After some backseat juggling I ended up on Matt's boat so that Cameron could pre-fish unbothered. Matt, Becky and I got to the lake at around 7:30. We saw tons of bedfish but not a single one was locked on. It was kind of frustrating to see so many sight fish and then have every single one of them bail when you tried to fish em. Reminded me of when I used to try to catch the cruising fish at Cachuma back in the day. We had faith that we would find at least one fish that was catchable so we kept on looking, throwing trout plugs every now and then. Occasionally we'd hit a deep spot and throw big hammer, dropshot and worms. We had absolutely no interest for most if not all of the morning until we came onto a wolfpack of about 7 to 10 fish, biggest about 6 or 7lbs. Matt pitched a dropshot to one of them and miraculously got it to actually bite. He lost the fish, but at least we had a bite. The afternoon was same old, same old, tons of non-committed bedfish and not a bite on anything else. We eventually came to the conclusion that we needed to fish deep so we hit a couple spots for no love and then we ran to this little pocket where Matt caught two fish on back to back casts with a worm. This was at around 3:00 or 3:30. Continued down that bank and I broke off my worm so while I was retying I decided to put on an oxblood/red rather than the cachuma crusher that I was fishing, with the hopes that it would better immitate Matt's worm :-) Sure enough after one or two casts I get a tap tap but the fish doesn't load up. I took strike one on that one. A few minutes later it's time to go and Matt says last cast. Sure enough, on the last cast of the day I stick it to a 12"er. Not a toad, but gratifying none the less. This makes two trips in a row that I haven't been skunked, this is unbelievable. I'll try to keep the streak alive on monday. Pictures should be forthcoming from Matt.
-Brian

Good going! By the time I got there(12:00) the wind sort of came up in the areas I was fihsing so I couldn't do the sight fish thing, besides I was fishing 50-70ft. I'll give it a few more weeks for those bed fish to be locked down. Cant wait. Damn, I should have said hi but I really wasn't sure if it was was Matt or not. I take it you were in the truck? Good job and I'll see you out there some day.

Tight Lines!!!

Yeah, I guess I was probably in the truck. I was in that line for like half an hour. uggggg

Yeah, the line suacked. I came in that day at 5:15. I didnt get my boat out until 6:05. At least I had a decent day on the water with the 3 I caught. All of them were above average fish. I shook off a copuple more to save for my tournament on Sun. Left the lake with high hopes for the tourney.

Sun., I managed 3 fish for 12.68 lbs. That was good enough for 1st place. 2nd place was 4.01lbs and 3rd was 3.65lbs. It was a small club tournament so not too many fishermen(14) but 1st place and big fish was good for 425$.

I hope they hold for the next few weeks. At least the only place they can go is to the beds so it wont change too much.

Brian, we still on for Sat.????

See ya out there
Cam

Taylor,

Speak up! Anytime! blue Ranger, white trim, 200HP Merc Optimax, 518 with a dual console....

I don't think you were off base fishing 50-70ft at all....

You get any?

M

southernswimbait.com
BigBait Fishing in the South

Brian,

Thanks for the report! Good work.

I'll have the pictures tomorrow or something...I still need to pull them off the camera...

Good work at the end there. Glad we got something going. I'm pumped to have a few banks that might hold fish!!!

M

southernswimbait.com
BigBait Fishing in the South

Yeah dude, I knew it was you; I should have said hi. I'm surprised you didn't get any off the Eagle. For me lately fishing deep on structure has been the hot ticket; not exactly hot but I have been hooking up. All the fish I've caught have been good sized keepers. I have found that 4lb. line and an oxblood worm is really paying off. As for Saturday, I managed two deep; not all that bad considering I got there at 12:00 and fished till 4:00. It's nice to hear you guys were hooking up. Same goes to you, anytime you see me say hi; I'm in a white with gold trim dual console Ranger(175DVS). O'well I'll see you out there again. I look forward to your pics.

Later!!!

If you see an all white Champion with a little gold trim, come over and say something. I'll keep my eyes out for ya.

Good job on the deep fish, I haven't spent too uch time fishing deep, but when I do, I cant seem to find them. There just not on the usual spots for me. Oh well, there coming up fast thats for sure.

We'll be back down there this Sat.

Later
Cameron

I might be out there as well this Sat. Have you been going for the sight fish? If you're on a secret pattern please don't tell. One more month and those fish will be all over the bank. Time to break out the white jigs!

Later!!!

I'll talk to you on Sat if we run into each other.

Cam

Taylor,

I will do. 175 DVS...I think I remember now....

Right on..

M

southernswimbait.com
BigBait Fishing in the South

Hey I was there too, I have a Tracker Pro V-17 with a 90hp Tohatsu, I probably saw you. Man, those bass were hitting good that day, too bad they were so deep. We were killing them on the troll while trolling for trout. I found that every spot we found the fish stacked vertically on the graph, they would be bass. Is this generally true ? Whenver we found fish scattered through out the screen, they would be trout. Any logic to this ? I learned how to needle bass that day too, the guy at the dock showed us which was cool as most of the fish we caught were 35-55 feet deep. Got any tips for the catfish in there ?

Muskyman,

Forgive me for prying....what were you trolling for the trout? At what depth?

And you were catching the bass huh?

Please elaborate!

Matt

southernswimbait.com
BigBait Fishing in the South

I was trolling the TD Vibrations in the suspending model, the color was blue & silver. We were trolling 2.2 -2.5 mph on 12 -15 leadcore with a 20 foot leader of 10 lb test. Those TD vibration baits are so deadly, they send the typical rattle trap to shame. I have done really well in some events on them. I think we were getting down about 30 feet down with the lead we had out but it is hard to guage with leadcore. I no longer fish events so trolling works just fine for me, now I know why they don't allow it !

Thats interesting that you were nailing them on the troll like that. What were you trolling?

When I have seen fish stacked vertically on the graph it has been either bass or crappie. Were they stacked on top of structure or suspended over deep water?

As far as the catfish go, I know theres a spot by the bouy line, theres a spot in aqueduct arm, and a good spot in the cove just to the right of grassy bay. I know most of the guys that catch the big cats are pretty tight lipped about it, but I usually see a few of them on those spots.

Cameron