I'm a little behind on fishing reports... forgive me but I have fished every single day since last Tuesday, and I still have more trips this week! No rest when the fish are biting.
I have been fishing Lake Travis a lot too, so I hope to write a report for it tomorrow. Last week I fished Decker a lot due to the off limits period for Bass Champs. Having fished it so much I figured out a few more things that were working. My trip today was supposed to be on Lake Travis to begin with, however we changed to Lake Decker.
My clients today were Duncan and his young son Cooper. Cooper loves to fish and really wanted to catch a new personal best... I am happy to say mission accomplished!
Let's get right into the juicy details... to be honest its a lot of the same stuff. Fishing weedlines, however I have a few more tips for you. For the longest time I focused more on reed points, natural points, ledges etc. With Lake Decker I have slowly figured out that some fish don't care about bottom contour or how the lake sets up. For some fish in this lake its all about depth and grass. Right now Lake Decker is around 64 degrees and more grass is starting to grow.
When you are out there take advantage of your side scan sonar and find those grass lines. My advice right now is to cover as much water as possible. Find those well defined weedlines and fish them with a dropshot or a wacky rigged senko. Don't spend more than 20 minutes on a spot unless you catch fish. There are so many good weedlines on the lake right now, that you just need to keep moving and find a school of fish that are willing to bite.
My trip today started out a little slow, we hit three great spots without any bites. Then we got a couple good bites but they either got off or missed the hook. Finally after about two hours we made a move and switched back to dropshots in 5-12 feet of water. A little deeper water seemed to be key. Also, natural colored worms made a huge difference, we were throwing Red Bug, but when I changed Cooper over to Mardi Gras he caught 3 fish right away... needless to say I switched his dad's bait too.
Once we found the right depth, color, and a good weedline it was game one. Duncan caught a couple fish after we made a move. Finally I hooked into a good fish and passed the rod to Cooper to fight, it was a 4.45 pounder that was his new PB. Not more than a few casts later, 100% by himself Cooper hooked into a monster! It jumped and had the head of a 7 pounder, this fish was totally post spawn and was very skinny, she had a huge head and tipped the scale at 6.2 if I remember correctly. (Shout out to my amazing girlfriend for the new Brecknell digital scale!)
We continued to catch quite a few more fish with several other big ones mixed in. After I dropped my clients off at the dock I went back out to throw some swimbaits. I ended up catching several more on a 4.8 keitech and a 3:16 softbody swimbait. Between my client's fish and the ones I caught the best 5 would have easily gone 20 LBS. Not bad for a half day trip plus the extra hour I fished!
I will be back on Travis tomorrow, but please give me a call if you would like to get in on the great Decker bite that's been going on. The weather has been amazing and I would love the chance to help you catch a new personal best!
Tight Lines!