Sometimes it’s better to be lucky than good!

I was out on Tuesday this week looking to fish some new shallow water areas I had found on a map, but never fished before. The first area I fished produced a couple of good fish at the mouth where it was a little deeper, but when I got back into the shallows, I only caught a few and the ones I did catch were small. The second area I wanted to check out had a gentleman fishing at the mouth so I moved on back into one of the two creeks and fished some really nice docks and banks in 3-4 foot of water with no luck.
At this point, I had seen the areas I was curious about and had lost confidence in the shallows, so I decided to try some deeper docks close by. I found some close to where I was so I dropped the trolling motor and started throwing a 10” worm to the docks. I noticed a bunch of shad in 10-15 feet along the docks and also noticed what looked to be some larger bass on the front side and outside corners of the docks. I spotted one that looked to be pretty big and thought I knew where she was, so I pitched the worm in and fed it line hoping to hit her on the head. I didn’t watch her bite like some do with Livescope but saw my line jump at about 10 feet deep and set the hook. It had been a couple of frustrating weeks wondering where the big fish had gone but this one would make up for it all as I lipped what was a big beautiful 8 1/2 lber. Yes, “sometimes it’s better to be lucky than good”!
The water temp seemed more stable in the 74-76 degree range, and although we had experienced a front and a couple of cooler evenings, we are still seeing 90 degrees during the days. That is all supposed to change next week with forecasts calling for highs in the mid 70s and lows in the mid 40’s. There are a lot less wakemakers on the lake now and the falling water temps should get the fish feeding more and more so it’s a great time to fish LBJ.
For now, I would say to look for those deeper transition areas such as the mouth of creeks/coves and stretches of deeper docks close by. Watch for shad (and fish) on your electronics and slowdown when it feels right. I’ve had my best luck with a 1.5 square bill crankbait in the transition areas, but topwaters early, spinnerbaits in the wind, and a fluke in the calmer shallows can all catch fish if you find em. That being said, if I was go out in the next few days, I would look for docks in 15-20 feet with shad close by and pitch jigs and plastics to the outside corners and front side openings looking for another one of those big beautiful “day makers”.