Went pre-fishing today

carolina-rig-01 · 05-13-11, 06:09 PM

Britney and I have a club tourney tomorrow and so dad and I went pre-fishing today to see if I could figure something out. We got ran off the lake at 10:00 in the morning by thunderstorms but we had them dialed in today. With the lake flooding right as the spawn was getting started there was a lot of talk about whether it ruined the spawn or not when they drew the lake back down in a hurry. I personally didn't think it would stop the spawn, I thought once the lake level stabilized there would be another wave move up to spawn and I believe I was right. We had a limit within 45 minutes that would have pushed 15lbs or so and had several other keepers by 10:00 including the kicker in the pic, she went in the neighborhood of 5lbs and I saw her come out of a laydown and inhale my spinnerbait. When I seen her I thought she was about 15 inches or so, if I knew how big she was I would have pulled my spinnerbait away and saved her for tomorrow. We ended up with a limit in the area of 16-17lbs and didn't hit any one area hard at all, we just covered a lot of water and once we caught a keeper we moved on so we wouldn't hurt the areas for tomorrow. We caught fish everywhere we went and we caught them on a variety of baits like buzzbaits, spinnerbaits, Biffle Bugs, squarebilled crankbaits, Baby Brush Hogs, and Salt Craws. It didn't seem to matter what we threw as long as it was around shallow cover. That is the good news, the bad news is there is a cold front moving through right now and the temp in the morning will be about 20 degrees colder than it was this morning. I am hoping our fish stay shallow but I am affraid that they might move back out on points over night and that could cause us to have adjust a little bit, I hate having to make adjustments to a pattern that is dialed in.

Here was the kicker that I wish I could have saved for tomorrow.

cassidyta · 05-13-11, 06:28 PM

Nice Fish Kory. I was cursing you when I got the text.

keithdog · 05-13-11, 06:31 PM

Dang Kory, thats a beaut!!! I hope everything stays as it was and if so, I know you'll do well. Good luck pal!!!

carolina-rig-01 · 05-13-11, 06:41 PM

Thanks fellas. Tom I think I still owe you a few more pictures like this while you are at work.

I figure if we could get 5 fish like this one in the boat tomorrow we should be in good shape lol.

pro reel · 05-13-11, 07:25 PM

What a difference a week can make. Last week, the bass were just starting to move back up. If you look at the results of the Grand chalenge you will see that about 90% of the top 100 had the late weigh ins. Talk at the ramp was most of them caught the best fish in the last few hours of the tourney. The warm weather was pulling the bass into the spawning areas. I caught my best 3.5 lb bass at about 1:00 PM, unfortunatley, I had to weigh in at 2:00 and missed the best fishing of the day.

carolina-rig-01 · 05-13-11, 07:41 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by pro reel

What a difference a week can make. Last week, the bass were just starting to move back up. If you look at the results of the Grand chalenge you will see that about 90% of the top 100 had the late weigh ins. Talk at the ramp was most of them caught the best fish in the last few hours of the tourney. The warm weather was pulling the bass into the spawning areas. I caught my best 3.5 lb bass at about 1:00 PM, unfortunatley, I had to weigh in at 2:00 and missed the best fishing of the day.

I was wondering how you guys did. Since I didn't get any drunken phone calls I assumed you didn't do too well. From what I heard it was a tough bite last week, I am sorry your trip had to be when the lake was at it's worst. Did you get the email I sent you that night with the picture of my topo map?

bamabassman · 05-13-11, 08:31 PM

looks like you got em kory. wishing the best of luck to BRITNEY........and oyu of course.

now i got a question for oyu buddy for real. the temps are gonna drop here as well next week. BUT they will be rising up as the week goes on. if the fish move out to points like you said, will they return as it warms up by the end of the week?
i am asking because the WATER temp is gonna be aobut the same. jsut wondering if they will retrun as the AIR temp goes back up as the week goes on. wheeler/wilson is what i am talking aobut of course.

thanks kory. and again, we hope oyu guys WIN IT ALL MAN!!!

carolina-rig-01 · 05-13-11, 08:50 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by bamabassman

looks like you got em kory. wishing the best of luck to BRITNEY........and oyu of course.

now i got a question for oyu buddy for real. the temps are gonna drop here as well next week. BUT they will be rising up as the week goes on. if the fish move out to points like you said, will they return as it warms up by the end of the week?
i am asking because the WATER temp is gonna be aobut the same. jsut wondering if they will retrun as the AIR temp goes back up as the week goes on. wheeler/wilson is what i am talking aobut of course.

thanks kory. and again, we hope oyu guys WIN IT ALL MAN!!!

Honestly I think it will depend a lot on what phase of the spawn you are in. We had a fairly late spawn in my opinion and then the flood kinda put it on hold again. I would assume you guys are post spawn for the most part which probably means that a lot of the fish have moved off the banks already anyways, although there are probably a lot of fish shallow still as well. Generally speaking if they move off the bank with a cold front they will move back up after the front passes and the weather stabilizes for a day or two. There will be a certain amount of fish that won't move out with a cold front and in my experience they are hard to catch but easier to predict if that makes sense. The shallow fish in this situation will generally hold up tight to cover like wood or grass, but just because you know where they are you still have to catch them and they can be a little contancorious but I think flipping and pitching to these shallow fish should get you bit. Of course this is all realative to geographic locations because different lakes will fish different but this is kind of a hard and fast rule that I go by, at least for a jumping off point.

bamabassman · 05-13-11, 08:54 PM

well MOST of the bass are in POST SPAWN on g'ville. dunno bout wheeler or wilson. they were the same i was told on wheeler and wilson.

thanks kory. i think we gonna get us a few........well lisa will for sure,lol.

Embrey · 05-13-11, 09:35 PM

i did the same today and had about the same results, but none over 3.5. it would appear to me they are in the middle of the process somewhere. but hard to tell since i cant see the bottom. these fish were super hard to hook and would ONLY hit a spinnerbait. i had about 50 baits in the floor by the time i was done and none of them worked...lol. they all seemed to be males except one and were hitting it from the side but not really eating it like they were guarding the nest. i bet i missed 5 out of 6 hits all day. and when i ran through a certain spot with the bait, small fry were jumping everywhere. or maybe shad. not real sure. but they were super small.

MIbasser · 05-13-11, 10:08 PM

Great fish C-rig! Who knows, maybe if she's protecting that area she might be there tomorrow. Good luck tomorrow.

pro reel · 05-14-11, 11:49 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by carolina-rig-01

I was wondering how you guys did. Since I didn't get any drunken phone calls I assumed you didn't do too well. From what I heard it was a tough bite last week, I am sorry your trip had to be when the lake was at it's worst. Did you get the email I sent you that night with the picture of my topo map?

Yes, we fished in that area and actually caught the biggest of my 4 fish limit in a small cove at the end of the bluff. I wish I had signed up late and had the 4:00 pm weigh in as the best fishing was late in the day. We came in with 8.55 lbs and placed 255 out of 491 teams. I once again learned the painful lesson to check the line and knots frequently. I had been dragging a shakey head rigged bait through laydowns and rocks and jerked it loose from several snags. I should have retied it several times but didn't. I came across one of the old style boat launches made of RR track and a trailer on train car wheels. I pitched the bait to the tracks and pulled it over the first cross member. I got a solid strike and set the hook on what felt to be a big fish, The fish was not moved away from the cover by a hard hookset and instead shot to the side. I would guess it to be at least a 4 to 5 lb bass as a 2 lb bass would have come flying out of the water on that hook set. Just as I got the fish turned my knot snapped and that was that. Good luck on your tourney, and check your line and knots frequently.

66KingFisher · 05-14-11, 02:05 PM

Nice job Kory, and good luck in your Tournament.

Bassboss · 05-14-11, 03:31 PM

They scheduled them thing for the crappies days don't they? lol

Nice fish, hope they stay shallow for ya. Good luck catching 'em tomorrow.

Embrey · 05-14-11, 04:43 PM

i weighed a whopping 4 lbs today. nothing was the same at all, and never figured out what to do. most everybody else did though like always...

05-13-11, 06:09 PM	#1
carolina-rig-01 BassFishin.Com Premier Elite Join Date: Feb 2006 Location: Webb City, MO Posts: 6,387	Went pre-fishing today Britney and I have a club tourney tomorrow and so dad and I went pre-fishing today to see if I could figure something out. We got ran off the lake at 10:00 in the morning by thunderstorms but we had them dialed in today. With the lake flooding right as the spawn was getting started there was a lot of talk about whether it ruined the spawn or not when they drew the lake back down in a hurry. I personally didn't think it would stop the spawn, I thought once the lake level stabilized there would be another wave move up to spawn and I believe I was right. We had a limit within 45 minutes that would have pushed 15lbs or so and had several other keepers by 10:00 including the kicker in the pic, she went in the neighborhood of 5lbs and I saw her come out of a laydown and inhale my spinnerbait. When I seen her I thought she was about 15 inches or so, if I knew how big she was I would have pulled my spinnerbait away and saved her for tomorrow. We ended up with a limit in the area of 16-17lbs and didn't hit any one area hard at all, we just covered a lot of water and once we caught a keeper we moved on so we wouldn't hurt the areas for tomorrow. We caught fish everywhere we went and we caught them on a variety of baits like buzzbaits, spinnerbaits, Biffle Bugs, squarebilled crankbaits, Baby Brush Hogs, and Salt Craws. It didn't seem to matter what we threw as long as it was around shallow cover. That is the good news, the bad news is there is a cold front moving through right now and the temp in the morning will be about 20 degrees colder than it was this morning. I am hoping our fish stay shallow but I am affraid that they might move back out on points over night and that could cause us to have adjust a little bit, I hate having to make adjustments to a pattern that is dialed in. Here was the kicker that I wish I could have saved for tomorrow.

05-13-11, 06:28 PM	#2
cassidyta BassFishin.Com Super Veteran Join Date: Jul 2008 Location: San Diego, CA Posts: 2,928	Nice Fish Kory. I was cursing you when I got the text. __________________ If you have ever wondered if you should retie, the answer is yes.

05-13-11, 06:31 PM	#3
keithdog BassFishin.Com Premier Elite Join Date: Jul 2006 Location: IN Posts: 8,308	Dang Kory, thats a beaut!!! I hope everything stays as it was and if so, I know you'll do well. Good luck pal!!! __________________ Just one more cast, and then some!

05-13-11, 08:31 PM	#7
bamabassman BassFishin.Com Premier Elite Join Date: Jan 2008 Location: cedar bluff, alabama Posts: 15,292	looks like you got em kory. wishing the best of luck to BRITNEY........and oyu of course. now i got a question for oyu buddy for real. the temps are gonna drop here as well next week. BUT they will be rising up as the week goes on. if the fish move out to points like you said, will they return as it warms up by the end of the week? i am asking because the WATER temp is gonna be aobut the same. jsut wondering if they will retrun as the AIR temp goes back up as the week goes on. wheeler/wilson is what i am talking aobut of course. thanks kory. and again, we hope oyu guys WIN IT ALL MAN!!! __________________ so many lures, so little time.

05-13-11, 08:54 PM	#9
bamabassman BassFishin.Com Premier Elite Join Date: Jan 2008 Location: cedar bluff, alabama Posts: 15,292	well MOST of the bass are in POST SPAWN on g'ville. dunno bout wheeler or wilson. they were the same i was told on wheeler and wilson. thanks kory. i think we gonna get us a few........well lisa will for sure,lol. __________________ so many lures, so little time.

05-13-11, 06:41 PM	#4
carolina-rig-01 BassFishin.Com Premier Elite Join Date: Feb 2006 Location: Webb City, MO Posts: 6,387	Thanks fellas. Tom I think I still owe you a few more pictures like this while you are at work. I figure if we could get 5 fish like this one in the boat tomorrow we should be in good shape lol.

05-13-11, 07:25 PM	#5
pro reel BassFishin.Com Veteran Member Join Date: Oct 2010 Location: Wichita Kansas Posts: 761	What a difference a week can make. Last week, the bass were just starting to move back up. If you look at the results of the Grand chalenge you will see that about 90% of the top 100 had the late weigh ins. Talk at the ramp was most of them caught the best fish in the last few hours of the tourney. The warm weather was pulling the bass into the spawning areas. I caught my best 3.5 lb bass at about 1:00 PM, unfortunatley, I had to weigh in at 2:00 and missed the best fishing of the day.

05-13-11, 09:35 PM	#10
Embrey BassFishin.Com Veteran Member Join Date: Jan 2010 Posts: 505	i did the same today and had about the same results, but none over 3.5. it would appear to me they are in the middle of the process somewhere. but hard to tell since i cant see the bottom. these fish were super hard to hook and would ONLY hit a spinnerbait. i had about 50 baits in the floor by the time i was done and none of them worked...lol. they all seemed to be males except one and were hitting it from the side but not really eating it like they were guarding the nest. i bet i missed 5 out of 6 hits all day. and when i ran through a certain spot with the bait, small fry were jumping everywhere. or maybe shad. not real sure. but they were super small.

05-13-11, 10:08 PM	#11
MIbasser BassFishin.Com Super Veteran Join Date: Feb 2008 Location: Okemos, MI Posts: 1,447	Great fish C-rig! Who knows, maybe if she's protecting that area she might be there tomorrow. Good luck tomorrow.

05-14-11, 02:05 PM	#13
66KingFisher BassFishin.Com Super Veteran Join Date: Nov 2008 Location: Mena,Arkansas Posts: 1,327	Nice job Kory, and good luck in your Tournament. __________________ In memory of lost fishin buddy's, Ricky Shealy, Keith Hale, Zooker Dickerson.

05-14-11, 03:31 PM	#14
Bassboss BassFishin.Com Premier Elite Join Date: Jan 2009 Location: Shawano, WI Posts: 7,761	They scheduled them thing for the crappies days don't they? lol Nice fish, hope they stay shallow for ya. Good luck catching 'em tomorrow. __________________ If you can't fix it with heavy squats or fish oil, you're probably going to die.

05-14-11, 04:43 PM	#15
Embrey BassFishin.Com Veteran Member Join Date: Jan 2010 Posts: 505	i weighed a whopping 4 lbs today. nothing was the same at all, and never figured out what to do. most everybody else did though like always...

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