Barren Report 11/14

[RICHYD4U]

What a beautiful day! Can't believe we are nearly a month away from Christmas with this type of weather...better enjoy it while it lasts! Got out today, barely.....took some convincing of the wife, and the promise to take the little girl with me ()...but I made up to the BRL around 11:00am. Water is getting really low making the right kind of structure harder to find. Water temps were hovering around 58.3-59.5. Headed straight to Cook again to see if my pattern was still holding up there. The structure I had been catching them in was nearly gone (dry), but there was a few left in some deeper water so I tossed a 8" worm T-Rigged at them and caught 4 shorts and 1 keeper (3.2lbs). Picked up there and headed to spot number 2 over in Petes Creek. Caught 5 more shorts and two keepers (2.1, 2.9) on the same rig. Couldn't by a bite with a crank, don't know why I haven't been able to lately? Oh well, beautiful day to be out with the little one. Tons of shad popping half way up in Petes Creek but couldn't by a bite up there. Water was clear on main lake and up Cook, but the further up Petes we went, the more stained the water became. Getting pumped for the big CR/CL trip next week!!!

-Rich

[RICHYD4U]

Oh yeah, little crowd today....gotta love it when hunting opens!!!

-Rich

[buckdroppings]

Was there from the 10th to the 13th. On the 10th we had 10 fish the biggest was 4lb. The 11th we had 11 the biggest was 5lb. The 12th we had 10 with a 4 and a 41/2. The 13th we had 8 the biggest was a 3lb smallie. Had a great week. All were on cranks. Each day it seemed the bite was getting a little more difficult. Don't know if the pulling a little more water was causing that or not. Next week should be awesome for the cranking....

[homie452]

Rich,
what are you using to catch fish?(dynamite???)
fished it hard for 3 days an nothing but shorts maybe 3 keepers
maybe your daughter is your lucky charm!!! Good to see others take their kids also. I cant see sending my son to the sitter just so i can go fishin he goes when i go. He is 3 an every trip he gets alittle better but some days its still not enough room in the boat for both of us, but he is always ready to go fishin
hope u stay on ur fish an we will keep lookin
homie

[RICHYD4U]

Rich,
what are you using to catch fish?(dynamite???)
fished it hard for 3 days an nothing but shorts maybe 3 keepers
maybe your daughter is your lucky charm!!! Good to see others take their kids also. I cant see sending my son to the sitter just so i can go fishin he goes when i go. He is 3 an every trip he gets alittle better but some days its still not enough room in the boat for both of us, but he is always ready to go fishin
hope u stay on ur fish an we will keep lookin
homie

Not using dynamite, but have had times when I've considered it! Sounds like Buckdroppings was on the quality fish. I just couldn't find them...tons of shorts. I hear ya about the kids....been taking my daughter fishing since she was born. Can get difficult at times (boredum, temper tantrems, tripping over each other in the boat, the little voice that says "are we going home yet", tangled lines, baiting hooks, etc). LOL! It really makes me appreciate my father and him taking me out when I was little....I can see where it would be so much easier to just go solo and focus on catchin fish. But, I wouldn't trade the time with my daughter on the lake for nothing. Once I get a keeper in the well, she is entertained. I've just been keying in on any structure near deeper water and that has been the ticket (some fish). I think with all the water being pulled the fish are holding tight to this structure in deeper water and avoiding the shallow waters. Haven't caughten any fish back in the shallows? Hopefully when the lake stabilizes the fish will get shallow and more aggressive, don't know. Take care.

-Rich

[RICHYD4U]

Was there from the 10th to the 13th. On the 10th we had 10 fish the biggest was 4lb. The 11th we had 11 the biggest was 5lb. The 12th we had 10 with a 4 and a 41/2. The 13th we had 8 the biggest was a 3lb smallie. Had a great week. All were on cranks. Each day it seemed the bite was getting a little more difficult. Don't know if the pulling a little more water was causing that or not. Next week should be awesome for the cranking....

Buckdroppings-
Thanks for the report. I just don't get why I can't produce on the crank right now? Can you give me any advice as to what you guys were doing cranking....perhaps the depth of crank, type of crank, what type of water you were fishing, etc. Anything would be appreciated. I have put the worm rod down several times, and tossed the crank...just looks like it should be producing....but never produced anything but some shorts. Were you guys up the BR? (since you caught that smallie) Thanks for any advice.

-Rich

[buckdroppings]

We were fishing main lake points close to channel and channel walls in the creeks. The fishing was tough. We were starting at 5am and going to 5pm. On Tuesday and Wednesday all the fish came before 1pm. Thursday and Friday were just the opposite most everything came from 1p to 5p. Smallie came out of Peter. Most of the fish kept were kentuckys' with all the biggest being LM.

As far as bait, it seemed like they were taking crawfish colors (black, brown, dark brownish red, orange) in the dirty water and shad colors ( white, chrome) in the clearer stuff. Of course those kys like jumping all over the chartruse or white. All but 4 of the fish were caught on Normans, the others were on a rattle trap.

Did a lot of running trying to find them. With the water being up a bit from years past I think the fish are still scattered. Another week though if they can get that water down to 12 or 13 feet down it shouldn't be difficult to crank 3 and 4lbers throughout the day.

[RICHYD4U]

Thanks Buckdroppings, appreciate it!

-Rich

[homie452]

went again today an nothing!!! water nasty, no shad moving at all in beaver or skaggs creek anywhere
headed back out to the big water tue & wed aleast i can snag one once in awhile any one else on any fish ? or even a small mouth??

[RICHYD4U]

went again today an nothing!!! water nasty, no shad moving at all in beaver or skaggs creek anywhere
headed back out to the big water tue & wed aleast i can snag one once in awhile any one else on any fish ? or even a small mouth??

Sorry to hear that you had no success. There were a ton of shad up in Peter and Cook. Good luck.

-Rich

[buckdroppings]

Hurricane has a mess of shad up there too. Last week the whites and lg were busting them. I'm sure the water is about out of there now though.