Lake Blackshear Fishing Report March 2012

Blackshear: Level: Full pool. Temp: 58 to 62 degrees. Clarity: Stained; about 2 feet visibility.

Bass: Excellent. Jim Murray Jr. and his 10-year-old son, Flint, won a Blackshear tournament Feb. 26 with a sack that weighed 28 pounds. Jim said they had big fish for the tournament, an 8 1/2-pounder, and two more that weighed better than 6 pounds. There were three fish weighed that day that were heavier than 7 pounds. Jim said he got lucky and found a school of big fish that had just moved up. He said they were in a ditch headed up into a shallow 1- to 2-foot grass flat and backwater. He and Flint wore them out by alternating between three different CBT baits, a buzzbait, ChatterBait and spinnerbait. Jim said by the time this report hits the newsstands, every shallow grass flat on the lake will be full of bass. He said the dry winter made for lots of vegetation, and the grass bite should be good this spring. Jim anticipates a full-blown spawn by the first full moon in March. And all month it will be spawning patterns. He said to throw soft plastics around the roots of cypress trees where fish will be spawning. Or you can stick with spinnerbaits or soft plastics on the grass flats. For soft plastics, Jim likes a Senko in green pumpkin or neon green.

Crappie: Very good. Rusty Parker said it was a good winter, and spring is shaping up well also. At presstime, he said you could catch them longline trolling jigs on the creek channels. However, Rusty said the spawn should be full blown, and the fish should be shallow all over the lake by the first week or two of March. For a full feature on where and how Rusty will be catching crappie this month, see page 44.