September 29, 2008
Lake Ray Roberts Fishing Report
Lake Ray Roberts is about a foot below normal level and water temperatures are 74 to 77.
Shorter days and cooling water temperatures have shad moving into shallow water and largemouth bass are following them. Best fishing is early and late but in the middle of the day there is good size bass in shallow cover to be caught if you are persistent. Numbers of fish caught per day are down from a couple weeks ago but larger fish are showing up more as we head into fall. Most mornings now there is a pretty good topwater bite early. As the sun gets up a 1/4 oz. white spinner bait is working and the best all around bait now is a Yum Dinger in 4 or 5 inch junebug color with the watermelon and green colors working as well. We are rigging the Yum Dinger with a small split shot about a foot ahead of the bait or t-rigging with a 1/16th oz. weight. For the topwater fish we are using Heddon Super Spook Jrs. in Lake Fork Shad color or a clear color Chug Bug.
White bass fishing is very good now with limits being caught on every trip in September. We are fishing as if it were already October since about mid August, the fish went to deep water structure when we had the cool week of rain in August and have stayed there since. The fish are on the move and somedays takes more looking than others to find active feeding fish. "They are always biting somewhere" is what anybody who has been with me on a trip has heard me say as we are looking for a good bite. As the water cools and days get shorter it gets easier to find the biting fish. We are getting a few catfish every trip now as they will hit the same baits as white bass and friday we had a 21 lb. blue cat on a sand bass trip. Cotton Cordell CC Spoon 3/4 oz. chrome color with a Flies-By-Night fly tied 14 inches above the spoon is what we use to catch most of the sand bass in deep water. Fall is a great time to get on the lake, boat traffic is down and it is really relaxing to catch a bunch of fish and be one of a few boats on the water.
Have fun fishing,
Tim
