Rayburn update for you Basscat boys

Posted by ken on March 30, 2015

I know a lot of you guys are coming to Rayburn this week for the BC owners tournament. I spent 3 days down there over the weekend and my observations are as follows. If you haven't been paying attention the Rayburn area has gotten a wee bit of rain over the last few weeks. The lake continues to rise, albeit now at a slower rate, and is at 169.78, or just over 5 feet high. When I went across the dam yesterday afternoon they were steady sending water downstream but with more rain in the forecast I don's see it dropping too quickly anytime soon. The spillway is at just over 172 and I would be surprised if we saw water over it, but the lake is really, really high, as high as I remember in over 10 years. With all the fresh water it's pretty milky all over, I went up the Ayish Friday and spent Saturday and Sunday more main lake-ish. There are fish in all phases of the spawn, it's obvious from some of the fish I caught that some spawned on the new moon in March but my sense is the bulk of the fish have not. The water temp ranged 59-62 degrees, however from what I saw don't think you are coming down to sight fish. Three problems, one rising water makes a nest from a week ago almost 2 feet deeper, add mostly stained water and the fact that anywhere that is it 2-5 feet deep is currently shaded by pine trees and picnic tables...well let's just say pretty hard to see down much. Interestingly although I caught some post spawn fish, including one over 8, I did not see a single pod of fry anywhere. I was able to catch some serious numbers of fish, one day probably more than 50, but I'm just not seeing anything large. That said the lake should be shaping up for a really fun week of fishing, the water rise slowing, full moon Sunday, I'll be surprised if the weights are super high and really think 40-42 pounds could win, maybe even less. It only took 16 to win the high school tournament this past weekend and granted most of them haven't fully developed as fisherman, but there were a few really solid young sticks and over 400 boats of them so the conditions aren't lending themselves to big stringers.  I think the numbers caught are going to be crazy good and fun will be had by all that come down. If you have questions about the lake or a specific area let me know at kensmithfishing@outlook.com. Good luck and be safe.