September 15th
In the last 12 days I have fished the marsh 7 times with nearly identical results on every trip, to sum things up for us, larger fish have been in the wood of the Stick Marsh with numbers of fish being caught in the ditches of Farm 13
I have been starting about 7 am.in the C-54 extension canal about 100 yards north of the boat ramp. The canal is about 12 deep now and casting buzzbaits and soft-jerkbaits to the south side of the canal is usually good for 6-12 fish by 8:30 am or so, the fish are usually 1-4 lbs. I like to start with a 6 inch soft plastic stick bait that I designed myself, my wife hand pours the baits and does an incredible job of developing my color requests, my exact baits are not necessary to catch fish however, they just help my confidence. First thing in the morning I like a color we call "milky june", it's a "junebug" and white mix with no glitter, why reflect darkness ? As the sun rises I will move to a "gold melons" color, it's translucent green with lots of gold flakes. A Gambler flappin' shad also does the trick.
Approx. 8 30 - 9am
I run into the Stick Marsh and back to the NW corner by the palm forest, don't run there because you saw me run there, idle recommended. There are several small depth changes here with specific stump rows on them in 6 feet of water. Some days are better than others but we usually claim 3-8 fish here by 10:30 am on Bomber model "A" crankbaits in "firetiger" color. If the crankbait bite does not exsist we will pitch 10 inch Gambler ribbontails in "junebug" or "emerald blue" texas rigged to 1/4 oz. rattlin' weight and a 4/0 Gamakatsu superline hook, as you know Power Pro microfilament is always on all my reels.
Approx. 11:00 am
Now that the sun is up and hot, many fish will congregate and suspend above the shellbeds located on drops in Farm 13 so it's off to satisfy the carolina-rig craving. I and others prefer the middle E/W ditch in the farm. Our chosen rig has been the 1/2 oz. c-rig with about 30" of leader. With the hot and sometimes still conditions I prefer a 8" Gambler icesickle worm or the same hand poured baits I described earlier which we call "Martian Baits". Any dark forms of blue, red, black, or purple seem to work.
By 1:00 pm
I'm at the ramp with 10-25 fish, nothing was different yesterday as Trish and I caught 17 fish, no big fish. We were on a decent crankbait bite for big fish last week, several 7's, one 8 lb. fish and some 4-5 lb. fish as well. This week we have not had the big fish bite
In my OPINION the best place to catch fish is probably still the ditches of Farm 13, for us however they have been small fish which has been my reason for spending most of my time lately on the Stick Marsh side searching for hawgs.
In my OPINION you should fish both sides of the reservoir, in summer the farm is especially awesome for c-rigging the ditches, 4-12 feet drops loaded with mussels, shell, etc.
The sticks is great for crankbaits and texas- rigging, 5-6 feet deep with oodles of palm stumps, pepper and wild fruit trees mostly submerged 3 feet below the surface. Bring your lure retriever as snags are to be expected.
Many lure styles will work on either body of water, these are just my first picks.
I'm out there 4-7 days a week regardless of a paying trip to give you true Stick Marsh experience since 1992.
"stick martian"
Randy Sanders www.BASSTRIPS.com