SAM RAYBURN
Fishing on Rayburn has been especially good the past week as water levels have started to fall with present lake level at 163.3 which is just slightly over a foot below full pool. My temp gages are reading about 64 to 66 degrees which is good by anyone's standards. I have been spending most of my time around the mid-lake area, Veech, Black Forest, 147 Bridge and Mud Creek and have been finding a good many fish that are willing to bite boating 20 to 25 fish per trip. I am targeting bass from 2 to 14 feet with both hard baits and soft plastics. Stanley's VibraShaft double willowleaf is getting us bites as we are working it over flooded hydrilla and pepper grass. For the most part the pepper grass is from 1 to 5 feet and the hydrilla is from 4 to 12/14 feet.
Most of our spinnerbait bites are coming from water 6 feet or less. However, we are getting a few big bites slow-rolling a Stanley Big Shot (one ounce version) along the outside edge of the grass from 6 to 14 feet. The Trap bite is also good and it has been fun to, once again, catch fish on a Rat-L-Trap. They actually have been hitting them all fall in schools but that's not like throwing it toward shoreline grass expecting a huge bite. We've been doing well on white crawfish, chrome/black, chrome/blue, Rayburn red, Toledo Gold and one of old favorites is off-white with blue(dull blue not blue chrome).
On days with light winds we are getting a lot of bites on a weightless worm and I like to fish mine on Berkley 100% Fluorocarbon line either 15 or 17 pound test. My weightless worm choices are 5 inch Senkos, Gulp! Sinking Minnow and Berkley Jerk Shad. My rigging includes a swivel with 24 to 30 inch leader and 4/0 wide gap Daiichi worm hook, Carolina rigs are also catching fish for us and we are using light bullet weights (3/16th to 3/8 ounces) which slide through the grass much better than the heavy oval/bell-shaped sinkers. The heavy oval sinkers are great for deep structure but are not ideal for fishing grass.
As far as our 'get a bite' bait on both Rayburn and Toledo it has been a TX rig. Last week on Rayburn we caught over half of our bass on TX rigs working it with light sinkers on both the inside and outside edge of the grass. Top soft plastics have been Berkley Power Worms(7 and 10 inch), Berkley Shaky Worms (5 and 7 inches), Stanley's new Sidewinder (5.5 inch) and trick worms. Top colors are greenpumpkin, w.m. candy, w.m.red, Junebug and redbug. We wish you great fishing! HAPPY THANKSGIVING ANGLERS!!!
AUTHOR INFO: Joe Joslin is a syndicated columnist, tournament angler and pro guide on Toledo and Sam Rayburn. His sponsors include Skeeter Performance Boats, Yamaha Outboards, Lake Charles Toyota, Red River Marine/Alexandria, LA, Berkley, Fenwick, Abu Garcia, Bill Norman , Daiichi, Jay's Carpet One DeRidder, The Floor Trader Lake Charles and Stanley Jigs Inc. Contact him at 337-463-3848 or joejoslinoutdoors@yashoo.com. or www.joejoslinoutdoors.com.
