(Apr. 09, 2012 - Tyler, X)

Lake levels are almost back to normal and fishing is great. Lake Palestine is now only about 10 inches low and the surface temps are in the 70's with the spring spawn up and running.

Bass and Crappie are in the shallows and can be found just about any place where you find brush or grass. Most of our grass is old dead grass that the water has now covered but you can still find the fish hiding out in it.

They are making their spawning beds and at this time can be caught on several different types of lures.

Bass can be caught on stick baits,spinner baits,top waters and plastic worms. Crappie can be caught on both minnows and jigs and below I have a few photos of bass and crappie and here is how we caught them.

This young lady came down on vacation from Chicago to do a bit of bass fishing here on Lake Palestine and landed this nice bass from the grass with a chugger type lure. She and her friend caught a number of bass while here this month. We fished slow back along the shore line in a creek casting several times into the same locations and this is something you have to do at times to go home a winner.

When fishing in April we have some real nice warm days with very little wind and you can move in close to the shore and with a good pair of polarized sun glasses you can see the beds in the grass. As I said above you can catch these fish with several types of lures and in different ways. I like the top water action to see them blow that lure up out of the water and then come back on it. Another way is to get back away from the shore and throw a plastic worm such as the Mr. Twister Comida. The Comida is a straight stick type worm that has a slow fall when you fish it with no weight other than a 4/0 hook and when placed in the right spot it can be deadly.

Another good way is with a Carolina rig or a split shot rig using a watermelon B.A. Hog made by Mr. Twister Lures. You can sit out away from the shore and cast up to the shore dragging your lure out slowly to the deeper water. I like to spray chartreuse dip n dye on the tail of my plastic to give it a bit of color to make it get their attention a little bit faster.

The next thing I like to do when fishing the spawn and that is to work shallow flats with a Spinner Bait or my Shimmy Shaker. I will work the flats in the back of the creeks and in main lake pockets. I will cast to the stumps that I can see and the dark spots under the surface which will be stumps that have been covered by the rising waters both are good. When fishing the spinner bait and my Shimmy Shaker I will fish them as slow as I can near the cover I can see and I will make several cast to the same spots giving the bass every chance possible to hit my lure as it swims by them.

Another great fish I mentioned is the Crappie, not only are they fun to catch but they are very good on the plate. I don't eat a lot of fish but when I do it will be the Crappie and if you like them well April is a great month to fill your box with them.

There is many ways to fish for Crappie but two of my favorite ways are shallow water with minnows and deep water brush piles with a jig.

First let's talk shallow I like to look in back water areas where you find grass and brush. I will rig up with a slip robber rigged about a foot to a foot _ depth range and fish a minnow just moving it a long the bank from spot to spot until I find them and sometimes when you find them you can fill your box out of one spot.

Now for brush pile fishing, I like to find natural brush or man made brush piles in about 10 feet of water and fish them with a 1/16 th oz. Jig. I will cast out over the brush and let my jig sink slowly giving my line small twitches as it falls making my jig come to life. Below I have a few photos one of Bradly Thompson from Waco with some nice Crappie caught in 10 feet on jigs and minnows and next is Bob and Richard while fishing in the shallows and deeper water on minnows.

These photos shown were caught in the last half of March and they were at the very beginning of the spawn and it just gets better in April so get out and go fill your freezers with big tasty Crappie.

If you want to go but don't have a boat well that's what I do. Give me a call and book a fishing trip with me and I will help you fill your freezer.

To book a trip you can reach me at (903)561-7299 or (903)530-2201 or log on and email me at ricky@rickysguideservice.com.

Until next time keep only the fish you can use and release the rest for another day.

A good day of fishing Photo by Ricky Vandergriff

A BIG Lake Palestine Crappie. Photo by Ricky Vandergriff

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