Weather / traffic
It's warm and sunny, but this morning a north wind dropped temperatures and lowered the humidity, always a welcome relief in August. "It's not necessarily the heat that gets everybody, it's the humidity and the hot wind." There haven't been many boats or WaveRunners on weekdays, and traffic starts dropping as kids and college students head back to school. Weekends have been busy with great weather, and there's one more giant weekend ahead over Labor Day.
Crappie
Haydn with Williams Guide Service says Crappie are in the tougher-than-normal zone that comes every late July and August. He mostly uses minnows on trips, which is normal now. When he's fun fishing or scouting, he does really well on the 2-inch Desert Hero Lucky Bug from FishLucke.com on a 1/16 oz head. Jeff has been scouting with him, and they can flat catch fish casting to the brush piles without getting right on top of them. It's a really light bite, and light jigs work best on days without much wind.
Catfish
Catfishing is really good. Folks are drift fishing the southwest side of Shangri-La (there's almost always someone there when the big boats aren't running around the corner), the mouth of Honey Creek, and around Patricia Island and the islands at Sailboat. Use cut bait for Blue Cats anywhere from 10 to 50 feet. Get on a long, gradual slope or drop-off. You can often see the fish on the depth finder, then drag your baits into them.
White Bass
There are really good Sand Bass reports. You don't need a fishing boat. People troll from pontoons, runabouts and even WaveRunners with Rooster Tails, Swimming Minnows or tiny Rat-L-Traps, and Luck E Strike's new All American Rattlers will be a great choice. Troll in the evenings or early mornings. On top of the humps, try jigging spoons or 2½-inch Swimming Minnows on 1/4 oz heads.
Beat the heat
Fish live bait under the bridges, or fish at night under dock lights, bridge lights and the lights along the riprap.
Bowfishing and the Crappie boom
Haydn ran a bowfishing trip this week, and his clients did really well with lots of Gar, Carp and Buffalo up on the banks in good clear water. Jeff thinks it's wonderful: those fish have no known predators but man, so without harvest they keep multiplying and taking up the lake's biomass. His own theory is that one reason the Crappie population is where it is now is that bowfishermen have reduced the Carp and Buffalo. Those fish crowd the shallows at Crappie spawning time, vacuuming up everything and raiding panfish and Bass nests. A wildlife biologist might call him crazy, but he's watched these fish cycle together on the lake a long time.
Luck E Strike dealers
Visit the Grove Walmart for Luck E Strike products, Toby Keith, Bigfoot and Luck E Strike stickers and Jimmy Houston Redman spinnerbaits. Ask area dealers for Luck E Strike and tell them Toby Keith and Jeff Williams sent you. Trish at Littlefield's and Laramie at L&L Outdoors in Jay have wholesale pricing and say they're ready to stock it.