Priest Smallies
 

I went out to JPP this afternoon for the first time in while. I focused on offshore stuff today and caught a few nice fish. Everything we caught was in 12-20 feet of water. Had a couple nice largemouth but caught mostly smallmouth. Had 2 keeper smalljaws. One was just shy of 19 inches and one was just over 21 inches. I caught them all on a rage bug. The fishing seems to be good there but I haven't seen any posts on here. I know a lot of you guys fush priest a lot. If your struggling then maybe this will help you.

I fished Sunday evening -- chaos per usual even down by Jefferson Springs. Ramp was so busy I just went to West Fork and made my way up river. I saw a 25-foot boat go through the cut-through down by the water intake plant. I literally ran into a stump or rock with a 30 hp not five minutes before some bro dragging his three kids on a tube zipped through. That whole area is a mine field and in reality should be marked by TWA. How five people don't die on that lake every weekend is beyond me.

Upper end was really dirty from recent rains. Also, this year didn't produce the grass canes on the shore. Last year that stuff extended out to 3-4 feet deep -- kept a lot of fish shallow during the summer which led to a good top water bite. I must of tossed that 90 whopper plopper 200 times and didn't even get a follow. Caught a few off secondary point off main lake using crank in 6-8 feet. Been a slow year overall -- maybe just bad timing of trips. In a year, over 15-20 trips, Priest usually good for 6-7 or so 4+ pounders. Had maybe 2 so far, both of which coming on picture perfect prespawn day, off a single stump.

Family rented a cabin on Tims Ford for this weekend. Hoping to get a few decent hours of main lake point spook action. After that, I'm shutting it down till fall so I can fish in relative peace.

I went last week one afternoon and found fish everywhere. First spot I pulled up on to scan had fish up on the top of the ledge feeding, caught 3 and missed 3 more. Moved on from there and found some more fish but only caught a couple more fish as they were up feeding shallow. For as active as the fish were I could not get them to bite anything unless they were actively feeding on the top of the water, Very strange. I might try to go back out this week.

Slow for me
 

Went out Saturday cause I fished with a buddy of mine, caught one missed one, way too windy for me and traffic, forget about it. Went out yesterday, dead calm, couldn't get anything going, fished my usual Stewarts Creek area, nothing, started moving out to main lake and had one strong strike then nothing, didn't know what else to throw, tried top, cranks, drops, swimbaits, called it a day!

Pics and coordinates or it didnt happen!!!

These fish are way offshore. And the places I found them were loaded with fish. I will have a little more detail to offer after tomorrow. Me and a friend have a grudge match tourney scheduled against my stepdad and another buddy. I don't wanna give up all the details just yet. As these spots are not that hard to find with a good map. I didn't get a bite shallow. Threw Topwater for a while at dark and nothing. It's the first time I've been on Priest in my boat since this spring. The fish are really schooled up. Im telling you if I wouldn't have been prefishing for this little grudge match then I could have caught at least 5 limits of bass yesterday. I would locate a school and catch one. If it was a keeper then I would move on. If it was a short then we would just stay there and catch a few to see if we could catch a keeper

Those are some nice smallies..

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Yep, perfect grilling size!

Jimmy, is that you?

Lol😂😂


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wooooooooooooooooohhhhhhhhhhhooooooo dam them are nice great catch

Just had to throw that in there. I miss all the dogging Jimmy got. He's probably fat on the walleye by now. Probably turn his nose up at a bass...

Well I promised more info. The humps in the lake have lots of fish on them. I haven't scanned a single hump that tops out in 10-20 feet that isn't holding fish. My buddy and I fished a little grudge tournament against my stepdad and another buddy of mine. My buddy that was fishing with me doesn't hardly ever fish. He caught the biggest bass he's ever caught tonight. It weighed 5lbs 5 ounces. We won big fish and biggest bag thanks to his fish. It was awesome to witness because he was so happy to catch a 10 inch bass that he made me take a picture for him. Then he gets to catch a friggin toad. Needless to say he was very excited. And I couldn't have been any happier if I caught that fish myself. I think sometimes I forget why we go fishing. It's so we can have FUN! Sometimes I get frustrated when I'm out fishing and not catching the quality fish that I want. Then I get to go fishing with my best friend and the smiles on his face catching anything just put everything in a better perspective. I don't need to take all those days for granted that I'm out catching dinks or nothing at all.

Awesome fish. Thanks for the tips. I fish JPP quite a bit. I only fish at night this time of year. Even then, it's loaded with boats, so be careful.

The last time I was out was last Sat night. They were on fire but only on ledges in deep water. Was fishing 3.5 inch tubes, texas rigged. Let em slowly drop. Dark blue/black or purple/black spinner baits slow rolled were good too.

I dont bass fish much, but when i do, its usually in the summer time like now and i focus on the offshore structure as well. Ive never found numbers of fish in one location, but the fish i have found are usually good, quality fish.