Reservation Number : 22768
Property Name : Hickory Creek Ranch Lakes
Reservation Date : 01/06/2020 PM -
Total Fish/Sizes : 42 LMB 5 Crappie
Lures Used : plastic swimbait on underspin, shallow sq bill crank, wacky

John and I arrived at noon and ran promptly into the property owner and had a pleasant chat before driving back to the small tank. According to him they had a tornado touch down just south of the dam that really did a number on the forest and we saw the evidence first hand shortly thereafter. Lets just say that the area south of the dam looks radically different, as compared to the last time I fished this property.

Both lakes sported 64F water temps, ~4ft visibility, varying amount of submerged grass and filamentous green algae (the latter only forming small mats at the surface at the bridge and small extension of the big lake north of the bridge). Most of the fish caught in 1-6ft of water with the sweet spot in the 3-5ft range. We were expecting to primarily catch the fish on worms and senkos but quickly found that they wanted a moving bait. Water level down ~18".

Caught 3 fish on the small lake from the bank (15, 16 & 18"). Switched to the big tank after an hour and fished from the jon boat till dusk. Fish started hitting our moving baits immediately and the action really heated up between 3:30 and 5:30pm as the west wind began to diminish. The fish were frisky with a tight size distribution (non culls 15-17" & cull in the 12-14" range). There were several times when we each landed a fish simultaneously throughout the session! John had most of his success with a shallow running sq bill (black chartreuse) and I had almost all of mine on the underspin rigged with a shad colored 4" lake fork swimbait.

Thanks to PWF and the Ranch Owner for such a fun start to 2020! Good health to all!

Bob

P.S. Most of the action on the big lake was found between the dock and the dam, with most of the crappie encountered around the brush piles.