Right now water temperatures on Walter E. Long Lake aka Lake Decker are in the mid to upper 80's. During the heat of the day yesterday I saw water temps as high as 89 degrees. Water clarity is typical 1-1.5 feet of visibility. Currently the lake appears to be about 6 inches low, but is still full enough not to create an issues at the boat launch.
With the water so warm, the bite up shallow close to the reeds seems to be hit or miss. I have had days when we find a school of fish stacked up in the grass and you can catch several up shallow. Right now 90% of the fish are in 10% of the lake. Fishing quickly and covering as much water as possible is key. As always, once you catch a fish or get a bite slow down and work that area over thoroughly. A lot of the usual baits are working right now, it's really more about locating small schools of fish in the grass and going to work on them.
In general right now I would recommend slowing down and sticking with plastics. Hard baits like crankbaits, jerkbaits, spinner baits, etc. have been pretty hit or miss. If you're headed out there soon and are looking to catch numbers I would recommend tying on a weedless dropshot, a Texas rigged speed worm, or a Chicken rig. Green Pumpkin, Watermelon Red, Red Bug, and Green Pumpkin Red have all been good colors. I do find though that from day to day depending on conditions, the color preference for the fish changes. Decker is a lake where at times finding the magic color can make all the difference. You all know Green Pumpkin is one of my go to confidence colors... I think you could catch a bass in any lake in the country with that color! Generally its a fantastic color on Lake Decker, but like I said, every once in a while I find some other color that out fishes it literally 5 to 1.
My other tip for you right now is to look for the deepest grass you can find. Hydrilla generally does not grow super deep, the depth it grows to mainly has to do with bottom composition and water clarity. Being a plant it needs sunlight for photosynthesis. Decker has fairly stained water so keep that in mind. I have been graphing coves with grass growing in them looking for areas inside the creek channels that have grass growing, especially areas where the creek channels make a bend or have a steeper slope along their sides. Sometimes the drop offs into the creek channel can be small though, and not apparent the first time you drive over them with your sonar.
Finding creek channels with grass all sounds great in theory, but the reality with Lake Decker is that most of the coves have a fairly shallow tapered bottom out to the middle. You do not find a lot of well defined creek channels in this lake. Additionally, if you run Lake Master mapping like me, the lake isn't even mapped. (I've been using the Auto Chart Live feature in my Solix in order to map the lake myself) I mention this because paying close attention to your side imaging when graphing, is important. There are creek channels and creek channel bends to be found, they just aren't always super obvious when you graph them.
One other pattern I have been on is looking for underwater trees in 20ish feet of water and looking for hybrid bass. I have been exclusively using Alabama Rigs and Livescope to catch these fish. The ability to cast out the A rig, watch it sink down the screen, then reel it just over the top of the tree without getting snagged is key. Sometimes when doing this I also come across big schools of Hybrids out away from the trees. When you find them like this, run that A rig THROUGH them, not over the top of them. It makes a difference right now, I promise! I have been using a Picasso School-e Rig with pro red blue pearl Zoom swimming fluke jr's. I have been using the model with the silver blades, it has been working the best. So if you are out fishing and see me staring at my Garmin to the point of getting a sore neck, out in the middle of the lake, I'm probably chasing Hybrids. haha
If you'd like to save yourself some time graphing looking for fish and would like to ensure your success while on the water. Consider checking out my Honey Hole Reports! I offer a weekly Honey Hole Report updated each Thursday at 6:00PM for both Lake Decker and Lake Travis. These reports will show you the exact locations I am talking about in these general reports. You will get 5+ EXACT locations on the map with detailed instructions on what baits to throw and how to catch these fish. I put a ton of work into these reports and give extremely detailed information. If you purchase one of my reports and don't feel it was worth the money, I will gladly give you a 100% refund... I am that confident in these reports!
