After watching the Texas-Oklahoma football game on TV this past Saturday, I decided to book an afternoon trip to Sooner Land to try out Indian Hollow Ranch for the very first time.  Although this place was a hop from Dallas, I had a lot of fun and felt it was absolutely worth the time and effort it took to get to the property.

I fished on Sunday, October 15th from 12:30 pm to 6:30 pm.  I ended up catching 28 bass and I culled 11.  I reckon I had at least 40 blowups on the day, but I definitely missed my fair share of the blowups.  I didn’t catch any real large fish and so I didn’t weigh any fish that day, but I did measure them.  I had 5 fish that went 18 inches or longer with the best on the day going 19.5 inches.  The wind just blew like crazy pretty much the entire time I was on the lake.  It gave me a real workout trying to maneuver the boat as the wind was really whipping me around.  I needed every bit of my 55 pound thrust Minn Kota trolling motor.  I ended up fishing topwater for about 98% of the time.  There was significant chop on the water except for one or two of the coves where the tree line helped to block the wind.  I threw a silver Rat-L-Trap for about 10 to 15 minutes at one point but didn’t get a bite on it so I went back to topwater.

The lures I used to catch all of my fish included a white buzzbait, a shad colored Yellow Magic in ½ ounce, the Livingston Pro Sizzle in bone color, and a small sized black Whopper Plopper.  I purchased a bone colored Livingston Pro Sizzle after seeing the prior recommendation from James Stewart (thanks to James for introducing me to this lure).  The bass did seem to respond to the sensor that is embedded in this lure.  I fished the Sizzle when I could dip into a cove that at least slightly minimized the wind.  With about 45 minutes left in my afternoon, I decided to tie on the small size Whopper Plopper in black.  My first 3 casts they immediately blew up on it each time.  Although I had been having a productive afternoon, I immediately asked myself why in the world did I not start throwing the Whopper Plopper about two or three hours ago with all of this chop on the water?  In the last 45 minutes, I caught at least 10 bass on this small sized version of the WP.

Most of my fish were caught within about 5 to 12 yards of the shoreline.  I also had luck catching some fish beside the island not far from the launch area.  The bass were only on one side of the island and they seemed to be using it as an ambush point.

All in all, this was my kind of day where I could throw topwater and the fish were willing to bite it.  Indian Hollow is a beautiful property and this is a very enjoyable lake to fish.  Huge props to the owner of this property and to Steve for allowing our PWF membership to fish this gem.  It is probably best for my wallet and bank account that the drive was every bit of 2 hours 15 minutes from my residence.

Posted By: Murrie Holland