Jason,

Any comments on what topwaters you were throwing, and/or worm color you found best?

Thanks, Kirk

Kirk - Let me preface by saying I’m fairly new to bass fishing, so these are just the results of a newbie doing a lot of casting, but not understaninding bass really well. 

I started off at dawn throwing some topwater frogs (which I had luck with at a few other PWF lakes).  I got no hits, and didn’t see any action on the top of the water, so switched to worms right away, and had no reason to look back.  I tried some flukes, but didn’t get a hit (I think I’m fishing them wrong).

As far as the worms go, I was getting hits with various colors, but purple was the most popular, followed by brown and red.  More specifically:

http://www.basspro.com/Zoom-Ol-Monster-Worm-101/2/product/7510/

(I was not using 10.5 inch, but smaller ones, just using the link for color reference)

1.) Tequila Sunrise/Plum
2.) Watermelon Candy
3.) Red Shad

Frankly though, all I needed was Tequila Sunrise/Plum.  I had brought a bunch of crankbaits, and other colors/types of plastics, but was too lazy to change since I was having good luck with what I was using.

This is the 2nd time I’ve fished this lake in the last few weeks, and I’ve found a few things that have helped me a lot.

1.)  Texas-Rigged worms are doing great for me (to be fair I’ve not tried any other rigging, so for all I know I could be missing even more!)

2.)  More importantly, this lake has some timber in it, and some vegetation in parts.  There are some areas in the lake where if you let the worm sink, and try and pull it in, you’re running into weeds.  Those are the areas that I find then keep casting into and have the most success.  I’ve tried the deeper parts out in the middle with little luck, mostly tossing to the edges, or to areas where I’m getting vegetation resistance on the retrieve.  They seem to be parked in that cover (especially during the day), and are striking the worms as I pull it through.  There is poor water visibility, so I just cast around until I find some vegetation resistance on the bottom and work those areas.

I hope this helps.

Regards,

—Jason

We electro shocked both lakes 2 weeks ago. Both lakes hold really big fish, but the smaller west lake holds more fish in the 2-5 lb class. And in my opinion is in better condition than the bigger lake. However, our members are catching some giant fish in the east lake and thus far have chosen it 5 to 1 over the smaller lake. But, times are changing and we are seeing more folks fishing the smaller west lake.

Brush piles will be added to both lakes this Fall/Winter.

Thousands of tilapia were just added to the east lake this week.

Please harvest, harvest, harvest the smaller bass and report back to the club how many and or add a harvest report to your reservation and we will take $5 off your fishing trip while helping the lake, the club, our landowner, and our members. Not to mention a freezer full of bass filets.

Jason,

Thank you for your reply.  It helps a great deal in scouting the lake and may save us a couple of hours getting on fish. This will be our first trip to Dogwood and I will likely start the day with a Tequilla Sunrise or Red Shad fished barbless.

Best wishes, Kirk