OK ...here's the situation. I'm fishing today actually. Here's the structure..

The shoreline is a mat of hydrilla. There are cattails here and there and also patches of lily pads. The shoreline is made up of islands.I'm fishing an old phosphate pits made up of many islands. Along the islands the water is about 5 feet deep but 4 feet of that is thick hydrilla. Out about 15 feet off shore it's between 10- 15 foot deep. I pitched for 3 hours without any hits. I didn't see no bass beds either. I remembered Josh caught his bass in 10 foot of water ..so I forced myself to fish in deep water and leave the shoreline. I caught 3 like that but nothing over 1 1/2 pounds. I also saw a bass about 25 inches. She was about 20 feet off sure. The water there was 10 feet ..the hydrilla 9 feet thick .She was on top of the hydrilla.


How do you guys fish when there is nothing happening on the shoreline?

PS In the early hours I also threw the weedless white spinner bait
top water, texas worm...carolina worm ...Norman deep crank bait..
Nothing . My 3bass I caught were on red shad..Texas rig.
Here's the place..check out all those islands.The black marks are where I've caught big bass before. I fish the lower right side..reason..big boats have a hard time getting there..real low.

plastic jerkbaits ,slow fall will getum .

I like to fish the weedlines. back off until the break line and fish a c rig along the edges. this is where those big females will stage

Thanks Josh...I thought about that around 11:30 just when my arm was getting tired and I was ready to go home. I thought the carolina might work. I've fished this place for 20 years so I know where every rock bar is , point etc. I couldn't believe I couldn't find the fish. I left my portable fish finder home..never again..I figured I'd be pitching all day and get at least 20 hits. Wrong..

Tomorrow I'm hitting my management area.It's only open Fri.- Mon.

CRANKBAIT or soft jerkbait or frog or topwater

chuck if your trying to catch pre-spawn or post spawn i'd say try the deeper outside edges like everyone else has mentioned, if your still trying to find one on a bed, i'd look for shallow water with a hard bottom where sunlight can get thru, the females here are starting/trying to go one bed, i would think yours would have laid out by now, if so, the smaller male bass will be up gaurding the fry, the best bait i have ever used on bedding fish is a 3" tube or a little 4" lizard thrown right into the beds..


kinda depends on what stage of the spawn your at[&:]

pre-spawn, what josh said

BTW, what is the water temp????

Not sure about the water temperature. keith,{I'll check today}I thought I would be pitching all morning so I left my fish finder home.I'm used to seeing bass making big splashes when I approach them with my jon when flipping {When they are spawning} I kicked up no bass. I fish every weekend so I figure I will eventually hit them when they are bedding. I saw a couple of beds yesterday with fry on them. But normally when they are bedding I see loads.I also see males guarding the nest.I'm not seeing any of this yet. Maybe next month...or possibly I've missed the spawn.

I did see 2 gators spawning. Aaron and I also got a little scare. I have to watch him sometimes {Babysit my 15 year old} After I drive the gas motor to my spot we have to carefully change seat. When I stopped a huge 13 foot gator busted off teh shore. I had startled him. Just as we were nervously switching seats in my 10 foot jon boat teh gator accidently came up directly under the boat. He was so freaked out that he splashed real big almost flipping the boat. []After no hits by 10:30 I finaaly realized the bass would not be on the shoreline. I made myself move out to deeper water. Finally . three bass picked up myTexas rigged red shadand 3 bass were caught. Lessons learned..
1. Do not leave fish finder home.
2. If bass are not biting on the shoreline..go to Carolina in deeper water.

I posted this as I figured some of you guys may have run into this problem before...weather feels like spawning season but the fish are not there.

the spawn is late here also. some fish are just starting to bed, but most are still off on the first break line.

Where I fished today Josh was not the same area as yesterday. Today I saw lots of beds and fry on them.The fishing report said that they were just starting to spawn now. I'm planning to fish for a few hours tomorrow morning. Congrats on the great day out today. I was hoping for a big one. Those 3 1/2 to 4 pounders can fool ya. I would have bet they were easily 5 ot 6 pounders till I got them on the scale. This one lady on another boat landed a nice one..She was amazed it only went 4.3/4 pounds.

actually, it was a pretty disappointing day. There was only 1 other boat int he parking lot, and this is a 25,000 acre world famous lake - tells you about the conditions.