Eagle Mountain 4-23-11

Took Jim and Cecil fishing on Eagle Mountain this morning.  It was a beautiful morning with good temps and plenty of wind to get a good bite going.  We graphed a few on a mid lake slope, but no takers.  So we headed to an area I have caught fish this time of year after a shad spawn to see what was going on.  Eased up to it and noticed some boils, dropped the trolling motor down, and got to catching.  We were fishing in 1-3ft of water using rattle traps, mepps, sassy shad, and curly tail grubs.  It sure was fun watching Cecil and Jim catch onto some doubles on the ultra lites. 

After that bite died down the fish moved out on the ridge and a group in a pontoon were nailing them, but we decided to head to a different area of the lake and give it a try.  We looked at a few humps for a slab bite, but nobody home.  Headed to a point, but a guy was already there, so we headed to another point and saw David and his customers out trying to get some little girls on some fish while staying out of the wind that was getting really strong.  Checked some more humps with nobody home again, so we headed to battle the wind on another point with the wind blowing in on it.  Got there, put the trolling motor down and it didn't take long to start catching some good one's in 1-4ft of water.  We were catching some good fish while another boat was on the other side of the point putting a hurt on the little one's.  They were catching more than us, but our fish were bigger on that side.  After the other boat left I slid over to the other side of the point and started nailing the small one's slabbing straight down in two feet of water, they were thick in there.  It took me a few minutes and I got a great idea, cast out off the ledge in deeper water and see if the size picks up...first cast fifteen incher.  It was a great time on a shallow water bite today.  Water temp was 70.4 starting out and I forgot to look later in the day.  We caught fish on grubs, sassy's, Ol'Ugly Slabs, Mepps, and rattle traps.  They all worked equally well if fished correctly.  Kept 43 for our Easter dinner and let way more than that go.  The fish I cleaned were all spawned out and feeding aggressively, however only 3 fish had something in there stomachs.
Here is a pic of the eggs after they spawn.

The females still had a stretched out pregnant belly, but was empty when you pushed on it.  Hero time is really going to be here the next couple of weeks as they all start feeding after the spawn.
Here is what they were eating today.

Eagle Mountain 4-16-11

Had two of the toughest trips since guiding Saturday. Picked up Javier and his threes buddies at 7:00 on a crisp 40 degree morning. Looked at every area fish usually hold this time of year and they were there, however, they would not bite. Found one small school of dinks that would nibble and caught a few of those. The fish were holding from 17-28ft on drop off, but were hugging the bottom and not in the mood this morning. Water temp was 63 degrees but ended up near 70 by the end of the day.


Picked up repeat customers Dwight, his wife, two daughters, and son in law. Dwight has been on some very good trips and wanted to share this one with his family. Well, this one wasn't as good. The fish that wouldn't bite this morning weren't there in the afternoon, so we couldn't try and persuade them. Went to a point that is pretty good when boat traffic starts getting crazy and there was already a guy there fishing it catching a few fish. Tried to fish out from him on the ledge, but no takers. Tried another point and nothing. Got a text from Karl that a point I had tried 3 times earlier now had some dinks on it. Tried another are a and nothing home. Decided a few dinks was better than nothing so we went to join Karl and Bama. Caught some dinks and a dozen keepers there. Saw a boat show of trollers south of the island on the way in catching what looked like more dinks.

Today, the wind blew from the north, south, east, west and everywhere in between. I sure hope it picks back up soon. What a difference a week makes. Easy limits last Saturday and couldn't even get a limit out of two trips this Saturday. I hope somebody else did better this weekend. Saw a few good fish caught by guys throwing cranks at rocks.

Eagle Mountain 4-9-11

Fish with repeat guest John, Roe, Kevin, and Graham. Everytime this group fishes with me they try and pick what time we will have our limits by. Last time we went out was at Grapevine with no wind...we never got our limits that day so the pressure was on today! Picked them up at 7:15 and they had their limits by 8:55. Just one of those good days. I tried to talk them into fishing some more, but John said he really hates releasing fish and was ready to go in. These guys are a hoot to fish with and they are really good fishermen. They had me running all over the boat taking fish off. Every third fish seemed to be a keeper today, either toads or dinks. Fish were caught 12-18ft deep on Ol'Ugly Slabs/flies and Flies-By-Night flies. Color did not seem to matter today. The birds came over to play for a few minutes about halfway through the trip, but they didn't last long nor did we follow them. Only had 2 other boats sharing the fish today because of the wind, Frank and his nephew Mikey, and Trashguy with his wife. After I dropped John and his crew off I went back to do a little playing of myself. Frank put his boat on the trailer and he and Mikey joined me. We went and did some souting to get an idea of all the areas holding fish now. Caught fish in another area of the lake from 20-24ft and another wind blown bank at 12-16ft. It was good to see David and his clients out having a good time today.