Week of May 17, 2015

I had so much fun last week I had to go back for more this week.  I started out Sunday evening with Rhandy. We hit some excellent spots but ended the evening with just 1 green fish.  They just were not cooperating.  Rhandy was not a happy camper, but that's just fishing.  We were at some mighty good spots but found nobody home.  We did find a couple of huge sand bass on a main lake point but those don't count.  We drowned our sorrows with lots of BBQ and beer.

Monday I went out with Dale at 6:30 am and we had a good day with 13 fish.  I caught a couple on topwater Yellow Magic but most came from Carolina rigs fished shallow in flooded willow trees and grass.  The lake is still a bit over full pool so there's lots of flooded vegetation all along the shoreline.  My biggest fish of the day was a 6 and a half pounder from about 2 feet of water.

I got off Dale's boat around 2:30 pm and off we went on Rhandy's boat.  Off I went again with Rhandy and we found 7 bass with the biggest being about 5 pounds.  We finished the evening with some schooling fish on a main lake point.  Rhandy even threw a Alabama rig for a bit.  All we caught were sand bass but a 6 pound bass chased one of his catches up to the boat.  We knew there were some good bass mixed in but we never could hook one, despite trying several techniques

Tuesday started off at sunrise again with Dale and we went back to the same spot that had been successful the previous day. Many other guides only had 2 or 3 fish all day so we felt we were on to something good.  Again I had some success with a Yellow Magic including a nice 6 pounder.

After an adventure that made us go in for a bit, we came back out and ended up with 8 fish for the day.

Dale dropped me at Rhandy's trailer and I got this nice shot of them together.

Off again With Rhandy we found more fish than Monday including a great 9.1 that Rhandy caught.  As usual he was throwing off in "the paw paw patch" while I fished the main structure.  Wham.  Another paw paw fish.  We got chased in by storms and only got about an hour in for the evening.

Wednesday Dale was booked so Rhandy got the full day trip.  We headed out early with dark and ominous skies.  It looked like most of it was passing north of us.  We scooted across the lake planning to stay close to the ramp til the weather settled.  Rhandy caught one fish before a stiff north wind blew up from one of the storms.  It looked ugly so we ran back across the lake, getting soaked from waves in the process.

I went back to my room to change clothes and we waited out the passing storm.  When we went back out we both had our rain suits on.  It stayed rainy and nasty for a few more hours but we caught some fish on a secondary point with Carolina rigs.  Later on the sun came out and off went the rain suits and on went the sunscreen.  It got very hot after awhile and the wind layed down.  We found some more fish in deep water on a hump at 20 feet and those were a fun tug.  The biggest went about 5 and a half pounds.

Later on we went off to another hump where Rhandy caught another "paw paw fish" while I fished the main feature.  I think I may start fishing the paw paw patch more often.  That seems to be where the big fish are!  We ended up with 13 fish for the day.

We went in about 4 pm because it was just miserably hot and humid with no wind.  I made the decision to head back that evening and it worked out well. Thursday morning was rain and thunder all morning long.

Week of May 10, 2015

I had 4 half days with Rhandy and 3 and a half days scheduled  with Dale this week and I feared the weather would cause us to miss half of that.  It worked out better than I could have hoped.  We only missed one half day due to weather, despite forecasts of 75% plus for rain and thunderstorms every single day.

Lake Fork is now full pool and even a bit over.  The drought has officially ended in east Texas and now the flooding begins.  Compare these two pictures from January 2015 and taken this week.

I started off Sunday with Rhandy.  We got in a little over 3 hours before threats of storms sent us in a bit early.  I think we had 6 fish with the biggest being around 6 pounds.  Later that night there was a hell of a storm and a tornado hit nearby Van.  It caused over $40mm in damages.

I started out the next morning at 6:30 am with Dale.  We began on a main lake point with Carolina rigs and I managed to catch a 7-3 and a 7-5 in about an hour and a half.  Both nice fish and the first one fought very hard.  That was fun.  We had a tougher time the rest of the morning and ended up with 7 fish for the day.

After 8 hours with Dale I stepped onto Rhandy's boat for the afternoon.  Rhandy found a couple of good stops and we ended up with 13 fish for the afternoon.  I think the biggest went about 5 pounds.  I spent over 13 hours on the water and would repeat that on Tuesday.

The weather this whole trip was pretty squirrely.  It felt more like early March than May.  Temperatures were in the upper 50's to low 70s and cloud cover and a stiff breeze kept it chilly.  More than once I wished I had brought my big coat.

Tuesday morning started out with more cloud cover and again we caught most of our fish in the morning.  At one point we went down a good bank in about 6 feet of water throwing in and out with Carolina rigs.  We had 5 bites in less than 6 feet, 5 bites deeper than 6 feet.  I caught 1 and jumped off two while Dale caught 2.  At 3 pm I stepped off Dale's boat and onto Rhandy's and we hunted up another 7 fish.  My biggest of the day was with Rhandy and went about 4 pounds.

Wednesday morning I was surprised to find both Rhandy and Dale at the Minnow Bucket ramp.  Dale went to pick up his boat and found it had a flat.  Rather than having me wait on the bank a couple of hours, he waked up Rhandy so I wouldn't miss any fishing.  I appreciate both of them being so flexible and allowing me to make the most of my trip.  I asked Dale if he wanted to take the afternoon slot but he said there was a forecast of heavy storms and we would probably be in early anyway.  The forecast proved correct.

Rhandy had a tough day and we only managed to boat 7 fish in 8 and a half hours.  He caught a 7 pounder but my biggest was under 5.  We had to run in once due to heavy rain and I even caught one bass right next to his dock.  We had the rain gear on and off all day.  We came in about 3 pm with strong showers approaching on the radar.  They hit about 4:30 pm and it rained hard and heavy for about an hour and a half. That was the only half day I missed this trip.

Thursday dawned foggy with a heavy mist.  Dale headed us out north and we found a few along the bank with Carolina rigs.  Then he saw a few chasing shad and we headed out to a nearby hump to chunk Yellow Magics.  We had a couple of pretty good downpours of rain but I still managed to hook 2 decent fish on topwater.  One went about 5 and a half.  We rolled in about 10:30 with another 7 fish to the total.