Eagle Mountain 7/7/10

I took a two week vacation and just got back from Oklahoma having a great time visiting family.  Time to go back to work now :)

Fished with first time guest Marlin and his family.  Started the day at 6:30 and enjoyed a cool overcast morning with light southeast/east wind.  I wanted the kids to get some fish early to wake them up, so we got to HP rigs out and started catching.  Around 8:15 we decided to check out the slab bite where I marked some good fish on a ridge.  It wasn't long and fish on!  Shortly after the slab bite took off baby fry threadfin started soaring through the air for their lives.  We caught fish on small plastics, slabs/flies, and quasimodo.  They stayed up boiling the water for about 30 minutes and then we had to return to electronics to stay on them.  I had a great time watching the two kids battle it out for the most fish caught.  We ended the day with a swim and lunch while I cleaned the fish.  Fish caught in 9-23 ft of water.  They are still chasing small bait so downsizing is a must.  We tried throwing a 3.5" sassy and they would hit but not take, but they would take a 2" fluke.  Ended up cleaning 64 and released quite of few unders.  Water temp 84-86.5

Eagle Mountain 6/20/10

Had new clients Christine and her family, and part of her family was in town visiting from Iceland.  Johnny helped me with this trip and he took 3 of the guys to do some serious fishing.  I took 3 lovely ladies and their parents.  We started out trolling the HellPet and we caught 21 sand bass, tangles, and plenty of laughs and good times before the girls just had to get in the water.  We went to a nearby beach and they swam and played in the sand for several hours.  It was a great day on the water with a fun family. 

Eagle Mountain 6/19/10

Took my buddy Ben out this morning to catch some catfish and a sand bass.  We don't get to fish very often, but have a great time when we do.  Started the morning fishing flooded trees with stink bait under a bobber catching channels consistently.  Ben told me the line we were using didn't need to be that heavy that 6 pound test would be plenty for the eaters we were catching and it wasn't 30 seconds later his bobber disappeared.  Snap was all I heard and him saying now I get it!  We had a great time catching around 40 when it started getting hot, so we headed out to catch some sand bass in the breeze.  Found large schools and caught about 35 before deciding to head in.  Our ladies had some nice pork bbq waiting for us when we got home!  Great day on the water and a fabulous meal afterwords.  Thanks for coming down Ben.

Eagle Mountain 6/13/10

Frank, Debbie and Justin joined me for a morning trip for catfish and white bass.  Frank wanted to get his family hooked on fishing and learn a little bit while doing it.  Started the day catching channels in 2ft of water by flooded trees on stink bait.  They kept 16 eaters for dinner.
After the bite slowed they decided it was time for white bass.  Found huge schools stacked in 12-17ft today up on a flat and the edge of the drop off.  Earlier in the week most the fish were traveling on the middle of the drop off.  The thermocline has moved up from 34ft to around 30ft at mid lake.  Never saw them surface, but some of the schools for 10 ft thick.  They kept 34 for dinner.  The water temp was 82-84 degrees and wind 20-30mph south.

Eagle Mountain 6/11/10

Took Todd out today for a mixed trip of channels and sand bass.  Started the morning out chasing the channels in 2-3ft of water around flooded trees using the stinky stuff.  We did well and caught around 30 or so eaters from 2 spots.  Had trouble holding in the wind today and spent way to much time re-anchoring to stay in the best position.  Lots of good areas that were unfishable due to the wind. 
Decided to check some areas for sand bass and see if the wind had them more stacked up than they have been.  It did and the screen was beautiful with many colors today ;) in 15-22 ft of water.  Caught some and then decided to go dial in the SI and down image features of my new graph.  Very cool to see what some structures actually look like vs what I thought they looked like.  Ended the day with a burger from Augies.  Had a great time out on the water and the wind made a hot day feel pretty good. 

Grapevine 6/9/10

Took Jacob from TCU out today to catch some fish for a school project testing the mercury content. Caught fish at all the normal places, but only a few from each spot. The fish were suspended and moving fast and eating really small shad fry about a half inch long or smaller. Noticed the same thing on Eagle Mountain Monday. No schooling today and caught fish from 12-34 ft of water. There is a nice thermocline on some areas of the lake at 34ft and water temp was 80-83. I did see a striper floating down by the bubbles and the shad population is very little there for this time of year. I wonder what is going on Just a little observation. It was good to get out on the vine. The water was much clearer than a couple of weeks ago. I love weekday boat traffic...or lack there of.

Eagle Mountain 6/7/10

Took Dan and his crew of boys out this morning.  It was a cloudy calm morning and the channel cat were hitting good.  Fished in flooded grass/trees/reeds and the action was great.  It was all I could do to keep those boys poles in the water.  I undid more hang ups and line tangles than I have in a really long time.  It was a blast watching those boys haul in the fish.  After the bite slowed at 10:30 or so we decided to give the sand bass a try.  Started out trolling the HP to keep their interest and some breeze blowing.  Caught a few and then the fish decided to surface in 38 ft of water eating shad fry about a half inch long or shorter.  All in all the boys kept 20 channels and 13 sand bass for a friendly fish fry.  The picture only has 19 channels because Hayden let one flop off the dock!  Water temp was 80-86 and a definite thermocline at 32ft.  Great day on the water with great customers!