John Shepard and I arrived just before noon and were greeted by a full tank bounded by its banks covered in long green grass and a mixed blanket of wildflowers. Just gorgeous. We rigged up the new 12ft jon boat (what a welcome addition to this property), located across the dam from the ranch entrance, and commenced fishing under a clear blue sky.

Conditions: steady 15mph south wind with occasional gusts throughout the afternoon making the air feel cooler then the predicted 90F, water slightly stained with 2ft visibility, water temp 78F near the creeks and 76F by the dam. Aquatic weed growth mostly less than 5ft from the bank and locally up to 15ft. Varying amounts of green algae present.

Fished from noon till dark (mostly from the jon boat) with John landing 20 to my 7 LMB. Most of the fish ranged from 15-19” with one big post spawn girl (22.5” 5.5lb) caught by John and one dink. All of the fish were holding tight to the weed edge and the subtle bite typically came within 3ft of the rimming weed line. An accurate cast was the key to achieving success. The bite was subtle through most of the afternoon until the sun got low in the horizon, at that point the strikes were hard.

The bulk of John’s success was achieved on a weightless wacky rigged senko throughout the afternoon along with a few on a chatterbait, and he finished the day catching by 5 on a buzzbait at sunset. I couldn’t buy a bite with the wacky set up but did manage to land my few with an assortment of lures (chatterbait with grub trailer, trig worm, dropshot, spinnerbait with grub trailer, weightless trig worm, frog, and at sunset 2 on a small whopper plopper).

I always enjoy fishing this location and am happy to see it is recovering nicely from the fish kill event from several summers back.

We had a nice 20 min chat with Mr. Stanley as dusk closed in before departing back to Houston! 

Bob