Lathem Lately?

RamblinWreck

Senior Member
Got crickets, red wigglers, and lots of little bitty jigs. Gonna try the bream again in the morning. Hopefully the wind wont blow me around so bad this time.

Mark at the office told me they stopped feeding last week IIRC. Hopefully I'll get on some bulls - they should be hungry LOL. Hey, I figured out the bass, I should be able to get on the bream. Crappie will do as well. Got a fillet knife for Christmas I've yet to try out.

Hopefully learn more about how to find panfish with the Lowrance (2D and DI).
 

RamblinWreck

Senior Member
Sounds like a plan. Don't throw any panfish back - I'll take 'um if ye don't want them. Been years since I had me some fried Ga panfish, I regret to say.

I've got an itch, and the only thing that will scratch it is more cowbell.
I mean BRIMPS! <-- what an old friend used to call them, bless his heart.
 

jocko755

Senior Member
Fished HL a few days ago. Got a late start - noon-to 4:35 PM due to chores. Was surprized to see people still putting in as I was taking out. How's that when the Lake closes at 5pm?

Still find this lake frustrating. Its an off shore lake where bass migrate with the bait. LM school just the same as the Spots following the bait and not setting up on shore cover and rarely staying in the same spot.

The shoreline and standing timber look great - yet its fishless. Just off the shore around 6 feet deep - there is skunk grass. This too should hold fish, but still fishless. The shallow back of coves littered with wood should be teaming with bass. None.

The only success I have - is chasing schoolers. They ignore my topwater but I did catch a LM & spot on a Norman deep lil N. I paddled to long main lake points and cranked my crankbait over wind swept points, only catching a few.

Most lakes - you see a stump or log and you know it holds a bass. Not here. Still looks to be managed well. I like the multiple feeders. Seems the bass are well fed. Saw plenty of bait in the shallows at the ramp.

Is anyone having success without a depth finder casting to shoreline targets?
I tried a spinnerbait, worm, senko, swim jig, popper, nothing.
 

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RamblinWreck

Senior Member
Went today after bream, and managed to catch some big shellcrackers on crickets and redworms. Just ones and twoseys here and there, never found a real hotspot, but I kept 6 fat bulls for supper.

Couldn't resist throwing the spybait, and caught 2 largemouth right away, 2 lb fish, and that was throwing in 30-40 ft of water off a main lake point, counting down to 15 feet, and reeling slow (I was seriously after bream, but a guy I've seen there before was asking me about it. It was an impressive demonstration).

I also only lost lures and caught some small ones in those trees. Those timber coves will probably produce well in cool spring water, but not right now, no. Spybaiting or drop shot in 20-30 feet of water is what produced for me. The spinbait is extremely effective, just throw and reel parallel to shore about 20-30 yards off the bank. Wham, bam. Thats where they are at right now, but I ain't no bass pro, no, just an opinion.

Maybe when it really starts cooling down they will start up on top water. AIn't cooling down this week, thats for sure. It was HOT. Lake is 83 degrees.
 

RamblinWreck

Senior Member
@jocko755 : I bet a sinking crankbait, countdown Rapala, rat-l-trap, or swimbait, something like that, would probably work on those suspended fish. Just work it around 15 feet where you see the schools chasing shad. Or try trolling some big shiners like dank1296, works for him.
 

Onthebank

Member
My son has caught bass off the shore there using live earthworms. We were there today up until 12:30. Bass laughed at my lures and my son caught bream, "large" bream using Martin's bread. Fancy stuff. Worked better than my overpriced lures that bass are supposed to love. I'm boatless at the moment so I'm stuck on the bank, hence the name.
 

Coenen

Senior Member
Went today after bream, and managed to catch some big shellcrackers on crickets and redworms. Just ones and twoseys here and there, never found a real hotspot, but I kept 6 fat bulls for supper.

Maybe when it really starts cooling down they will start up on top water. AIn't cooling down this week, thats for sure. It was HOT. Lake is 83 degrees.
Let's see some pics! Glad to know you got into a few. Sometimes it's like that where you've got to weed through the little hens to get a big boy. Having a bunch of action like that is always fun.

The topwater I've seen in my few trips has been related to weather and sunlight. Prefrontal conditions with some breeze and cloud cover seem to help immensely. They're reluctant to stay up for long when it's flat out and the sun is high. They're up and down so quick that I don't even reach for the topwater rod most times. I usually just ease over where I saw them and hit them with the DS.
My son has caught bass off the shore there using live earthworms. We were there today up until 12:30. Bass laughed at my lures and my son caught bream, "large" bream using Martin's bread. Fancy stuff. Worked better than my overpriced lures that bass are supposed to love. I'm boatless at the moment so I'm stuck on the bank, hence the name.
OTB, try a pearl white Fluke, or maybe a watermelon seed Zoom trick worm. Use a spinning rod with a fairly soft tip, light line(8lb or even 6lb), and maybe a weighted hook so you can really sling it out there a ways. Then experiment with your retrieves until something clicks. Start out painfully slow, and gradually add more speed and action. Check out the Wacky Rig, and it's cousin the Neko Rig as well, paired up with that same trick worm, or a fat worm like a Senko or Yum! Dinger in watermelon candy, or watermelon red.

Active as that lake is, it'd be hard to imagine those few simple lures and rigs not producing something.
 

RamblinWreck

Senior Member
No pics - left phone in truck and cam at home. I love shellcrackers - the king of the bream family.

I'm going to keep after 'em 'till I figure them out here.
 

jocko755

Senior Member
In the vacinity of those feeders, i bet there are some huge bream. They may be hungry now that they shut the feeders down.

Thanks for the tips. I prefer shallow bass fishing to easy targets. Suspended or schooling fish are tough. I will try my spybait next time. The lake is close for me and it is nice, but I find the gate times restricting. Enjoying the posts. Seems some jon boat tourneys - someone caught a 9.35 lbr. I bet some big ones are lurking.
 

dank1296

Senior Member
I catch most of my bass in 25-35 feet of water trolling shiners and small diving rapalas ive seen the bass coming up from bottom on my garmin to strike the baits. Went wednesday and caught 7-8 bass was kinda slow. Water temp 78-82 did see some topwater but didnt fish for them. Hope cooler water will turn some of the crappie on. Theres some slabs in there.
 

Coenen

Senior Member
I'm likely headed up to Lathem tomorrow. Any of y'all gonna be out there?
 

RamblinWreck

Senior Member
I'm your huckleberry.
 

Coenen

Senior Member
I'm your huckleberry.
I'll keep my eyes out for that brown NuCanoe, then. I'm riding a smoke grey Vibe Sea Ghost 130, paddle power only. There's another dude out there with a trolling motor on his. I'd say I'll be there early, but I never get there early. :ROFLMAO: Maybe we'll cross paths.
 

RamblinWreck

Senior Member
Had to scrap my trip this morning and fix a dishwasher leak. Might get out in the rain tomorrow.
 

Coenen

Senior Member
Had to scrap my trip this morning and fix a dishwasher leak. Might get out in the rain tomorrow.
Ah, Crap. Good luck tomorrow, be safe.

Just walked in the door from my trip today. Not much has changed. Water temps holding in the low 80's, most fish in the 20-30ft range relating strongly to bait and depth breaks. Caught a few up shallower today, but they were all small. Best numbers day I've had on the lake, probably got up into the mid-teens, all bass, majority spots with a few 'lips thrown in. Everything on the DS except one on a popper. Not much in the way of size, most in the 10-14" range. Afternoon breeze and clouds seemed to really help shake things loose.

Did lose a real donkey, picked up a super light bite, and when I set the hook the fish never slowed down. Rod bent over, drag started peeling and the line let go at the hook after a few seconds. Whatever it was it was heavy, in a totally different class than the average fish I had been catching. Lesson learned about rerigging and retying often.
 
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jocko755

Senior Member
Hit HL this morning. Cloudy and occasional light rain. Stiff breeze at times. I brought several rods rigged for schooling bass. Popper, A-Rig, Ned Rig, crankbait. And I brought one jig rod. I didn't bring any additional tackle. Big mistake. I also meant to bring a spybait and forgot.

As luck would have it - no schooling activity and no surface bite to speak of. I hit numerous points and came up blank.

I tried the wood again. I made casts into the standing timber near deep water. I free spooled the jig down to the bottom. I made small movements on the bottom and "Thump". I set the hook on a nice sized largemouth bass. She jumped 3 times at the side of my kayak and spit my jig on the last head shake.

Back in again, free spooled it down. THUMP! another hookset. This time I get a thumb in her. OK - now I'm figuring things out.

Back in I go, SNAG and lose my jig. Figures. No other bottom baits with me.

I caught 1 more small bass on the ned rig when he busted bait right in front of me and I was quick to cast the ned rig in and let it sink.

Anxious to get back out there again. The submerged forest are snaggy. But I love jig fishing!
 

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dank1296

Senior Member
Nice morning light breeze cloudy little mist. Had lake to myself from 10 am to bout noon. Caught between 15-18 bass mix spots and LM. Met an old friend hadnt seen since high school Forsyth Co High class of 80. He was on a paddleboard. Told him needs to put a rod holder on it as fish were busting top pretty good. I troll live shiners and a small rapala. The spots love the rapala. When coming in as i was passing the pump house the largest top water activity ive seen on HL. They were up about 10 seconds probably 20 yards by 20. Kinda looked like lanier but was to far away to get cast in. Trees starting to turn.
 

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RamblinWreck

Senior Member
Bream were not biting today, was calm in the morning, but the wind got up later. Caught a dozen bass, LM and spots, nothing too big. When I took out, a guy had a trophy-size LM on ice in his boat, maybe 8-9 lbs. I assume he was going to mount it, and the 3 lb bass he had in there with it.
 
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