Reservation Number : 35247
Property Name : Culpepper Farms
Reservation Date : 03/07/2023 All Day -
Total Fish/Sizes : 15 LMB - up to 2.3 lbs, 1 Crappie
Lures Used : 3.3 swimbait on Flashy Swimmer, Shakey Head, Wacky Rig, Tx Rig

A guest and I fished Culpepper Farms on Tuesday, and according to Bass Forecast, everything was lined up for a great day of fishing.  The right weather (mid 70’s, 5-10 mph wind, overcast skies, pre-cold front), the right season (full moon, pre-spawn, agressive fish), good water temperature trend (varied from 59-64 degrees throughout the day).  What it couldn’t possibly know is that the water was chocolate milk dirty with 0-2 inch visibility.  I thought this might be just from the influx of rain, but all the fish were ghostly silver pale, so seems like it may be their normal.  I know these fish are used to finding meals in this type of water, but I sure would have liked 12-18” of visibility especially considering how much of the lake is shallow and may have had visible beds.  We fished hard from sunup to sundown with about a 30 minute break at 11am.  We caught nothing north of the islands on our first lap around.  Once we got back south of the small island my buddy switched to a wacky rig and caught a couple of dinks in the ultra shallow water.  As we hadn’t had any takers on moving baits (see full list below), I switched to a shakey head w/ a Z-Man Mag Fattyz cut down a coupe of inches.  I finally caught one dink myself back there.  My guest switched to his favorite the 3.3” underspin and caught a couple more small ones.  After lunch we worked the far east side back toward the islands and my buddy picked up a couple more small ones in the far south end again.  He did also lose a couple that might have had to be thrown back.  I still couldn’t find a second fish no matter what I tried (even blatantly copying the swimbait idea).  About 4:30 I made the call to leave the south end and try giving the north one more shot before the end of the day (my first good decision in hours).  My buddy picked up a big crappie off the point near the drain by the dam.  I switched to a 1/8oz Tx Rig w/ a junebug colored Gambler swimming worm and started throwing it as close to the shore along the dam as I could.  I finally caught another small one near the drain, then proceeded to catch 4 more.  My buddy caught a couple on his swimbait also pounding that shoreline as we worked back along to the boat launch area.  We had fun, but those fish made us work hard for every one, and the payoff came in about the last 50 minutes of light.  the photos are of the 2 biggest fish of the day out of the 5 total returned.

Lures tried but not productive:  Chatterbaits, Lipless, 3.8”swimbait/underspin, Jig, Buzzbait, Spinnerbait, Squarebill, Tx Rig Stickbait