The photos are just a sample of what I was catching today. It sure feels great being able to be back on the lake even with the fog. I was mainly dead sticking a white trash Tater Baits – Fishing Lures and Umbrella Rigs in about 90 feet of water. I found fish in 3 different locations. All locations were close to the main lake old river channel. My first fish, caught early morning, was a striped bass and he hit the bait on the fall at about 40 feet down. There were other scattered fish in this area but I didn’t see any schools. The second area, mid morning, I caught another striped bass. He was sitting inside of a bait ball 60 feet down. The third area, late morning, held a lot of bait and good schools came under me 45 to 65 feet deep. I landed 3 hybrids in this area, all on a very slow reel up through the school. The 25-pound catfish was below the bait 75 feet down. He absolutely hammered the Tater Shad. After I netted this fish I found the hook was almost straightened out. I don’t know how he didn’t come loose. 3 very nice largemouth and several white bass were feeding 35 – 40 deep and they really liked the white Tater Shad. The blue cat, whites and largemouth bass were all caught in the second area that I fished. The lake level is at 554 ft msl. The surface water temp ranged from 42.5 degrees to 44 degrees depending on where I was fishing. We are forecasted for a warming trend with highs in the 50’s. This is the time to fish the winter bite.
