not a lot of guys talking about the lake on here so here's a little info.
well after screwing this post up ( responded with this in a different thread haha.)
bite is there but have to grind it out. the swimbait fish have been on and off. its all timing right now. hit the same spot 10 times throughout the day and you'll figure out how they want it. its tough; but do able. a lot my fish have been without rhyme or reason. i can hit a spot at what i would think would be the most optimal time but i'll show up high noon, bright sky and no wind and catch one. its weird stuff. falling water is changing how the fish have been positioned. there are a lot of roamers packing down the bank but the fish on the primary edges are moving around like mad as well and setting up funny. hardest part is locating and figuring out how the fish want it. find the depth, find the bait and COMMIT. know the fish are on the spot you're fishing and force feed them into biting. a lot has to do with confidence in the bait you're throwing and understanding what each turn of the handle is doing to the bait underwater. is the tail speeding up? is it slowing down? did that one handle crank move your bait inches up or by slowing down did you allow that bait to sink? you know what i mean? the hudd has been a key player in my bite the past 3 months.
deeper structure oriented fish have been chewing but you have to be willing to really commit to the bait you're throwing. dont search the box to find what the fish are eating. its not spring or summer time. we all know the colors, we all know the techniques. we all know where these deeper fish hang. dedicate to what you know and throw it all day long. a lot of fish are around 25-30' you can go deeper and catch fish but the majority of the active fish are in that depth range. shake a worm, throw a jig or drag a dropshot and you can catch them. its sculpin, crawdad and bluegill time.
like i said above, COMMIT to the baits you know. the bite definitely is tougher, but the lake isnt dead. the fish have to eat. they arent stopping because of algae, blasting, or boat traffic. i dont stop eating for a week at a time. im going to eat every day. when a customer (boat) comes into the tackle shop (spot) i may stop and wait for him to grab some stuff, but rest assured when he leaves im gonna stuff my face. fish alter their feeding times hence the phrase we all use called "timing". keep in the back of your mind that there's always a wide open bite. ALL THE TIME. its just a matter of figuring out what they want and how they want it. on an average weekday im catching maybe 10 fish. the bigger bites have been swimbait fish and when i decide to put the big rod down, the average structure fish has been around 2 1/4 -3 pounds with 12" -14" fish in the mix. some days with optimal conditions im catching 5 swimmer fish. other days im catching 1. some days i just get bit. the days where im getting corn holed on the swimbait i check deeper stuff to see if the fish pulled back and might want a more subdued bait.
its not a terrible bite out on the lake. quality is definitely tough, numbers are tough, but there's a whole mess of short fish out there to keep us all occupied.
keep at it guys! winter time is winter time.
