Fishing the shad balls is a ton of fun. Can be distracting when there are multiple bait balls going off at the same time. If you like flukes, get the Magnum Fluke in Smoky Shad and drag it on the bottom along the ridge in the middle of the lake.

In October of 2021, I was not having a great morning there as it was my first time there. Wind was blowing the john boat constantly and I didn’t have a rope long enough for the anchor. Hard lesson learned. However, around 11 AM I had paused to take a break and collect myself. Trying to stop my frustration by just sitting in the boat and letting the wind push me. I was pretty much about ready to give up all hope of having a good day of fishing. Well before I let the wind push me, I had cast out my weightless Magnum Fluke in Smokey Shad color and it was dragging the bottom. For a few minutes I had forgotten that it was in the water. Well as you can guess where this is going, my rod started to drag against the side of the boat and away from me. Why I didn’t have it in my hands, I don’t know and it was a dumb move that could have cost me the highlight of the day. Luckily I grabbed it and gently lifted it as I thought it might have gotten snagged. The old saying “when in doubt set the hook” crossed my mind and so I did. Just in case it wasn’t snagged. Well I got very very lucky and there was a bass on the line and it shot off with a fierceness like I had never felt before. Great heart pounding fight with multiple jumps. When I saw it jump the first time I knew it was a good fish. Then it dove down hard, bending my rod to a curve that I have rarely seen. So many times I thought I was going to lose this fish. I did finally boat it and it was an 8.68 lb fat beautiful bass. Biggest of my life at that time and that was my PB for 8 months. I took a break after that catch for lunch. Shortly after getting back on the water, the bass were blowing up multiple bait balls. I got lucky and hit one of the blowups near the boat with a white chatterbait. 7+lber hit it on the drop. That was a quality day for sure and one that I have yet to repeat.

Both of my top two bass have come off of a dead stick rod with a plastic on the bottom, and both on PWF properties (Double AA and Bigwoods on the Trinity). My 9 lb’er came in May of ‘22 on a 10 in black and blue worm. It was near the end of the day and I just had it sitting on the bottom of the deepest water and we were slighly drifting back to the dock. It’s kind of weird when I think about how aggressive I fish sometimes and quite a few of my biggest bass come from a lure sitting on the bottom in deep water.