Bass fishing good on Lake Palestine

Local Sports

Discussion

March 20, 2010

Gone Fishin' with Jerry Miller

Jerry Miller CNHI The Jacksonville Daily Progress Sat Mar 20, 2010, 04:40 PM CDT

JACKSONVILLE — Last Wednesday Mark ford and I found the bass very active on Lake Palestine. We planned to target stripers early in the morning, but they had shut off in the area we were fishing near the horse farm. When we began fishing this rocky point, Ford immediately hung a five-pound black bass on a Nichols’ 3/8 oz. white Chatter bait. We quickly forgot about the stripers and targeting black bass.

The best pattern that day was to target coves, points and pockets. One particular cove was holding a lot of bass. I had located these bass the previous afternoon and discovered that they mostly preferred red crawfish-colored crank baits. We fished in several coves, but most of the bass came out of two coves.

There is a lot of shore line grass rimming the lake, and the bass are bedding up on the outside edge of the grass in about a foot of water.

Surprisingly, the bass bit off and on all day long. We fished from 7:00 a.m. to about 6:00 p.m. We kept moving around all day mostly fishing crank baits. Occasionally we fished jigs and a Carolina rig with a Berkley black Power lizard. I have good luck with a Nichols’ crawfish, stand up jig with a watermelon/red, Baby Brush Hog. I cut off about an inch of the Baby Brush Hog.

The lake is about a foot above normal. There is a lot of flooded grass. We tried fishing shallow back water away from the main lake, but once we moved away from deep water we couldn’t locate any bass. We saw lots of bait fish in the back water areas, but for some reason the bass had not moved into these areas. Eventually the bass will move up into the extremely shallow back water.

The surface temperature was ranging from 55 to 59 degrees Fahrenheit all around the areas we fished. Water clarity was about one foot.

By the end of the day we estimated that we had caught about 30 bass. We had three bass over five pounds, several were in the 21⁄2 pound range, and our five best bass weighed about 21 pounds.

Fortunately, the bass were aggressive and we could keep moving around and covering a lot of water. The next day I returned to fish our best area but only caught two bass in three hours. My first bass weighed 7.5 pounds and the other was 2.5 pounds. Both of these bass were caught on a black neon tube pitched to boat houses. It was a slow bite. That’s fishing.

David Nichols informed me this week that a guide named Tim Walker and one of his clients were catching a lot of bass on Lake Fork with a Nichols’ 3/8 oz. white and chartreuse Chatter bait. Nichols said, “Walker’s client landed an 11.16 pound bass on the Nichols’ Chatter Box. This is my #1 selling bait on Lake Fork.”

As you can see, a lot of different kinds of baits will get you bit. Some baits will out-fish others. I prefer fishing with a fast-moving bait if the fish are active.

Bass fishing will only get better now that spring has finally arrived. When the full moon comes out on March 25th, I expect to see a lot of bass move shallow.

Jerry Miller can be emailed at gonefishing2@suddenlink.net

Text Only

Local Sports

Lady Jaguars’ get strong effort, shoot poorly in latest loss to KC
Jacksonville College fought hard, but just could not hit enough shots to get the job done in its latest Region XIV game against Kilgore College.

February 10, 2012
Carden scores 18 but Jaguars falter late against ‘Dogs; Navarro wins 61-58
The Jaguars from Jacksonville College outplayed host Navarro College for most of the night, but the Bulldogs came on strong in the final seven minutes and when the final horn had sounded at the Wolens Special Events Center, it was the 'Dogs that had secured the 71-68 victory.

February 10, 2012
LMC ladies lose a close one to No. 19 Paris
Cold shooting spurts to open both halves of play was basically what prevented the Lon Morris College Lady Bearcats from handing the No. 19-ranked Paris Junior College Lady Dragons an upset on Wednesday evening at the Smith Events Center.

February 10, 2012
New Summerfield girls to open playoffs in Kilgore
The 2012 UIL state Class A, Division I, playoff road for the New Summerfield Lady Hornet basketball team will begin at 6:30 p.m. Tuesday in Kilgore.

February 9, 2012
Wounded Bearcats fall to Dragons, 83-66
Paris Junior College took advantage of Lon Morris College's thin ranks — the Bearcats dressed just nine men out (due to injuries) for Wednesday's Region XIV game — by dispensing an 83-66 loss to the 'Cats at the Smith Events Center.

February 9, 2012
Region XIV Men's Preview: LMC hosts Paris; Jags visit ‘Dog House’
While not in any immediate danger of not making the Region XIV Championship Tournament early next month, both the Lon Morris College Bearcats and the Jacksonville College Jaguars, who are tied fifth in the South Zone, realize there is far more uncertainty as to their status then neither would feel comfortable with as conference play nears its halfway point this week.

February 8, 2012
JHS’s Weaver wins 2nd in boy’s singles at John Tyler tennis tourney
Jacksonville Tribe tennis departed from the John Tyler Tennis Tournament on Friday with a second-place winner, while having a consolation champion as well.

February 8, 2012
Campbell to represent J'ville in state Golden Gloves; Troup Boxing Gym shines in Tyler
Jerrion Campbell of the Jacksonville Boxing Club will be representing team East Texas at the Texas State Golden Gloves Boxing Tournament, which will take place on Feb. 29-March 3 in Fort Worth.

February 8, 2012
Lady Tiger, Panther lifters excel at Chapel Hill Meet
The Troup High School girl's powerlifting team came in second out of 10 schools and the Bullard Panther lifters finished fourth among 15 teams in the Chapel Hill Powerlifting Meet on Saturday.

February 8, 2012
Texas Lock-N-Load announce 2012 roster
The Texas Lock-N-Load, a Jacksonville-based 12 and under travel softball team, has released its player roster for the 2012 season.
Coaches Cory Hicks and Lyston LeMay have selected, Trinity Dudley, Winter Hammons, Jacey Hicks, Abbie Cleaver, Kaci Cummins, Sydney Smith and Desheera Whitaker.

February 8, 2012
More Local Sports Headlines

Local Sports

Search Results

Discussion

Bass fishing good on Lake Palestine

Gone Fishin' with Jerry Miller

Site Map

Contact Us