Reservation Number : 35015
Property Name : Grain Bin Lake
Reservation Date : 03/04/2023 All Day -
Total Fish/Sizes : 30ish up to 5lbs
Lures Used : chatterbait/spinnerbait/swim jig

Fellow member Joseph Christopher and I went to the new Grain Bin Lake out in Seagoville and had a good time fighting the wind but catching a solid-strong group of fish for 7 hours or so.  Here is my breakdown:

1. Water: Water temps started at 59 degrees but aggressively warmed throughout the day.  Clarity was high – 4feet+, nice green stain with the exception of the NE creek which was off color/dirty from the large rain event a couple of days prior
2. Conditions: Wind was from the SE to start then from the Southwest by midday at about 10-15mph.  55-75 degree air temps. Sunny and bright, pressure rising, but still under 30.
3. Boat: A pontoon boat is available with a large open deck and no seats.  Like alot of pontoons, once it catches wind it is difficult to control and will eat your batteries.  There are a couple of different points you can see on the old pictures from GE that you can anchor off on, otherwise, bring a long rope.  We unfortunately were not boy scouts and didn’t bring an anchor. 
4. Entrance/Launch Area/Banks: It says bank fishing not available and it would be tough to bank fish this lake even if it wasn’t soggy from rain due to steep drops, high grass, trees, etc. Launching any other than small craft unless it was really dry would be difficult, but the lake does have a hard bottom.  As we caught it right after a major rain, tough for me to offer something meaningful here. 
5. Lake Layout: Lake is a big L with two flooded creek areas depending on the water levels (see pictures).  With the big rain even, both creek areas on the NE and NW entrances sides were flooded.  Otherwise, the L is very deep by 10 acre pond standards, up to 30 feet, with some slight humps and cover at depths.  The sides of the L are not quite bluff like leading to about 10 feet of shallow area on each side of the depths. The flooded areas are shallow but tied to a defined creek channel.   The entire North East side of the lake on the bottom part of the L is a flat with 3 point alonf the channel that lead back to the 20ft+ channel/main lake. 
6. Cover: There is American Pond Weed and Coontail as the primary form of cover, some wood/brushpiles.  In the flooded areas, more of the same but more wood based cover.  Saw a couple of rocks, but not alot along the depths. 
7. Patterns: Prespawn proper.  Fish were moving from deep water channel onto flats with grass.  We found a pair of fish spawning on the top of the channel on a bed at the NE end of the lake, but otherwise, they were roaming around feeding on the flat from the depths and sitting in grass holes. Roll any number of baits over the hole, bass would come up and get it.  Earlier in the day, swimjig was more effective, then as the wind kicked up, Joseph’s chatterbait started to dominate. Spinner bait found a home mid morning.  Senkos/frogs/jigs in flooded cover were also successful at times.  Some fish were had along the pond weed edge.  I can imagine as the vegetation fills out as we move into April/Summer, the defined weed edge will be the primary ambush zone.  Tough to say how deep they will sit as a lake this deep will get a thermocline come end of May.   
8. Fishing Quality: We caught alot of fish, they weren’t jumping into the boat per se, but fish were replinishing along that flat often – but what impressed me most is we only had two culls.  These were all full bodied, just under relative weight sollid fish from 2-5lbs.  We tried some stupid large stuff as well, and I threw my BFS finesse stuff for a bit for fun.  If we had both stuck to working patterns, our good/great numbers would have been even stupider.  The fishing was just getting better as the day wen’t on, so having to leave at 2:30 as we burned both batteries was a disappointment that was on us. 
9. Forage types:  We noticed BG and gizzard shad, didn’t see much else other than frogs and assume rats/mice given proximity to grain storage/fields. 
10. Lake Management Notes:  If there was a lake that would be a perfect tilapia candidate, this is one.  They would have plenty of room and stuff to eat and occupy that shallow flat when the water got warm.  200lbs of tilapia would go along way here to turning some of those solid 5-6ers into mondo fatties while cleaning up some of the vegetation.   I also noticed grubs on several fish.  While not the end of the world, a redear stocking would help clear out the snails that produce these as these fish will develop sores and some will die as they become stressed from the spawn.

Thank you to the owner and PWF for making this pond available – it is a wonderful addition to the club with easy access and great proximity to a number of a members in NTX.