# Anyone getting out?



## LDUBS

I'm "boatless" whilst waiting for the new boat to be delivered. I hope to have it mid to late May (fingers crossed). Anyway, I'm kind of off the water, though I may try to do some bank fishing in the next couple of weeks. 

Is anyone getting out? Limits? Skunks? Anything? We need some fishing reports here on TB.net.


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## richg99

Maybe next week. Weather isn't cooperating here. 85 degrees yesterday; 52 at best later today. Winds to 40 mph as the front rolls through, accompanied by rain. Bah humbug. Should have gone Friday.


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## LDUBS

We also had a big rain storm roll through. looks like it will clear up now. I need to finish a landscape lighting project at the house then I plan on heading out to a local reservoir that stocks rainbows for some bank fishing. Hopefully the water will clear up by next week for some good fishing.


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## JL8Jeff

It's been pretty cool and miserable the last 5-6 weeks. I think we had snow at least 4 or 5 of those weeks. I usually have my dock and boat in the water for the season by now but I'm looking to later this week I hope. I finally got in 2 rounds of golf so the boat isn't far behind!

Update: My dock is in the water so the boat will be going in the water the next day or 2. The river looks somewhat clear, but it's cold! I had to go into the water past knee deep in shorts to get a barrel under the dock and put the first runway on. It was 45 today and it got down to 24 overnight so it was not really shorts weather! :mrgreen:


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## LDUBS

I made it out for some bank fishing this morning at a place not too far from the house. My first trip to a local reservoir called Los Vaqueros so I wasn't sure what to expect. It rained pretty hard last night so I had some concern the water would be pretty muddy. Turned out to be relatively clear. I managed to pick up one trout. I had to land it on the bank and the poor guy got pretty banged up on the rocks. Next time I think I'll bring a net. I was using a Kastmaster on 4# mono. Anyway, it was nice to get out and toss a lure.




Drove by some windmills on the way to the reservoir.


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## richg99

Four pound test! I use that for fly rod leaders. Ha Ha 
(not that I do much fly fishing these days)


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## DaleH

Have been trout fishing local ponds the past month every SAT morning, trolling SLOWLY gold or silver spoons depending on the light. So we’ll fish 1 of each until we identify the hot rod, then will switch over to that color. 

It’s been amazing, as once we identify what color they like, that color will outfish the other one 10 to 1 ...


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## LDUBS

I was using a gold Kastmaster with spots on it. Tossing it with a 9.5' float & fly rod with the 4# mono. I have a this one and another lite action spinning rod loaded with 4 pound mono. I have a friend who uses nothing but 2# on his trout spinning gear. That is a little too light for my taste. Even with 4#, horsing a fish in may not be the best idea. haha. 

Kind of funny that some days it is gold, others it is silver, or red/gold, or purple, etc. I think a lot of folks stick with a lure too long because they caught their last fish with it.


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## gnappi

When running water was muddy with red clay after rain a gold Mepps (plain Mepps no bucktails or beads) #1 killed trout, in clear water a Mepps #0 in silver did it. Get a Mepps, catch some trout.


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## LDUBS

gnappi said:


> When running water was muddy with red clay after rain a gold Mepps (plain Mepps no bucktails or beads) #1 killed trout, in clear water a Mepps #0 in silver did it. Get a Mepps, catch some trout.



Those are great lures. I like them better than Rooster Tails and other in line spinners. I have several in different colors, mostly dressed but one or two plain ones. I've been meaning to change out the treble to a single siwash hook on a few so I can hang a trout worm off the back. Mepps sells a model with a single hook but I never see them at the tackle stores. 

I was at a tackle store last week and stopped to look at a display of Super Duper lures, another classic. I used that lure when I was a kid. I have one in the tackle box but just carry it around now. I guess that like Mepps spinners, Wedding Rings, and a bunch of others, they are still around because they probably work.


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## richg99

Ha! Just yesterday I was telling my wife about the 6 plastic boxes of lures, and the two very large worm bundles ( 12 x 12 ) each that I carry every time I go out in the boat. 

Of course, I only use about 5 or 6 of the same lures and just keep changing them out and in all day long!

This is a consideration since we are packing for our trek to TN. in a week. I know I ought to leave some lures in TN and keep the rest here, but I just can't leave any behind. Kind of like kids.


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## onthewater102

Just finished with tax season this past Tuesday...fish, be afraid...


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## LDUBS

richg99 said:


> Ha! Just yesterday I was telling my wife about the 6 plastic boxes of lures, and the two very large worm bundles ( 12 x 12 ) each that I carry every time I go out in the boat.
> 
> Of course, I only use about 5 or 6 of the same lures and just keep changing them out and in all day long!
> 
> This is a consideration since we are packing for our trek to TN. in a week. I know I ought to leave some lures in TN and keep the rest here, but I just can't leave any behind. Kind of like kids.




When the number of lures becomes a concern while packing for a move, then you are a true fisherman. :LOL2:


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## richg99

Just came off of the Houston 8-acre pond. Bright, sunny, Bluebird day. Not what I usually consider a fish catching day....except here on this pond.

As long as I kept working the shadows from the overhanging trees, I swear I had a fish on every couple of minutes or so. 

I crush the hook's barb most of the time on this lake, so I probably only landed 8 or 10. I'm pretty much the ONLY person who fishes this lake with any regularity, and that is only when we are here in Texas. I never catch much of anything over a 1-lb or so LM Bass, but they give me a great fight and it is a unique experience. 

Once a year or so, I will drop a worm or other lure right onto the nose of a big catfish, purely by accident. They can go 5 or 6 lbs, I'd guess. THAT is a tussle, given my fairly lightweight rod and line. Back when I used my kayak, the cats would give me a "sleigh ride".


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## lovedr79

i will be next week, heading to the St. Johns river. out of Palatka, Fl. my step dad has the boat rented already. supposed to be for 2 days. then at the end of next week i will be in beaufort, Nc. my cousin has a house on the south river. they just got a new boat. so we will see.


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## richg99

You have better relatives than I do.


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## LDUBS

richg99 said:


> You have better relatives than I do.


 :LOL2: :LOL2: :LOL2:


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## LDUBS

richg99 said:


> Just came off of the Houston 8-acre pond. Bright, sunny, Bluebird day. Not what I usually consider a fish catching day....except here on this pond.
> 
> As long as I kept working the shadows from the overhanging trees, I swear I had a fish on every couple of minutes or so.
> 
> I crush the hook's barb most of the time on this lake, so I probably only landed 8 or 10. I'm pretty much the ONLY person who fishes this lake with any regularity, and that is only when we are here in Texas. I never catch much of anything over a 1-lb or so LM Bass, but they give me a great fight and it is a unique experience.
> 
> Once a year or so, I will drop a worm or other lure right onto the nose of a big catfish, purely by accident. They can go 5 or 6 lbs, I'd guess. THAT is a tussle, given my fairly lightweight rod and line. Back when I used my kayak, the cats would give me a "sleigh ride".



LMB's put up a heck of a fight. What were you using? Back when I used to target LMB, I used rubber worms almost exclusively. Fished them slowly. Once you learned how to fish them, they out produced hard lures consistently. At least that was my experience.


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## richg99

Ha Ha, you really ARE old. We use ....plastic.... worms now. 

Yep, the soft plastics, at least on this pond, catch 99% of my fish.

Went to Lake Conroe this morning. Skunked, even with the worms and a lot more lures.


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## LDUBS

They used to melt into the tackle box. Haha

Do you look at the Solunar calendar? I look at it but I wouldn't let it stop me from going fishing. If you need an excuse, today wasn't a good day. Monday mid-day is supposed to be best. 

https://www.in-fisherman.com/solunar-calendar/


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## richg99

I go when I can. Solunar can be very helpful, but I often cannot time my trips based on the calendar.


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## onthewater102

FINALLY made it out last Friday the 27th...50 degrees, early sunny skies quickly changed to on-again off-again rain with a steady wind that cut a chill to your bones...who cares, I was finally out for 2018.

There wasn't a reliable pattern anywhere, we caught fish on jerkbaits, spinnerbaits, spider grubs, swimbaits, underspins, hair jigs, chatterbaits...just about anything we put on. The location seemed to matter bait by bait, but just as soon as we caught two or three fish out of an area and thought we were onto something the area would go dead and we'd have to move and switch to something else.

I wish we had a thermometer with us to know what surface temperatures we were seeing. There didn't seem to be large numbers of fish anywhere. The biggest fish were all close by to deep water, none came from the backside of coves, which was probably the only universally applicable piece of intel we gleaned all day long.

My most productive bait was the underspin with a 3" paddle tail swimbait on it. Big fish came from steep dropping slopes where I'd cast the bait into 4' or 5' of water, let it sink to the bottom, pop it back up and reel up enough line that it would swing like a pendulum the rest of the way back to the boat. Bites were coming from somewhere deeper than 10', probably all the way down to 20'. My partner caught fish shallow on a spinnerbait, spider grub and jerkbait, but his big girl (5lb 14oz) came on a 4.8" paddle tail swimbait on a 3/8oz jighead. 

Total body count was 77 fish across 6 species. Probably 4:1 mix of LMB to SMB, with about a dozen chunky rock bass, a few yellow perch, a poor bluegill who caught a chatterbait hook just above his eyes and a few slime darts including one that was 3lbs+ and made its way into the only slimer picture I'll probably take for the year. My top 5 were somewhere between 18 and 19lbs, which I'll take in CT any day.


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## LDUBS

OTW, thanks for the fantastic report and for including the details. It is a very enjoyable read. You had one heck of a great day on the water.


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## onthewater102

Headed to a pond in the northwest CT corner to avoid the rain, which worked as planned. Water temps were surprisingly high, 62/63 everywhere, but the weeds were just starting to show green on them in places. Overcast conditions had me expecting an active bite just about everywhere - couldn't have been further from the truth. 12 fish in 4+ hours of effort and no more than two from the same general area. Bites came on swimfish, chatterbaits, jerkbaits and a curly tail grub, almost all from skinny water (3' or less). 

Brought the little guy with me thinking we'd be seeing a lot more bites than we ended up with, so other than the big slimer and fat girl I handed the rod over to him after hooking each as the wind was seriously restricting his casting range - so it was a team effort. He makes the pictures come out better anyway!


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## richg99

Cute kid. Nice bass and the Northern, too. 

Better results than I had for two days of fishing here in TN recently.


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## onthewater102

That was a big pickerel - thankfully no pike in the waters we were fishing yesterday.


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## LDUBS

Best pic's I've seen in a while! Those are some pretty decent fish and must have seemed like monsters to him.


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## onthewater102

Hit the same pond yesterday under seemingly similar conditions and nada - not so much as a sniff from a shallow fish and couldn't locate anything willing to chew at or around the first depth break. No real signs of any movement anywhere. That's spring fishing for you though, there one day & gone the next. Cold front passing through the day before certainly didn't help matters.

Called it quits after 3 hours. Skunk'd


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## richg99

Spent five hours toda....8 to 1.... in our local bass club tournament. These contests are all held on the 11 lakes within the subdivision. Biggest bass ever weighed, over 25 + years, was 9 lbs, I believe. 
That is NOT typical. Most five-fish stringers come in around 5 to 7 lbs to WIN! As you can see, not much is expected nor is much ever produced.

Our 3.5 lbs today was typical of the results, though this particular contest brought a half dozen teams in with 7 lbs or more. Largest fish weighed that I saw was around 4 lbs. 

Hotter than normal out there today. I think this area of TN. is setting heat records for this time of the year.

Oh well, nap time now. 

rich


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## LDUBS

Sounds good. Even getting skunked sounds good. I'm not catching many from here on the couch. Haha. Latest update is I should have the boat at the end of the month. At least I have been getting a lot of house projects done.


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