The wind was brutal throughout north Texas and Oklahoma on Saturday and Sunday – glad I stayed at home. Yesterday was a bit better. When I arrived, the surface of every body of water I saw was as smooth as glass. I launched at West Twin first and fished there until noon, when I moved to the east lake. On West Twin, the water temp climbed from 54.7° to 64.2° in the four hours I was there. Visibility was 3-4 feet. There were a lot of beds all around what shoreline I could see because of the lake level being up. Some of them were empty, but quite a few still had small males guarding them. I only caught four fish all morning and lost one of about 4 pounds at 8:40 when it jumped and threw my Senko back at me. Around 9:00, casting into less than 2 feet of water, I broke off a heavy fish when my Alberto knot failed. Very frustrating! About an hour later, I caught a small male from the same spot where I had broken off earlier. I made another cast right back to the same spot and had an immediate, swirling hit. I was "on full cock" by then, and set the hook on a heavy fish and had my hands full for a few minutes! At.10:10, after a great fight on my MH spinning rig (20# braid, 12# mono leader), I slid the net under a spawned-out big girl that pulled two different scales down to the 7-10 mark. My Boga grip said 8-00, but I'll call her a 7-10. She hit a weightless, black/blue flake, wacky-rigged, 5" Senko. She and the little one might have been on a bed, but I never saw it. I’ll always wonder if she was the same fish I had lost earlier. She was 24 15/16” long. I wonder what she would have weighed before she spawned. She was in very good shape for a post-spawn female - no bloody tail, and very strong!

The predicted breeze finally started blowing from the NE right after I released her. After my four-fish morning, I ate lunch and moved to East Twin. On my first cast, into the submerged tree just out from the dock, I caught a 14” bass on a watermelon/red flake 7” Senko, T-rigged with a pegged 1/4 oz slip sinker. The water temp was 69.5, and visibility was about 18-20” (clearer across the lake from the dock). By 1:30, the wind was howling again. I had no luck at all on the timbered south shoreline, and picked up a 15-incher across the lake from under a laying-down log. That was it for the afternoon - unfortunately, I had trolling motor problems. I learned all over again just how difficult it is for a 75-year-old fossil to move a pond boat against the wind with a kayak paddle. I decided to use my brush hook on a stickup, so as to not blow farther away from the dock, and go over my electrical connections. Once I finally got the TM working again, I headed for my trailer, loaded up, and left. I had caught only one other bass from the east lake – about 15” long, on the same worm as the first one.....and it still was a good day. Since that's the property where I caught my PB a couple of years ago (west lake, April Fools Day, 2016), it holds a special place in my heart....so of course I'll go back, looking for the grandmother of that 10-01!

WEST LAKE -

What worked:   weightless 5” Senko, black/blue flake, wacky-rigged;  and a Rattletrap.

What didn’t:  white Yellow Magic, white buzz bait, white chatterbait,  black Sprinkler frog, green/white HB frog, an old, perch-patterned Bagley Balsa B squarebill.

EAST LAKE –

What worked:  7” watermelon/red flake Senko, T-rigged.

What didn’t:  chatterbait, white/red buzz bait, white Yellow Magic, StutterStep, 5” Senkos, Rattletrap, soft swimbait.

Posted By: Tom Dillon