Lake Lavon has been a go to spot in the last month or so. Limits of tasty crappie, sand bass, and large mouth are easy to find. The lake has a small population of jet skis and pleasure boaters. It is nothing like Hubbard or Lake Lewisvilles party lakes. Yes, you will get waked here and there by the weekenders cause they just don’t know. Other than that, you can fish in all kinds of locations throughout the lake and even have the family out there with you to enjoy the action.
White Bass/ Sand Bass
Limits have been really easy on both lakes, Hubbard & Lewisville. The sandies have been schooling early morning and late morning. Every week they pop up in a new spot, so be prepared to keep on the move and watch for surface activity till about 9 am. They have been known to stay up almost the whole day and feed very aggressively. Usually they do this before a front comes through. At Lavon, I’m finding them in 6-18 ft of water as the thermocline sets in.
Thermocline is is a thin but distinct layer in which temperature changes more rapidly with depth than it does in the layers above or below.
(picture by T Mike)
You can see the thermocline right about 27 ft on this lake. All the fish will be above it and not below it. Don’t be scared to fish shallow in the 100 degree weather. The fish have to stay above the thermocline or they will suffocate if they go below it. So, the fish only have a small part of the water column to swim in. If you find shallow structure above the thermocline, fish it!
With that said, we are catching crappie on Lake Lavon 5-14 ft now as the thermocline starts to settle in. Find coves and you will find timber, the lake has a lot of submerged timber and brush piles out of the south winds. If you have Side Scan or Side Imaging, you will have no issues of finding fish-able targets.n If you don’t know how to read side imaging, I talked about it a while back in another blog, after your done reading this, search my previous blogs to see pics and how to break down what you are seeing on your graph.
I am using Thump Buddies in black/chart and white/chart. I powder paint my jig head in pink. The crappie love the pink, black, chart combo color. As the lake heats up, Minnows are going to be king. Carolina rig them w/ a 4 inch leader lighter than you main line. So when you break off, u get your swivel and weight back at least. I go through a 1/2 lb of minnows per two people every trip, if the crappie are not responding to jigs. Pay close attention to the depth of the first 3 crappie and that should give you a pattern for the day.
If you want a better fight and bigger fish, try casting a Texas Rigged Worm ( motor oil, purple w/ chart tail, watermelon green, shad color) at structure in 1-18 ft. The fish are moving out of the depths and going shallow again chasing bait. 3-6 pound fatties are being landed on every outing. I even saw a 10 plus pound black get broken off last week. So the lake is pumping out lots of fish.
I also throw crank baits that dive to 12 ft with 12 lb line and smash the bait into the structure, and as it deflects off the rocks or stumps, the fish go nuts and slam it. During the week is best and early on weekends due to all the boaters everywhere, the fish hunker down a bit.
