Reservation Number : 24552
Property Name : Trinity Lakes
Reservation Date : 05/30/2020 All Day -
Total Fish/Sizes : 39 from < 1 lb to 3.5 lbs
Lures Used : Frog, Senko, Spinner Bait, Chatter Bait, Search Bait

Took my two sons and my best friend (PWF Member Thomas Reyna) out to Trinity Lakes on Saturday, May 30th. This was my sons first trip to a PWF property. They are novice anglers, having only fished small ponds, creeks, and our community lake during our short stint in Florida. So this was a big deal for them. This trip/location was perfect for teaching them how to fish and use different types of reels. Thank you to the previous posts for recommending this as a good place to teach kids. I wish we had the numbers of the previous posts. Had my sons been more experienced, I bet we would have caught more.

We went straight to Commanche based on recommendations and were fishing roughly around 8:30 AM. Glad we did. This was the easiest of the 3 lakes to bank fish from, and my boys loved the pier. Not complaining at all, but it would be even better if the bank was mowed all the way around the lake. We managed, but my kids were concerned about snakes in the tall grass. There were a lot of open areas for bank fishing. Only about a 3rd of the bank was high grass. It didn't take long to start catching bass. I always read the fishing reports ahead of time and they were all correct. A bluegill pattern/color spinner bait with a white paddletail swim bait trailer was all you really needed (or white spinnerbait with similar paddletail swimbait trailer). Specifically, I had a KVD spinnerbait with a white/silver fleck Ragetail swimbait trailer (picked up from Walmart the day before). I didn't have to tie on different lures for most of the day. It just worked. Most lures did. The only lure that wasn't succcessful was blue/chrome lipless crankbait/rattletrap/red crawfish lipless crankbait/rattletrap. Which was surprising because everything else worked. We stopped for lunch around noon and had caught 22 bass up to 2 lbs on Commanche, all from the bank and pier. Tommy did have a few that broke 15 lb test.

Based on the PWF members recommendation to eat at R & K Cafe, we headed up to Grandview to eat. Thank you for the recommendation, it was a great lunch. Tommy grabbed a burger, my boys had insanely large chickenstrips with fries, and I grabbed a delicous buffalo chicken wrap. Great lunch!

We headed back to the property and checked out Arrowhead and Goose, before deciding to try Goose for a bit. It was about 2PM and even though it was 85 degrees, it was pretty hot. As previously reported, Goose is heavy on vegetation. Which is perfect for frogs! I caught my first frog bass of the year. Followed up with 3 more hits on the frog but I missed them all. I was casting to the middle of the of the large creek between vegetation patches. A couple of hits came by just letting it sit there for a few seconds. The others came after just a few pops before hitting the grass mats. No hits in the grass. This lake is very fishable from the bank. It was hot and the kids were getting frustrated from not catching anything. So we stopped and took a break in the shade of the trees. One of the owners stopped by and we chatted for a few minutes. She recommended fishing Arrowhead from the dam in the evening. She also said we could go through a small gate by the boat ramp and bank fish. 

We went back to Commanche around 4 PM because the boys really liked that lake. We also set up the boat and took them out one at a time to get that experience. They loved it. Same spinner bait combos, search bait (Live Target looks like a mini-bama rig of minnows), and Black and Blue Fleck - Bass Pro Tournament Stik-O's. We caught 11 more bass of the same size before switching lakes around 7 PM. Tommy has a Deeper sonar and did scan some larger fish between the pier and the dam. Water temps were in the low 80's and the fish were suspended at about 6 Ft depth. Just a heads up, we caught a lot of grass so you will be cleaning your lure off half of the time. The grass on the opposite side of the lake from the pier is a bright healthy green, compared to the side with the pier which looks dark brown. Don't know if that makes a difference.

We drove over to Arrowhead and parked by the boat ramp. We walked the dam as recommended and Tommy broke off on at least 3 fish. I caught my second frog bass just passed the first grass patch near the ramp. It was my largest of the day at just over 3 lbs. It had a fat belly or is a late spawner. Fought hard and glad i was on braid as it swam from one grass patch into another. Braid pulled it out. I proceeded to fish near the over flow pipe and caught 2 more on the previously mentioned stick-O in Black and Blue Fleck. The boys were tired, so we took end of the day pictures and left at when the sun was on the treeline. 

Great trip and we will definitely go there again. We totalled 39 bass, but missed a lot that chucked the spinner bait and over 6 that broke off. I think we could have easily had 50. Which I think is good considering managing two novice anglers. Both of my kids said they had fun and that's really the point of taking them.

Watch for tons of speed traps to and from on 67 and 35W, especially at night. We passed no less than 5 people pulled over on the way home (just on 35W between Grandview and 67).