THE BASS COLLEGE

Tough day on Norman today.  Threw everything in the box, everywhere in the water colum.  By the end of the day managed 10 spots, all but two were pretty small.  Got a couple have hearted hits on a fluke.  The rest were caught on blue/silver xr50 on rocky points 6-12 foot of water.  Never could find a really active school, just a fish or two off each point throughout the day.  Tight lines...

Try on the secondary points with a deep diving crank and back up at the mouths of the creeks with a buzzbait. really.:cool:

The fluke for some reason normally always produces NC bass more so than anywhere else in the country that I've ever fished but if it fails you I agree with steve I go deep crankin or go completely opposite and go extremely shallow with a chatterbait and a Lucky Craft RC 1.5. These tactics have worked for me on Gaston in the late fall. Good Luck

Got a few strikes on the fluke, but didn't hook up.  THink they just weren't comitting to the baits that day.   I think the ones I caught on the rattle baits were slapping at it as it came by.  Lot easier to connect with a couple treble hooks!  Thanks for the tips guys. 

YA THAT HAPPENS SOME TIME!! THATS WHY ITS CALLED FISHING AND NOT CATCHING:(

11/27/2009

Water Temperature: 58

Water Clarity: 2-3 feet

No giants but lots of keepers and quality fish right now. The bite varies each day with wind, boat traffic, sunlight, water falling, clarity, etc.

The fish are deeper as you'd expect with the falling water pulling them out. Not saying none are shallow but most are in no less than 6 feet and more like 8-10 and that water, which had to be close to deep water which makes sense as the lake is falling and they want to flee to the deep stuff to avoid being trapped in the shallows.

Water temp in the high 50's

Visibility is about 3 feet on average

Color is stained to slight turnover/stratified color (lot of green in the water)

Jerkbait bite is starting to come on but is not quite in full swing yet

Cranks that looked like bluegills, gizzard shad, and blue backs were the best producers so far.

Lipless baits suprisingly did not produce anything recently.

Worms were good l in the 5-8" variety and typical colors; green pumpkin, black grape, blue, etc. Mostly pin tails on shakey heads vs the more action tailed variety. I use spot sticker shakey heads as they have a long hook shank and are a light wire hook. They are the best in my opinion and you don't lose many fish on them. Paired that up with 7lb Sunline floro on a spinning rod for my worm rig.

Jigs are working well. Skipped jigs did not produce bites at all. Flipped and lightly pitched jigs did. A very quiet presentation was critical which was hard as the fish were way back up under the docks as far back as they could get most of the time. Flip over the dock in to the boat hole and pull the fish up over the walkway with a 8' Phenix super flip flippin' stick. That with 20lb Sunline floro is a stout rig and can get it done with no problems at all.

Jig colors, typical Norman colors; Green Pumpkin varieties (some all green, some with various colors in them), brown, black/blue for the stained stuff. Tried a rattle some to see how that worked as the water had a lot of color in it and it produced so rattles can work but I'd be careful with them as it's super clear here more often than not. I'd not venture forth with it in clear water.

Jig sizes; again typical 3/8 to 1/2 max. Finesse jigs are fantastic here. I like them on 12lb Floro.

Deep cranks like a DD22 and Jigging spoons always have been great december producers on Norman.