Red River Bass Fishing Reports

[Trey]

:-\Just wondering where you guys are catching those keepers.  I fished the river last Thursday morning, Saturday morning, and Sunday evening, with only three keepers total!  I fished the main river (rock breaks and rip rap), the Port Lake (stick ups 3-8 ft and weeds) and several other oxbows that had grass, rocks, and wood cover.  I caught a couple other fish that were non-keepers, but for the most part I didn't get very many bites.  I have been using jigs, worms (texas rigged and wacky), spinnerbaits, crankbaits, and topwater lures.  I have a club tournament on the Red the same day as the Media (Oct 11), and any help would be greatly appreciated!  

Thanks,

Trey

[Trey]

  Fished the river again yesterday evening.  Not even a bump.  I fished from 5pm till 7:30pm on the main channel and also in Bishop Point oxbow.  Worked the rocks, flooded timber, drop offs, and grass.  I saw a lot of shad flipping on the surface, but no predators chasing them.  I fished all the baitfish schools I could find (topwater, spinnerbait, crankbait, soft plastic jerkbaits and a Carolina rig) with no takers.  Once again there was little or no current.  Leave the anchor at home because you won't need it to sit still.  I had to use my trolling motor to move down the rocks.  I've never had this much trouble on the Red before.  Everyone at the dock has been coming back empty handed as well.  I don't what I'm going to do this weekend.  I have no idea where to go or what pattern will be effective.  If anyone else has a success story or know where the fish are I could use the help!

[gunter1309]

trey,
I would lock thru to pool 4.  Reasoning is the fish in pool 5 have been bombarded all summer and hard the last 3 weekends, I think the pool 4 fish are less pressured right now and will be until hunting season, then pool 5 will see less fishing pressure and maybe they can recover a little.

my 2 cents ( about all its worth )

steve

[Mike Cork]

Trey, sounds really tough. I know that everyone is having some trouble on the river right now. The only advice I can give up is to cover water with a spinner bait and a crank bait. Don't be afraid to throw a crank at the timber.......

[Trey]

I just want ro say thanks to Steve and Mike.  I locked through to pool 4 today for the first time ever, and I must say that the fishing was definitely better.  I ended up catching 10 fish total; all on a chrome crankbait, white/chartruce spinnerbait, and a blue fleck worm.  Nearly all of my fish came from the rocks, but I did manage to boat a few from the oxbows.  Steve, are you the only one around here with a NASCAR boat?  If so, I saw you this morning in that oxbow by the cow pasture.  I have a black Tidecraft with silver trim, and a 200 Merc.  How did you do?  The only drawback to fishing Pool 4 is the lock itself.  I didn't weigh in a single fish, because a barge came through as I was waiting and got priority to lock up.  I arrived at 1pm and left the lock with 60 other boats that were fishing the Media at 3pm!  My club's weigh in was at 2:30!  Oh well, that's the breaks.  Again, thanks for the info, it made for a great fishing trip!

Trey

[gunter1309]

Trey,
I think there was a NASCAR boat in the media, Brent saw him in town yesterday, but that was us in the oxbow now that I know which boat you were in. we caught 8 keepers and came in 2nd in our club tourney.  10.58 won, we had 10.18 and third had 10 even, pretty close. we put in in coushatta because of all the tourneys putting in at clarks, that way we would not have to deal with the lock.  funny story about the barge, it was at the coushatta bridge when we put in this morning at 6:30 and at 9:45 it passed us in the oxbow, I told JR that the media guys better stay close to the lock because the barge had priority and they might get caught like you did, sorry to hear that I was prophetic in a way.  Glad you had a good trip in pool 4, sometimes my advice is OK.

Steve  

[Gabby]

Trey,

Don't forget who told you about the blue - flake worms!!!!
Hopefully this weekend, bro!

Gabby

[dave the dope man]

I fished south of the bridge today mid to late morning. I will not give out the exact spot to protect the ABA guys spots, this time, I will post the spot after saturday however. I caught several keepers on a gold lipless crankbait and a white spinnerbait on wind blown points next to rocks. It was VERY windy this am, between 7-18 mph with gusts in excess of 22. You had to fish the spots several times however you could catch as many as 4 on the exact same spot. Steve look to your left at your last turn off the river. You will know the spot...............Dave the Dope Man

[Marty]

I fished the same stretch of river yesterday, in fact my club had a "fruitjar" tournament down there, just kicking in $10 apiece.  I had 5 good keepers that went 9.30 lbs for 2nd place.  The first place guy weighed in 14.62 lbs.  I caught 2 on Pop-Rs in the jungle, then the wind blew me outta there & I went out & cranked rocks for the rest of my fish plus a couple extra ones.  This was the first time I had ever fished that part of the river.  It was nice not seeing 100 other boats on the water.  I hardly saw anybody besides our group & the occaisional john boat.
-Marty

[dave the dope man]

Hey Marty, what is your boats make?

[Marty]

dave, I have a Triton Tr-18 with a Yamaha VMAX 150 on the back.  It's red & white with a black bottom.  Did you happen to see me running around out there?

Marty

[dave the dope man]

Marty, No I don't think so. I did see a big blazer and I think what I saw other than that was a 19-20 ft skeeter that was red. I fish in a blue/white nitro 882 dual console with a gold stripe. I will be looking for you next time I'm out........Dave the Dope Man

[Marty]

OK, if you see me come over & say hello.  I'm pretty sure I'm the only Tr-18 around here with my colors, and one of the few with a Yamaha.  There aren't too many Tr-18's of any color since Triton quit making them in '99.  Now they have the Tr-186 for their 18 foot boat.  

[Marty]

I flipped a coin today...heads I go to Hosston to pre-fish for my club T next weekend, tails I go try out the crappie on the river.  It's still just a little early for them to stacked up in big concentrations (I think) but I managed around 20 nice keepers plus a 5lb & a 2lb cat.  I didn't have all that many bites, but the bites I had were mostly quality fish.  I think I only threw back 3 or 4 dinks, and I don't keep small crappie.  If I keep them they are filet size.  I saw a couple of guys catching a few on a chartreuse jig, but I caught mine on minners, dead or alive it didn't seem to matter.  Try the normal community holes like Blackies & the hole in the rocks where you cut through to go to the dozer, in 15-20 feet, just out from the rocks (on the inside).  Fish weren't all the way on the bottom but were suspended 3 or 4 feet up.  I usually tight-line rather than bobber fish this time of year.

Marty

[Gabby]

Went to the river today around 2, and launched at Clark's.  Fished around Dozer point, then Caspiana.  Threw everything at them - and not one single bite.

It will be a while before I go back to the River.  I am absolutely sick of the poor fishing there.  Not one bite.  The most exciting part of the trip was watching one of those water birds take a dump from a submerged tree.

Really looking forward to fishing Grand Bayou Saturday with Steve!

gabby

[Marty]

Hey Gabby!  You didn't mention throwing any crank baits at the rocks........I did that yesterday and tore them a new one!    They are in the mood to chase shad & my Excalibur crankbait in the color of Threadfin Shad, 4-8 ft diver (I think) did the job yesterday.  Don't give up on the Red yet, there's lots of fish out there!  I also caught 4 or 5 white bass that went between 1 & 2 lbs in the same areas.

Marty

[Marty]

Had another decent day on the river today, not as good as a couple of days ago, but the wind was tough & made it hard to fish like I wanted to.  A Pop-R & an Excalibur Fat Free Shad in the color of Threadfin Shad accounted for 7 fish for me today, with the best five going 11.05 to get 2nd place in my club's tourney (Hawgherders Bass Club).  1st place was 12.91.   Time now for some white perch fishing!  Much easier to sit down & fish.

Marty

[dave the dope man]

Changed my mind today and fished the river out of Coushatta. I fished the Gahagan oxbow today and stayed on the right hand bank. I was only able to fish for 4 hours (1030-1430). I only got 4 bites the entire day 2 on a texas rigged baby bass Rite Bite brand cinko, and 2 on a 3/8 oz jig that I had made, I put on a dark brown #11 pork trailer. All of my bites came between 4 and 10 foot of water. After the sky clouded up the bite was off.......Dave the Dope Man......... ;)Oh and by the way I did throw a spinnerbait and a crankbait for a while----No takers

[Marty]

Been doing pretty good with the white perch on the river.  I went today for about 4 hours, & didn't catch a huge number (14) but they were good sized.  Biggest was 2.4 lbs.  I also lost my drop shot rig when a fish of some unknown variety, but obviously pretty big pulled it off my boat when I was not paying attention!  Not a real high dollar outfit, but it was a fairly new Berkley Lightning Rod spinning rod & reel, that like I said, I use for drop shotting bass.  I was gonna use it in my tournament this weekend, but it was doubling today as a decent crappie rod.  I drug the bottom for awhile with a Carolina rig, but couldn't find it.  I watched it dissappear from sight, & if it were summer time I would have gone in after it.  So I guess now there's a big catfish or gou swimming around dragging my stuff!  The crappie are biting on minnows fished right off the bottom on a tight line, drifting around in 17-20 feet of water.  I have also been catching a good number on red/chartreuse tube jigs & a custom made pink/dark purple & chartreuse jig.  I'm fishing 1/8 oz jig heads on 6 lb. test line at the same depths mentioned above.  I'm also using chartreuse crappie nibbles on my jigs. ****Marty****

[Mike Cork]

Marty thanks for the info I think I am going to give it a shot here real soon...... Man I love a good mess of Crappie......

[Marty]

I went back yesterday afternoon with a friend & we caught a mess of very nice sized crappie.  Seems like every day they want something different.... yesterday it was live shiners drifted slowly along the bottom, and also....my friend did very well with a pink/chartreuse jig tipped with a live shiner basically just drug behind the boat, kind of bounced along the bottom.  The bite was pretty light, mostly, but a few good slams.  I caught a 2+ pounder right off the bat, and we both had a  number of others that were probably 1 1/2 to almost 2 lbs.  There were a couple other boats out there who were wearing them out as well.  They were not concentrated, you have to drift around out in the middle of the community hole, & most important is not to sit still, keep moving!  Most of our bites came in 17-20 feet.  Good luck...it's back to bass fishing for me now as my freezer's full of white perch!  Oh yeah, I would think about stopping by Bass's grocery on Barksdale Blvd. & picking up some red shiners, they were working very well for some guys we saw. We just had the regular Clark's shiners, but I think the red ones were out-fishing us!  Jigs we used were 1/8 oz, you need the weight to keep the jig down while drifting or trolling.

Marty

[gunter1309]

Marty,
I never heard of red shiners, but I am not much a crappie fisherman, thanks for the info.

steve

[Marty]

Steve,

Haha!  I'm not either, but I'm learning.  99% of my fishing is for bass, but over the past 3 years, starting in November & running past Christmas I have been doing the white perch dance.  I just kind of got into it accidentally 3 yrs. back on the river, and I'm not one of those guys who puts out brush piles in secret places etc.  I just go to the community holes like everybody else & sometimes they bite.  It's good fun, and I get kind of addicted, I guess, but my club's first tournament is this Saturday down at Cleco power plant lake near Boyce, and that will effectively be the end of crappie season for me this year.  That.....plus hearing about the 12 pounder on Caddo the other day has me ready to go out & start busting them!  Oh yeah, the red shiners are out there.  I have never fished them, but I've seen them.  A friend of mine uses them on Cross now for catfish & crappie.  Maybe they are the same as a gold shiner that's just got a reddish tint to them, I dunno.  I may have to try some, though.

Marty

[Moose]

Red Shiners
My dad is a big crappie fisherman. He puts red food coloring in with normal silver shiners to make 'em red.

[Marty]

Caught 17 large crappie today on the river.  The bite was tough & slow, but I got one every now & then.  All were pretty good, but there were several, that were extra big.  I think I have enough now for 2004.  OK, maybe just one more trip............