FISH CATCHING TRAVEL

With rain in the forecast will fish the lake tomorrow, not interested in driving down to POC and getting blown off.  According to the weather dude we will have 2 more days of rain and then it looks like this pattern is over, finally.  I am sure before it is over the next year or two we will be wishing we had this rain.  There is an upside, it filled the lake.  I keep expecting once if finally stabilizes that the fishing will improve.  Just have to see how it goes tomorrow.

Early enough for you?

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Weather

76/89.  More clouds than sun; humid with a 47% chance of thunderstorm in a couple of spots.  Wind  ENE 5 – 10 mph.

Lake Level

Today  98.29 msl.   Last Friday  98.27 msl.

Bite Times

Major 11:09 am to 1:09 pm.

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The Wade Right Fishing Belt and the new Madre Sling.

For all your wading needs.

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It was dead calm at the ramp and the lake level looks about like it did.  The water temp ranged from 89 to 92 as the day warmed and the color is slowly but surely clearing.  Unfortunately since the grass did not come back it will never be “clear” again.  So I headed up lake to throw buzzbait until sunrise, then crankbait and plastics.  It was dead calm and basically stayed that way all day.

Best of 5 casting.

And as it has been I caught 2 smalls on the buzzbait, which was the only 2 bites on it.  So I tossed the chartreuse square bill, some plastics on wood, neither of which produced a bite.  At this point I turned around and ran way down lake to the one bank that has had fish on it and tossed the crankbait.  Basically the bank is a good ways from deep water and not the kind of place that one would think has fish.  For the whole length of it just reeled the crankbait at medium speed and when they bit they whacked it.  3 made it to the boat, and i missed 2 for some reason.  The one above was the best I could manage.   Now it is about 10:30 and dead calm so I decided to do a little trolling and see if the white bass are at the lower end.

First up was the long point coming out of the mouth of the ramp cove.  It usually has white bass on it most of the summer, but not this morning.  So time to just keep going, which I did for an hour without a touch.  And the finally it started with a double.

2 whites bass of the 5 caught trolling.

Using a Shad Rap on one line, and a shad looking thing I have no idea where I got it, it gave them 2 different looks and vibration.  I tried out to the main channel, some of it almost 30 foot deep without a bite.  What made that interesting is that usually produces small bass.  So I moved in some and then a double with a small bass and a white bass.  They were in 10 – 14 foot of water and there were schools of shad on the locator.  After making a bunch of passes it produced 3 small bass, 5 white bass, and one nice catfish.

And like catfish will do it smoked the crankbait.

I find it interesting that until I found them I did not have one random bite, which is very unusual for summer trolling on Coleto.  And all of them were in one stretch about 20 yards at most, and miss it by a little and no bites.  It was 2.5 mph with about 100′ of line out, which had one bait running 10′ and one running 7′.  The Shad Rap was definitely the bait of choice.  Those of you who read this know I like to troll when the time is right, and maybe a little more time in the shallower water might produce.

So it is puzzling that one spot had a bunch of fish, and miles prior to that zip.  They were definitely on shad, which were in that 12 – 16 foot range.  And I am still seeing a really strong line on the graph that must be dirt from the flood.  Really reminds me of when Norfork and Bull Shoals would thermocline and you could easily see it.  Only time will tell if it clears up.  I still do not know what to think about the bass fishing, but there is definitely a fish fry coming in our future.  And hey, I did catch 14 which made the morning.

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The Coleto Bassmaster club tournament went exactly as I thought it would.  One good one over 5lbs was caught by the winnner, Johnny Wagoner (Sp?), and the next couple of places barely made the 5lb range.  It really is a comment on the fishing on the lake right now and is what I am finding every trip, including this morning minus the trolling.

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Unfortunately sliver carp have been found in the river below Texoma.  It now joins 2 other rivers in the state which have reported one form or another of the invasive filter feeding carp.  Suffice to say they will infest and take over a river in nothing flat.  If you fish any of these bodies of water you are not allowed to remove them from the river.  But looks like that has turned out to little to late.  More to come on that front.

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As I plan on my September fishing out west I have had to modify my plans some.  With the fires and drought on the Western Slope there are already low water reports in some area.  That could definitely be a problem so the plan is the area in Colorado I usually go, I have found 3 rivers I have not checked out yet.  And one of those we fished one of three lakes last trip and smoked them, but did not check out the river.  We spoke with a fly fisherman on the way out who was catching a few so that is top on the list.  As the Boss will be flying in to Durango for a week in Pagosa I am free to move about aimlessly for a couple of weeks, but with a plan to keep moving until I find some good fishing.  And this year I hope to end my bad luck at hearing bugling elk.  So it will be up and in the mountains every morning at daylight, you never know what you will see.  No matter what the trip is taking shape and it is not that far off.  Then it will be Louisiana soon after I get back.  So fall is really looking up.

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And great news from Rusty our Fayette guru.  His annual Canada trip was canceled and then of all things Canada is going to open August 9th.  The resort called and asked if they wanted to come and of course it was a big yes, so trip saved.  There is a big world of fishing out there and while it takes effort to get it done, that is how adventures are born.  Go somewhere, it is good for the fishing soul.

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No other particular plan at the moment.  Really hoping the weather dude got it right about next week and we are finally out of this rain pattern.  And with that will come a couple of days of fishing on the coast.  Hope to spend a night or two down there to avoid the driving back and forth.  Until then will just see what the weather has to offer.  So keep stopping in and thanks for reading my stuff.

Good Luck and Tight Lines