Big or Small

Sep 05 2021

Joshua Massoud

Keeper

Member Since :
2021
Number of Posts :
483

Reservation Number : 29613
Property Name : Bremmond
Reservation Date : 09/04/2021 All Day -
Total Fish/Sizes : 52 up to 4.5ishlbs
Lures Used : Fluke/Bubba shot/Ned Rig/Frog

Had the fine pleasure of fishing with Mr. Brady Bennett who was looking for a partner to fish Bremmond, down in Thorndale.  Turns out we are both attorneys who really like to fish!  We fished separately – kayak for him and I ran the club boat (which was new). Despite missing several somewhat finnicky fish each, we still managed a good mess of fish.  We fished differently, but thematically I think there was a couple of overriding themes to the day.   I took a fair amount of pictures, which are attached.  I didn’t get a pick of my biggest one, I dropped my phone as I held her in the water and she slipped – but she was nearly 20inches and stocky.

  1. Water was relatively low visibility – 1.5-2 feet with a brown (not tea, like East Texas, but dirt brown), warm, 87-90ish, steady S/SW wind of 10-12mph, water is low, would guess a 3 feet or more which didn’t give us a ton of area to work, but we made the most of it.
  2. Brady had some success near the timber with a frog early, I worked my spook and got several whiffs and spent the first hour and half fishless and frustrated.
  3. I had to take hold of myself and not repeat last weekend.  The fish are tired.  It is hot.  They don’t want to move. The fish looked fat in the pictures on the site, so that means they don’t move a lot.  Downsize you idiot! So, I grabbed my spinning reel with 8lb line, threw on the ned rig.
  4. I was greeted by 4 four pretty quickly in a little shallow flat near two brush piles, not pitching in them, but adjacent using a black and blue 5 inch robotype worm.  I then broke off a good fish on the 5th attempt – line just couldn’t hold up with all the rocks.
  5. I switched to a shakyhead and started using a green magic trick worm - found some more fish in that same area.
  6. Brady started using a dropshot variant and was picking some fish up that way. 
  7. I moved to the dam area and started alternative the Epic Baits flukes I picked up from Dale with the shakyhead.  The flukes in the baby bass color matched the brim perfectly and I started picking up some real decent footballs.  All my best fish were on those flukes which I am going to have to reorder as I burned through them. Only bait I could really get a solid commit from – the rest I could barely feel the bite.
  8. I rotated back to the area near the brush piles and started feeling a rocky hard bottom area near some deeper water.  I caught 75% of my fish in that one 30 yard area with the water level where it is, I’m guessing they are all just stacked up staging in that intermediate area.  They still didn’t want a square-bill or other baits I might use in that situation on rock – shaky head/fluke or nothing.
  9. Brady continued working the outside timber line. The timber which the last group worked held fish but it is really shallow right now due to the lake level so he had the right gameplan working the outside line.
  10. I caught 6 or so on a point near a cover by the submerged fence, some in the timber, and some on the dam, but it was really that one nondescript spot.  I did miss two good fish on a jig pitched to shady sides of timber when I tried to get back in into the trees.
  11. I think only a few fish were in the 1lb class – it was either under 12 or over 16
  12. Brady left around 4 or so, I stuck around to try and pick up an evening bite that never came.  I caught 6 more culls or so and left around 7:30. 
  13. Hit up ‘Schroeder's Place’ for a good homecooked burger (it might also be the only place open on Saturday’s at noon).
  14. Someone was shooting guns all evening nearby. It made me feel at home and I knew I was in Texas – the greatest country on Earth.

Sep 06 2021

Mark Daugherty

Keeper

Member Since :
2015
Number of Posts :
312

Man, that’s a productive day Joshua! You’ve been hitting it hard this summer and I really appreciate you continuing to share details on your outings. That is no small thing to keep up with – but it is much appreciated by all of the other members. 

Tight lines!

Mark

Sep 06 2021

Joshua Massoud

Keeper

Member Since :
2021
Number of Posts :
483

Originaly Posted By Mark Daugherty

Man, that’s a productive day Joshua! You’ve been hitting it hard this summer and I really appreciate you continuing to share details on your outings. That is no small thing to keep up with – but it is much appreciated by all of the other members. 

Tight lines!

Mark

Thanks Mark – my goal is 2 fish an hour, so we I can get to 3.7 fph, I consider that really good.  I’m happy to share what works so people can play off it or make a variation if the fish adjusted to what I did well or didn’t do well as the case was today.  I do my best to take pictures of about half the fish as long as I’m not keeping them out of the water too long. 

Sep 06 2021

Dale Stagg

Slot Fish

Member Since :
2021
Number of Posts :
126

Originaly Posted By Joshua Massoud

Thanks Mark – my goal is 2 fish an hour, so we I can get to 3.7 fph, I consider that really good.  I’m happy to share what works so people can play off it or make a variation if the fish adjusted to what I did well or didn’t do well as the case was today.  I do my best to take pictures of about half the fish as long as I’m not keeping them out of the water too long. 

I sm sohappy the Epic Bais Flukes worked great for you! Your order will ship tomorrow since today was a holiday. How was you fishing the flukes?

Sep 06 2021

Dale Stagg

Slot Fish

Member Since :
2021
Number of Posts :
126

Originaly Posted By Dale Stagg

I sm sohappy the Epic Bais Flukes worked great for you! Your order will ship tomorrow since today was a holiday. How was you fishing the flukes?

I hate that you went through the batch as they are soft. I make them soft and with salt to allow the better and more realistic action resulting in more catches but do not last as long as some harder versions. I have tested both ways and definately catch more on the ones that do not last as long. Thanks for the report.

Sep 06 2021

Joshua Massoud

Keeper

Member Since :
2021
Number of Posts :
483

Originaly Posted By Dale Stagg

I hate that you went through the batch as they are soft. I make them soft and with salt to allow the better and more realistic action resulting in more catches but do not last as long as some harder versions. I have tested both ways and definately catch more on the ones that do not last as long. Thanks for the report.

The flukes worked great – I mean I caught close to 30 on them alone, they far outperformed everything else in my tacklebox – I got a few fish on each one which is fine by me – soft or not – the hookup ration was awesome as I suspected it would be.  They are harder than the googan stuff (way too soft) but less firm than the zoon.. They also have a tail that is up and down which made a more subtle and nice swiming action which really helped with the finnicky fish.  The airpocket in the nose is nice if you want to fish it weightless and worked the upper water column.  Allows for a better action if you want to neko rig it and allows for a better flip on the twitch if you fish it with a weight.  Great baits Dale!

Sep 06 2021

Joshua Massoud

Keeper

Member Since :
2021
Number of Posts :
483

Originaly Posted By Joshua Massoud

The flukes worked great – I mean I caught close to 30 on them alone, they far outperformed everything else in my tacklebox – I got a few fish on each one which is fine by me – soft or not – the hookup ration was awesome as I suspected it would be.  They are harder than the googan stuff (way too soft) but less firm than the zoon.. They also have a tail that is up and down which made a more subtle and nice swiming action which really helped with the finnicky fish.  The airpocket in the nose is nice if you want to fish it weightless and worked the upper water column.  Allows for a better action if you want to neko rig it and allows for a better flip on the twitch if you fish it with a weight.  Great baits Dale!

I fished them on a shakyhead and pegged on TRIG with a light weight -shakyhead probably worked best but both worked well that day.