Content Supplied By www.Fishingworld.com, written by Ricky Vandergriff

Lake levels are almost back to normal and fishing is great. Lake Palestine is now only about 4 to 5 inches low and the surface temps are in the mid 60’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 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,Foot ball Shakers, 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.

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 theshallow grass and in sandy areas next to some sort of cover. 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 and 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 red Mr. Twister lizard. 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 new Football 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 Football Shimmy Shaker I will fish them as slow as I can near the cover that 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 are 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 of Crappie caught while fishing in the shallows.

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.