Fish Catching Travel

Our good bass fishing is right around the corner and Strike King has the baits for you!

Nothing like Texas weather.  As I write this today the wind is starting to blow out of the north, before it is over it will blow 25mph again today.  The temperature is set to drop from in the 80’s yesterday to barely making 60 tomorrow.  And of course the wind is forecast to blow for the next 5 – 6 days.  Welcome to early spring on the coast.

When I got to Coleto Monday it was nice and warm, but the wind was already howling out of the southwest at over 25, with gusts exceeding 30.  Begs the question:  Why when the weatherman forecasts completely crap weather with high winds is he always right, but when he forecast 10mph at the Gulf he misses it by 10mph?  Oh well.

The water level continues to rise and the color, it is just plain ugly.  In fact there is almost no water from the dam to up lake that I would describe as clear.  Not sure what that is all about.  One thing that is going on is there seems to be some king of moss/slime bloom up lake.  Not sure what that is about either, but it is messy stuff when you toss your bait in it.

That 5″ stick bait has been the only consistent thing I have found the last couple of months.

I started on the main lake throwing spinnerbait and probably went an hour without a bite.  As I worked my way back in a pocket, where it was fairly calm, I threw the senko up against a stickup and the one above tried to swim off with it.  A fish all the way back in a cove is a sure sign of spring, or at least of the warm weather the last few days.  After a long stretch down lake I headed up.

I stopped on a main lake bank with a serious of points and small pockets.  The wind was pounding on that bank so it was buzzing a spinnerbait.

Spring fishing is right around the corner.

It is time for a Strike King ad.  The spinnerbait I was throwing was a Booyah and it happened again.  I caught the first one and as I reached down to lip him he tossed the arm and blades off, at least I got this one in the boat.  Usually you just see the arm fly off and then the fish swims off with the hook in their fact.  Last year I probably had 5 Booyah spinnerbaits do that, and this is the last of the replacement ones they sent me.   There is no excuse for that so be advised, their spinnerbaits do not hold up.

The ones that did hit the spinnerbait tried to jerk the rod out of my hands.

So I got out the Strike King Red Eye spinnerbait, my favorite, and that solved that problem.  That windy bank gave up a couple before I moved farther up lake.  From there I let the wind blow me up the river and I fished most of it without ever starting the boat.  By this time the wind was just howling out of the southwest, which on Coleto means it was blowing in and on almost every inch of the lake.  Before I headed back down I caught another one on a spinnerbait and 2 on senko, all in coves.

Managed to even put one in the boat on topwater.

My last stop on the way back in was one of the big coves around the corner from the boat dock.  They were probably the only place on the lake without white caps.  Before I quit I wanted to see if they would hit a topwater.   The one above, and a smaller one, came over the side, and another missed it.  For the day it was only 3 misses, 1 on spinnerbait, 1 on plastic, and 1 on topwater, and 7 made it in the boat.

The Carolina skiff has a shoot thru the hull transducer so not sure what the water temp was, but at least a few of them have moved into the coves.  To bad most of them were unfishable.  The last couple of days of warm weather had them thinking of spring, but reality is returning.   A cool down should keep things about the status quo as far as the bass fishing.  The day I wait for now is the drizzling day following a 3 day period of sun and warm weather.  Some of my best days have come on Coleto on those very days.

I was happy with the fishing as the last couple of trips I barely scratched out a couple.  Spring is right around the corner.  Now it is just watching the weather looking for the least wind possible and head to POC.  I have a hankering for a trout fry.

We made our Canada reservations, and this will be my 4th year and we are learning more and more about Lake of the Woods.  And the Arkansas trip is getting closer, and being the first week in April we should catch a wad of them.  First the Austin Boys hit POC in February and if their luck stays like it has been, the fish should be afraid.  So the spring fishing is starting to take shape.  I hope to hit the Upper Laguna one more time.  As soon as I publish this it will be out to do a little work on the boat, it never stops.  Keep stopping in and thanks for reading my stuff.

Good Luck and Tight Lines