Reservation Number : 27286
Property Name : Deer Trail Ranch
Reservation Date : 04/10/2021 All Day -
Total Fish/Sizes : 101 up to 5.8 lbs / 59 harvested
Lures Used : Most effective were: squarebill, lipless, weighted t-rig, weightless senko, paddletail swimbait

Pam and I had the pleasure of fishing Deer Trail on Saturday. What a great fishery – what a comeback story! Lake was full with good color and about 30 to 36in of viz and approx 64 to 69deg. Plenty of vegatation – submergent and emergent, along with the filamentous algae – but still fishable. The bass were hungry and plentiful. We were catching a good number so we decided to shoot for “half a Pruitt”, or 100 landed. We were at 96 when we had planned on calling it a day, but knew we had to try for the century mark. After a couple more landed and a couple lost at the boat, we were finally able to land our 100th. Well, while taking the boat to the landing, we heard a huge splash and saw where it came from – we scooted over there and within 3 casts we landed the kicker – a gorgeous 5.8 lber. A story book ending! Haha. Most effective lures/techniques were: a sm bluegill patterned squarebill and a bluegill patterned lipless – fancasted around the 5 to 9 ft flats and a weighted t-rig worm in both junebug and green pumpkin fished in the 8 to 12 ft drops on the lower end of the lake. Along with a number caught on a weightless green pumpkin senko and a shad patterned 4.8 in paddletail swimbait. Fish were all over the lake and ingeneral not on the shoreline, mostly in 4 to 12 FOW. Based on the fish cleaning – about half of the harvesters were full of eggs. Of the 101, 59 were harvesters – all close to the 14’’ limit – of those returned a huge number in the 2-3 lb range, 2 in the 4+ lb range, and the single 5.8 lber. 

A funny story, bear with me – I know many of you have probably seen this – while I had landed a bass, Pam was taking my picture and helping me get it into the cooler or something. But she had left here lure in the water just beside the boat. Sure enough a bass takes the lure and bolts sending the rod and reel overboard and headed for deeper water. The full cork handle was giving enough bouyancy to keep it near the surface but just out of reach. As soon as we’d chase it with the trolling motor and got close to grabbing it, it would take off again. So funny to see, I’m quite sure! Anyway, it popped up on the other side of us a time or two, we finally grabbed it and landed the bass on the other end as well (see the pic of the bass & rod in hand).

Thanks PWF and landowners – blessed day to be out!

Mark & Pam