move again when the pump turned on and so we gave it another hour. We were able to pick them here and there but nothing in numbers so off again. We returned to the pump house at 12:30 and fished there until 3:00. Fishing was sporadic but we managed another 30 fish. At 3:00 we moved to the spillway area and started with crankbaits and carolina rigs all around the area. At 3:15 Sid caught his bass of a lifetime. Yielding to a Texas-rigged Zipper was a 14lb 2oz Stick Marsh/Farm 13 bigun. Sid's hands trembled for the next hour and his smile remained for the rest of the day. All in all 80+ fish for his trip to the Marsh and the biggest fish of his life.
Fished a local club tourney 11-13-99 and 3 fish at just under 10 pounds won it. A small percentage of our boats weighed in 6 fish limits, very small percentage. Most of us found the fish to still be up shallow and quite a few of us tried spooning with a little success. I have spooned fish for the last two weeks back inside the buoys of Coles wash in about 25-30 feet of water, alternating to a split-shot or Carolina rig with a little success to break up the bordem. Fishing is very tough right now but if you cover enough shoreline early in the a.m. you will have limited success. Good luck.
No topwater bite left,It took all day to catch 5 L.M.only one was a dink,no spoon bite at all,saw plenty of shad on the graph,all between 35 & 45ft.Caught 3 on C.R. 2 on a jig worm,all were deep.
We were going to San Carlos, but my buddy had to work Friday, so we decided to go back to Bartlett again. One side of the boat ramp is out of the water because the lake is so low, so if you go, expect a 20-30 minute wait on both ends. I heard back from some folks around Globe and they said that it was a good possibility that the San Carlos boat ramp was out of the water also. It was real windy at Bartlett, again this trip. All we have been hearing is fish deep 25-30 feet, so we did and nothing. The water temps in the shallow coves was 69-70, so we gave that a whirl with the usual stuff for shallow water. We picked up 3 fish during the day all 15-16 inches, on spinnerbaits in 2-3 feet of water in the really nasty stuff (we love to fish so much). After locating fish we would let the area rest for a little while and then go back with worms and grubs, and flip it, but no action. Just like 2 weeks ago, the action started about 3 o'clock until dark. Shad would boil and we would hit the boils with 3-4" jerkbaits and ocasional spinnerbait. We picked up 6 more 2# and b etter fish. They are putting on weight, but still have a ways to go. We practiced catch and release and let all go in good condition. Both of us were out of Garlic and that was a confidence shaker. We felt we would have done better if we had some. We used the KNB Crawdad instead and did O.K. So is scent a factor? Definately is when we're talking confidence. Now, the kicker story, I met Al senior from DEL RE's Outdoor on Central, in the Bartlett parking lot at the end of the day. I had seen him on the lake but didn't know he was a catfisherman. He hooked a 25# flathead with a live bluegill, and showed us, he had a head as big as a shovel. Al is 80 years young so I imagine that it was quite a feat to bring him in. You're never too old to fish! Good Luck and don't forget the KNB garlic.
Wow...this lake can really discourage a person. Started out of 4 lane boatramp at first light hoping to pick up a few topwater bites in one of the northern coves, but nothing to show for two hours of topwater. Then threw worms, lizards, grubs, spinners, crankbaits of just about every color. There just isn't any seasonal pattern to this lake. Finally marked a school of White Bass at about 60 feet and managed to spoon one beefy White Bass before calling it quits.
Steve Lawson from NC had two great days on Farm 13. Catching and releasing over 50 bass for his two days efforts, kept him smiling and laughing throughout both days. Steve is a very adept fisherman but conditions differ greatly between here and NC, but Steve adapted quickly and caught some big fish including a very nice 8+ lber on Tuesday. Monday, probably because of the wind we had the Farm to ourselves. The only other Fishermen was Hugh Crumpler and client and we fished side by side most of the day. Starting at the spillway on Monday we finished up the day at the Fellsmere Grove pump. Crank baits were used in the spillway and c-rigged worms at the pump house. The only blurb to the day was with the strong wind yours truly didn't get to fish much at the pump area as I had to handle the boat because "I" had left the anchor in the garage at home. Certainly won't do that one again. Tuesday most fish were taken at the spillway area with Steve catching that 8+. The fish were on again off again but on enough to net Steve a very enjoyable day. Steve says he can't wait to get back. Steve is a friend as well as a client and I had two great days watching him catch fish and listening to his tales and jokes. Thanks Steve.
Wading up Salt river from tubers starting point. Dam flow was reduced to a trickel. Water level had fallen about 3 1/2 feet from last week. Did not find any trout but caught about a dozen dinks with a rebel crickhopper.
Can anybody give me some tips on getting permits etc. permission from the Apaches to fish San Carlos Lake? There's not much on the internet, a contact number or e-mail address would be great, can anyone help?
Bad day at Roosevelt. Boated 2 and lost 3. Worked Salt and Tonto arms. Seems like the favored lure was purple and red Westy dipped in what else..KNB. Crankbait was the other lure of there choice in 10-20 ft. Tonto side was better between the 2 arms.
Got a late start,got to the lake about 10:00a.m.there were boils in Bass Bay,also lots of boats so we headed north into the smaller upper coves,my buddy caught a dink topwater,but while lipping the fish,somehow managed to fall off the boat,losing fish,rod and reel.I threw out a marker and we proceeded to try to fish for the rod.My friend put on a 1/2oz.football head jig and a chartreuse Yamamoto single tail grub,no skirt.It was'nt very long before he thought he'd hooked the rod,then he said I should get the net,he'd picked up a 4lb.+ l.m.that was the best fish of the day,we never did find the rod.The rest of the day was really slow,never really found a pattern except for the morning boils.Tried jigs,carolina rig,dropshotting,spoons,you name it,altogether 6 l.m.
Since I'm new to fly fishing I thought I would go to the river and practice before the fall trout stocking. Started where the tubers put in and headed up river. Caught about 20 fish on a grasshopper fly and some with a rebel crickhopper (yellow) while using spinnig tackle. All fish were largemouth bass 12" and under but lost one that would have gone about three pounds. The trip was very spiritual as I saw a Bobcat at the rivers bank and later two cyotes cooling off in the shallows.
Very windy day, and wind kept changing directions, so we would run up on the big motor to let the wind push us generally the direction we wanted to go, then it would change directions. We fished all over. the lake is stinking with schools of shad, and that makes it more difficult to narrow an area down. The bite is from about 3:00 PM until dark. The pattern we ended up with was fishing large coves off the main lake with mini-coves and points within the larger coves. We picked up 5 nice fish between 2 of us between 3- 4:30 pm. The successful bait during the day was spinnerbaits, slow rolled just off the bottom and on the drop. We had to work hard and cover a lot of ground up to this point. After that we were chasing shad boils within one large cove. We used jerkbaits the rest of the day and picked 7 more fish. All except 2 were 13-15 inch fish and pretty skinny, even though shad were everywhere. Our day ended at just before dark and we were wishing that we could stay. It wasn't too crowded and a reasonable number of jet skiers and skiers. Crawdad scent on shad jerkbaits seemed to produce. We were right beside a guy usinf the same spinnerbat as us, but he came up with zip. When he crowded us out of our spot, I told him how to get his spinnerbait out of a tree without making any more noise than he already was, but I must have forgotten to tell him about the KNB Crawdad. Good Luck.
Reported By: George: Imagination Bassin Guide Services Water Conditions: 74 / stained Weather Conditions: Cloudy-very windy 15-20 gusting 25 Species Being Caught: LM Bass Date You Went Fishing: 10/30/99 1st light - 12:00
The Report: 1/2 day on the Marsh netted Dan Sugg of Port St Lucie Florida and his son Dan Jr. 60+ nice bass from 2-5 lbs. The spillway which was closed gave up a few on c-rigged 6" black worms and the balance were caught on the Stick Marsh up against the palm trees. Even tho the wind did howl Dan and his son had a great day.
Have a TMX coming up on 11-7-99. Appreicate any info on late fall fishing at apache. what end of lake , what to use ect. Thx for any advise you may give. tight lines--herb
Got out at first light Wednesday from the four lane ramp and went over to Bass Bay. Like Cosmic, I started spooning and looking deep for whites and LMs. No bass were chasing shad, I didn't mark any, and I didn't catch any. Tried various depths, 70 to 40 ft, for an hour and decided to throw a worm.
Using a split-shotted 6" finesse worm with KNB garlic fished slow, I caught 6 bass off the shoreline and humps in the area in 5 to 15 feet of water. Caught 4 more on the same bait by North Barker Island. All were LMs in the 1 to 1 1/2 pound range. Went to the mouth of Humbug and finally spooned a couple of nice 2+ pound LMs in 45 ft.
Since it was a great day weather-wise, sunny with a light breeze, I decided to do a quick tour of the lake to check things out. I headed up the Aqua Fria and picked a few off a point, went down to Jack Ass cove, no spoon bite, but picked two off the islands, cruised by the marina, dam and pump and pulled a couple more off points and islands. Not a bad day, about 20 small fish. Got off the lake around 2:30.
Reported By: George Water Conditions: 73 degrees/stained Weather Conditions: Clear and very windy(20-25+) 78 degrees Species Being Caught: LM Bass Date You Went Fishing: 10/27/99 Daylight til 4PM
The Report: The wind was kicking this bright sunny day and had the fish holding tight to the bottom. C-rigs worked in the spillway area, at a sleep-crawl, worked however and Buddy Mock of Ft. Lauderdale and his brother-in- law Clarence Johnson of Charlotte, NC did manage to catch some nice fish. Slow retrieve is probably the hardest method to learn, but by the end of the day they had the hang of it. They had read the reports from the weekend, but the spillway was closed so it wasn't as hot and heavy but there was enough action to keep them interested. All in all a great time was had by all, and their banter and stories kept me smiling all day long.
Submitted by Hugh Crumpler III (ip 199.227.105.115)
Water Temperature = 70s Water Clarity = 2-3 feet
Sunday, October 24, 1999 Hey Folks, Let me tell you about last week at the Stick Marsh and Farm 13. Hurricanes and rain, we have had them. And they ALWAYS turn on the bass. BOY-O-BOY did they bass get turned on. On Wednesday I had a half day guide trip. The trip was an artificial trip. Steve and Kristen were my clients. WOW!! Steve could not stop catching the bass on a 1/4 ounce Fat Free Shad. Kristen and I used any kind of deep diving crankbait we could find. We caught a bunch- but not the numbers that Steve did. In the four hours of fishing we caught AT LEAST 70 bass. We anchored and never moved the boat. Not bad for four hours of catching- that is counting the time it took us to get to the fish and return to the ramp. Friday I took one of my favorite clients fishing, Emmitt Moseley. Emmitt is blind. It is a wonderful feeling to help Emmitt catch bass. Emmitt brought his lovely wife, Miss Pat. The trip was set-up for a full day trip. Emmitt always tells me to bring enough shiners so that we do not run out. So, on Friday I brought 13 dozen wild shiners. Well, after four and a half hours we were out of wild shiners. Almost all caught a bass, some two. Pat caught one that was 24 1/4 inches long and 14 inches in girth. Emmitt caught one that was 24 1/4 inches long and 18 inches in girth. Two bass of a lifetime. They probably caught over 150 bass. Emmitt though he had caught a days worth of bass and Pat was wore out. So we called it a full day and went to the Days Inn, Palm Bay and spent the night. Saturday, we knew we had to get up early to get our spot. I have others, but, Emmitt and Pat did not want to take a chance. You see, there were several envious boats in the area watching us. One other guide really struggled and we were worried he would beat us to our spot. So we ventured out a little earlier than I would like. We were behind one boat on the way to the ramp and one boat was already in the water when got there. But, we did manage to be the first boat to the hole. AND we got our spot. This day, Saturday, we had 12 dozen wild shiners. How could the day be better than Friday? Would we be out there all day and have bait left? Read on. The sun came up slowly as we fished an hour with not a bite. Then the sun gradually began to rise. The fish started to bite. Very slowly. We caught about four before the first boat arrived. He tied to a post we had been drifting our shiners by. We talked to him and worked a mutual fishing arrangement. We caught a couple more. Then another boat arrived and parked across the current from us. BOY-O-BOY!! I do not know how the fishing got better than the day before, but it did. The big bass of the day was Miss Pat's 27 inches long and 19 inches in girth. When the day was over the boat across from us asked me to come over. He asked how we caught 167 bass on 12 dozen shiners. We used some twice. I caught two on artificials so Emmitt could say I did not catch any bass. Not a bad full day that we ended at about 4 1/2 hours of catching. Pictures of the bass can be seen in the photo gallery. If you received this as e-mail the photos are attached. God Bless You, Hugh Crumpler III bsncoach@gate.net www.gate.net/~bsncoach 352-325-8495 Picture Attachments: ----------------------------
Submitted by George (ip 209.208.29.47)
Water Temperature = 81 Water Clarity = 0
For those that have never seen Stick Marsh/Farm 13 it can best be described as two squares divided by a center dyke with both sides being very similar in appearance. However Farm 13 has some added features, namely some pumps and a spillway. The spillway area at the mouth is less than a half-acre. How many fish can be caught out of a half-acre area in four hours one might wonder. One might also wonder based on previous reports, by this fisherman and Mr. Hugh Crumpler, as well as others, if Farm 13 reports are stretched a little. Well I am here to tell you, that if anything the reports are just a tad understated. Saturday AM I arrived at the spillway just before daylight and set up on the opposite side of the hole from Hugh Crumpler and his clients. As the sun rose, the bass turned on, and we witnessed a total (I could have lost count of 167 LM Bass, with most being upwards of 3-4 lbs), pass over the rail and released by Hugh. His clients had him so busy for four hours that it was almost comical. I have not seen a Guide work so hard in anything other that a bluefish blitz. These fish came in most cases as doubles and Hugh ran from bow to stern baiting, releasing and jesting with his clients. To make this more amazing the gentleman fishing in the rear sit caught all his fish by feel, as he was totally blind. Now, I ask you, can it get better: about 10:30, the excitement rose to a fever pitch as the lady sitting up front's pole bent in half and under Hugh's coaching she worked and landed what measured a 29" long, 17" girth bass of a lifetime. Now remember, this area is less than a half acre and Hugh and clients were fishing in less than a 1/4 of that. On leaving, Hugh stopped by, and we chatted for a moment. Are we done there? Heck NO! While Hugh and clients were busy on their side of the hole a boat that was tied up in the center of the spillway pulled fish after fish into his boat. Had to have caught over 75 fishing 45 feet away. Through this entire bass catching we turned our thumbs in to raw meat as we hauled bass after bass over our rails. They were hitting almost anything we could throw with a preference being a Culprit 6" Arkansas shiner. After Hugh left we continued to fish until 1:00. Final count into our boat was 234 LM Bass, with the largest being a 7+ lber. Just an added note: Two fellows arrived in a Triton and anchored just off the mouth of the spillway> We never did get an idea how many bass they picked up before we left but we did note that someone was always taking one off the hook. Total fish taken from less than a 1/2 acre that day we know well-exceeded 500 bass. Subject: Stick Marsh/Farm 13, Florida
Submitted by George (ip 209.208.29.47)
Water Temperature = 80 Water Clarity = 1 foot
Can fishing improve from dream status to the supernatural? Knowing that the weather was to be fantastic today and that word was spreading we launched well before first light. We were the second boat in the water and headed for the spillway on Farm 13 as fast as we safely could. Already, the Triton we noted yesterday was anchored up. As with yesterday, with first light, the bass turned on and the catching frenzy began. Within a half hour of first light there were boats everywhere and bass being caught. This is the tightest concentration of boats fishing one spot that I have ever fished in for LM bass. We looked like we were having a convention, however through well-placed casting and cooperation I saw only two or three cross lines all day. The bass were slamming c-rigged worms today as I threw everything I had in the boat to see what they wouldn't hit. Working a fat free shad around 1:30 paid off big time as I landed a 28" beauty that weighed 11+_ lbs. I observed what had to be in excess of 750 bass taken from the same area that we fished yesterday. Another note; this area also produced unbelievable numbers on Friday. We departed with lots of pictures, sore backs, arms and thumbs and over 150 bass for day two on the "GREAT FARM 13". For more info and a day of fishing one of the best Bass Fisheries in the U.S. contact Hugh Crumpler or myself. Hugh Crumpler: bsncoach@gate.net George:Imagination Bassin: acstech@atlantic.net
My brother in law Ray got off work at 2pm and we hit the road. Day was total overcast and cloudy. Launched at the four lane and noticed they dropped another 10 feet or so out of the lake.
Went over to the mouth of Castlecreek, Bass Bay etc. and tried with the spoons in 20-50 feet of water. Nothing. Met two other guys and they said they caught a few largemouth dinks on topwater. We tried that for about 2 hours and nothing. About an hour before sunset I said, I bet these whites and stripers are deep. So I pulled over the river entrance to Cole's Wash and found the 50-70 foot breakline. I graphed fish on the bottom right at the break in 70 feet. We dropped our spoons and I got two whites in two casts. We tried some more but it was getting dark and we just turned and came in. So if they aren't where you want them to be, you have to think. Dropping water, fish go deeper. So they had pulled off the 40-50 breaklines and were now in the 70 foot breaks. Cosmic>
My partner couldn't make the trip, that darn job of his is always interferring with our fishing. So I drove out Alamo on Sat. eve. during the dark hours. I got to the campground about 8:30. A bass club was there and boy were they having a good time. I talked to my camping neighbor to find out my Sunday afternoon trip was following 2 tourneys. I launched at 5:30 to avoid the tourney start. I was really happy to get this early start. Tried top water, buzzers, cranks, nothing seemed to be working, so I switched to jigs and picked up two little guys. I beat the banks, worked through the wood, tried flipping, jigging, casting all kinds of rubber to no avail. Finally about 3:00 they turned on and I caaught 5 more fish on spinnerbait in the next 2 hours. The problem is that I believe every fish in Alamo is 12 inches. I released all fish to grow up. Packed up and left by 6:30, and now the trip got interesting. 25 miles out of Salome, the truck blew a cap off of the rear u-joint of the drive shaft doing at least 55. I limped into Salome at 15 mph with a tightly wrapped rag holding the driveshaft in place. I got to Salome Auto Parts at 8:00 or so. The owner, Tony happen to drive by, and as it turned out, opened his store and put a new u-joint on my driveshaft and off I am. What a great trip to discover that there are some really great people out there! P.S. the fish would only bite on KNB garlic.
Well we left Friday night on fished Powell SAT. Wife Caught two Stipers 1 2# 1 4# on Anchovies and Garlic KNB. Son and Dad got skunked on stripers so we threw cranks on way back to ramp landed 7 fish Smallies but they love to fight.
Sunday we had to return to PHX for a Appointment that got canceled so out to Unpleasant we went. tried River arm both sides left a bag of worms on brush and rocks. We did catch one on a shad crank but nothing of any size.
Bryan
Took my sister Carol out, because of stuff we did not get on the water until 9:30 am. don't think it mattered. No bite, complete shut down. No fish jumping fish on graph like crazy. dropped spoons, topwater, worms etc. nothing. Did not see or hear of one fish caught by anyone. Nice boatride, nice day, but total shutdown. No boils at all. C>
Cosmic took me out at first light on a mission for White Bass. We found them in the usual spot from the 4 lane ramp, east to Bass Bay point, then a little north close by the islands near the point between coles and humbug. fished the breakline of the creek channel in 64 feet of water. dropping 1 ounce chrome spoons loaded with Kick'n Bass Garlic. Had a lot of whites, 1 striper, and a few Largemouth. About every 15 minutes throught the day the surface would explode in a fury of top water action. (It always seemed someone would run through the area totally oblivious to the jumping fish. go figure...) we were rigged with full size Zara Spooks in clear/silver color, and catching largemouths on top water in 80 feet deep water, in the middle of the lake. This was my first top water bite! cool! many times we had doubles. this happened from dawn till about noon, then it slowed a bit and we left.
We went out night before and hit lake at the crack of dawn. Shot over to West side and hit shallow coves with lots of stick-ups. We struuck out with top water so switched to buzz bait, threw the weeds and hit one fish. Tryed buzzbait some more with no luck. Switched to spinnerbaits with 2 willow blades. This worked well for about 2 hours and boated 5 fish. If you had a new boat you missed this bite because they were in the weeds so deep you had to scratch your boat to get to them with sidearm casting into pockets about the size of a basketball. This is really fun because after you hook them you have to wrestle them out. That bite stopped about 11:00, so I switched to worms on light tackle. The little guys were hitting this like crazy, but I lost the first 4 because I didn't get a good hookset using wimpy spinning rods. I realized with this light tackle you must really give them an over exagerated hookset. Brought in 5 more little guys, nothing over 13 inches. Real slow from 1 to 5:00 pm. After that the bite was on 3" grubs and boated 3 more bass and a really big bluegill on a 1 ott hook, a personal first for me. A very productive day even though all but the spinnerbait fish were under the slot (13") The pattern kept changing so you have to try different things all day. My partner had pretty good luck all day with various mini-spins, his confidence lure. We released all fish, even the bluegill. We talked to an old timer that fishes it regularly and he said small fish is pretty normal, with an occasional surprise, pretty much the way our day went.
The action continues to heat up on Conroe as the water temps cool off and now that we are getting later in the month the bass are still moving shallow. Shallow water can be found in the backs of coves and creeks channels but don't forget that shallow water can mean a road bed, pond dam or one of the many flats on Lake Conroe.
The bass are fairly active so I will start with a Texan Lures spinnerbait. This time of year I want lots of flash on my spinnerbait so I'll be using a double willow leaf. Each Texan Lures spinnerbait is hand made and you can request your favorite color and blade combination. I am spraying my bait with Kick N Bass fish attractant for that added motivation the bass sometimes need.
Once I have worked the area thoroughly with the spinnerbait, I will slow down and throw a Carolina Rig working the same area very slowly and carefully. This week I have been using a French fry since it seems that the fish did not hit the larger soft plastic as well. The bigger fish came off the larger bait but the action was somewhat slower. Don't forget to spray your bait, either hard or soft with Kick N Bass, I guarantee it makes a difference. Kick N Bass comes in either garlic or crawfish scent and once the fish take a bait that is covered with Kick N Bass, they won't let go. The longer the fish holds on to the bait, the longer you have to set the hook. On Lake Conroe, Kick N Bass can be found at April Plaza Marina.
Keep a rod handy that has a lipless crankbait tied on just in case the fish start schooling around your boat. This does not happen a lot on Lake Conroe but when the bass start blowing up on a school of shad it can be a fun way to catch a few fish in a hurry. When I see bass schooling I throw a chrome blue back lipless crankbait right into the middle of the activity and let it fall on a fairly slack line. I want the bait to flutter and fall like a wounded minnow. When the bass hit it they really whack it so be ready.
The new 2000 year model Procraft boats are beginning to show up and if you are looking for a great boat I encourage you to checkout the new line. I have fished Procraft for several years now and am thrilled to be associated with Capt. Kirk's Marine for the coming year. If you are in the market for a new or used boat contact Capt. Kirk's Marine, they have just the right boat for you.
Lake Conroe is about 18" low right now and as dry as it has been, it doesn't look like its going to get any better anytime soon. Lake Conroe has some flats and sandbars in the backs of some of the coves that are starting to show. Be sure you know where you are running or you might be pushing your boat off a sand bar.
When your out on the water, please be sure and wear your PFD. Keep it zipped and always have your kill switch attached.
Dave is sponsored by Procraft Boats, Captain Kirk's Marine, Kick N Bass, April Plaza Marina, Texan Lures, Stay Put, Boat Jumpers, Transducer Saver, www.profishinreport.com and The Rod Bob.
Fishing was very tough. Out of 425 people over 100 "o" the first day. Ricky Sumpert of Lexinton Sc won the tornament with a 2 day total of 32lbs. It should have taken that for each day. The wind blew 20 25 mph each day. Most people catch fish on texas rig.(motor oil, red bug, watermelon) You could wear the stripers out on a rattle trap but the bass were no where to be found. People who caught good fish caught them up the river and it is fairly dangerous to get up there too. The lake is down 3 feet and there were several boats and motors that were messed up.
Cosmic I was out looking for you and Bassless on SAT. We found no top water from 04:00 to 09:00 as we left the wind started to calm.Blowing hard up river arm. Talked to a few Allstar guys who were not happy with no fish or only two dinks ! Did see one boat Culling. We tried worms and spoons drenched in KNB Craw but we suck as spoon fishermen I guess :-().
Bryan
Took Stinky out, sunrise etc. Fish were there but only for a quick period. We did pick up some big 2 21/2 pound whites, some largemouthes in 40-50 feet of water. Heard there was a top water bite early in the AM and you had to cast right up on shore. There was a lot of boat traffic but the bass did come up for a spell and then we caught 6 on white spinner baits (Terminators). Then the bite shut off and the lake was dead. Came home by noon. C>
Cosmic you got my Son so excited with your report that he made me take him out last night with Jill and Maria, Well like he had to twist my arm. We ran up tp 4 lane and fished from 6:30 till 9:30 pm. 4 fish on spoons with KNB Garlic. We put out the lights for fun and the Shad came in but did not find any other fish around shad. I need to get better at this worming and spooning. Had to leave School is still open. Will try Sat. Bryan
First off thanks to the Fizz for that fine report on Florida fishing. You had better be able to find them in March when I come down to get taught a lesson.
Went out this morning with Mike Burkhart and Larry White. Too two boats and fished near each other on the outsides of the west end of the bays. Fish were not jumping in the boat today. They did break water and start to chase shad but two A** holes had to fire up their big motor and come flying into the school and that just sent them right down. You cannot, that is cannot run an engine into a school of surface bass and think they will stay on top.
We used Pirk Minnows made by Horizon lure com in the 1/2 to 1 oz size. Just drop them down in 40 to 80 feet and touch bottom, then lift your rod and keep doing this. Bounce the jig off the bottom and the bass will just hit it. Top water was best with a white spinner bait with silver willow leaf blades. You could cast out into plain 80 feet water 500 yards from any shore and bass would nail the spinner bait as you watched it come back. Go about 30 fish in a mixed bag, practiced catch and release on the largemouths. Praticed catch and fillet on the whites. Bite was on from sunrise to about noon, then it got too quite. Cosmic>
Lake Okeechobee Largemouth Bass are really turning on this time of the year. The approaching October 99' Full Moon has the "Big Hawgs" starting their early pre-spawn rampage on those poor lil' shad ! In order to fish Okeechobee the right way, newcomers to Florida need only keep two things in mind and that is, search for the cleanest water possible and when you find it, soak your lures in Kick N' Bass before you start fishing. It's that simple ! Most effective lures at this time are (in order of preference) 1. Smithwick Rogue or Smithwick Enticer series <floaters> in the Clown Design, 2. Gambler Flappin Shad in the "E.G." Design (named using the initials of one of its designers Eddie Grabenhorst of WPB Florida), 3. Charlies Worms (a company based in Clewiston FL) in the 7" June-Bug Design (Black/Blue/Grape/Green) w/ no more than a 3/8 oz. Gambler Rattlin' Weight and a 4/0 hook rigged Florida style. Top Okee locations considered "HOT" now through probably most of December are: 1. Sparse Reeds outside of the West Wall in the Clewiston area, 2. Uncle Joe's Cut (on the Lake Side) located further up the Rim Canal, 3. J & S Fish Camp at the extreme east side of the lake. Daily bag limits during the past 3 tournaments have been yielding 20+ lb stringers from these areas but as usual, you must fish "SLOWLY"....let me repeat that, "SLOWLY". Run n' Gun fisherman won't do very well so gear down and wait out the "Biggins" or else stay home. On a personal note, I have found that by using Kick N' Bass "Garlic" formula on my worms and Kick N' Bass "Craw" formula on my TopWater Lures, the finicky Okeechobee Bass (usually hesitant to bite anything artificial) go berserk once that ole' Kick N' Bass slick gets to their noses. When you fish with the family or friends for "FUN" on any Lake, do what I do, the night before soak a few porous stones with Kick N' Bass, when you get to the Lake, toss 'em in your favorite fishin' hole, leave, come back an hour later. You won't believe how sore your arms will be the next day from hauling in all those hungry Bass ! End of Report.
Well guys I am here to tell you the jinks is all over. Got out with Larry White our AZ Kick'n Bass pro-staffer. Well first I was sworn to secrecy, but the heck with that right! I will tell you we ran about a thimbel full of gas from the 4 lane ramp. We pull up at daybreak with a slight to moderater wind, and Larry starts graphing in 100 feet of water. So he is nuts but that is ok because I am still asleep. Well we get to the break line where all these islands are popping up and the depth goes from 100 to 70 feet. He points at the graph and says see those fish. Well it was a line for bottom, then a second back line above that about 1/8 of an inch. So he starts in "Yea they are here" Well we stop and he hands me a long thin spoon, not a short fat one. We are in 70 feet of water in the middle of nowhere with the closest island about 200 yards away. We drop the spoons down to bottom in 60-70 feet and bamm. Now I don't mean just a little hit, I mean wham. My rod and his, two nice white bass. The sun is just coming up. By 7 o'clock we had 10 fish apiece easy. Some of the whites were 2-3 pounds. Well as the sun came up the water got calmer and then the surface exploded all around us. We started to throw tail-spins and stuff and hit largemouths to about 3 plus pounds. this went on for about a half hour until these two jerks see us and the fish and come flying in with a 150 hp right into the middle of the surface breaking fish. They all went down and stupid and stupid sat their throwing top water for nothing. In the meanwhile Larry and I drop our spoons down to 70 feet or so and my drag just starts to peel off line. I mean runs of 17# test peeling off. Up comes about a 6 # stirped bass, my first. Next drop, another one , next drop another one. While these two guys that put down the fish by driving over them are looking at us in disbelief. Well we moved about, hung and lost a half dozen spoons, caught laregemouth at 60 feet, white bass at 60 feet and striped bass at 60 feet. Just drop to bottom and then jig and hold on. We did this to noon and went home with a live will filled to the top with whites, and stripers. We were putting KNB garlic on the spoons, and the bites were viscious. That's my story and I'm sticking to it. If you see a beautifull turquoise Skeeter withing rifle distance of the 4 lane, and two guys with Kick'n Bass hats, Kick'n Bass T shirts and a Kick'n Bass decal on the dual console, it just might be us. I'll be the one with the bend in my rod and the smile on my face. Cosmic>
We hit the lake at first light. Boat traffic on the 4 lane was lighter than last Sunday. We proceeded the flats off of the deep water at Castle Creek. This is where we hit white bass bustin shad on the surface last Sunday, but no luck. We shot up to the Agua Fria all the way to the end and let the wind work us down. One fish and real small, catch and release was practiced of course. I went and got some KNB crawfish since I had never tried it. Even that didn't help. So down to the Marina and poked around here and there to no avail. Back up to Castle Creek and working the brush. We threw everything at 'em but nothing. Finally picked up 3 between the two of us one on a flourescent orange and green mini-spin and two on Cos's favorite, finesse worms.(with KNB CrawDad) I'm starting to catch on to this method and starting to like it. One of those fish took it so deep I had to take him home. It seems to work on Pleasant where the pressure is tremendous. We talked to one guy that fishes with a guy from a local fishing store and he said it had been slow but last Sunday caught 30-40. So it must have been slow. There was a terrible accident on Saturday that my friend said a bassboat got run over, so be careful, its dangerous out there. Going to Alamo next Mon. because my employer decided to let me off that day. I will try the big baits, but if that doesn't payoff, Cos knows what I'll whip out of the tackle box, black and chartreuse finesse worms with KNB.
fished club tourney this past weekend. Safe light went up the river and only caught one small bass. Went to the mouth of Humbug and caught 4 bass on Rico's in 30 minutes. Largest one 2.5lbs. Went to outside points at bass bay. Bass were busting big time. Couldn't get one to hit the chrome puppy so I went to pipeline and caught another 2.5lb on a Rico. Went back to bass bay and finished out the day and my limit split shotting purple finesse worms. Second day only went to the productive areas and this time I limited out by 8:30. Big one came on shad spook on an outside point at bass bay. Finished second with 15.6 lbs. Winner had 17lbs on same baits in same area.
Tried Cosmic's favorite lake Sat evening and Sunday evening Looking for the topwater action that G&F report stated we could find.Well Sat 1 dink on spook near Choles bay. Sunday in river I landed 1 bass on spot. then landed 3 # cat on rappala shadt thing shook head and all just like bass man I was disapointed when I saw wiskers! Oh well next week we try again.
Bryan
O.K. so here's the bet me and my fishing buddy came up with for Labor Day. Go to the Lake mid-day, each of us can only take three individual baits, and a 1 hour time limit, both fisherman agree on where to fish and no graph. The bet is five bucks each fisherman for 1. biggest fish, 2. most fish, 3. first fish, each category pays $10. So we picked a really nice looking cove just up from the marina. I won all three categories with one fish about 1.5 lbs., caught on a 4" smoke/sparkle tube jig in about 12 ft of water with what else? KNB garlic, Good luck and good fishing.
Greeting fellow anglers, Be gental, I'm a first timer on this computer crap!!! My partner (Richard-rsvacha@aol.com) and I prefished a couple weeks in a row. Fished small plastics with KICKNBASS. Paterns not to reliable but did catch a few. Turney eve.(sat.) caught 4 good fish on cranks. Bite died down after dark. Very slow night VERY, VERY slow. Sun. morn around 5am decided to go back to original hole and KICKED THIER ASS !!!! Went back to crankin' with wide open results. Told partner,"Don't get to excited,we got a good limit but someone always pulls in that one kicker to wreck your day". Not even 3 seconds went by and he said "gotem'... A 6.3lb... He had the kicker!! My next cast was the icing on the cake...A 5.8lber. The next 45 mins. produced 7 bass, 1 walleye, and a 10lb cat (which Richard conviently dumped-any one looking for a partner?)Just kidding Rich, you just need a bigger net, and more skills. Well we ended up winning with 18.13oz. TIPS... Crawdad colored cranks- eves (main lake) Shad pattern cranks early morn. (main lake)
Good luck and don't go very far,hint hint.
Mr.Bear
Another great trip to this lake with less than a dozen boats.
This is a great time to take your wife, kids or friends. Even practice with a lure you haven't a lot of experience or faith with. You can catch fish with any method all day long(night too). The key has been to use KNB garlic for the added edge with "OVERS". Even they are in the flats during the day.
Got to the lake at 3 pm under moderate cloud cover, towards sunset the sun came out. From 3 to 6 caught a few small fish on finness rigged worms in 25 feet of water up by the 10 lane. Sunset went to the river. Wind came up with lightning all around. Hug a good 5-6 # hog that wallowed on the surface twice, then went berzerk near boat and threw the hook. Caught 4 bass on black craws with green claws, texas rigged. Got blown off lake by 9 pm
You cannot go wrong on either of the lakes. Bartlett Westy's, C-rigs & texas rig's at night with a great top water bite in the am. Pleasant has both a good top water bite and texas rig bite going..even Westy's will work. Fish 20 to 30 feet for the better fish. At Alamo caught fish all day and night. Don't think they are all deep even during the daylight hours..they are not. In all cases color of preference was motor oil and red. Kick my sons butt until he caught me using KNB Garlic then the table evened.
Key was the Kickn Bass scent!
7-28-99 Summer Finally The large mouth bass are on the walls in the river . We found water temperatures ranging from 87 degrees near the marina to 79.3 degrees up the river near Beer can Point. The fishing is excellent, at this time. We landed two fish at or over 10LBS,14.47, 10.17, a 7 LB, 5 LB, 3.5Lb, and several smaller fish totaling 15 bass in the boat. Use a #8 Shad Rap Black and white, and a sand worm 4" for you finesse fishing. All these fish where landed before 10:00PM. Also the top water bite has begun in the main basin areas. At the land of the Giants. Use a Rogue, or a chugger for your top water bait, and a Exude 4" tube in red flake for your bedding fish they will attack this bait every time. The other finesse bait is a 4" Plum Sand worm.
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CANYON Lake level is 93 percent.
We caught six largemouth bass. We were using Plum colored sand worm. The more commonly used baits at the present time are the # 5 shad rap, 9/16 oz. silver and black Risto Rap, craw dad colors, white and black Rattle Trap, Rico's, . The other finesse bait is a 4" Plum Sand worm.
The water temp. is 83.0 deg. Although water temperatures can fall to 79.3 degrees at night. I still managed to catch some nice bass. The fishing conditions are in the Excellent range at this time. This lake is a pump back lake. That means the water level could rise or fall rapidly. Conditions on this lake could very on an hourly basis. You must be able to read the current conditions of this lake at all times.
Example if the pump back system is on and there is a lot of current then your conditions will change. Usually the down hill side of the flats will produce. Down hill = side nearest the dam. Current conditions documented by Bill Warman
BASS OK near ramp#1 still used BANJO lures.
Fished Lake Pleasant on Sunday afternoon with no luck at all. Was hoping for a late evening topwater bite, but a large storm moved across the lake about 6:15 pm. The lake level has continued to drop (70 percent now), and that doesn't help establish a pattern. There was a short morning topwater bite earlier this week in the backs of coves, and unfortunately, I lost the largest fish I've hooked this year. I spotted a large female busting shad on the east side of Cole's Bay and threw a Excaliber Spit'n Image that she hit immediately. She finally threw the lure on the third jump. I did pick up several smaller males about 2-3lbs with the next few casts. By the way, can anyone explain how I caught a nesting male last week with tail-rub when the water temp was 83 degrees?
I read Bryan Kelleys report and thought well that sounds fun. So off to Del Reys to get a Crappie light, called my fishing buddy and we were off for some night fishing. We got there about 5:30 PM and took off to scout around for a while with the graph and found concentrations of fish around the islands on the west side of the lake about a mile from the Ranger station. So it gets dark and out comes the light and the minnows. There was zillions of minnows under the lights and ours were right there but not a single fish in four hours and 4 different spots, wow, we are rarely ever skunked at Pleasant, but this night Crappie thing is new to us. So out came the worms (rubber). We realized that we had forgotten the KNB because I had left my worm bag and only snuck a few just in case. Well we salvaged the night, each of us got a bass, both were running about 2 lbs or so. Feeling good we motored back across the lake about 1:30 AM across rough water. Then just as I throttled down to enter the no wake zone and the motor quit. So click click click, it won't start. We made it in on the electric motor but it was a chore as the wind was plentiful. Sunday morning revealed that the old Merc 150 was dead, froze up. That made this my most expensive trip on Pleasant. Anybody got an extra engine?
Fished Auga Fria Arm 6-17 at night from 6-12 PM 2 Bass 2# on wacky worms. The dark came out whent the lights on go the minnows and Crappie in the boat. The Shad came in netted a few and the whites and a stripper were landed. 20 total fish 1# - 3# whites Crappie were 1#+ Stripper was 3.5# on scale! Kids had a great time with Mom and Dad.
Well Mike Burckhart and I went out Tues June 15 the day they opened up the eagle river (Aqua Fria). Well I started with a c rig and a green reaper, nothing. In the meantime Mike goes to a silly little wacky worm, no weight and 8# test, he has 3 fish on Garlic and that's when I changed. From then on we just pulled fish like we knew what we were doing. Quite a few boats came right in on top of us and were C rigging our area, not one caught a fish. We did this until dark and then went to humbug and fished the rock walls with black craws, texas rigged with Garlic KNB, got channel cats, bass and more bass. Had a double at one time. Left before midnight, had lots of fish. biggest about 3 pounds. Night bite is on, day bite was on, but you can't throw the heavy stuff. C>
Fished Sunday, 6-13, Lake Pleasant north of the closed eagle nesting area. We almost had the river to ourselves. No largemouths, but a pleasant surprise, we spotted a scool of suspended fish in submerged green trees. Turned out to be Crappies. We worked the tree tops with roadrunners and tube jigs. Caught quite a few turned all loose all but 6 for dinner. After the wind kicked up we went to the first (underwater) bend in the river along the brushy side and picked up a dozen or so white bass on shad Chrome / clear bomber A deep divers pitched between bushes and rapidly cranked deep into the old river channel. All were real small and throw backs. No largemouth all day. main bite was mid-day after wind kicked up and we fished the down wind bank. Fish jumping and surfacing all day but no topwater bite, tryed all sorts of stuff, no luck. Now for the fish story. When we were on the crappie, one thing I tryed was an old cotton cordell med. diver with a crappie pattern. Within an hour I caght 2 crappie and one channel cat, believe it or not, in the eye. This was a really WIERD day, I guess they pulled up to look at it and bang they were hooked. Trust me I couldn't make a story this strange and I have a witness! My feelings were the bass have moved to the lake.
Fished Friday thru Sunday 6/11-6/13. Caught 7 fish from 11am to 2pm on Fri. 5 overs 1-2.25, 2-2.5, 1-2.75, and 1-3.2. Jigs and finesse worms. Saturday lots of boats and tough fishing. Sunday a little better but still slow. Can't believe the difference from one day to the next. None on cranks or blades. Only a few on topwater and that bite lasts for 30 seconds.
Well the bite is on in Texas and good ole Fork is producing fish. The weather is beginning to get warm and so is the fishing. The fish are feeding and trying to fatten themselves up after the spawn and getting ready for the hot, hot summer. The fish can be found on any point anywhere in the lake. Myself and fellow Pro Staffer Ken Reville were on the lake yesterday and caught approximately 30 fish up to 6lbs. The early morning bite on topwater is good but last only a few minutes. Must be on the water before daylight. the rest of the day is fishing slow but steady. We were catching fish on a Spitin Image and the new Fluke color by Zoom - Watermelon Candy - fished with a split shot the tail dipped in chart.then fished very very very slowly. You can fish this bait anywhere so long as it is done slowly.
If you have any questions or need anything or want further information email me or call (903) 882-0493. Have a great day.
Well the fishing report in the paper was right for once!! "topwater all day long" We arrived at Alamo at 5:oop.m.friday afternoon and headed for the trees at the river end .Me and my partner both hooked up on our first cast and we new it was gonna be a good day. We caught fish on everything we threw i.e; rico's, floating rapala, baby slugo, buzzbaits, rip baits and even spooks....it was a blast! we didnt catch any giants, the biggest was only around 3 pounds but between friday afternoon and saturday morning we managed to boat about 80 fish. We left around 11:00am on saturday and were still catching fish when we pulled out. It was hard to leave but neither one of us got much sleep and were exhausted! I'm gonna try and play hooky from work this week so i can get back up there. DAN
Went out June 12, Sat about 6 pm, mad house. We finaly got the boat wet and ran down towards Humbug and the river towards the Eagle close area. Fished topwater and spinnerbaits on outside banks until dark nothing. Put on the worms and the black lights and started down a nice long rocky bank. Got fish all the way up until midnight, then by one they turned off. Fish were hitting garlic, Mike had me 3-0 before I switched from Craw. Worms in dark colors. Hold the boat in 30-35 feet and cast towards shore, at about 20 feet the fish would hit. Got into a school of channel cats and they love plastic and garlic. Nice night, had fun. warm and lots of nice fish. Cosmic>
Fished the nightbite Friday 28th with fair success using 7 inch worms. Morning topwater bite was pretty hot for about two hours in the stickups at back of Humbug.
Fished early morning again today (31st) with only one 2lb largemouth taken on Bionic minnow. Absolutely no other action rest of day, with exception of a few small bites with 4" and 6" lizards. Just too much boating pressure this weekend...
I suppose I should put a plug in for Kickn' Bass, but I use either garlic or crawfish everyday for every lure and I guess it's just a habit now. I'm convinced that I always get better hooksets with it. Bye the way, my experience is that garlic seems to be the scent that's most effective at Pleasant.
Dean Bullard and I fished monday night from 8:30 to 12:00 midnight, caught 9 bass from 4lbs to 5.1/2 lbs on black spinners baits doused with crawfish kick'n bass. I took pictures of the two largest fish but forgot to put the flash on, sorry Ken
Fished Bartlett on Sunday 5-23, arrived about 6:00 am. Shot to the river side of S.B. cove and picked up 2 nice bass, one on chartreuse spinnerbait and 1 on a Risto-rap. We thought right then boy we're gonna slay 'em today. That was the end of the morning bite. No more luck until about 10:00 am when we discovered bait fish around a man-made reef. By this time the wind was gusting to about 40mph. We anchored 100 ft. away and tethered over the spot as the windswung us back and forth over a great spot. We nailed 5 more O.K. bass over the next hour. We started watching the graph to see that the bait fish were gone and game fish were lying all over the bottom but no bites. As soon as we saw baitfish back on the graph, we started throwing tube jigs and rattle traps to get several more fish. Wind gusting to estimated 60 mph. The rest we got with shad colored crankbaits, making long casts while running on the big motor just outside the bouys and making long casts. Sluggo's, tube jig, and crank baits were the recipe for the day. The wind was a problem, electric motor almost useless most of the day. All fish were released and took photo's of some. Catch and release is working, many of these fish had other hook marks. Take $6 to park in 1's and fives, for the vending machine on the way in.
Fished from 9:00am Friday through 8:00pm, then from 9:30pm to midnight, and I'm w/ Cosmic: I needed 90 fish to join the 100 club! Granted I lost about 10, but it still a far cry from big numbers. Spinnerbait, jerkbaits, and jigs seem to do the trick on the ones that were boated. And yes, they were in the sticks.
Fished a BestBet tournament on Saturday 5-22-99. Found a lot of bass busting shad in Humbug right after first light. Caught 4 on topwater bite that continued until about 10:00 when wind picked up. Picked up one more fish on Yamamoto grub in stickups. Total of 5 fish weighed 9lb 13oz. My partner and I knew that there was a good chance we would be finishing in the money this time, which was a great feeling for a couple of rookies with only 3 tournaments under their belt.
Unfortunately, we were among a group of 4-5 fisherman that could not hear the PA announcement that BestBet decided to change the weigh-in time back 1 hour. Actually, it was probably rather humorous to watch all of us motoring around in a circle lifting our hands in bewilderment every time we passed. We finally found one of the club officials but none of us were allowed to weigh our fish, and BestBet refused to credit our $100 entry fee for the next tournament. I guess that's their right...and I guess I'm looking for another club. If anyone in the Phoenix area knows of a club for husband and wife teams please e-mail some information. My wife's been fishing with me pretty consistently and maybe this is a good time to fish a few tournaments with my better half.
Oh, they just posted the results from Saturday. Now I have to call my partner and tell him we were right on the money:-(
Had a good buddy tell me he was on a 100 fish a day patern, you guess it, we believed him and went. Well we got their Sat may 22 at 9AM, he had caught about 15 fish with the morning bite mostly on worms. Seems the 100 fish a day thing just wasn't happening. Also the fish behind every bush that would just smash a topwater wasn't happening. Shelley and I fished the rest of the day and picked fish on worms and spinnerbait in a 40 mph white cap lake. Got a real nice smallmouth on a spinnerbait. Got up 4 am Sunday and went out. No fish, after the wind. Fished for four hours and didn't see one boat catch one fish. Bluebird skies. I love it. Only need about 90 more fish and I'll have my 100. C>
i caught 2 10s and an 11 pounder yesterday. other people have been having some luck.a week ago i caught a 17.3 pound bass i really know how to fish
Lots of fishing and boating pressure on Sunday afternoon (5-16-99). Decided to avoid the usual crowds in Humbug, Coles, and Castle, so we went toward the Agui Fria. Still found several large schools of White Bass, but we wanted to check out the worm bite for Largemouth. Caught several in 25ft off points, but ski boats nearly swamped us several times and we had to move into the coves. This is the first good worm bite I've had at Pleasant this year.
My wife had to spend a week up at the lake of the woods working, so every day I had to go fish from sunrise to sunset. As I have said before, It is a rought life but someone has to do it.
Well the bass were on the beds, all sungled up in two's and three's. Caught one and then thought to myself I may as well leave them alone and harass the trout. The trout were biting. The lake is filled with weeds and you either have to use a bobber or a split shot rig with something that floats like Power BaitŪ.
Got out the first day and wanted to do some experimenting. Took a bobber, treble hook, A COTTON BALL AND SOME KICK'N TROUT. You should have seen the faces of the guys with all the fancy stuff when I said I was a chemist and was using cotton balls or bread. I could have sold all the Kick'n Trout we have in stock on that one lake.
Needless to say it worked great with the Power bait too and worms. Just open the top of the bottle and dip whatever in the bottle and then cast out. One guy did a test with me and the KNB treated bait outfished the untreated by 4 to 0. Needless to say I had a great week and made lots of friends. C>
Fished back of Humbug 5-16-99 expecting to catch a lot of white bass like previous weeks. To my surprise we got into a bunch of schooling largemouth in the 2 1/2 to 3 pound range. Between 6 and 7 A.M. we had some awesome top-water action that was fast and furious. The bass were busting big shad in about 10 feet of water out in the middle of the stick-ups. No dinks caught on top-water, caught them later on shad crankbaits. Best top-water bite I have seen at Pleasant, they were very aggressive, if you missed the fish he would slam it again. It's that time of year again, go get 'em boys.
I caught ten largemouth bass, one small mouth bass. We were using Magic. The more commonly used baits at the present time are the Exude 4" tube in red Flake, # 5 shad rap, 9/16 oz. silver and black Risto Rap, craw dad colors, white and black Rattle Trap, Rico's, Black and Chartreuse Finesse POWER WORMS and Kick'n Bass.
Stay in the main body of the Lake.
The water temp. is 67.0 deg. Although water temperatures can fall to 65 degrees at night. I still managed to catch some nice bass. The fishing conditions are in the good range at this time, Keep trying, Spring is the time to catch a trophy. This lake is a pump back lake. That means the water level could rise or fall rapidly. Conditions on this lake could very on an hourly basis. You must be able to read the current conditions of this lake at all times.
Friday 5-7-99: Fished Coles Bay during the afternoon/evening bite. Lots of wind but little action. Threw spinners and assassins 'til dark, then pulled a lizard for a few hours with no luck. Saturday 5-8-99: Lots a huge shad boiling in Castle Creek. Tried white spinners and topwater with only one largemouth. Once again, it was very windy and choppy. Made a quick stop in a small cove on the way back to the 10-lane ramp and picked up 3 nice largemouth on a Bass Assassin in about 10 minutes.
It seems that the worm and lizard bite has been really lousy this spring. Hope it picks up soon, since the wife would like to learn how to Carolina-rig, but the bass just aren't cooperating (at least for me).
Just went to Alamo for a quick trip, left Thrusday the 6th May fished Friday and Sat am. Got to the lake Thursday night, guys at the ramp said no fish, nothing. Went out, set up camp and pulled out on a point and tried worming from the point to the back of the cove at 8-10 PM. Got two small bass and a crappie that hit a 7 inch june bug cattapilla worm loaded with Crawfish KNB.
Froze to death Thursday night, woke up and went to the river arm. The lake had dropped 1 foot overnight. Got a a quick spinnerbait bite in the bushes and hung some nice 2-4# fish, bite shut off by 8 am. Went up towards the dam because of the falling water, found the fish at 18 feet. None by the dam, but out in the main lake area, points rock banks ect. The bushes sticking up out of the fallen water are covered with green slim, you can't get a worm to move over 5 feet without pulling in 4 feet of salad. The bite at 18 feet was dead slow all day. Saw one other guy catch one fish in our two days their. Many guys were fishless. We fished day time, hot burning sun, 95* heat and the fish were down. Got about 10 fish on worms ( Brown lizards with KNB Garlic). Then at 4 oclock with the wind blowing they turned on a little to a spinner bait bite. Got to the back of the river at sunset and hit some nice fish, Steve lost one at the boat that may have been 5-6 pounds. We couldn't get them to hit floating worms, no buzz baits, no chuggers. They would come out of nowhere and slam the spinnerbait. We were using white and a fast retreive. Did that until sunset and really caught some big fish, not many but nice.
Got up this morning before light and hit the same area (river). I got two rolls and one hit. Steve got about 4 fish. By 7 am the place was dead. Their were 3 other boats around us and I never saw them hit a fish. The water had dropped another foot during the night. We had plans back in PHX so we pulled out at 8 am and the place was deader then Bill Clintons bed room. If they keep dropping the water you will have to fish deep during the day, spinner bait at dawn and dusk and sweat like a dog during the day. Bring LOTS OF WATER AND ICE. Have fun. Cosmic>
MY GIRLFRIEND CHRIS AND I LAUNCHED AT SUNRISE ON THURSDAY MORNING. WE USED THE NEW GLASS ASSINS,WE DIDN'T LIKE HOW THE CENTER SEEMED TO MESS UP THE HOOK AND THE WAY IT MOVED IN THE WATER. SO WE BOTH CHANGED TO NORMAL ASSASINS. FIRST CAST I GOT ABOUT A 2#. MADE A MOVE TO A COVE BY THE LAST RAMP AND NOTICED SOME SHAD RUNNING. FOR AN HOUR WE CAUGHT ONE ON ALMOST EVERY CAST. THEY WERE MOSTLY WHITE BASS BUT 6 LARGE MOUTHS IN THE BUNCH TOO! THE WIND CAME UP AND THE SHAD WENT DOWN SO IT GOT VERY SPORATIC AFTER THAT.IT WAS THE BEST TIME I HAD AT PLEASENT IN A FEW YEARS.
FISHED A 100% BASS TOURAMENT ON 4-24-99 THE FISH WERE STARTING TO SPAWN AND STAYING ON THE BEDS. CAUGHT ONE 4LB MALE PROTECTING THE BED.. CAUGHT MOST OF THE FISH STAGING ON THE DROPS IN 2-3 FT. OF WATER. THE FISH WOULD HIT ANY LURE AS LONG AS IT WAS COVERED IN KICKNBASS CRAW. THIS LAKE HAS A CHANCE TO PRODUCE SOME LARGE BASS, SEEN MANY BASS CRUSING THE FLATS IN THE 8-10LB RANGE. THIS LAKE HAS STRIPERS IN IT SO THERE IS A CHANCE OF HOOKING IN TO A REAL FIGHT ON EVERY CAST.
John and Edgar, I hope you found this site, I expect to see your reports soon, later. Hey John and Edgar, say hello to everyone and post a report. Thanks for stopping in Greg. Cosmic>
Didn't want to go but the wife said we need some time off. So Monday April 26 we went at 9 AM, you can see how much I wanted to get up. Got there and went to the dam and threw cankbaits and spinners, lost 4 fish on the spinnerbaits. Then went into jackass cove with Larry White got the 13.4# last week, nothing. Then went to Coles wash and fished the rock bluffs with worms, Shelley got thumped but missed the fish. Then we saw some bass in the blowdowns and I said if they are in the blowdowns let's go fish blowdowns. So we went to the end of Humbug, 4 other boats their. I put on a Bass Assasin and first cast had a bass roll on it. then we fished 2 more hours in the wind and left. Never saw anyone catch a fish. Boy I can't wait until they turn that lake into a shopping mall. C>
Fished in Agua Fria River channel at extreme upper end. Lots o' wind, toughed it out all day even though trolling motor battery was dead by 9:30 am. Used Gas motor in reverse to troll old river channel where shad schools were bunched up and big fish mixed in. Did best with yellow or greenish tint shad crankbaits, hit lots of white bass, some rather large, hit largemouths on cotton candy and chartreuse lizards on the drop, which is all we could do because of the wind, overall real good day.
Fished Castle Creek in the late afternoon Sunday, April, 25. Caught a few Largemouth on an isolated brush pile with submerged rocks beneath it.
They hit a small floater-diver fire-tiger rapala crankbait.
Left soon after the second fish due to wind and cold temp.
Keep Crankin'
sb.
fished all day saturday april 10 with a stringer of six bass. 4 caught on pros choice spinner baits and two caught on rattle traps. biggest 2lbs. smallest 10 inches.
Fished the afternoon bite on Sunday, 11 April. Worked our way up Castle Creek into the brush. Threw topwater and jigged a Yamamoto grub without much success until wife caught nice 2-pounder on albino Bass Assasin at dusk. I caught a White Bass on same lure a few minutes later. Used only garlic KnB, but it seem to do the trick because both these bites were easy hooksets. Keep your line wet....
Fished all day Saturday, 10 April, along with about 300 other boats. Didn't know there was a huge tournament this weekend, but had a good time even though we had at least 20 boats withing 100 yards of us all day. The bite was very sporatic throughout the day. Wife won our mini-tourney with 6 to 5 victory. Caught her's on Zoom Flukes, spinners, and minnows. Bass Assasins, 4-inch worms, and Yamomoto grubs did it for me. Nothing seemed to be producing consistently, but one thing did stand out; every bite was a good hookset with either garlic or crawfish KnB.
Fished dam area and flats wind blew real hard. 3 fish on minnows, shad crank and spinnerbait. Lanuch was easy use caution on lake for rocks.
Bryan
I am planning a trip to San Carlos this weekend, but I've never fished this lake before. Is there anyone out there that has information on lures/patterns that would be fairly effective at this lake in April? Any advice would be greatly appreciated.
Fished Mondat PM from 1 till 6 in Choles bay all the way back one noce 2.5 on a husky jerk around 3pm. Broke my rod on nasty snag.... Family and I had fun Tight Lines.
Bryan
Fished the afternoon bite (NOT) with worms, lizards and topwater. Finally got a little action with Bass Assasins in Humbug, but didn't get good hooksets on those. Managed to boat two nice largemouth at sunset in mouth of Castle Creek. Talked to a lot of folks, but not much action.
Went to lake Un-Pleasant with a new friend of mine from the internet. nice guy Steve..
We got some on top water at 8 am, then the bite stopped. pulled into a cove and there were a bunch of boats all in one spot, we pulled up and saw the same guy pull 3-4 big white bass (sand bass) up. No one else getting bit but him.
Well Steve and I din't have any good jigs, lite rods or anything. I was running 25# test and tried to get a crappie jig down 30 feet, lots of luck. Well there we were throwing everything in the tackle box just coated with KNB.. Nothing. We sat 20 yards from this guy for 2-3 hours while he caught a bass on every single cast with a live shad.
After 3 hours of listening to this guy laugh and rub it in, we finaly went home. I would like to tell you that because of the KNB we killed them too, but no go. The live shad were the ticket. So does anyone have a throw net I can barrow? Cosmic>
My partner and I fished BestBet tournament 3-20-99. Wasn't sure what the cooler weather had done to the early spawn but we were counting on lots of males in the shallows. Headed straight to Humbug and caught first dink at the no-wake bouys on soft topwater. Went into the brush and caught first keeper, but only after loosing 3 others due to poor hooksets. Topwater bite turned off about 10:00 am so we threw crankbaits and worms while we drifted across the main channel. I finally picked up our second keeper on my first cast with a pumpkinseed lizard soaked in KnB Garlic. Partner was getting pretty frustrated by now. He had lost a nice lunker that had managed to throw his Rebel minnow. Well, it was 40 minutes before weigh-in time and he finally boated our third fish. This was only the second tournament we had fished, so we were pretty pleased with 5.3 lbs. Not much, but good enough for 23rd out of 58 teams.
Our next tournament is at San Carlos, so if anyone has a few tips for these amateurs e-mail a few my way. Good fishin' to all...
Thought I would post this for some of you Florida bound Bassers: Had a long weekend of fantastic weather and some good fishing: Launched Thursday afternoon about 3:00 and fished till dark. Lots of birds and gators and a sporadic catch, but nothing found schooling. Friday am was storybook perfect. A light fog drifting across calm water and a 4 lber on the first cast to the pads in the SW, right off the rim canal. Second fish was a short which was caught 5 feet from the first. The fog lifted revealing a steely clear sky: the casts, one after the other, produced nothing. Spent the better part of the morning looking and finally found some fish back in the NE areas. Picked up 10 by 1PM; Picked up my Son back at the dock at 1:30 and fished until dark: Caught another 15 - 20 fish drifting over heavy hydrilla. All fish, except the first, were in the 2 lb range. Saturday AM was a duplicate of clear skies and little wind. A hard day of fishing again with fish being caught throughout the day with little pattern other than drifting hydrilla. No lunkers to brag about. About 5 PM headed for a middle impoundment of heavy hydrilla. A lot of the area is matted with some nice holes and started drifting. Caught 13 bass in the next 40 minutes. All 2-3 lbs coming out of the holes in the matt. All in all a decent day of 30 plus fish. Sunday the sky was still very clear but had a breeze blowing at daybreak. By 8:30 the breeze was up to 10 MPH and by 9:30 blowing a steady 15. We headed back into the deep grass and bingo. As we went through a cut Scott made a cast and landed a nice 4.5 lb. It was followed by another and another within the next 15 mins. Seems the next wave of spawn is coming and the fish are headed back into the bedding areas. Had to quit by 12:30 but even with the wind we had a good morning of 8 fish. Till next time tight lines.
Fished Roosevelt 3-19 and 3-20. My partner and I caught 35 fish on friday ranging from 6" to 6 lbs. We were pre-fishing for club tournament. Caught the 6 lb. fish on a Rico in 2 feet of water in the cove with the ramp at Windy Hill on the Salt side. There is a pretty good top water bite early a.m. and late p.m., don't think it's still too early to try it. I caught some nice slot smallies in a.m. on Panther-Martins. We caught the majority of our fish splitshotting 4" pumkin finese worms with chartreuse tails. Caught a few slot fish on TD Minow jerkbaits and even caught one on a buzzbait. Could not catch any on crankbaits or spinnerbaits. Tourney day 3-20 we only caught half as many fish, no overs, about equal amounts of slot fish and fish under 13". We had a very small bag of fish to weigh in but had a great time anyway. Get up to Roosevelt if you get the chance soon, you can catch fish on a wide variety of tackle.
Crappie fishing was hit & miss. All of the fish were taken on live minnows with two split shots attached trolled verrrry slowly in 15 foot of water near Mohave point. You can't miss that area, there are a lot of boats just drifting up and down that area. Tried power bait and just about every thing else, but live minnows did the trick.Largemouth will turn on in about two weeks. I caught one bass on Kn' B with black power worm/chartreuse tail by the dam.Most of the fish were taken around 9a.m.
Fished Saturday. Temp was 54 AM; 60 PM (where I was at). Had no luck with blades so switched to wormin. Caught 12 fish all in high end of the slot on a Texas rigged Yamamoto grub. Caught all fish at 10-20 ft. Don't know if it made a difference or not but I also used K&B Craw. There were a lot of people there. Probably thin out, though, when the heat turns on and people want shade. Speakin of K&B: Like I said, I don't know if it was the difference or not (first time I ever used it) but the fish sure seemed to hold onto that grub longer than they ever had before. Should of used Berkley's phrase of "fish bite and they won't let go".
Went Feb 24 and 25 with Mike Burkhart. Got their at 6:30 am on Wed and shot to the back (river end) because the spinner bait bite was suppose to be red hot. Not.
We stayed their for about two hours and got nothing on spinnerbaits, topwater and buzzbaits. Weather was nice, warm, sunny,,,looking good. Went up to the ramp area and started to fish flats with plastic 9 inch blue zoom with KNB, picked up fish shallow. They were all in 3 feet to 10 feet on main lake flats. very few on any drop offs. on first day we got 26 fish between the two of us, second day we got two on spinnerbaits AM and one on a worm and then we went home at noon.
Don't leave home without your KNB, the Alamo store dosn't have any and didn't want any. Told me she could buy it cheaper then I was selling it!!
Alamo should be red hot in another week or two of warm weather, the fish were fat with eggs and looked ready to spawn. Males did not have any tail rub from faning the nests, and they were not thick on the flats yet. So this is just the beginning. C>
Went thurs the 18 of Feb at noon. Got to Windy hill boat ramp and met up with Johnny Johnson who has the show on Sat 11:30 and Sunday 2:30 on Cox cable 22(?).
Well I wasn't suppose to fish just meet, but we went out for two hours. Johnny had gotten fish in the AM on spinnerbaits and worms. At lunch it was overcast, nice, about 60-65 and the water was clear. We got a few bass on plastics up in the 5 foot zone. Nothing deep. There were guys killing the crappie between windy hill and schoolhouse point. One guy had a 2 3/4 pound, another guy said he got 75. One guy and his wife said he got two and their were too many boats all in one spot. Anyway Monday the temp drops, then look for 4-5 days of steady temp, either cold or hot, but steady. Then try for bass shallow, crappie in the brush.
I heard Alamo is really turning on with a spinnerbait bite in the AM and then worms all day. Lots of numbers of fish. C>
Well we started out Friday at Canyon Lake no camp sites available.!!! Wind Blowing around 40 MPH down the Canyon 4 ft White caps on lake. Stayed at TORTILLA Flats nice place no electric generator quits trolling motor batteries got work out SAT. We trolled with wind no motors at 2.2 MPH by my new finder!!! 1 Fish !
Sat. night drove to Saguaro but no camping there so off to Pleasant NO BODY will be at the RV park!!! arrive 7:30 PM Beat from fishing and driving no room left at the INN so just like Mary and Joe they said pull up on the gravel overlooking the Marina and sleep. So we did they forgot to mention that they had a members party DISCO Music till 11:30.
Sunday: I get up and beat on generator it starts and runs for 45 min or so while I charge batteries and cook breakfast for family. On lake 9:00 hammer up to humbug and start with some grubs and KNB Garlic dad skunked Mom and Son 1 Dink each. OK off to Choles Bay Dad needs fish to even score nothing. OK Jackass cove Son lands second dink dad Skunked. OK late afternoon islands around Pleasant Harbor dad 1 dink YEA I SCORED..... Dinner time Down with the motorhome everybody at ramp laughing GONA TAKE HIM AN HOUR to get that down the ramp. 10 min Later we are camp site and having a cold DR.P!!! Some of them are still at ramp!!!
Monday: Try generator again starts and runs for 10 min then Die's!!! get the shotgun Martha Well Breakfast ready batteries are just gona have to make it 1 more day. Castle Creek at 9:15 Mom get hooked into a good size something on her minnow and then it jumps and BYE BYE! NOTHING THE REST OF THE DAY !
BTW batteries lasted 1 hour then back to the old days of find a spot and anchors away!!!
We had a great weekend so DAD when can we go again. Wait till I get some more tackle we left a few worms and stuff at the lake!!!
Bryan
Launched on Apache at the crack of dawn and promptly lost my hat due to the wind! Fished and fought the wind till 8:30 then gave up and went to Roosevelt. The bite came on camo worms and watermelon lizards, Fished the islands across from the dam. The fish are more shallow now. Also tried Kicken Bass for the first time and believe it or not I seemed to catch more fish and about 80% were bigger than I usually catch. Not sure if it's the law of average or the stuff really works? Catch a bunch!
(Sat 2/13) It was extremely windy for most of the day, and the fishing was very slow. A friend and I boated 3 smallmouth. All were between 15-16 inches. The first fish came on a 4 inch pumpkin power worm fishing a dropoff by a flat near burnt corral ramp in about 15 feet of water. The other 2 fish came on a double willow spinner bait and an in line spinner bait (both Chartruse) in about 20-25 feet of water in a sheltered cove with a steep rocky shorline. The fish were about 20 feet out from shore.
Wish I'd have read Richard's report before I left the house. I fished Castle Creek and Humbug with the Crazy Woman. Pretty slow day. She did OK with minnows. Nothing real big, and not many, but she's not hard to please. If she catches one fish, she's happy. She did catch the FATTEST 12" large-mouth I've ever seen. I caught 4 worming with a 7" Cammo Power Worm. Biggest was 2lb 8oz on my trusty Normark Dig Scale. Tried grubs lizards and zippers to no avail. Only saw one crappie all day and he was on the end of the Crazy Woman's line. Final note: Fish weren't shy when we actually did find 'em. They hit and hit hard. They're really goin after it. All ya gotta do is find 'em.
Throw The Bigguns Back
Rob
It's been a great 2 weeks at Lake Pleasant. Fished a local club tournament there 2-13-99. Caught 12 nice fish 1 1\2 to 2 pounders splitshotting Kalin's 5" grubs (watermelon and pumkinseed) in about 18 feet of water. It took me most of the day to catch those fish on 2-13 , but caught the same amount on 2-6-99 in about an hour and a half prefishing for the tourney. Found a great spot back in Coles Wash about 500 yards past the no wake buoys on the left side. There are 2 coves side by side that form a Y, with a small island still a couple of feet out of water in front of the 2 coves. The coves are full of fish and the most productive time is about 9 to 11 A.M. Hope someone can find it and have as much fun there as I did!!
Mid-Jan. Main Lake- Inside main lake points with drop off too about 15 ft. deep with sumerged brush. Split shot gidzit with KNB on it drag by brush slowly and consistently caught Bass up too 2 1/2 lb. Topock Gorge- slack water with depth next too the reeds, split shot Gidzits with KNB and caught Bass all day, largest 4lb. Water was very clear in the Gorge, so I could see the Bass come and get the Gidzit,,,Too Much Fun !
COLD COLD COLD Friday 2/5 Tried 10 lane points with tackle box and middle islands Kids and I froze but we will try again soon!
left state line ramp around 7:30, 30 degrees & headed for the san juan river arm. took about 1 hour 15 min looked for any thing shallow with spinner & crank, but no luck. went to hula grub and main pts. fished shallow to about 35 ft. first time ever skunked on powell water was like glass all the way back, made it in 55 min. at about 65 mph
Family and I went fishing Sat 30 and did not land anything. tried Castle Creek and Choles plus pumps and 10 lane. Bryan
Nice fish 4-6 pounds. caught in 10-15ft. of water on texas and carolina rigged worms
we are trying to get a bass club started here in flagstaff. if you are interested e-mail me tim at smittysrm@aol.com
GOOD FISHIN N.AZ BASS
1-10-00---First I'd like to thank "Huck" for turning me on to a new place to view Az. reports. Got on the lake at sunup and fished from the dam towards the Salt end. Things seem to have slowed down a bit as we caught all unders and threw everything we had! The bite's been pretty good up to this point so really don't know what's going on? Bass seem to be hitting finese worms and jerk baits. I'd like to add that we have started a new bass club here in Globe called Bass Kickers and if anyone is interested I'd be glad to share info. Good fishing!
1-9-99 started out at 8 to fish for crappie. found shad and worked grub. caught 3 crappie & 5 bass(only 1 in slot ) so went to bassin , only caught 4 more all dinks on deep crank (char. with blue back ) quit around 5pm not too bad for winter except for size. crappie should be good soon
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