Lake Athens 10 May 2014

This weekend Mike Tate and I decided to give Lake Athens, home of The Texas Fresh Water Fisheries Center, a shot. What a beautiful lake! 

The water was slightly stained, but fairly clear and around 75-76 degrees. We began the morning on the northwest of the 2495 Bridge.

We began hitting the Lilly pads and flooded grass lines around boat docks with weightless Senkos in 1'-5' of water. 

We moved to the other side of the lake around 11 am and landed a few more, again on a grass line next to an isolated boat dock and landed ~ 8-10 fish. A few 18" fish, which were slot fish (16"-24" for Athens), and the rest being 16" and under. 

All said it was an awesome day on one of my -now favorite lakes!

Lake Fork 26 April 2014

Lake Fork is turning on!

Fish appear to be on beds and are a bit tough to catch, but once you find the lure they want... it's hay-day!

My friend Mike Tate and I hit Birch Creek and did fairly well... although the bigger fish were slot fish, we were catching them... up until about noon, at least.

Mike and I landed a few smaller fish and a few slot fish (16", 18" and 20").

The water temperature in Birch was around 72 degrees and slightly less in Wolf Creek. Weightless Senkos, White/Chartreuse Spinners/Chatters were the winners this weekend, although I did talk to one guy who had a couple of 8+ lber's and one over 10lbs off worm and jigs in 5-8 ft of water, right on the stumps.

We were seeing lots of moss...that green slimey crap that jacks up every cast, in most creeks on the southern end of the lake. We did not see much if any on the northern side.

Chris and I will be out this weekend and will have an updated report next week. Good luck to all!

GBC March 2014 Lake O' The Pines Tournament

March 1-2 was GBC's 3rd tournament of 2014, at Lake O' The Pines.

Another tournament, another problem with the boat! This time we broke our trolling motor shaft on day 1! Here we go again!

The lake was ~1 ft high, yes, high. Those of you who know Lake o'the Pines are familiar with the fun all the stumps in the lake can be at normal pool, well, multiply that by 12" and you get the idea of how many stumps we 'tested'!

This tournament required the use of Spinner and Chatter baits, white and white/char-trues.

On day 1, we worked banks all morning until figuring out the fish were on the flats. We spent lots of time fighting the wind and had 2 real good hits, but in the end, Chris Thomas landed a nice 5.75 lb-er and I contributed with a big bag of nothing!

On day 2, the weather was great in the early am... as was the fishing! Without trolling motor, Chris and I decided to push through the stumps and join the spawning bass in the shallow flats (~3 ft). We drifted from the mouth of the creek back to as shallow as 2 ft... by the time we reached the back of the creek, the wind changed out of the north and began to howl and rain/sleet.. however, during the initial drifting, we landed 4 fish. I ended up with ~14.6 lbs on 3 fish (6.99 lb big bass) and Chris contributed with a 2.25 lb-er and a total tournament of ~8 lbs. By 10 am we decided to call it and headed back to the ramp.


We had a great time, but no big bass (I missed it by .23 lbs) and no team win, but we had a blast and cannot wait for March 2014 tourney #2, Bob Sandlin/Cypress Springs!

GBC 2014 Sam Rayburn Tournament

Chris Thomas' 8.25 lb-er won Big Bass
& the team competition!

Over the winter, Chris Thomas and I joined the Garland Bass Club and the first tournament we could make was GBC's 2nd tournament of 2014, at Sam Rayburn Reservoir.

The weather was insane driving out to the lake the evening before the 2-day tournament, as we drove for 5.5 hours through snow, sleet and rain. Needless to say, the fishing was tough for that reason (among others). 

We started out with an omen... water temp of 46 degrees and boat engine troubles... not 3 weeks since having a tune-up! This handicapped us, as we were relegated to our trolling motor on a HUGE lake we had never set eyes on before. 

We made the best we could and low and behold, found a few brush piles in 20' of water. As we rolled over the first big one, Chris landed his game-changer off the top of that pile with a spinner bait...at 15' of depth in COLD water! 

The rest of the trip was spent throwing everything we could think of, to no avail, but as fate would have it, we already had the tournament wrapped up...thanks to Chris Thomas!

I would like to thank the members of the GBC as they took us in like we had been members for years and made our trip one of the most memorable I have had. 

Thanks to Reggie and Rex for their hospitality and friendship, as well as the rest of the club who made the trip. I think Chris and I have found a permanent home for our weekend passion and urge anyone else who is searching for fishing comradery in the Dallas area to come out to one of our meetings and get to know some of the best and most loyal fishing buddies you will encounter!

Next tournament -> Lake o The Pines March 1, 2014!