Eagle Mountain 3-17-11

Took repeat customer Clay out for a catfish and sand bass trip.  We started the day fishing in 3 ft of water and got some action quick and boated two blues missing a few also.  Then the bite just stopped.  Tried another location and gar were biting our floats and taking off.  Got to see one up close, but luckily he opened his jaw and let loose before I had to take him off.  The wind kept getting stronger so we decided to try some sand bass on a wind blown ridge from 8-26ft.  Marked the fish on side image, pulled out into the deeper water, set the I-pilot on anchor mode and tossed our Ol' Ugly slabs with Flies-By-Night flies up on the shallow flat and worked it down the ridge.  The fish seemed to want the white and chartreuse slab and chartreuse fly more than others today.  We caught 100ish fish, keeping around 20 good one's, and left them biting.  It was a good catching trip with great conversation.  Looking forward to the next one Clay.  Thanks

Ray Roberts 3-16-11

Took repeat customers Dwight and Tim out today and they brought first time guests Katie and Gary to do a mixed trip sand bass and catfish. First stop was on a hump close to the mouth of a creek in 26-36 ft of water.  We caught fish consistently for a couple of hours.  The girls always make the guys look bad and Katie was no exception.  She caught more and bigger fish.
This was nice surprise and gave Katie a good fight, but she is a good angler and won the battle.  This is her biggest fish ever!  This fish hit a white and chartreuse Ol' Ugly slab.

Next we went out on some humps in 28-33ft and Tim and Gary finally got woken up and their line began to get tugged on more frequently, but Katie didn't let up either.

I think Dwight was taken it easy eating most of this trip watching everybody else because I didn't have to take too many off his line :)
Next stop we saw Boston Bob and his clients having a good time.  We enjoyed watching the kids catch as much or more as catching ourselves. 
We ended the day with an ice chest full of sand bass and catfish releasing many also.  Looking forward to the next one with this group.

Eagle Mountain 3-15-11

Catching shad for tomorrows trip was tough today.  The bait that was keep was in small balls and was hard to hit with the net and I never found anything but one inch shad in the shallows.  Got a call from Johnny that he was having trouble locating some sand bass so I told him I would try an area I was close to.  Drove along the ridge on the deep side shooting a side image with the Humminbird at the drop off and found what looked like scattered out sand bass.  Tossed a marker out, dropped a slab, and bam, fish on!  Called Johnny and told him I was on fish.  I caught 42 in about an hour and then had to go throw for some more bait for Wednesdays trip. 

Tawakoni Cabelas Tournament 3-5-11

Ben and I decided to give the Cabelas tournament a try again with 30+ mph winds.  We started out up north and only caught on channel in 4 ft of water on our first spot.  Next spot in 3 ft we caught a 10 pounder and five other box fish to get our 5 fish weigh in limit, but we didn't have the size of fish we needed.  Time to head out in the wind and try some deeper water.  Hit the area I caught the 34 pounder the weekend before and caught a handful of good 3-6 pounders...not going to help in this tournament.  I looked at Ben and asked him if he was up to going to the opposite end of the lake in the wind and he said, "sure, why not" so off we went.  Wasn't a bad drive down riding with the waves, but we knew it was going to be ROUGH on the way back.  Started out shallow again and caught a dozen good fish, but not what we were after.  Went out to try some deeper water in the mouth of a creek and bam another dozen good fish, but not the big one's.  Time was running out so we decided to try a cove and see if a big one was lurking but only caught another handful of eaters.  Time to make the trek back north against the 5 to 6 footers.  Everything on the boat got wet and I got to test out the new boat in some great waves.
Ben and I had a great time and had a great day of catching, but not the one's we needed to win the tournament.  We placed 13th out of 37 teams.

Tawakoni NTTC Tournament 2-26-11

Fished the NTTC Tournament with Mickey.  We started out fishing a series of holes because we marked some great fish, but only caught one keeper.  Next we tried a wind blown point with a creek near by and picked up a few more keepers and a 34 pounder.  That bite died so we tried some shallow water and had one slam down and run into a stump pulling the hook out and another dink.  The wind really started picking up from the south causing us to go back in a creek and try more shallow, nada.  Tried the creek on the way out in a little deeper water and caught a couple more fish, but not the big one's we needed. 

Ray Roberts 2-12-11

Took first time guests Marcus, his wife, and Aaron to Ray Roberts on a blue cat trip. Air Temp was 23 at the ramp and got up to 68 when leaving. Water temp was 39.4 and then got up to 42.8. We started out fishing the drop off of a point from 48-57ft and caught a couple quick fish, but then the bite stopped so we moved on. Next stop was a little deeper on a ledge from 45-62ft and we caught a couple at that spot. Graphed lots of bait and fish in other areas, but the fish were not in feeding mode so off we went in search of deeper water. First area to graph and the bait was there, broken up, and the fish were with them. Anchored up and that was the ticket in 71-82ft of water. There was little to no wind today until the last 15 minutes of fishing...simply a beautiful day on the water, good times, and 3 new personal bests. The fish preferred smaller threadfin heads today over gizzards.

Lake Cooper 1-22-11

Fished a corporate trip today and my two guys had never caught a catfish.  The action was slower than last week, but still produced plenty of eaters and a few trophies today.  Our big fish was 28 pounds and made for happy customers!  The fish were stacked in the deeper holes, but not actively feeding.  Marked a few up on the ledges and on the flat and that is where we caught most of our fish.  Fishing 24-30ft near 40+ ft of water.  Water temp was 41.2 and the fish were full of threadfin and smaller gizzards.  All fish caught on Gizzard shad and Team Catfish double action hooks.  Later in the day the fishing picked up if I sprayed the shad with Dead Red Blood Spray.