Bob Smith
bob@bassinbobs.com
hook1.com
"BOBS LOCAL RIVER REPORTS"
LAKE JACKSON
February 23, 2003
Water Temperature: 59
Water Clarity: Moderate to Heavy Stain
Fished the Sunday afternoon tournament on Lake Frank Jackson at Opp, AL. Wind was light at about 5 or so from the West, skies mostly sunny, water temp hovered between 59 and 65 depending where you were on the lake.
Water clarity about 18 inches in a moderate to heavy stain.
Fished primarily the remnants of the grass beds on the north side of the lake in 1 - 5 foot of water. The weedbeds have not started growing yet so actually finding some grass was a trick in itself. I caught several bass, jack and mudfish running a gold Allen Lures Milo lipless crankbait through the scarce grass.
Tried my buzzbait with a single, half hearted, swat being all the
attention it received so I went back to the Milo and stayed with it for the rest of the day. I didn't hang any big fish but I did post the only limit of the tournament with a 3 fish bag of only 4.12 pounds. Not much, but good enough for 2nd place.
First beat me out with 2 fish for 5.55 pounds but they lucked into a 4 pounder. Frank Jackson should really be coming on strong here in another couple of weeks. I can hardly wait for the grass to reach the surface and tear them up on topwaters again!
December 1, 2002
Water Temperature: 55
Water Clarity: Clear
Another Sunday Afternoon Mini-Tournament is gone by and I finally won a tournament on Jackson! It was cold and windy most of the afternoon with a very slow bite.
Water was clear and averaged about 55 degrees.
I fished around several "regular" spots without a bite for most of the afternoon. The usual trick worm did not do the trick and I was thinking that the cooler water had moved the fish deep. While I worked my final shallow spot a nice, very fat, bass inhaled my buzzbait. This fish wasn't long - maybe 15 inches at the most - but it was fat! At the scale it would weigh 3.09 pounds and took big bass for the tournament.
Finesse worms managed a few fish for some folks as they will normally do on Jackson, but the remainder of my catch came on a carolina rigged chartreuse lizard fished in 4 - 6 foot of water on the lakes north end. Bites were actually noticable, though not hard, and I put 6 fish in the boat in the final 45 minutes to round out my 3 fish limit.
I had found these fish a week earlier, but could not make any of them bite. I guess they pulled out and down enough that I didn't spook them. I was making fairly long casts as well since the water is pretty clear so that could have helped as well.
November 10, 2002
Water Temperature: 70's
Water Clarity: Clear
Fished another Sunday Afternoon mini-tournament on Lake Jackson at Florala, AL this afternoon. Sky was mostly cloudy with intermittent moderate to heavy rain. The wind was blowing pretty brisk, around 15, from the south southeast most of the four hours. Water was pretty clear with a few feet of visibility. Since my electronics are all down I have no idea what the water
temp was. For the most part I had casting practice from 1pm until about 4:15pm with a single short fish coming to the boat on a trick worm. I worked everywhere from shallow to deep with everything from a topwater to a Carolina rigged lizard.
The jack really liked a bone colored Allen Lures D9 crankbait and the trick worm. Finally a little after 4 I put my first keeper into the boat - a stout 2 pounder - on a Carolina rigged chartreuse lizard. I managed to miss two others, one of which was a keeper that came up and then off beside the boat and I never seen the other one so it could have been another big mudfish (I caught a few of them).
With pouring rain and 5 minutes to weigh in I worked along the West bank beside the ramp and me second and final keeper grabbed a white trick worm. No pattern for me today - hit or miss (mostly miss). The bite was slow for quite a few folks with a 3 fish limit for 4.12 lbs taking first place and second being 4.11. My two fish pulled the scale to just 3.11 pounds.
Fishing slow and deep may have been the ticket though its hard to tell. Recent cool weather probably has the water into the low 60's I'm guessing and the fish are moving into a more winter pattern. Fish slow and methodical and you'll likely find some. Plastics should still be the biggest fish catcher ----
finesse worms in junebug or red shad placing high on the most likely productive list.
October 12, 2002
Water Temperature: 70's
Water Clarity: Clear
Went to Lake Jackson at Florala, AL today to check my repaired trolling motor and the fish a small, every Sunday afternoon, tournament. Typically I do not do very well on this lake, but what the heck its a tournament.
Started out along the southwest side along a fairly deep bank (about 5 foot in a lake with an average depth of around 9 foot). My second cast with a yellow trick worm had a fat keeper inhale it. Tournament hours were 3pm until 7pm and here it was 3:10 and I had my first keeper! Amazing. I worked back and forth a few times, missing one more fish before I moved on. Next stop was a small area beside a dock where I have caught fish before. I hung another keeper, on the trick worm, from under the dock and by 3:30 had two of my 3 fish limit in the boat. Working the area a little more thoroughly I caught a few short fish and a mudfish on a Texas rigged Baby Eel.
As the afternoon wore on I kept catching fish, mostly short ones though. On the north side of the lake I got my limit fish on the trick worm again, then another keeper on a buzzbait and culled a just 12 inch from the livewell. The rest of the tournament I caught fish, and missed a few, on the buzzbait and trick worm. Though I caught about 10 keepers I was only able to cull one time and presented my 3 fish for 4.2 pounds - not enough to win.
The key for me was emergent grass. Wherever I found emergent grass in 1 - 4 foot of water I would catch fish. I fished the buzzbait first, and followed up with the trick worm tight to the grass edges. Fish were eager to grab both baits but size eluded me. All in all not a real bad day.
September 14, 2002
Water Temperature: 81
Water Clarity: Clear
What kind of person would go fishing during a tropical storm? Me! When a quickly thrown together tournament dies because of a little rain and wind, and only two people show up, what do you do? You fish. I got to Frank Jackson a little late and fished from 6:30 until 1pm. As you can imagine it was windy and raining - actually the morning was nice, light wind, no rain and just cloudy. A few hours later the wind was blowing about 25 from the southwest and the rain was on and off. Water was mostly clear and 81 degrees. After my outboard refused to start, again, I worked around the cove by the launch ramp without any success. Occasionally I tried cranking the motor until finally, after about half an hour, she came to life and I headed off to my weedbeds.
Fish after fish jumped all over my little buzzbait. Even as the wind blew foot high waves the topwater got bites. I was fishing the long weed bed that runs parallel the bank on the northwest side of the lake. I would ease along fishing the outside and casting into the weeds, then cut through and work the inside and bank in the opposite direction. After about 2 hours, with the wind picking up the bites pretty much stopped.
I tried the calmer water on the other side of the lake with no bites, then the 331 bridge where I managed a single short fish. With the wind still blowing like it would do for the rest of the day I went downlake and got back on the windy bank. A yellow trick worm took 2 small bass in the wind churned area by the bank, then a few more on the buzzbait again. The fish seemed pretty scattered.
Around 11am I decided to try the area near the swimming beach. My first cast brought a nice keeper to the boat, then some more short ones. In one pass from the swimming beach to the dam I caught at least 10 bass with 2 being very nice sized. In the howling wind I motored back and made two more passes, each time catching fish. I was fishing areas that looked like nothing - sparse patches of scattered grass in 2 - 5 foot of water.
When we decided to call it a day I weighed my fish (because it was supposed to be a tournament anyway so I had the scales, and I was curious about how much my bag weighed) and the five keepers pushed the scale to 10.14 pounds. My largest bass weighed in at 4.18 pounds. So Tropical Storm Hanna had kept everyone home and they all missed a pretty good day on the lake. Between keepers and shorts I caught at least 40 - 45 bass and even 3 mudfish on a topwater!
January 26, 2002
Water Temperature: 60 - 64
Water Clarity: Green Clear
First 16th MXS Bass Club tournament of the season today, and I did my usual on this lake. I managed to scrape out a single keeper bass in 10 hours of hard fishing.
Water temp was 60 - 64 degrees, and it was a green clear with visibility of about 5 foot. Wind was around 10 from the north
then becoming calmer as the day went on.
But hey, this is usually my worst tournament of the year.
My partner, Bubba Armbruster, and I fished hard for the whole day. I caught my keeper about 8am, and it looked like things were going to be better than usual for me. I had a few more bites and then nothing for the rest of the day. Meanwhile Bubba kept catching fish and culled 3 times before the day was over.
His limit placed in in 4th, half a pound out of first.
We were fishing junebug finesse worms through scattered grass in 7 - 12 foot of water. Bubba said the strikes just felt like grass - as he hauled another into the boat - but I never felt anything other than the grass. I used up a lot of good hooksets today just to crank up and take the weeds of my hook.
The trick, I was told by several people at weigh-in, was to slowly drag a lightly weighted finesse worm across the tops of the grass. (I did that too). Strikes that were missed seemed to be typical "bumps" associated with soft plastics. Strikes that turned up fish were the ones that were just there.
I didn't have any of them after 8:30am.
It was tough, with several 1 and 0 fish bags. First place was only 6.58 for 5 fish - typical Jackson 12 inch keepers.
My congratulations to Mark Purvis for his win, Gavin Purvis for second with 6.56, Mike Birge for third with 6.27 and to Dana Harris for the tournament big fish of 1.97 pounds.
January 20, 2001
Water Temperature: 50
Water Clarity: Crystal Clear
Air temps in the low 30's, a 20 mile per hour wind from the northwest, 50 degree water temp, Cloudy then mostly sunny skies, clear water - this is what greeted us as the first
16th MXS Bass Club tournament commenced on
Lake Jackson - Florala, AL today.
Bundled up in my snowmobile suit, my partner Larry butler and I
started working the northeast area of the lake. Nothing.
Next spot, nothing again, next, even more nothing.
It was not shaping up to be a good day. Finally I got a bite near the ramp - a jack (pickerel). Then more of the same
(in case you can't guess that was nothing).
Drifting fast with the wind my partner finally hung one and the first bass came to the boat. Again, along the northern side of the lake, Larry got another bite but the line broke at the side of the boat and a nice keeper headed back towards the bottom,
trailing a junebug worm. Meanwhile I was busy catching nothing and having some casting practice in the howling wind.
Around the lake we went most of the day, motoring to the east and drifting across with the wind. Larry managed another keeper and was stomping me 2 - 0. Finally about 2pm I put a keeper in the boat - my first and only bass of the day.
At 2:30 we decided to crank up and move.
Guess what? Dead starting battery! Needless to say I was not having the best day of my life on the water.
So, on trolling motor we plodded into the wind across the lake.
If anyone is interested it takes almost an hour on dying deep cycles to go from the southeast area of Lake Jackson to the ramp. I threw everything I could think of from worms, jerkbaits, crankbait, to a spinnerbait, and a topwater even!
All in all I would rate today a 0 on a scale of 1 - 10.
I weighed my single fish for a whole 2 pounds even. There were 10 limits brought in today. Why could I not catch any fish?
Who knows, maybe I should just stop fishing lakes with
Jackson in their names.
Back