April Spawn Looks Great

                 The April spawn is up and running spite the low water. Lake Palestine is now about 20 inches low and dropping but the fishing is great. We have good numbers of bass, crappie, sand bass and catfish being caught now and it's only going to get better as the weather gets warmer.

                Lake Palestine as I said is about 20 inches low and dropping due to the lack of rain, the water is stained up in the kickapoo creek area and over in the river. Down in Flat creek and further south you will find the water to be clear with surface temps rangeing from the upper 60's to the low 70's. There is not much grass this year due to the low water but it don't seem to matter to the fish.

                Bass can be found back up in the shallow pockets near the shore and in and around any brush you can find. They are in on their spawning beds and out on some of the drop offs out from the bedding areas.

                Bass can be caught in a number of ways at this time and here are a few lures working great for me. I like the Shimmy Shaker lures in the blue hereon color, the Lake Fork 430 special spinner baits, Long A's and the MR. Twister Swim Baits.

                Fish the Shimmy Shakers and the 430 special spinner baits in the shallows and fish them as slow as you can. The bass will be in just about every pocket on the lake so when you fish these pockets again fish slow and fish every piece of cover you can. You will need to fish your swim baits and long A's slow as well in the shallows. The Long A can be fished with a steady but slow retrieve and also with a stop and go twitch. Check this big April spawning bass out she was caught on my Shimmy Shaker. I was fishing a shallow flat and as slow as I could fish it without getting getting hung up in the grass.

                Now let's move on to the crappie because I know some of you like bass but crappie are your favorite to catch as well as the one to eat.

                Crappie can be found in the shallows during the first of the month and then you will need to move to deeper waters. I will put out brush piles throughout the year for crappie to get in. I will use Christmas trees that are discarded after Christmas and I will also use willow trees both will work very well.

                Lures I like to use to catch crappie with are the jig body's and heads made by Mr. Twister. These jig body's are called the Mr. Minnow they come in a 1 inch size and in several colors and just for a few colors that I like best are the white, the bl/white and the gobby green. Rig them up on a 32/oz to a 1/8 oz size depending on the water depth you locate them in. Below you will see a nice crappie I caught on the white Mr. Minnow.

                I like the white body's because I can dip the tails in a chartreuse dye, orange , red, blue or any color you might like best. Try the Mr. Minnows for yourself and let me know what you think of them. You can find a good assortment of Mr. Minnows at the Lake Palestine Resort Marina on Lake Palestine or if you are not close by to the Resort then you can go on line to  www.mistertwister.comand they will send you a catalog of all their products, and you can pick and choose what you would like to order where you order on line or on the phone you can get them at very good prices.

                As I always say when fishing fish slow and cover all your water and you will go home the winner for the day.

                Until next month remember fish slow catch all you can use and release the rest for another day and your kids then may be able to enjoy the wonderful sport we call fishing.

                For any questions you may have about my guide service or any lures I mention in my reports feel free to call me at (903)561-7299 or email me at ricky@rickysguideservice.com and I will be glad to help you in any way I can and as I always say thank you for reading my articles and all your comments throughout the year.

 Until we meet again catch one for me.

Ricky Vandergriff
Lake Fork Professional Fishing Guide
www.rickysguideservice.com