Reservation Number : 43475
Property Name : Hat and Star Ranch
Reservation Date : 05/17/2025 All Day -
Total Fish/Sizes : 12
Lures Used : Jerkbait / Top water / Crankin

We arrived at daylight and got on the water just as the sun got up.   Beautiful overcast morning, slight breeze to keep the humidity down.   Water was MUCH muddier than our last visit at about 10" of visibility.  Water temps were 80-83 on my graph.   This lake is a rough lake to fish for an odd reason. The abundance of forage is INSANE! It is incredibly hard to pull the bass off of the balls of bait. I watched them on scope all day hammering the bait balls. Tried to get them on a jerkbait and just couldn't get it done.  We caught fish all around the lake, mostly in shallower water. The shad were also boiling all over lake most of the day.  Mid morning my wife lost what would have surely been her PB, it smoked her bait at the end of a long cast and ran around a tree.   That fish was an easy 7+ probably and would have easily been our biggest PWF fish yet. 😓 She was less than pumped.   Most of the bass we caught were 16" and around 2lbs, but fought incredibly hard for thier size.   We caught several fish cranking the bank, although there was much more algeish veg around the bank than our last visit also.  All and all, we couldn't find that "Key Pattern" to match some of our best days at other PWF lakes, but we did get bit sporadically.  About 6PM we got into a decent top water and cranking bite in the shallows and followed that until the storms were impending and we had to bail. We got the truck loaded up just as the storm hit and it started pouring.  One day, i will get the pattern down for this lake!!! Best fish of the day was a 3.4 i have pictured below.  I'll be back! PS: there is an Academy in longview for last minute tackle needs and Tia Juanitas Fish Camp has some absolutely KILLER Cajun if you wanna grab a bite to eat.  The ramp is nice and solid, and could easily take larger glass or aluminum boats.  It is started to get washed out though, and starting to get some serious bumps and humps.  A load of gravel and a little work with a tractor bucket would have it perfect it no time. It is very manageable in a 2wd pickup with no issues still though.