Practice update: Muddy Rayburn still set to produce

The start of the Tackle Warehouse Invitationals season should be good fishing, but recent weather appears to have thrown a curveball at the field. Pre-practice for Stop 1 Presented by Power-Pole MOVE on Sam Rayburn, which will kick off Friday, showed anglers low water, but the same rains that sent muddy water rolling down Toledo Bend for the beginning of the Bass Pro Tour season have Big Sam coming up and looking dirty.

That, combined with some warm weather, could make the week a very enjoyable one for fans, but maybe not a simple one for the anglers. We checked in with a few competitors for a practice report, and so far, things seem to be going pretty decently.

Ross seeing historic conditions

A former college angler working his way up, Cody Ross of Livingston, Texas, is getting his career started on home waters, which has him pretty excited.

“It’s exciting, this is the highest level I’ve fished up to this point,” he said. “It’s exciting to get started. I’ve wanted to fish for a living for a long time, and I finally get to do it.”

Of course, he’s found out early on that pro fishing doesn’t always come easy.

“There’s more dirty water than I have ever seen in my life,” he said of the current conditions. “It’s pretty bad; I’ve never seen it this bad. The way Rayburn sets up, is it is fed by the Angelina River and a few others, but there’s another river below Rayburn, called the Neches, and Rayburn is made for flood control for that. That river is overflowing, so it looks like they’ve shut the gates and won’t let anything out. I ran all my stuff up north yesterday, and it is blown-out mud.”

Still, while the north end of the lake may be out of play this week, or it may take an exceptional angler to figure it out, that doesn’t mean the fishing is hopeless.

“There’s a ton of fishable stuff. The bottom end is where the cleaner water is, and where I think you’ll see everybody at,” Ross explained. “I think grass is going to be the No. 1 deal, but it’s going to be hard to get size. ChatterBaits, ‘trappin’, and jerkbaiting around it with ‘Scope has been pretty good. Back before it flooded, most of it was walled off, and the top was out of the water. Now, that same grass is 10- or 12-foot deep.”

Though there aren’t really bushes in the water (yet, anyhow), Ross thinks that shallow is going to be the way to go. So, despite similar conditions to last week’s event at nearby Toledo Bend, we’re in for a different tournament.

“People have won ‘Scoping out here, but it’s really, really hard,” Ross said. “Fish here don’t do that roaming, suspended deal a lot. LiveScope here is used as a tool to hit the pile, hit the hard spot, or see if there are fish on a pile. You can catch a ton of fish ‘Scoping, but not big ones. There will be checks cut off of ‘Scope, I have no doubt, but the winning pattern won’t be open-water ‘Scoping like Toledo last week.”

With the current conditions, Ross thinks that shallow is going to be the way to go, which might excite fans.

“I think there’s gonna be a lot of really big ones caught,” he said. “Whenever the water comes up here, the fish go shallow — it’s the way it is here. I have no doubt there are big ones up shallow, I just haven’t ran into them yet.”

Cox is waiting for the shallow fish

John Cox, who has won at Rayburn before, is not likely to even try chasing bass with a Damiki and forward-facing sonar. For one, he doesn’t have forward-facing on his boat, but also because he’s counting on a shallow push.

“Honestly, I think it’s going to be similar to the Bass Pro Tour,” Cox said. “I’m not gonna do it, I’m gonna take my chances and hope that the fish come. I don’t know if I’m going to catch anything. It seems like up north is so blown out. I went up there, and maybe someone will catch them in it, but it’s like an orange dirty – it’s next level. This might be the first time I’ve been here and that area won’t play at all.”

Still, Cox is hopeful that each day the conditions will play more into his hands.

“Today, I’ve had no bites, but the water temp just hit 60,” he said. “And after this morning, we’ve got a warming trend. It’s hard to keep throwing at the bank, but the conditions for it are perfect if they do decide to slide up.”

Mixing and matching keeping Cortiana on his toes

Basically a veteran pro now, Kyle Cortiana has been to Rayburn a lot, and he’s been catching plenty of fish in practice.

“You can Damiki them all day long and catch a bunch of fish, but they’re not the right ones,” he said. “Watching the BPT at Toledo, they were catching big ones, but I don’t think you can do the same trick here. It seems like the big ones don’t do that.

“I’m trying to figure out how to catch them shallow. The whole world is out Damiki-ing, trying to catch them. But, my biggest fish today have come on a trap.”

Finding some shallow and some off the bank, Cortiana thinks the tournament could be a really good one.

“Could you ask for better conditions for a prespawn tournament?” he said. “Warming, rising water, and a lake that is growing hydrilla in places that it has never had it before. I just caught one of my biggest fish in a place I have never seen grass before in my life. They’re going to bite.”