Find the bass in shallow water
Richie Dickey is a third generation bass fisherman and it shows. He has caught some big stringers of largemouths from many area lakes, but when it comes to April’s bite, he knows it’s time to head to Lake Bruin.
“Lake Bruin has got some good fish in it,” he says. “The good thing about the bite right now is that the fish are in a post-spawn pattern and they are active in the shallow water for the most part. It’s a great time to fish the lake.”
Start out here
The 34-year-old Winnsboro native starts out his quest for bass in the shallows, usually around the trees in 2-3 feet of water. If he doesn’t have luck there, he moves to the deeper trees and then if the fish aren’t there for some reason, he goes to his electronics and finds mats and tops that people have put out around piers and the drop-offs.
“There was a time six or seven years ago when I wouldn’t fish in water that I couldn’t touch the bottom in with my seven-foot rod,” he said. “There are lots of fish there. But there are times you need to go deeper and I’ve learned to do that, too.”
Go to lure
No matter where he has to find the bass, his go-to lure at Bruin is the jig with a trailer.
“I’m not typically crazy with colors,” he says. “If the water is clear, I’ll go with green pumpkin and if it is stained, I may try a black and blue. They key thing that helps me is that, if I’m not catching on that jig, I’ll just change the color, shape or size of my trailer. If they aren’t hitting a Rage Tail, I’ll try a Craw Worm or something like that. That will usually do it.”
Typically, both ends of Lake Bruin receive a lot of pressure — from the State Park end on East side to the other end of the oxbow where Brushy Bayou provides more narrow passages and shallower water. Fish can be caught throughout the lake as well, but they seem to move from one spot to the other with changing weather.
Fish the weather
A spring cold front can move the fish out pretty quickly, but that is where the electronics come in. Fish will move out on the tops and the best bait besides a jig is a deep diving crankbait like the Strike King 5XD. In stained water, you can’t go wrong with chartreuse and black. In clear water, he likes shad colors.
“It’s a beautiful lake and has a lot of bass in it, but just like any other lake, you have to spend some time finding them,” he says. “Once you do that, it’s on. You won’t regret taking a trip here.”
