 Oh my gosh, I got something big. Howdy fish freaks, welcome back to the channel. It is time to do some adventure traveling and do some fishing y'all. I'm tired of being around the city. I've been just cooped up here. It's time I get back to my roots. Where I live, this is where I grew up in this area. It's always like a month behind where I really started learning to bass fish a lot of lakes out in east parts of Texas and south parts of Texas, central part. When I'm in North Texas, it's always like a month behind. It throws me off mentally, so I've gotta get out of here. If you haven't already, go ahead and subscribe to the channel everybody. We're hitting a million subs this year. We're doing it, tell your friends, tell your moms, tell your dads, tell everybody. We gotta do it. Right now we're just packing up some freeze dried meals with horrible foods, just because they're quick and easy. They really do make things easy when you're on the road and doing truck camping, so you don't have to carry a ton of stuff in your cooler, stuff like that. Do a lot of cooking, just keep it simple. Get down to fishing. We're also gonna pack up some firewood. We got the bed roll, game changer for truck camping, y'all. Some clothes, it's gonna be cold. Firewood, go in the LFG bin. We're ready to rock, y'all, so let's get on the road. Let's get our motor run in, yeah. Adventure time. It's time to get the sweet smell of a two and a half, three pound bass a day. That's what I'm predicting. This feels good, I'm in the heartland of Texas, so the lake I'm going to right now is about four hours from where I live now, but when I started fishing in college and learning some new lakes, this is where I really, I learned how to catch fish in this area, and I miss it. I miss fishing down here. This is before I really started focusing on Lake Fork, which is a whole other thing. Fishing like Central Texas and East Texas and North Texas is its own bag of worms. Just different techniques, timing, everything like that. I wanna get back to some of these lakes this week and see if they're still on, see if they still hold true. I'm getting to the point in my fishing life that I probably don't adapt enough when I go to a new place. I like the things that I do, that I wanna make work, and sometimes it's not the deal. We'll really get a good 24, maybe even 36 hours on one lake, see how it is, and we might migrate to another one, just depending on if it's good or not. So, we'll keep truckin', head on to the bass, we're livin' in the grass, hopefully. Folks, we are here by the looks of the parking lot. It is hoppin' like popcorn out here, my gosh. A lot of wormed anglers out here today, so, and I mean, we're here in the middle of the day. I'm sure a lot of people have left. It's good, the lake looks really low though, looks really down, so I'm not really sure how that's gonna affect the spawn. And I do say spawn because the fish do spawn early out here. Number one, we are in a warmer part of the state. 75 right now, I'm about to take the sweatshirt off, it's hot, I literally went from 35 degrees this morning to 75 right now, traveling four and a half hours. And then we've also got a power plant that warms this lake. But the fish will normally spawn around the full moon in January, February, even December. So, we are around that, and we're actually post full moon, so some fish have probably already spawned. But anyway, it looks like we're having let's go see what's going on out here. I'm excited. 67 degrees, baby, that's what I'm talking about. I think we'll be all right, we'll be all right, y'all. Okay, y'all, let's do this. This is a little unconventional, what I'm about to do, but you know, the parking lot is showing that the banks are probably just getting absolutely annihilated. I'm gonna start offshore, I'm gonna start offshore at kind of a high spot off of a creek channel. Found some shad in like 25 feet of water. Looks like there's a little feeding coming up to 20. I've actually got, it's like a couple of bass here right underneath me right now. Looks like they're on the move. I feel like I'm close to something, I'm just not on the juice. I need to find the juice. So we just gotta do a little searching. That right there, that's the juicies. Look at all the fish right there, man. They're stacked. I don't know why I picked up the Nedrick first. I probably should have picked up something a little bit more beefy. Big, big juicy pork chop down there. Boom. Oh my gosh. I'll jerk the rod out of my hand there. That one hit it just about under the boat. We're gonna have to tie the jig on it. I feel like the spirits of the lake are just telling me tie a football jig on and just give her a dangle, son. Oh, that's just delicious. 9-16 ounce gridiron. And I believe we're just gonna have to dress it up with a mandito, but I'll go with that little subtle subtleness. Since I have two claps and no connects, just gonna trim this up, guys. Take that off a little bit. Take the nose off, separate our back flats, spread our skirt, get it out of the plastic keeper, get that good fluff on there. Ooh, you know it. And then go the extra mile, take our little dipping glow. Y'all, I had a van in that game plan. I did that for like 30, 45 minutes. Didn't get, well, I had two bites, but I don't know. It just, it was weird. Those fish weren't really stick and put like I wanted them to. So we're just gonna go to a windblown riprap bank, pick up a jerk bait, some other hard baits, and just get kind of warmed up, you know? We need a proper warmup here before we get into that technical deep stuff. Of course, the jerk bait is your friend, winter all the way through the spawn and beyond, honestly. Really fantastic lure to keep in the arsenal. See some bait fish here, 10 to 12, that's good. So I know I got bait getting blown against this bank here. And I'm gonna guess these babies are gonna be anywhere from two foot all the way out to 20 along this riprap. God, this looks, let's see, a couple of fish right off the rocks right here. And we're there. That looks really good for a mid-depth crankbait. Probably gonna have to tie one on, folks. Ooh, got him. First fish hooked up, y'all. The jerk bait strikes. This might be a little bit bigger than I thought it was. Nope. Nope, just the old two-ski. Oh my gosh, he's fat. Wow, you got a face full of it, bud. Slurped it. Man, it feels good to have a warm bass in that 70 degree water. All right, that's what we need to just kind of get a little warmup going. I am gonna put on a crankbait, but jerkbait's just, it's killer, y'all. Release you into the wild. There you go. Love the tenacity, love to see it. There's another fish right there off these rocks. So I'll probably get some jerkbait fish here on the kind of the shallower section thrown up there and they'll come up and tag it. But I'm interested in those ones I was seeing down there in like 10 to 12 foot. So we'll kind of make a pass here. There's another one, got him. That one connected nicely. That one connected nicely. So we're on a little program here. We're on a little program. That one came off, that's okay. Not a giant, but we're getting some activity here. There is a mess of them right here off this point. I'm gonna go ahead and mark that. I'm gonna try a football jig. Maybe even a Ned, honestly. The Ned right here. I got a little wire on this rig. It might keep me out of the rocks. Might not, but I'm just gonna throw in that depth where I was seeing this fish right here. See if we can pick another one up. Got him right there under the boat. Oh yeah, you were. You can see right there this fish. Okay, didn't get in my hand, but I was showing you the graph while I was fighting the fish. Same size, two skis. There are definitely some fish in that depth there. Pulled that one out of nine, about nine foot. So the next move, we're gonna tie on a dive and crank bait. There's another one, got him. Same spot right under the boat. Wow, this one's got a little tug to it here. And I mean, he just took off with it. Yeah, this one's got a little fight liking it. Man, these are just healthy, healthy fish right here. Got him on light lines, so might have to seat grab him. Eh, I don't know. Pretty solidly hooked in the nostrils. Oh my. Dude, on a spinning rod, on our little finesse rod, the fish has been caught a couple of times. Super healthy though, very aggressive. Love to see it, love to see it, man. That's two bites just right under the trolling motor here. Solid little move coming over here, y'all, to fish this mid depth, you know, four to 12. I think I had four bites in less than 10 minutes. So, what I'm gonna do now, now that I know there's a bite going on in this mid-depth, is I'm gonna switch up to a recon. Ooh, oh my gosh, I forgot about the contender as well. Ooh, ooh, ooh, little fun noises come out when I get excited. This is a bait that I've played around with a little bit. I'm not a big swim bait person, but I just had a flashback to a day where I just threw swim baits in this area with a buddy of mine, and anyway, it was a long time ago. It was over 10 years ago, we caught some good fish. So anyway, that's an option. I unfortunately left my big recon box in the Gugentune. So, I'm forced down to four of these. It's not good, but you know what? I may go with the old craw color right now. Corn pop, maybe. I'm gonna switch up my rod in line now to, this might be 12. This bait dives eight to 12. You can see it actually says it right there on the bait. This color is called sriracha craw. We're gonna hit the rocks now. I've already showed you guys what it kinda looks like on the graph. You know, just paying attention to those little things, like seeing four or five fish in a certain depth that can make you switch up, you know, switch up your stuff. So that's exactly what I saw. I'm gonna be able to keep my lure in the depth where I was seeing those fish pretty easily. I don't know if they're gonna be really going after the crank bait. You know, sometimes they're in that depth and they don't want a crank bait. They want a jig or something like that, but it's a really efficient way if they get on it to just get it in their face, keep it in front of them. Rod of choice here, this is an early prototype, but the reaction rod. So this one is a 7.2, it's a medium moderate, so it's a slower, slower rod loads up slower. You want that for crank baits, get good casting and just keep the fish pinned up, but mainly the casting. I'm seeing a couple back in my zone here. I'll be able to flip out there and catch those, but yeah, I'm sitting in a 10, 12 casting, kind of at a, not a 45, but I'm throwing into where it's like six foot and then working it out, hitting those rocks, just grinding. I pause it every once in a while, like when I feel like I'm making good contact, like I'm about to get hung or something, I'll stop it, let it rise up. And that's about it. There's one, oh God, he hit it on the move. Hit it on the move. All right, well, first bite on the crank bait, ladies and gentlemen. Important tip, when you get snagged on rocks, shake your bait, use the weight of the lure, try to knock the hooks out. God, these fish are just, y'all they're just there on the bottom. Look at this, it's clear as day. Yeah, unfortunately I don't, I don't believe I'm gonna be able to get that one out. I think it got eaten by the rock monster. I don't feel it shaking at all, it just feels solid. But sometimes you pull on it to come out. Just like that magic. I'm hooked up man. You're good luck, I like you. That's a good one. Oh my gosh, man. Oh, how awesome is that? That's a pretty decent one there, y'all. That's a little bigger than the other ones. He ain't a seven pounder, but thank you for the fishing report, sir. That's the biggest one of the day. Yeah, how'd it work? Yes, sir. Heck yeah. Oh my gosh, that was so cool, man. Hooked up while that guy was telling me that fishing story. What a tasty cake, there y'all. That is just a beautiful, healthy, about a three pound bass. Amazing. Back into the deeps. The 12 foot miss fishing down in this area. You know, I love where I'm at. I move there for family and business and everything like that. But God, just that little magic right there, that guy driving by. You know, I've probably seen that guy out here before. He's probably been running this deal for years. Good vibes. It's like that a lot of small towns around here. I just love it, man. I love Texas in general, but especially the heart of Texas, you know? Something special about it. So, anyway, y'all, that's a good fish. I'm gonna call a three. I'm gonna call a three pounder. I'm gonna keep on this tactic with the red craw and just keep truckin' down here to see if we can get ol' big mama. Got him on the crank, little guy. Oh, come on. On it, the crank. Oh, God. Man, I've lost so many right here. Seems like they do, they do wanna tap this crankbait. Oh, my gosh. I got something big. Oh, we hit it so nicely. What do we have here? God, the way he first took off. What is this? Oh, it's just a nice chunky one there. Oh, yeah. Come here, baby. God, when that fish took off with that, y'all, I thought I had Thor. Oh, my gosh. That's a tasty one. Woo! Yee! Good fish, y'all. Good one. Kerplunk. That one clapped it. I was in the rock. I was getting it out of the rock and just had to have it. Love to see it. Love to see it, man. Eat your tasty crawfish and get big. That's what I say. Woo-hoo! That was cool, y'all. This bait is, this definitely seems to be doing the deal here. Seems like they want this just a little bit more than the other stuff. Let him go. Just a good one. Just that good two and a half. Love to have every day fish. We got a pretty good number of fish, y'all. Just coming out here for the afternoon and trying to figure things out to get the general bite going. Something like this, I'm not afraid to go back and forth on because it's gonna reload. It's just such a big piece of cover. Really call it structure, but it's got 20 feet out in front of it, bait fish moving through, lots of fish moving up and down on that slope so it'll reload. That means just more bass will come in at different times of the day. So I got no problem going back down this thing and catching them. I think tomorrow we're gonna switch gears and go explore some other things, but late in the day right now, like it's four o'clock, I think I'm just gonna try to finish out on this little deal, this little pattern we got going. Then we gotta set up our little camp for tonight. So pretty good little afternoon dangle, y'all. Excited to be back in the heart of Texas, man. Throwin' that red crank, too. It's a fun bite. Oh, gosh. I mean, got to be making contact with the rocks. That is the key. You're not hittin' the bottom, you're just not gettin' bit. Just got another bite right there. Short strike. Oh, you just loaded. Just loaded up and gave her a rip. Goodness, son. You barely got it. You did not fight like the others, man. This is it. It's the bait of the day. It's the key. I'm gonna pick up a yig right here. Something to slow down, pop it tasty. Same concept, just tapping the rocks. You actually ate it. I think they're just small. Yep, that's the problem. They're just small. Biting the tails off and all that. All right, we're going back to old trusty here. Jig bites, fun. I feel like I could, I mean, I got like six bites in a row. They're just small. I can tell by the way they're tapping at it. Whatever it is, it's gotta make contact with rocks. So, one of those kind of bites. My, that one clapped. The crank, the ones that I think I've missed a lot. You know, they're just little and they're slappin' at it. Kind of get those out of the way. I don't know if I throw my jig down there. I'm gonna get those bites too, but. My good old Sally. Last cast right here on this spot. But I'm just gonna do a little exploration. Little minor exploration to kind of game plan for tomorrow. Don't tell me. Don't tell me she's gone. Oh, she came out. There we go. Thought we were about to lose our only red. Oh my gosh, last cast. Oh, it's a good one. Is it the last cast though? I think when that happens, it just never works out that way. Ooh, diggin'. Sally be digs. Come on up here. Barely hooked. I'll let you get off right now if you want to. I'm gonna give you one last little shot at it. Ooh. Doesn't look like it's gonna happen. All right. Ooh, a juicy little football. Oh my gosh, that fish is heavy, man. I wanna say that fish is three pounds for sure. Just the heft of it. Healthy, healthy fish. All right, for good luck, I'm gonna put it away. Just do it. I'm here for more than today, so we'll save some of that good juice. We caught, but it's more largemouth bass than I've caught in the last month combined. Well, that's not true. That is not true. I fell some things off this channel where I've caught them for other stuff, other fun projects, but I'm just glad I made the decision to come down here back in some of my home, home territory that I'm just a lot more familiar with. Go check out a couple of things and continue our quest for the largemouth. It's been pretty good today. Tricky, the big stumps here on a big hook. Oh, that's a good one. Be suspended on a tree. Oh my God, it feels like a good fish. That's gonna break my line. I can see her boiling right there. Still haven't seen it. A butter bane. Are you full of eggs? What's going on there? That is just a straight up butter ball. Okay, new spot, new tactic. Look at that spot literally right there. That's cool and power. So how bad is it? Yeah, we need to retire, but it's not terrible. This is a technique right here. You all that I've used many times on like fork. When you're going into spawning areas, if you've got deep trees, like I'm in 20 feet of water, but that fish, a lot of times it's female, so it'll just kind of suspend and wait until conditions are right to move up and spawn. And they'll just go up and down the tree, kind of like a thermometer. They go up with the water chimps, they come down. So jerk bait, the scout right here. All I'm doing is I'm just kind of throwing this around the trees over 20 feet of water and getting those bass that are suspending in there. And I was lucky to get that one out. I have, this is 12 pound. Yeah, 12 pound. Yeah, it's 12 pound GS fluoro. And I just kind of let the fish saw back and forth. I didn't want to put a lot of pressure on it. That's when you break, it's a dance. You got to be delicate with it, but I played that one right and got it out. And I thought it was going to be a hammer. It wasn't, but that's what you got right there. Six foot suspended, there's another one down there, but they'll hang in those trees. We netted one. Oh my gosh, that's a big one. Okay. Let's go. Let's go biggest of the day right now on the old Netski. Get away from the trees, please. That's a tasty one there. Oh yeah, oh yeah. Get around that motor, there we go. We're at the leader knot. Staying in that 12 zone, y'all. Heavy. Got off my jig and I went down to the net. I did it. That's a good one, man. Slapped. I don't know if it's biggest of the day. Solid threesky though. And I think that's a good one to end on. All right, Joel, this was the key to do my success today. Mr. Ratchacraw read Recon. So I was fishing that in like 10 foot, sitting in my boat in like 12, but it seems to be that 8 to 12 foot zone is where these fish are gonna be. This was the fastest way to cover it and I ended up getting my biggest bass on this. But at the end of the day, I did discover there's a little timber bite that's happening. Some fish are suspended, some are on the bottom. We're gonna have to dial that. This is actually a technique I wanted to share with you guys a few weeks ago when I was cranking rip rap and it was bad. I just couldn't get it going. So I was glad that we were able to show that today it's a good, it's a good pattern early spring through spring and anywhere, you know, roadside rip rap. There's a lot of small waters, rivers that have rip rap and cranking it's really good. You just gotta find that depth that works best where that bait is. That was about 10 to 12 foot today and it had to be making contact with the bottom. So this page just, you know, mid depth cranking allows you to do that and stay in that strike zone for a long time. We're gonna switch here tomorrow though. If we're gonna get that timber, we're gonna get that jig out. Probably dabble with some of those suspended fish with a jerk bait, maybe throw a swim bait a little bit. But I think that's where we're probably gonna get our bigger bites as those fish are kind of locked down little drops within the timber areas that are getting ready to move up and spawn. Subscribe right here to the channel and go ahead and hit that thumbs up for some good old fashioned bass snatching. Thanks for tuning in guys. Let me know in the comments, just, I don't know. Just leave a comment, say fart, poop, I don't know. Maybe not, maybe don't say that. Maybe just say something nice, spread some goodness. I hear it drives engagement, but anyway, still a cuss, it's mean. Anyways, I will see you guys tomorrow for the good old morning dango. See ya.