henderson lake fishing reports

[bigbro]

i am planing on going to henderson lake feb 14 have been there once before but have not caught much can anyone help with where to go

[Rickoos]

Fished Henderson this Labor Day, docked at Cypress Cove! Beware, they're rebuilding the levee road and its a mess.
Caught lots of 12- 13 3/4" fish that looked like footballs. There's a 14" limit in the swamp. We had well over 20-25 fish in the boat with 3 over 2 lbs. and 3 over 3 lbs. Plus 1 gator gar over 3 1/2' feet long that destoyed my buzz bait! The bite was on buzz baits in the morning, C-rig up to and after noon, and then flipping Bush Hogs later in the day!

Ricky

[Mike Noble]

Did you fish out in the main lake area or where you in some of the canals?

[Rickoos]

Mike,
We fished in the main lake area to begin with and used the buzz baits, then moved to the points with C-rigs. Then later on moved into the canals and started flipping.
This was my first trip to Henderson, be living here for 5 /6 years, within 30 minutes of home and never fished there, something about all those stumps scared me to death trying to run that mess!

Ricky

[Mike Noble]

If memory serves me, it is pretty easy to run.  I always launched on the "Baton Rouge" side of the lake.  There is a way, which I don't remember, to get into a canal system to the north where there are a lot of boat houses.  There is a launch there too, but you have to get to it from the "Baton Rouge" side of the lake.  I think the last time I fished there, we caught some good quality fish by pitching the boat docks.

[Rickoos]

We launched on the Lafayette side at Cypress Cove, there were lots of house boats there and at the next landing. We ran east from the landing until we got in the main lake area and then ran north under I-10 and fished some points there and then ran a good ways farther north thought some stump fields to the Phillips canal ditch and some more cajun french word places!!!!!!!

Ricky

The wife is looking for me a good map today while she is resting from her state job!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Yeah, I know, you too!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Rickoos]

Fished Henderson swamp again today, not much happening today! Missed a bunch on buzz baits, hitting short! Tried the C-rig, but no luck there either, all in all, a good day, but not many fish in the boat!

Ricky

[Mike Cork]

Richoos, did you change up your buzz bait? Meaning did you try to offer them a different sound (clacker vs squeaker), or a different size, or maybe a different color? Just wondering if you played with the buzz bait bite to see if there was something they would take a little more aggressively.

[Rickoos]

No Mike, I didn't. But I should have. I was wanting to get the wife on fish so bad, that I lost all sense of trying different things & colors. Now, since we got home, I can think of 101 things that I should have done that I didn't.

She did miss one on a buzz bait and one on a spinner bait that liked to took her rod from her! That was a funny one! Of coarse, it could have been the other way round too!

Next time I will try other things for sure, I wrote me a note, now if I can only find the note!

Ricky

[Mike Cork]

Thanks, I guess if you haven't noticed I am really into this buzz bait thing and trying to figure out some triggering factors.

A lot of times you can get plenty of strikes on a buzz bait but miss a lot of fish, most people go to a trailer hook to catch those short strikers, but I hate trailer hooks for safety sake and mortality rate of the fish. Besides we have all had those days that the fish hit so aggressively that you don't need a trailer hook and what that tells me is that there is a better choice when they are not, be it color, noise level, or speed. Once the right combination is hit the fish strike with enough enthusiasm that hook ups are constant. Anyway thanks for the inputs.

[Rickoos]

Mike,

A little input here, I was using a 1/2 oz. buzz, would you have changed to a 1/4 oz. and slowed the action down a bit, or just kept on using the 1/2 oz. like I did? I also like using the buzz bait, but I don't like using the trailer hook! That's one reason I think I was missing so bad, but then, I don't like hurting the fish either.

Ricky

[Mike Cork]

There are a lot of factors that would go into what I would do next. I don't know if I would have down sized at first. You were getting the strikes but they were not aggresive enough to take it so something at the last minute of the strike caused them to be cautious. First I would have changed color and if that didn't help I would have went with something that makes more noise to agrevate them even more at the last minute. After making a couple changes you will have to reevaluate the situation, are you still getting short strikes, are you getting more short strikes (meaning you are getting closer by attracting more bass), are you not getting as many strikes.

Water conditions, weather conditions, water temp changes, primary forage, these are just a few of the things that would help determine what to do next. Some times it is just a guessing game 

[Rickoos]

Next time I will stop, take a time out and rethink the whole thing, and take some notes! That way there is no forgetting what happen and the changes that were made and if they worked or not.........

It's starting to sound like text book time again!

Ricky

[Mike Cork]

Richoos, fishing is supposed to be fun, if you have a good time then the little adjustments are just part of it. Sometimes I get way to deep into a bait and often have accually over thought it and changed things when I did have the right combination. Keeping a bait wet is the most important thing 

[Mike Noble]

Rickoos, have you tried a spinnerbait?  I remember it producing at Henderson.  You also need to think about a weedless spoon.

[Rickoos]

I worked the spinner bait pretty good during the trip, but I didn't try or work any spoons! And I have a bunch of them and a bunch of tail spinners that I could try!    Sometimes in the heat of the minute, I forget to try other things!

Ricky

[Mike Cork]

If you are getting bit it is easy to get caught up, you had something right about the combo just missing something. A slightest change could have invoked ferocious Strikes. But there are times when nothing you do will get them going. So how knows keep plugging away or give it a change. The only thing for sure is hind sight is 20/20  Now that you know they never did get onto the buzz bait real good, sure maybe a slight change would have worked, but if you changed and it still didn't work then you would be saying that I should have stuck with the buzz bait. That unknown is what keeps us coming back for more. If we caught them all we would get board with it right?

[Rickoos]

Fished Henderson swamp this past Sunday morning for a couple of hours, but got called back to the office!

Had 2 bites & put 2 fish in the boat, both on spinner baits! Merila missed one on spinner bait also. I had a friend fishing close by that put 6 in the boat using spinner baits also. We were fishing around the Rabbit Island area and they were around the bridges.

Ricky

Didn't get a strike on a buzz bait today.......

[Brush Hawg]

Made my first trip to Henderson yesterday.  Terry LaBuff and myself caught 13 bass with 3 keepers.  We also boated 2 big goggle-eyes that were big enough to filet.  Will try to go back this weekend to pre-fish for next week's tournament.  They bit in the water on several baits and we were in an area not too far from a place that I don't know the name of. (That's about as much detail I can give until the tourney is done)

[Brush Hawg]

Jimmy Brown and myself fished Henderson today and caught six bass and two goggleyes.  Three of the fish were keepers in the two pound range.  All but one fish was caught early before the bluebird skies really set in.  Then it was slow as usual.  I have been pleasantly suprised with the lake.  I always wanted to fish it, but just never did.  I have been told that keepers are hard to come by.  That will probably be the case next Saturday, but our keeper ratio today was nice.  The ones we let go were all over 12 1/2 inches.

[Mike Noble]

Does the 14 inch minimum still exist on Henderson?  When I lived in Baton Rouge, we use to fish it quite a bit.

[Brush Hawg]

Yep, still a 14 inch minimum.  Just like Toledo there are a lot of 13 1/2 inch fish.  We've been throwing back a lot of nice Kentuckys as well.  As far as we can tell they are grouped in with largemouth as black bass and we didn't want to push our luck and get a ticket.

[Brush Hawg]

Fished Henderson today with Jimmy Brown in the Lockjaw Bass tournament.  We caught a total of 29 bass today.  We only had three keepers though. Took second with 4.9 lbs.  An incredible amount of 13 1/2 and 13 3/4 fish in this lake.  Next year should be awesome.  I didn't have a bite until 10 am but when we found them they were stacked up.  We caught our keepers on watermelon seed and junebug baby brush hawgs.  Jimmy caught a lot of nice throwback fish on a black wacky worm.  The keepers really seemed to want the brush hawg though.  Jimmy had a pretty nice fish break him off.  This is a great lake for people who like plastics and fishing tight to structure.  Gonna keep going if the gas prices allow it. 

[corey suir]

I HAVE  BEEN  FISHING HENDERSON  8 TIMES  IN THE  PAST  4  WEEKS  AND ON AVERAGE  WE  CATCH  BETWEEN  20 AND  30  BASS A TRIP MOST LIKE THEY SAY  BOUT 13.5 TO 13.75 INCHES. I  HAVE  CAUGHT  A BUNCH  OF  REALLY NICE  FISH. MY  LARGEST  SO FAR  THIS  SPRING  IS A 6.5  POUNDER  CAUGHT 2 WEEKENDS AGO.  OF ALL PLACES I  CAUGHT  HIM OR  HER  NOT  500  YARDS  FROM THE  PUBLIC  LAUNCH.CAUGHT IT  ON A SMOKE  COLORED  FLUKE.  NOW THAT I HAVE MOST OF THE  BASS  FISHING  OUT OF MY SYSTEM I'M  AFTER THE  BREAM AND THE  CRAPPIE NOW. GOIN HIT THEM  HARD  SATURDAY AND  SUNDAY. BUT I'M GOIN TO HAVE  2  NEW  PEOPLE IN THE  BOAT. I'M  NOT T O  WORRIED BOUT  SCOTT  BUT  LACY  SHE  SCARES ME  BOUT HOW  MUCH  I'M  GOIN TO  BE  GETTING  HOOKS OUT OF THE  TREES AND  WHO KNOWS  WHERE  ELSE. WELL  GOOD  FISHING  TO ALL AND  REMEMBER  TO  BRING A KID  FISHING  AND  PASS ON THE  TRADITION!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  ITS ALL WE  HAVE LEFT.

[Rickoos]

That sure sounds good to me,,, about the only other thing to do is ask you if you have any extra room for me!!!!!!!!

Hope you get on those bream good, sir.......... I hope to be out Sat. mid-morning, wave me down, I'm be in a Tracker 175 Pro Series with yellow Sqworm Tackle and Ambush Lures logo's on the sides..........

Ricky