FISH CATCHING TRAVEL

Weather

80/66  Wind 10 -20 SE  Cloudy  Chance of rain 40%  (Missed by a mile except temperature)

Tides -Thursday

19     High   6:18 AM     0.7     (As flat and high as we occasionally see.)
19      Low  11:02 AM     0.6
19     High   4:19 PM     0.7
19      Low  11:13 PM     0.5

Solunar Tables

• Best Times     9:13A – 11:13A  (The bite was a little later due to the wind laying)
•                          9:34P – 11:34P
• Good Times   3:02A – 5:02A

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They are eating that Bang O Lure on Coleto right now.

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It was cloudy and the wind was blowing when I got to the ramp at the lake around 8.  It was supposed to be sketchy in the afternoon, and the weatherman could not have missed it any more if he tried.  The water is still coming up, and unfortunately the water color  still leaves something to be desired.  I am worried that if it does not clear some we may not have our deep grass again this year, which not only affects the fishing but could have some affect on recruitment of this years fry.  On the other hand there is lots and lots of new grass and cover on the edge of the lake and the fish are there.

So with a 15mph+ wind I headed to a couple of protected coves, and though I picked up one here and there, it was slow.  But keep in mind, if I have learned one thing on Coleto is that most of the year these are the laziest bass I have ever seen.  They like to sleep late and as the day wears on they bite better and better, with the good bite usually coming in the middle of the day, and today was no different.

Did manage a couple of nice ones on spinnerbait while the wind was blowing.

I basically hit a few coves on the way up lake, catching one here and one there on both buzzbait and the Bang O Lure.  I stopped on a windy shallow bank and caught a couple of ok fish on spinnerbait.  Buzzing it, when they stopped it they stopped it.  But it still was not all the good so I headed up river.

It is downright off-color up lake.  So relying on last year I decided to pitch a lizard to the shallow cover and caught a couple and missed a couple on the only bank I fished.  Basically keeping the boat next to the bank just underhand pitching a 5″ watermelon red lizard with a 3/16th weight pegged was the way to go.  There are fish to be caught shallow there if you are a pitcher of flipper.

And then it was Bang O Lure the rest of the afternoon.

Not being a big fan of that really off-color water, and with the wind laying it was time to head back down to coves near the dam and toss the topwater.  The first  cover I caught a couple, the next 4, and then 5 or 6 in the last cove.  Today they wanted it just twitched basically right along on top, with several of them blowing up on it.  There were no real good ones today but once they started to bite it was on.  Most of them were in the back half of the coves near the grass, some in a couple of feet of water.  I am not a bed fisherman so I do not even explore that, but there are beds everywhere.  Whether those good fish are on or done I am not sure.

When I left the house I forgot my phone and had no watch so I saw a boat headed to the ramp so it was time to figure out what time it was.  It ended up being 3 and though the bite was on I called it a day.  If I had to guess it was over 15 today, and it was an easy measure limit, just not a big one to go with the others.  If I had manned up and went back out I probably could have added that big fish.

The big bass tourney is this weekend and it should be interesting.  Finding the pattern to catch what should be the around 20lbs to win will be tough but doable.  There are lots of ways to catch fish out there right now and someone always figures it out.  So if you are fishing this weekend good luck

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I got this comment from Rick and wanted to share it with you as it made me think about the solunar times.

I really like the addition of the weather, tides and solunar table information. I’ve often wondered how accurate the solunar times are and by watching your reports we ought to get a pretty fair idea of how well they work. Keep up the good work.

Thinking about the solunar times and just watching the moon it got me to thinking.  Over the years I have not been a big watcher but one this is become apparent, just because it is a prime time does not mean you are going to catch them.  But by the same token I have noticed that when I wacked them it is usually during that period.  What we can take from that is if you are planning on fishing several places, especially on the Gulf, it might just pay off to be on your best spot during the prime period.  As we watch this year we all just might learn something.  As usual, thanks for your comment.

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A big shout out to my buddy Jeffish.  He ordered me a embroidered fishing shirt with my logo on it.  Really a nice thing to do and I really appreciate it.  I have not really marketed myself or the site to speak of, but it might be time to get some business cards.  It is always a battle to decide whether to stay like we are or try to up it a notch.  But no matter what when I have the fancy fishing shirt the fish will jump in the boat!  Thanks Dude.

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And now for the tip of the month, which may actually be the tip of the year.  The Shoedog’s son has a cool early 60’s Chevy and he found some really nice chrome Cragar spoke rims.  They had a little rust on them so before they had them mounted he bought some stuff to clean them up.  It worked like a charm so the Shoedog came up with the idea, why not take some of those old saltwater lures that were trashed and toss them in some and see how it works.  He said it cleaned them up fantastic in about 5 hours!  It even took those little rust spots off the body of hard baits.  If you have tried to get that stuff off you know it rarely comes off without sand paper, and I hate those rust spots.  The name of the stuff is Evaporust.  I have not tried it yet but if takes that stuff off old baits it is worth every penny.  Change hooks and it is good as new.

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It must suck at times to be the weatherman.  It has not rained or stormed anywhere near what they were saying it would this week.  It looks like it will be spotty on the Coast tomorrow so I am going to try to sneak out before I spend the next few days doing the garage sale thing.  The best thing about that, besides a little extra $$, is I got most of my tackle room floor space back.  So keep stopping in and thanks for reading my stuff.

Good Luck and Tight Lines