Red River Bass Fishing Reports

[ʇuǝɹq™]

I went out to Clarks on Friday, and fished the trees and the rocks right there at Clarks.  I caught 5 of the rocks.  Three came off a Yum black neon crawbug (texas rig), and two off a storm crankbait.  I caught two more off a white and chartruess spinner bait in the trees directly in front of the marina.  The smallest one was around 10 inches, but the largest was 4 1/2 pounds!!! He came on the crawbug!!!

[Mike Cork]

Good day on the river! Told you Brent glad you finally tried it.

[LetsGetJiggy]

Hey Guys and Gals,

I am new to this sport of Bass fishing, but I've got all the gear,i.e. New boat, five new rods and reels, worms, crank baits, spinners baits, etc. But I have failed to score a single fish in the three weeks I've been fishing out of Clark's. I've been primarily fishing the oxbow called Little Enoch. My fishing partner has caught three there, but I'm still sitting on the big goose egg.
Is it me, the river, or is it this time of year? I am so frustrated.I'm not a total newbie to fishing, just to bass fishing. Any help is greatly appreciated and accepted.

[bassadict69]

There are two clubs in this area that alot of us on here fish. "Twin Cities Team Club" is a team type tournament and "The Club" is a draw type format. You can fish as a non-boater and be paired up with a boater for each tournament. It is a good way to learn alot about bass fishing. You should check into fishing with us sometime.

Everyone is more than willing to help and give out helpful advice. Just ask!!!

Welcome to the forum...sit back & relax, there are hours & hours of reading and tips on here!

[Mike Cork]

Jiggy, Don't get to frustrated. The Red is really tough right now. It always gets that way when we are low on rainfall. During the summer months the current is a big factor in catching fish on the river, and with out any rain the current gets very slow. These last couple days should help.

A couple things to try...

A white medium diving crankbait. Fish it along levees that have current running against them or over them. Some of the best areas are where there are wash outs over the levee get your boat into position and cast your bait into the current and pull it with the current threw the wash outs. The points of the levees can be really good also.

Timber, timber is always good. Try to find the old willow trees in amongst the pole timber. The bushier trees that are scattered every once in a while in the pole timber. Take a brush hog or your favorite creature bait and rig it texas style then put it right in the middle of that bush and let it fall to the roots and shake it in one place as long as you can stand it.

For a couple fish real quick first thing in the morning, try the bull dozer point which is just south of clarks. This place is great in the summer time for a quick top water bite. Pop R's usually do the trick. Ask Dennis or Gary at the marina where it is. It is really close and easy to find when someone points it out.

Good Luck

[Marty]

If you can get somebody to show you where the entrance to the Caspiana oxbow is, I'm talking about right at the mouth of the oxbow, then you can start working northwards up that bank and all around in that area early in the morning with a buzzbait and also a Pop-R (careful not to lose to many of those in the laydowns). You oughta be able to pick up a few in that area.  Also, it's "Ninock" :D  The main thing on the river is to be extremely careful around the rocks, they will destroy your boat in a split second.  I speak from experience!   Be extremely careful in the area immediately south of the entrance to the Port Lake.  There is a very low rock jetty there that will not even be visible when the river is up.   It has claimed plenty of boat hulls.  Watch out on the ends of some of the rock jetties that stick out into the river, there are submerged rocks there too.  If you are fishing in the Ninock area, you might try fishing the small cut just before the dam on the east side, right along the rocks.  When the lock opens to let a boat through, current draws through there & it will cause the fish to feed in the current.  A Caroina rig or crankbait will work right there, but it's no secret so you might have company.  Good luck on the river.  It is a great fishery, but it does take some time to learn how to fish it.  I would suggest that in addition to maybe joining a club, you might consider taking a guide trip on the Red with Russ McVey.  He can show you around & put you on some spots you can fish later on your own.  Russ is a good guy, plus that would kind of give you a base to build on.  Best of luck & again, be careful on the river!  It's the most treacherous water around here as far as potential boat damage goes!

[Mike V]

Fished the river Sunday with my Media partner. Had a pretty good morning. we fished from daylight until 11:00am. We caught 6 with several in the 3-4 lb range. All the fish were caught on soft plastics in 6-10 ft of water. Junebug seemed the color of choice. My partner caught a pretty good fish on the black buzzbait also. The water looks good just about anywhere you go right now.

[gunter1309]

Fished the 2 day ABA District 48 Championship this weekend, 40 anglers were entered.

First of all I would like to thank our very own BassAddict for helping me out yesterday, that ice probably kept my big fish alive, as you can see below I could have not endured a .25lb penalty. 

I ended up with second big fish for the day and for the tournament with a 4.35 got beat with a 4.41, .06 out of first!!!!!! I think taking pix of the fish before weighing it cost me,( he had dried out some) but at the time it was big bass and they wanted some pics.  It was big bass until almost the last guy weighed, Mr. Parker.  I would have gotten to take a polygraph and everything, that would have been cool.

Day one I was paired with Lisa Craig, a guide from TX. She fishes the WBFA circuit, won a tournament this year and was one point from being Rookie of the year and making the womens Classic.  It was kind of intimidating, she was a very good angler and I had the responsibility of trying to put her on fish.
2 other club tournaments were fishing so there were a lot of people on the ramp and most launched before us so by the time we  blasted off by number they were already fishing.   We started in the Pink House area and the only way I had been was idling from Dozer thru the stumps so it took a while.  There were 3 other boats there but only one was ABA and he was the eventual winner.  Started with buzzers, no takers, I switched to a big crank and blade after 45min.  By 7:30 I was flipping and caught a 5lb on a tube, good start.  fished 2 more hours with out a bite, caught a 12" on the big crank, Lisa caught a 11" on a crank.  At 11 I lost a good 2lb fish on the crank, it had bee so long since my last bite that I horsed the fish a little and it surfaced an threw the bait.  Idled back to dozer and fished there until the storm hit.  I caught a 2.5lb on the crank and Lisa caught a 14" on a brush hog.  I lost one more fish on a jig, it came up 3 times before throwing it and it was a good 1.5lber.  I had my chances to have a limit of fish, 5 bites 3 fish.  We fished thru the storm all the way to the Ridge everyone fishes just thru the rocks by clarks.  Stayed there until 10min to weigh-in and that is when the "fun" started.  got everything buttoned down, sat down and hit the starter, nothing but clicking, running the livewells all day and not running the boat must have run down the cranking battery.  No Prob, got my jumper cables out and tried to jump off the troll battery, still would not start, it would kick off my computer and not try to crank------Panic 3min before check in and all I got is trolling motor and no one around to jump me or give us a ride to clarks.  needless to say we were 10min late and with the 1lb per min penalty, I did not have 10lb, we did not weigh our fish. ZERO, and what sucked is Lisa had to zero also, and what sucked even more the 5lb fish I had would have been big bass for the day and the tournament.  Lesson learned, if you are going to fish until the last possible minute, make sure your boat will start.

Day 2,charged my batteries  and carried an extra starting batt. just in case. I was not paired with anyone, I had one thought, fish for 1 big bite!!  Went back to the same area since I had caught a good fish the day before.  Learned a new way in through ninock, followed Bill Burks thru the stumps on what must have been an old road bed because we did not touch a stump an it ran all the way to the island at pink house. ( saved the track on GPS for future ref. )  Fished a buzz early, no takers, threw a jig the next 2hrs no takers, a school of little fish came up and I took a crank bait an started catching 10" fish, it was fun for about 30min then I pulled a 13"weigh fish out of the school.  moved to the island and caught 2 2lb fish on a big tube and a C-rig Fry.  Moved to Ninock and the ridge Homer caught his fish on in his BASS win.  30min I stuck a good fish on a Rig and broke off, not too bad until I got to see her, she came up to throw my hook an bait -- at least a 5lber -  I was sick.  Picked up the tube and fished the same general spot for 10min then caught the big fish, had a 6lb head but was kind of poor.  I got worried looking at the fish, thought it might die so I headed to clarks for some ice, saw James on the bank and he helped me out.  Iced the livewell and added rejuvX treatment and put on recirc.  had about 1hr left so went back to dozer, no fish, had 4 in the well and decided not to let what happened sat catch me again, checked in 20min early. 

Weighed almost 10lb with 4 fish, had I gotten to the weigh in on sat I would have placed in the money, but cant cry over spilt milk.  Learned a few valuable lessons, if you can learn something each time you go out -- good or bad -- it is a day well spent.

Thanks to Dallas Miller and the ABA, I encourage the people on the board, if you can fish a circuit this year, Dallas runs a class operation and it is Military Service oriented, so you compete with other servicemen.

sorry for the long winded post, just like to write it down while it is fresh.

steve

[gunter1309]

Forgot something ( hard to believe ) another lesson learned, when you try to start your boat with the trolling motor batteries, disconnect them from the 24 volt series.  The jump was trying to feed 24volts into my motor and it was kicking off my computer, prob. a safety feature.

steve

[Mike Noble]

Thanks for the post Steve.  Very interesting 2 days.  We heard about your battery problems at the pool party...that just sucks.  Is your trolling motor just 24v or is it 24/36?  Mine is 24/36 and you can't jump the cranking battery because it is hooked to the other 2.  I have never tried unhooking the cranking battery from succession in the trolling motor series to see if I could jump it then.

[bassadict69]

All I did was went into the store for your ice...but , Glad I could help!!

[gunter1309]

I am not supposed to leave the water, unless emergency, during tournament hours.  I guess I could have gotten some of the pleasure boaters or jet skiers to get the ice, it was good to see someone I knew though, thanks again.

steve 

[Mike Cork]

Steve thanks for the indepth post - there was allot to learn that day and I for one thank you very much for sharing. Hey, I as a tournament director would consider the life and death of a big ole bass and emergency!!

[Marty]

Steve, I've had to rope start a couple of 150's in my life, I don't expect they even bother with supplying a rope with a bigger outboard like what I'm guessing is on your big Ranger.  My '99 Yamaha 150 came with a rope, though & when it was only 6 months old I was fishing a club tournament out of Clark's & the same thing ahppend to me, time for weigh-in & the battery croaked.  I didn't have cables on board then (do now though!) so I broke out the rope, wrapped it around the flywheel, gave it a tug & she fired right up, just like advertised!  Much better experience than the previous time I pull started a 150.  That one was a pretty old Merc, probably one of the 1st 150's they ever put out, & it took about 40 pulls to get it going.  Man, that was tough!  Anyhow, the only other thing I was gonna say is that I have also jumped from my 2 trolling batteries to crank my motor & it worked fine for me.  Done it a couple of times, as a matter of fact.  My outboard is fuel injected, but not a DFI model.  I don't know how much difference that might make.  If yours is a DFI (Optimax,HPDI etc.) the computer might behave differently.

[gunter1309]

No rope on my motor, dont think the computer would take the 24, it is an HPDI, must have something to do with it.  several people suggested using the pull rope at the ramp in jest, I wish I could have at least tried with one, I was pretty panicked and p.o.'ed, I might have turned that 250 over.

thanks

steve

[danisfish]

Way to keep your chin up Steve. I think you found some of my luck from this year. On caddo papa and I had a nice bag of fish the day my omc would not run. On cross I broke my glx on a nice jig fish on a thursday and in reeves tourny lost a nice fish at the boat. It is hard to smile when you really want to kick yourself but you are right on the money, learn from your mistakes and be a better fisherman for it. All that said, if I learn something from every mistake I make fishing, I will win the classic next year going away cause I can mess up like a pro.

[Mike Noble]

Daniel....your story sort of reminds me of a joke.  This guy was laying in the hospital, recovering from a heart attack.  His wife was there, comforting him.  He looked at her and said..."when I wrecked my favorite car - you were there; when I lost my job - you were there; when I broke my arm - you were there; and when I had my heart attack - you were there...I think you are bad luck!"  I think Papa was there for all of your unfortunate happenings....somebody might be bad luck.

[danisfish]

Mike that is funny. lol. Never heard that one. But I will have to say my bad began long before papa and I ever fished together. Can't point the finger at anyone but myself.

[Ron Fogelson]

Hay guys, take this for what its worth but I've ran into the same problems with my cranking battery 3 or 4 years ago.  I went to Wal-Mart on the way home and got me a deep-cell trolling battery and hooked it up.  I did the samething once I got my new Nitro.  Running a 35gal live-well all day is to hard on anything else.  I also carry one of them emergency jumpstarts with me in my boat.  Its lighter then adding an other battery and if you run into someone else one the water that needs help you don't have to string battery cables all over eachothers boats just to find out they are not long enough. (thats happened to me getting a jump from someone else)  Again just my 2 cents worth any other ideas from you would be wellcome!

Play Nice or Die!
Fogy

[dave the dope man]

Fished pool 4 today. I want to change the name to "Gar pool". I actually caught a gar that was about 2.5 feet long, the thing was he had only bit the line and was hanging on!! Idiot fish!!! Anyhow I caught 4 small fish, all on a crankbait white/chartruese 4-6 foot diver in water that was between 8 and 20 foot deep. the water temp was 82-84 depending on where you were at. No fish on a Jig or c-rig. FYI Loggy bayou is terribly muddy.......There is a litlle current on the river but not much. Saw no schoolers....Dave....And for mike more infor...My rear end was hot when sitting in the seat, The sun was up, the water was wet........Dave  

[Mike Noble]

Dave, Dave, Dave...when are you going to learn...

crankbaits - 

Wet water...how interesting.

[dave the dope man]

Allright, I fished Gar Pool again today. All in all i caught 5 and lost one thanks to a broken hook. I had probably 7 lbs total, the water temps were in the low 80's, tannic in color with stained areas due to boat traffic. there is more current today and the level is rising, water is backing up into the oxbows. The sky stayed mostly overcast today ( the cloud bank was pretty high though) Here is the break down of my fish.....2 on a ghost shad (bleeding) crankbait 4-6 ft diver in the cuts...2 on a c-rig with a baby bass cinko type plastic, as before in the cuts.... and one on a jig ...Black blue with a junebug baby brushhawg, tail dipped in dye. I did notice that the fish really didn't start to bite till 1100. I now it was 1100 because I took a radio and Rush had just came on.........Hey Mike N. I know I know,,,,crankbaits,,,,,but it worked.......................Dave

[Mike Noble]

But just think how many fish you would have caught if you would have thrown a bait that is proven to catch fish...spinnerbait, worm, M-80.

[dave the dope man]

The ATF took all my M-80's away from me.     ........Dave

[Mike Cork]

Dave + drugs + M80's = I fear to imagine