White bass fishing this week is very good. Fish are schooled up on deep water structure for the winter. Water temperature was 51 at the begining of the week and 49 on saturday. Fish are hugging the bottom in 26 to 40 feet. We have been catching all of the fish on CC spoons in 3/4 oz., chrome being the best color. Fish are on humps, roads, points and ridges in 26 to 40 feet of water. All fishing this week has been on the west side of the lake. The hump in front of Johnson State Park, the hump in front of Lantana Lodge and the roadbed at the mouth Of Sand Branch have all been consistent producers. There are two keys to catching numbers of cold water sand bass on Lake Ray Roberts. One is finding active feeding fish, you can mark lots of fish on your electronics this time of year and won't be able to catch them if they are not active.They are always biting somewhere and if you are persistent you can find active fish that will bite. The 2nd key is lure presentation. These cold water fish do not want the bait moving too much. My standard retrieve for this time of year is 2 short hops off of the bottom and then pick the slab 6" off of the bottom and hold it still. Lake level is still down 8ft, most ramps are in good shape. Jordan Park ramp is silted in, use the far east one to put in. You will find that my report for winter sand bass on Lake Ray Roberts will not change much from week to week because the pattern will stay the same through probably May. This week the best bite was shallower than it has been this winter so far. 26ft to 31ft was the best activity level this week, lots of fish still at all depths on any given piece of structure but most active were 26ft to 31ft. Thursday with David and his son Tyler we caught 79 in 5 hours, slow for sand bass fishing on Lake Ray Roberts this time of year. Have to mention 8 year old Tyler was a real trooper, weather was windy and cold and he fished the whole time. Best part was he enjoys taking the fish off the hook, he took the fish I caught off the hook sometimes. Saturday with Ken, fish were more active and we caught 143 in 4 hours including some real magnums. All of these fish came from the north point at the mouth of Johnson Branch 26ft to 29ft.
Largemouth bass fishing is slow on Lake Ray Roberts in the winter. I caught a bass throwing a black/blue chatterbait on a rocky point one afternoon this week. A red rattle trap,
black and blue jig or black and blue chatterbait would be a good choice of baits in cold water on Lake Ray Roberts. Do not expect many bites but you could catch a fish of a lifetime on any given cast. We did not catch any bass while sand bass fishing this week.
Tip of the week:
Finding active feeding sandbass in water temperature below 50 degrees takes a lot of looking at deep water structure. The fish hold right on the bottom and most LCR's just turned on in the auto mode will not show these fish. You need to use the zoom function to see these cold water fish. I always have my electronics on split screen with one side normal view and the other side 4x zoom. Some LCR's have a bottom lock feature that zooms in on the bottom 10 ft. you are looking at. That will work well looking for cold water fish hugging the bottom.
Have a great fishing New Year
Tim