[Bleedingblue]

My Saturday afternoon trip had all the ingredients for a disaster. Late to the water (not on till 1:30), unpleasant weather (85 degrees and little wind or clouds), and a slow start (no bites for first 1:45). Well, what began so poorly ended up as one of my best outings and delivered my biggest bass ever from RRR.

I had started out fishing some main lake features with nary a nibble. I ran to a creek that has been fishing good all year and started hitting some favorite spots. My preferred chuck-n-wind presentations got no love so I concentrated on working laydowns with T-rig plastics. I finally got my first bite in a laydown and it was a solid keeper. A few minutes later the same tree yielded a 3 lb class bass. I had caught another short fish when I arrived a a large laydown in deep water that was shaded. I have known this was a good spot but I really had no idea how to fish it effectively. Thanks to some sage advice from a known T-rig junkie I at least had a plan of attack.

I picked up a keeper after a few casts and kept working the tree. A few casts later I felt my line tighten and set the hook. I could tell this fish was a pretty good one and it had me solidly wrapped up on a big limb. In a fortunate coincidence, I had just watched a fishing show earlier in the day that said in this situation to give the fish line and let it unwrap itself. I ended up doing this twice. After the second time I finally pulled the fish off the log and saw it for the first time. It was much bigger than I had originally guessed. After a short battle at the boat I put her to hand I had landed my heaviest bass from RRR. It was 21.5" and weighed 6-4. After a couple quick snaps it was released healthy.

(I know this fish doesn't look particulary big in the photo because of the bad pose, but for comparision I confirmed the weight of the fish in the pics below so you can see the size difference)

What started as a bad day just got very, very good. I ended up catching two more keepers out of that tree. I moved to a couple other shaded laydowns and pulled another 3 lb fish and a 2.5 lber.

(3 lb)

(2.5 lb)

I added several more keepers to my tally before time to leave. At the end of the day I had caught 14 fish of which 10 were keepers. I figured my best 5 was in the 16-17 lb range (I didn't weigh every fish) which were all caught in less than 5 hours. It goes to show you can never fully predict when fishing will be good. What an afternoon!

 

[Abert43]

Sounds like a great day on the water! Nicely done and congrats on the biggun!!

 

[jerry condrey]

Good job man! RRR strikes again!!

 

[SurfRider]

Thanks to some sage advice from a known T-rig junkie I at least had a plan of attack.

That was a great day on the water, Andrew! Congrats on the PB and a nice bag. Glad the Texas rig came through for ya. No secret, it's my favorite... I guess I would accept 'junkie' as fair.

Nice job!

 

[Bleedingblue]

That was a great day on the water, Andrew! Congrats on the PB and a nice bag. Glad the Texas rig came through for ya. No secret, it's my favorite... I guess I would accept 'junkie' as fair.

Nice job!

I used junkie in the most complimentary sense possible.

I had fished around that same tree twice in the past couple trips but had no idea how to fish it properly until you hooked me up. I have to give you the assist for my success. Thanks.

 

[SurfRider]

I used junkie in the most complimentary sense possible.

I had fished around that same tree twice in the past couple trips but had no idea how to fish it properly until you hooked me up. I have to give you the assist for my success. Thanks.

I am gratified I was able to help a little. I have learned several new things from you as well, so it was time for me to return the favor. You're an experienced fisherman, I am betting it only took a couple little tweaks. Texas rigging heavy cover in medium to deeper water is something I see a lot of guys either not really doing or trying to do too quickly.

It's funny when I sent that email I was envisioning that very tree in my mind's eye when I was describing the technique. Interesting that was the one. Congrats on the nice fish, I got hard-wrapped and had to break off there by a nice fish 10 days ago; maybe you avenged me!

 

[Jay]

Good job Andrew on the big fish and getting it done on a short hot day!

Am I the only one that finds it interesting how the fishes' moods change year to year? Last year I had a great part of my success on moving baits like spinnerbait and rattletrap. To me that is saying a lot because plastics have always been my go-to favorite style of bait. This year the T-rig seems to be the hottest ticket at Randleman as far as I can tell, also earlier in the year the jerkbait was the big bait - at a time of year in which I was killing them on the spinnerbait the prior year.

 

[Bleedingblue]

Good job Andrew on the big fish and getting it done on a short hot day!

Am I the only one that finds it interesting how the fishes' moods change year to year? Last year I had a great part of my success on moving baits like spinnerbait and rattletrap. To me that is saying a lot because plastics have always been my go-to favorite style of bait. This year the T-rig seems to be the hottest ticket at Randleman as far as I can tell, also earlier in the year the jerkbait was the big bait - at a time of year in which I was killing them on the spinnerbait the prior year.

It is interesting. I think it is a combination of weather, changes in the lake as it ages, and fish education that drives these changes in taste. I'm sure spinnerbaits and traps would work more often if the fish didn't see so many of them. The jerkbait bite this spring certainly was a pleasant surprise because I had decided to fish it until I learned how to use them in cold water. Lucky for me the fish decided to help out.

 

[jerry condrey]

Carolina rigs, gentlemen. Carolina rig..lol

 

[Bleedingblue]

Carolina rigs, gentlemen. Carolina rig..lol

Believe it or not I have fished one the last several trips and only got a couple hits. For whatever reason I'm not finding many fish on the bigger points like I would expect. You can be assured, however, that I will keep throwing it.

 

[jerry condrey]

My cousin Rick and friend Steve caught 14 there today. Most on culprit worms but the four biggest came on c rigged speedcraws. These were two around four, one five+ and Rick got a 6+. The big girls came off of a hump near a bridge, where I got the seven +plus late last month.

 

[oldkayaker]

RRR Southwest park 6-18

C rig speed craw is definitely the way to go. Fished Wednesday 6 to 11 in my favorite spot on the main lake. 3 dinks and a great fight with a big one which I lost to the tree. But as you can see even crappie will bit on c rig speed craw and a nice size one to. Beautiful morn but a little hot by 11. I will be back next Wed for more

 

[Bleedingblue]

My cousin Rick and friend Steve caught 14 there today. Most on culprit worms but the four biggest came on c rigged speedcraws. These were two around four, one five+ and Rick got a 6+. The big girls came off of a hump near a bridge, where I got the seven +plus late last month.

Obviously I have been fishing it in the wrong spots. Because of limited time I haven't ventured to that area of the lake, but I will.

 

[jerry condrey]

You certainly need to. It's where the guys beat it to death with cranks and we roll in behind them and got several nice fish on the c rig, including the seven.

 

[thebradybunch]

Cranking has been huge this year as well. There have been days that Sam and Andrew were doing great with plastics but little love on cranks while my son and I were fishing some of the same spots and could not get bit on plastics but did awesome on crankbaits. Go figure?

 

[jerry condrey]

The day I caught the seven I got a five on a pop r, and a 4+ on a sexy shad ff shad crank.