Black Bayou Benton

[Russ199A]

I meant to get this posted last week but Michelle and I were in TAP class.
TCTC had their club tourney on Cypress/BB just over a week ago. I fished BBB.
We started off at 4am in hopes of not having to deal with the heat and stopped at noon. We call it an early bird tourney.
Prior to dawn I only caught dinks on soft plastics and spinner baits. I threw a top water for some time hoping for that big bite but not even a sniff.
Once it got light enough to move around easier I started hitting my spots, never staying longer than 15-30 minutes each spot. I figured sooner or later I find them and be able to start dialing in the patter.
Finally, around 7am I picked up a small keeper shallow and that clued me in to the possibility that even though the water temp was 87*, the fish may be on the bank due to heavy cloud cover.
I picked up a white spinner bait and started paralleling a shallow bank with submerged grass. Within 15 minutes I went from having one keeper to four. Including a 3 1/2 and a 5 1/2 lber. Needed one more to have a limit so I decided to make another pass through the area and was able to pick up another small keeper on a water melon brush hawg. The 5 1/2 lber came out of 2 1/2 feet of water, while all the rest were in a foot of water or less. Also, all the fish that I caught on the spinner bait had it as soon as it hit the water. As soon as I turned the handle, they were on.
The spinner bait bite lasted about 30-45 minutes then it was off. So, I moved back to docks working a brush hawg super slow. I'd Talon down, pitch the brush hawg under the dock as far as I could then work it out slow, letting it sit for 5-10 seconds before hopping or twitching it again. I think paint dries faster, but it paid off. Caught two nice upgrades off the same dock before the bite shut down completely.
Managed 13.60 lbs and second place in the tourney.
Point being, just because it's summer, don't rule out the bass being super shallow.

[Mike Cork]

Congrats and thanks for a great detailed report.

For us high 80's this time of year is cool water  Fish really haven't set up in a major summer pattern this year on any of the lakes, they are all over the place.

[Elijahtc]

that's good to here seeing as Im taking my ol lady out to Cypress and BBB for the first time on Friday. We just got a new boat and are excited to finally get off the bank because the bite is even tougher from the bank.

[Russ199A]

Congrats and thanks for a great detailed report.

For us high 80's this time of year is cool water  Fish really haven't set up in a major summer pattern this year on any of the lakes, they are all over the place.

A week prior the temp was 92*, the rains and cooler weather pulled it down a little.
Yeah this year has been a little weird for developing a solid pattern and figuring out where the fish are. Usually in the summer they will be deep or extremely shallow in the shade.