There are many humps, trees and long points exposed lake wide.
Be very careful running the lake.
Bass fishing is slow. We did get some more rain this week. There is very little action but try small jigs and small Senko’s. The up river areas are fair and fish any hard clay bank and point with deep water success.
Concentrate on the mid to lower lake from Gainesville Marina south.
The stained waters will begin to warm up soon and the crystals in the water will hold this heat. But for now, it’s really slow.
Spotted bass are on the deeper docks old log jams and ledges especially mid lake.
These fish are very fat as they have been gorging on tiny shad. The fish we can see under the docks and in the brush piles with the Aqua Vu are not moving around.
The fish seem to be waiting for a warm up to try and move shallow.
Use small spoons, small jigs and small worms and work the baits dead stick style.
The spots are on the deep points and ledges main lake. Using a depth finder with the power turned up is critical with the cold deep fish in the lake. Several sizes of jigs with a small twin tail trailer are working as well as spoons.
Large marina docks are also holding some really big fish. Pick any marina and the fish are anywhere from 30 to as deep as 45 feet.
With the Aqua Vu under water camera, we would never see these fish because they are up under the docks away from any depth finder beam.
Try some live night crawlers too on a small ¬-ounce jig and use eight-pound test line on a spinning reel.
Use a medium tip rod on a spinning reel and drop baits straight down.
Look this week at road beds, humps and deep ledges for spotted bass as well as deep docks in the backs of the creeks even if the water is stained. It’s very cold down deep so be sure to take some small spoons in sizes no larger that half an ounce or smaller and use 14-pound test pound line on a medium to heavy action bait casting rod. Change the hooks on the spoon to a plain wire hook and they will bend out if you get hung up on the deep structure.
Striper fishing has been barely fair and it can be good one day and poor the next as the fish are always moving.
Fish toward the backs of the major creeks from the dam up to Holly Park.
Look for the fish in the morning and evening to hit a free lined trout almost exclusively.
Herring and shiners are not taking a lot of stripers but the trout are hardy and will swim around all day.
Start early and pull baits over a 15-to 30-foot bottom. These fish will be off the long points and shallow gradually sloping banks. As the sun hits the water move out deeper and down line the same baits.
The fish are ranging from 30-to 55-feet deep. Concentrate on the fish you mark in the 33- to 44- foot range as they have been more active.
Most of these fish will be over a 50- to 65- foot bottom.
Keep a bait on a free line or balloon out 50 feet just in case. If there is sufficient cloud cover fish shallow first, even in the middle of the day.
Both Hammond’s Fishing Center and The Dam Store have plenty of trout.
There is a good feeding period this week early morning and then around mid afternoon.