This month has been the warmest September on record. It is also the longest time in September that the water temperatures has stayed in the upper 80’s and lower 90’s that I can remember. I hope that with cooler temperatures coming this week the water temperatures will start to cool off. The water clarity is lightly stained in the south end of the lake to stained in the upper creeks. The Bass fishing has been just fare at best. The fish are pretty well scattered and have not started to school up yet as they usually do for fall fishing. The best patterns this week has been Wacky rig, Texas rig and the Carolina rig. We used two colors of trick worms on our wacky rigs. One was Zoom Watermelon/candy/red and the other was Zoom green pumpkin magic. Both colors worked well! On our Texas rig, we used the Zoom Mag II worm in the green pumpkin magic color and fished it in 6 to 10 foot for water around isolated stumps. Note: On both the Trick and Mag II worms, we dyed the tails chartreuse. On the Carolina rig, we used three different baits. The first is the Zoom watermelon/candy/red Baby Brush Hog and dyed the tails chartreuse. We fished it in 16 to 20 foot of water over brush piles. The Second was the Zoom Mag II worm in the green pumpkin magic color and dyed the tail chartreuse. It worked the best in 6 to 8 foot of water. The last was the Zoom chartreuse pumpkin trick worm, went to a ½-ounce weight on the Carolina rig, and fished it in 4 to 6 foot of water.

Crappie fishing was good this week. White with an orange tail and chartreuse and white were the best colors of Bubba’s Bait Crappie jigs to use this week. You can find them in 18 to 20 foot of water suspended over brush piles.

The White Bass have started to move in from the 30 foot of water to 18 to 20 foot along creek bends leading into major creeks. Joe Spaits 1/2–ounce white with a black strip Flashtail jigging spoon was the best bait to put a limit of White Bass in the boat.

On our Equipment list this week is our Ranger Z520c powered by a Mercury 250 Pro XS from Nichols Marine in Longview, TX, Duckett rods, Lew’s reels, Stren Line, Buddy’s Custom Baits from here at Lake Fork, Bubba’s Bait Crappie jigs, Joe Spaits spoons, Zoom soft plastics and Strike King hard baits.

Here at J & M Guide Service we have 4 days open to help you get ready for the up-coming Berkley Bass Tournament. We will be using Berkley products to help you get ready. Give us a call at (903) 413-6919 or E-mail us at [email protected]. Do not forget that it is Texas State Law to have the kill switch hooked to your body when the boat is under way. Have a safe fishing week.