Well gents, another spring, another Cody Ranch trip in the books!  So this trip we had a full roster of 12 members and guests, and I think that’s what made it especially special.  The best part of these group trips is the opportunity to meet new members, hear some new stories, and learn some new techniques or favorite lures. 

The weather was cooperative for the most part, which was a blessing for early March.  Got rained on a bit but nothing serious.  It was overcast most of the trip so it made for some good topwater action (see more below!).  Harvesting was very successful too: we pulled 4 out of Moonshine, 33 out of Upper Hart, 18 out of Lower Hart, 10 out of Peach, 3 out of Lodge, 22 out of South Twin, and a whopping 41 out of Crab.  That’s a total of 131 fish pulled from these lakes to keep them healthy!

As always, we ate fantastic on this trip.  Member Tom Roney grilled out steaks on Friday night, and we had an amazing assortment of sides to go with it.  Saturday night we had our traditional hush puppy/fish fry, and it was fantastic as always! 

Mr. Cody has made Lower Hart more accessible (with a catch) than I was aware of.  He added a small road right off of the Upper Hart road and added a gate.  You just need to close the gate behind you.  This saves you driving over very rough roads to go all the way around to the other end of the lake.  Since that is the shallow end, sometimes accidents happen…

Thankfully Mr. Cody was extraordinarily generous and with Waylan, they were both able to get me out of the mud.  :-)  So the one caveat about launching from the near side of Lower Hart is that it is EXTREMELY full of timber.  You definitely have to thread the needle once you’re in the water.

Don’t miss out on this trip again!  Another will be coming in the fall so plan ahead!

Oh, and one last thing.  Congratulations to Chris Violette on catching the biggest fish on record for these trips!  A whopping 9-1 was caught Saturday morning at Lower Hart on his third cast!  And guess what lure?  A Whopper Plopper!  A 9-1 on topwater; will wonders never cease?  :-)

Zach