Barnett’s “other game fish” turn on in the fall
It really wasn’t fair last year, since so many bass fishermen were on Barnett Reservoir in September and then October, pre-fishing for the B.A.S.S. Central Open that was held on the lake.
Deer hunters had their trail cams to spot big bucks; I had those anglers reporting on striped bass.
It was only a matter of time until I would either hear the bass fishermen either complaining about “too many stripers” or get calls from the ones who know how much I love those “&$## fish.”
In mid September, I got the first in a text.
“Stripers here, stripers there, stripers everywhere on the main lake … Get your gear … It’s on!”
“You won’t have any problem finding them,” said B.A.S.S. Elite Series pro Pete Ponds of Madison. He had sent the text. “I stopped at four of my favorite largemouth holes and caught stripes at three of them. Good ones, too.”
The next day, I got this during an interview with a visiting B.A.S.S. angler, “Seriously, y’all need to do something about the striper population in this lake. They have taken over the ledges on the lower main lake.”
Oh, yeah, I definitely planned to do something about it.
I immediately went into action, spooling up rods with new 12-pound mono, securing my supply of Bandit 200 and 300 series Crankbaits and Redfish Magic Spinnerbaits for surface action and getting my big fish boxes ready to load on the pontoon.
Three days later — with seven limits cleaned and bagged and dozens more hooked and released — my hands, back and forearms were worn out. My reels needed re-spooling and I needed more Bandits.
The first day out, as Ponds had predicted, I found them on the first spot I looked, chosen for its convenience, less than a mile and about three minutes from my pontoon boat’s dock. We arrived there at 1 p.m.
It’s a shallow hump, rising to 8.8 feet, near a bend in the river on the Madison County side of the lake. It is surrounded by 20 feet of water with the 40-feet deep river channel about 30 yards away, and it is known for its fall and winter production. I found its peak, tossed out a buoy and began by trolling with the Bandit 200s.
On the second pass, my partner and I both hooked up. By 3:30, our limit and our ice chest were full. The fish were not on the top of the hump, but instead on the river side in 12-15 feet of water. They were moving around and trolling was a better alternative in the windy conditions.
The next day, we were back on the water at 10:30 a.m., and were disappointed to find that the fish had left the previous day’s hotspot. We made the move across the lake to the Rankin County side and started looking for the ridges and humps, out and down from Fannin Landing. The key is locating the first major contour changes — the ridges run north to south — and work the edges of 14 and 15 feet of water where it climbs quickly to 6 or 8. It was where Ponds first found them and where Sutton and I really got on them. I idled over one hump, marked some fish and tossed a buoy.
We made a few casts with 200s but failed to get a bite, so we set up a trolling line that would allow us to work up out of the 15 feet into 7 and 8. First pass, two fish. Second pass, two fish. Third pass, two fish. We stopped, made a few fruitless casts and went back to trolling. Half an hour later, the limit was in the box and we started playing with pinched-down barbs and caught another dozen or so. We had all we wanted by 2:30.
On the third day, starting at 11 a.m. and with a weather change rapidly approaching, we fished through a cool, misty rain on a flat lake. I brought two anglers this time, to do the work. We returned to the previous day’s hot spot and we put a big-time whooping on those fish.
The completely overcast skies pushed the fish up out of the deeper areas to the shallow tops of the ridges and points. The stripes and hybrids were in 5 to 6 feet of water and on two occasions were busting shad on the surface. The schooling fish were smaller, about 2 to 3 pounds, with the bigger fish holding underneath. After catching a couple on the surface, we went back to the Bandits and got the big ones. With the tougher weather of the front approaching, we headed to the dock with an ice chest full of fish 6 to 10 pounds each at 3 p.m.
That kind of action lasted for the next month, although the weather and work limited us to only a day or two a week. It didn’t prevent us from limiting each day we went.
This year, without a major tournament to put bass fishermen on the lake to find and complain about the bite, I’ll have to find them on my own.
Fortunately, I know two good places to start.
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