Pruitt Brothers Road Trip to Coalgate - Cody Ranch 

After a little deliberation and knowing it was going to be a long holiday weekend, we decided to make a trip to Cody Ranch Oklahoma. No way to do this post justice as to the remarkable results. Everything is BIG in TEXAS we cliché…………but Phil & I have yet to hit 4 Eight Pounders + and 181 catch total in a short two (2) day trip to anywhere but Cody Ranch in Coalgate, Oklahoma.

Lets’ get to it…………

Thursday afternoon 4/18/19 started out with a commute from the South East side of Houston arriving at the Cody Ranch Lodge at 9:30 PM with a windy & cold front forecast for all day Friday. And a FULL MOON to boot which is most often not kind to us.

Our reservation had us on the Lower and Upper Hart Lakes for Friday. We started Friday morning, after driving the ranch getting the lay of the land, on the Lower Hart which was not as windy as the upper with temps in the 40’s. The wind was howling and just never would let up. Up at the crack of dawn ready to go. However, we did not get the boat launched until 9:30 AM due to our indecision about “are we on the right lake”. Big ranch, lots of lakes. Good thing we brought our secret weapon all the way from Texas to insure success on this trip………Cripsy Bacon (see pic) Sandwiches with Mayo. Fishing Fuel! And Fried Spam just for kicks……….what’s in that stuff anyway?

Friday Day One - 4/19/19

My very first cast and first fish caught on the Lower Hart with water temp at 62 degrees produced an 8.4 pound bucket mouth (see the pic) and I think I heard her say welcome to Oklahoma you Boys from Texas (can bass really talk?) after our couples photo and the quick release. With this first catch now in the books my brother Phil and I could hardy wait to see what the rest of the day would bring. Between the two of us we would have a day’s end catch total of “75” Bass. Approximately thirty (30) of those harvested. The day ended in a most climatic way. We loaded Phils’ 16 foot grizzly tracker boat back on the trailer very late afternoon and headed back to the lodge with the thought of doing a quick walk around on the lodge lake. With the sun almost set Phil stuck a cookie cutter (see pic) resembling my first fish from this morning with his weighing in at 8.2 pounds. Super way to end the day!

Saturday Day Two - 4/20/19

Launched the boat back on the Lower Hart at light enough to see with air temp at a frosty 42 degrees with the water still around 62 degrees. No wind, dead calm and ready to pick up where we left off from day one. In our minds we knew that we had to beat a 75 fish total from the previous day for this trip to really count. Well, 106 fish later from literally hundreds of cast (50 Harvested) we are convinced that if this ranch were around the Houston area we would be hard pressed to fish this property quite often and call it our go to lakes. Several lakes to choose from on 3,500 acres and we got a good look at them all. Oh, I failed to mention that two (2) of those 106 fish on day two (2) exceeded 8 pounds and were caught on the upper hart in a walk around exercise by my brother. He nailed the first one yelling from a distance get the scale! What a beauty (see pic) and she nailed his bait presentation like a freight train heading down hill with a full head of steam with only clear mono, a zcraw and a hook between them! Yep, photo and quick release - so now what you gonna do Phil? How about 15 minutes later catch another one exceeding 8 pounds on the other side of the lake………yes, I took a picture of them (Phil and his new best friend) sitting on a stump log with the Upper Hart in the background. Felt like the camera man at a firemens’ calendar shoot. Good job brother on catching three (3) of the four (4) 8+ pounders on this trip. Oh, and by the way, Phil got me on numbers as well. You must have had a really good teacher and I am still tying your 20 pound fluorocarbon to 15 pound mono leader knots LOL!

Catch Recap:

Four (4) Beast Over 8 Pounds

Five (5) Nice Ones Over 4 Pounds

Twenty (20) Scrappy Ones Over 3 Pounds

Approximately Seventy-Two (72) Between Two (2) and Three (3) Pounds

Approximately 80 Harvested

TWO DAY TOTAL FISH COUNT - 181

Bait Recap: (see pics)

Mostly Stiko (Senko Type) Worm, Z Craw and Yamamoto Senko’s. Nothing else worked and we tried several baits. Chatter, square bills, blades, creature, mondo worm, they did not want any of it………..we are thinking about downsizing our bait arsenal since it seems like we have about three (3) baits that really work well everywhere we go. Often we were able to site cast to bass that were actively moving in search of bait fish. Setting the hook over and over again just never seems to get old.

Lake Recap:

The water clarity was about 2 ½ foot in most of the lakes averaging 62 degrees water temp. The lakes do not have vegetation issues at all from the cold winter weather impact and recent the fertilizing administered. Our favorites for this trip were Upper and Lower Hart (for Bigger), Crabgrass (for numbers), and Moonshine (for numbers). We did a quick little walk around as well on the Peach Tree (Stocked with Florida Strain), North and South Twins with little success.

We met and spoke with Mr. Steve Cody the ranch owner. He welcomed us graciously and gave us some history of the ranch.  Mr. Cody has had recent hospital stints/surgeries related for various medical concerns and is now in our prayers for a full recovery and abundant health. We made it known to Mr. Cody that we absolutely appreciate him making his “piece of heaven on earth” available to the PWF members and that we were taking some great memories with us back to Texas. The lodge was very comfortable and roomy. We were able to park the boat under the patio porch to charge the 24 volt batteries on the trolling motor. Very nice set up Mr. Steve! By the way, Mr. Steve Cody speaks highly of the members that fish his ranch. I know some of the PWF members do a group event annually here and Phil and I plan to get in on one in the near future.

We packed our bags & our memories and left Sunday morning at 3:30 AM trailering the boat back to Houston Town. Wish we would have had more time to scout out all of the lakes closer but pressed for time to get back for Easter Sunday and spend time with Our Children - Grand Children - Family.

Cody Ranch is an awesome PWF location. Thank you Mr. Steve & Keri Alexander, Dave Newsom & Cole Porter for working so hard to make this club first class and congratulations on what I think is the largest club membership to date! “Build it and They Will Come” is my favorite line from the movie “Field of Dreams”.

Hope All Had a Wonderful Easter Holiday. I know two brothers from Texas did……………..

Freedom is Not Free – A Big Holiday Thanks to All Military Service Personnel, Police & First Responders for Your Loyal Service to Our Great Country!

The Pruitt (Bacon) Brothers