February 19th, 2013

February 19th, 2013 Lake Conditions, Fishing Report

The recent week of warmer weather has brought the water temps up a couple of degrees to 48 in the mornings and around 50 to 51 degrees in the afternoon.  This has improved the bite considerably and has moved more fish into the shallows to start thinking about their spawn.   This past weekends tournament saw "Record"" setting weights for as many as 11 teams bringing in bags of over 30 lbs of fish for their best five.  The winning team had just over 39 pounds for the win.   Without a doubt the ""A" rig was the bait of choice for most of the teams although swimbaits and lipless crankbaits also caught a lot of fish.   As the fish concentrate around the mouth of the creeks to intercept the Hitch fish that are going up the creeks to spawn and also move up to spawn themselves, these big bags of fish and big fish will continue to be caught up until mid April.  If your planning on coming to the lake to hire a guide or bring your own boat, try to fish mid week because we are in full swing with tournaments and with these big fish being caught, every weekend will find a busy lake.   A ten pounder was the big fish of the tournament but there were three nines and several sevens weighed in.     All of the fish that are currently being caught in 10 feet and more of water are coming up with their bladders over inflated.  These fish need to be released right away so that they can swim back down and equalize their bladders.  If you carry them around, you need to know how to needle the bladder to let the air out or these fish will just float on the surface and die.  The best thing to do is to picture the fish then put it back in the water quickly.  Also all of the big fish five pounds and over are probably females and at this time of the year have their eggs in them.  Release them so they can spawn and keep the fishery going.    
     Watch for any period of warm stable weather and you can expect the bite to be on.  Bring your swimbaits, jig's, "A" rigs, jerkbaits and you have a good chance of catching a trophy size fish.  Be courteous, don't cut off another fisherman or infringe on the area they are fishing.  Be a good sport's person, treat the fish good, handle them with care, release all of the bigger fish, and have an enjoyable day on the water.   God Bless,   Bob