Cross 3 and 4 May 2023

[Mike Cork]

I went out Tuesday for a couple hours to get a feel for Cross as I haven't been on it in a long time and we had the Old Man's Tournament on Wednesday. Lake is up a few inches and lots of color in the west end, maybe 6 inches of visibility. As you work to the east end of the lake it starts clearing up to what I'd call normal for Cross this time of year.

Tuesday was pretty much a bust. I caught three fish and none of them where in the same zip code nor on the same bait... Water temp was 65 and warmed to 68. There were shad spawning on the ramp and small balls of them throughout the lake but getting a bass to bite was near impossible.

Tournament day I committed to topwater and a spinnerbait with some soft plastic work mixed in to no eval. I caught 6 fish all but one was a keeper. With the exception of one fish they all came on a spinnerbait. The topwater bite was only on a frog and the first one was a catfish  Either I'm so good I can catch anything on a frog (unlikely) or the catfish are up spawning (likely). The second one was a 7.1 pounder that hit in the shade of a duck blind. She hit it like you'd expect a seven pounder to hit. Which would make you think that fish were going to turn on for the afternoon bite but nope, not another frog bite. Not many bites at all.

The rest of the field struggled getting bites as well. I ended up with 14 plus because of the 7 pounder and won and got big bass. Second had 11 and third 9 but most of the club blanked or only had onies and twoies.

Wind was pretty much none existent both days, lots of sun, and little boat traffic. Everyone did say they caught several crappie in the 1.5-2 pound class...

[J.W.]

Nice work! Cross is always stingy and sporadic for me unless they've moved up.

[Donald Garner]

Mike congrats on the 1st place finish & Big Bass along with that 7lber      Tks for sharing the trip details with us.