My son decided Saturday that he wanted to go fishing Sunday.  The closest 3-4 lakes that came to mind were booked, so I woke him up at 4:30 and headed to Cleburne.  I already knew the deal - continuous surface action all over the lake, all day; clear water; tough to catch.

I acquired some lures since last trip to try and match the small bait- clear topwaters and some smoke colored grubs.  Caught 7 and harvested two.  My son caught a 3.25 and had a great time driving the mini-pontoon boat.  Great boat for kids!

The boathouse and boats are infested with spiders, dirt daubers, and a lesser amount of bird droppings.  It needs to be powerwashed and sprayed.  As this was my 3rd trip I had my own broom/water/towels and had the boat ready in 15 mins.  I consider the blue boat is unusable (though I used it once) due to spiders and the rotted transom.

The smaller lures may have worked to some extent.  Perhaps we had a few more strikes.  But the fish were missing the clear topwaters.  Missed more strikes than any other trips.  Fish jumping over the baits and slashing more than eating.  The fish we caught struck multiple times before getting hooked.  Smallest fish was caught on an Yumbrella Flash Mob rig, which has been the story every time I have used one.

At one point as I was leaning over getting a Rat-L-Trap free from the net, I was caught in the front side of the head with a Tiny Torpedo (couple inches above and 1 inch forward of the ear).  Now I have never been hooked, or even been with anyone who was hooked past the barb, in all my years of fishing.  Fortunately every other week a fishing show has the tip on removing hooks (tie and yank, fast).  I can tell you that it works really well with 50lb braid.  The only cutters I had were at the base of some long stainless needle nose, so I had to back the hooks out by unscrewing the eye bolts, while holding the hook in my head completely still, while doing all the above in the rearview mirror of the SUV.  I had removed by first aid kit from the car the day before, but it only bled a drop, and no pain.  We fished for three hours after it was removed.  Lessons learned.

I suspect this would be a great lake to hone one’s drop shot, wacky rig and other clear water techniques.  If you don’t catch them it is not for lack of fish.  But as you can tell from the fishing log, this is not an easy lake.