Thread: Ross Barnett this week..........

Hit The Rez for a few days this week. I fished shiners, hand tied jigs, and a long Baby Shad with a paddle tail. Not sure the name. The water was fairly still till Thursday morning, it was moving a bit then. I did my best fishing dark colors but caught a few on Blue Ice. Shiners didn't do much, shorts and Catfish mostly so after the first day I didn't buy anymore. Caught a few on hand tied jigs too but the Baby Shad bait did the best by far. I figured the vegetation would have come back but not much. The continued spraying of herbicides is really hurting the areas I fish. Maybe destroying. The Horseshoe was barren. Worst than last year. Each year for the last 3 years I've observed a decline in vegetation and fish. All the Tullies that used to grow on the shallow flats is gone. We used to vertical jig thru it catching tons of Slabs, I assume by how it concentrated the fish it was a preferred spawning area. Now mud bottoms everywhere. I caught very good Slabs Thursday in the moving waters at choke points but can't say it is a pattern. I fish the same waters for 3 consecutive days to catching the majority of big fish on the last day. Still a great getaway, looking forward on the future trips. A couple of guys in their mid 70's were pre-fishing for a bass tournament tomorrow and were not having much luck. They stopped and we chewed the fat a bit about Ross Barnett's decline and one offered that back in the 70's it was nicknamed the Dead Sea. If anyone remembers why it was named that I would sure like to know.



A buddy I share fillets with likes to Almondine big Slab fillets so I took the cooler picture very early. Thursday's Slab bite was good enough I had to go buy Ice by lunch time. Also by 11am the wind was blowing so bad you could not make a controlled presentation anymore, a huge storm was approaching too so I toss in the towel for some BBQ and a nap.