Lake Murray Fishing report 25 Sept-2 Oct

[soonerbass]

Fished for smallmouth the whole week.  Fishing was very very tough as the fish seem to be suspended.  Managed to catch about 10 a day, most came on 1/8 Jigheads with wat/purp flek tubes, or bandit 200 series crankbaits.  A few did come on other lures.

[Mike Cork]

Thanks for the info, I didn't even know it had small mouth? If you make any more trips out there let us know what you find. The ABA Nationals are there in two weeks and I haven't a clue?

[pondboss]

Got a Tourney there in November and know absolutely nothing about the lake except what I've read.  Pretty pumped to get out there and fish "the clearest" lake in the state.  Any tips or places to check out?

[CodyBrooks]

Its no where near the clearest lake in the state. Lake Elmer Thomas makes Murray look heavily stained. Broken Bow is also very clear. I live on the lake and yes they are somewhat suspended since the water hit 70 degrees within 3 weeks from being 89 and we keep having cold fronts come in and push those wanting to move up back out. Hopefully it'll get back to the way it normally is this time of year.

[pondboss]

Only saying what I had read about it being "one of the clearest" not the "clearest".  I also heard from Jeff Kreit that the water there right now is turning over a bit so it's not as clear as it normally is.  I"m hoping that this weather figures out what the hell it wants to do so it will be stable one way or the other for my tourney.  Any tips or places of interest out there?

[Steve81]

I fished there last winter and spring a lot in on Sundays with Cody. I'm not completely sure why, but I could never get anything going on shad imitating baits and I chalked that up to never seeing any shad. I did my best with shakey heads until the water started warming up and then on c-rig fished around scattered stumps. You will find a lot of those throughout the lake even in deep water. The lake has a ton of short fish there and its common to catch 30 fish in a day and still struggle to get 5 to go 14 inches but don't let that fool you. There are some monsters in there. I've seen plenty of 7-9 pounders in my little bit of time fishing it.