Fishing Reports

Lake Ray Roberts PM Fishing Report - 7/06/2008

I put in at Buck Creek at 9am and decided to hit the banks right by the ramp as well as the 377 and rail road tracks bridge pilings. At 10am I picked up this nice 4.5lb pig in the muck and trash grass on the East side of the boat ramp. I moved out down the boat lane towards the main pool and fished some trees for a few minutes but had to cut my journey short to do some things at the house. All in all not a bad trip.

Water temps were in the upper 80s and water clarity was stained with a visible depth at about 2ft. Winds were high out of the SSE, blue bird skies and cloud cover was spotty.

Lake Ray Roberts Fishing Report - 7/02/2008
We started out the even around 4pm at the FM 922 bridge up the Isle Du Bois Creek arm on Ray Roberts. We were on the hunt for some Crappie but the Sandies were pushing the baitfish to the surface around the bridge pilings so we decided to go for the Sandies instead to load up for a fish fry Alan was working on in the near future. We pulled lots of them out of the water but only 7 or so were of legal size so thats all that got put in the well. After about an hour or two we got bored with that and decided to hunt down some Crappie with the jigs Alan and I have been making.

Well we didn't catch any Crappie but Alan picked out gnarly gar on his Crappie jig. Well that gave him the creeps so we put the crappie gear away and went bassin in one of my favorite LMB spots. Alan pulled out a good one which sets his total life time LMB count at 4. I pulled out another 4.3lb LMB.

Water temps were again in the low 90s. Water clarity was good at 3 to 4 ft.

Lake Ray Roberts Fishing Report - 6/28/2008

We hit the water super early at 4am because the summer sun is getting HOT in N. Texas and we wanted our usual amount of time on the water. So we put in at 4am and headed right to my favorite 4lb LMB spot. Well the wind was stronger than expected and blew from the south pretty much blowing us into the bank. I spent the entire morning fighting with the trolling motor and trying despirately to keep my baitcasters from rats nesting in the wind. So we run the bank and then BOOM! This 4.2lb LMB explodes on Ryan's 6 inch Watermelon Red Flake Big Bass Bite snake bait. When it hits the surface we are both surprised as she explodes from the water. After a few minute fight, Ryan finally gets her to the boat and I get her in with the net.

While I didn't catch anything this morning I have to admit that I am VERY proud of Ryan for landing the biggest LMB of his life... or should I say career. If he keeps this up, this kid is going to be some serious competition.

Water temperature was in the low 90s and clarity was stained but good at about 4ft.

Lake Ray Roberts PM Fishing Report - 6/25/2008

Ryan and I went out this evening for a bit more evening fishing with the expectation of staying out until 10 or 11pm. Ryan didn't pick up any fish this trip but I was picking them up left and right on my favorite summer pattern, 4 inch Watermelon Red Flake Tiki Worms from Wave Worms with some Garlic Chartreuse Spike it on the head rigged Malibu style (weightless Texposed on a 2/0 EWG hook). I also caught my first gar tonight... first EVER ...on this same bass presentation. We put in around 5pm and got run off the lake around 8pm because of a bad chance thunderstorm over the lake that was shooting sparks (lightening).

Water was again super clear and the water temperature was 93-95 degrees.

Lake Ray Roberts PM Fishing Report - 6/20/2008

Ryan and I went out for a late night trip on the water. We both had a good mess of fish and together we caught 30 bass. We put in around 6:30pm and started out fishing the chunk rock at Pond Creek. We achored down until about 10pm when the bright, full, yellow moon came out. After the moon was high we went around the bend back into the marina area. We had tremendous success on my favorite summer pattern, 4 inch Watermelon Red Flake Tiki Worms from Wave Worms with some Garlic Chartreuse Spike it on the head rigged Malibu style (weightless Texposed on a 2/0 EWG hook). After the moon came out we transitioned to a black buzzbait and absolutely killed them.

Water was again very clear and the temperature was in the high 80s. Below are a few pictures we took.

Lake Ray Roberts AM Fishing Report - 6/20/2008

JW, my new friend from Texas Best Fishing and I went out for a morning run on Ray Bob. We put in at the Pond Creek access ramp around 6:15am and headed out to find the keepers. We were catching fish left and right! By noon we netted some 40-50 Largemouth Bass on 4 inch Watermelon Red Flake Tiki Worms from Wave Worms with the head sprayed with some Garlic Chartreuse Spike It. We also used a couple of 1/8 ounce baby Rat-L-Traps in silver with a black back. Wind picked up on us a bit and we were doing really well pitching to the back side of the chunk rock in Pond Creek. It was just like river fishing as the bass were held up in the current break. Below is a few pictures of a few fish we caught. We caught every thing from 1lb to 3+lb bass.

Lake Ray Roberts PM Fishing Report - 6/15/2008

Laura, Ryan and I decided to go out and do some scouting for the Wednesday night tournaments. We went north of Pond Creek, over to an area north of Cates Point and a few other spots we hadn't fished before. We put in around 4:30pm and the wind was putting more than a little chop on the water. Too much chop for Laura but Ryan and I were still comfortable since we fish those conditions all the time.

We got on a point around Pond Creek after running all over the West arm of the lake and the wind finally died down around 7:15pm. So to save time since we intended to get out around 8:30-9pm we decided to stay were we were. Started throwing our 4 inch Watermelon Red Flake Tiki Worms Tex-posed weightless (Malibu) style. By the end of the night Ryan had 4, I had 6 and Laura had 2. Ryan and I caught the biggest two his being about 16 inches and and mine being about 15 inches.

Water temp was consistent again at 82.8 degrees and water clarity was a good 3-5ft.

Lake Ray Roberts PM Fishing Report - 6/14/2008

Wife, Laura, and I decided to go out for a night cap on the water and do a bit more LMB fishing. The winds that popped up during mid day died down and we were able to creep along the bank. Threw the same presentation thats been working really well for me this season, 4 inch Watermelon Red Flake Tiki Worms from Wave Worms with Garlic Chartreuse Spike-It on the head. Now as a "test" I decided to rig up Laura's pole with a little 3/16ths bullet weight for the traditional T-rig and I opted once again to use the "Malibu" presentation (weightless T-rig) again. In the 3+ hours we were there (6:45pm - 10:05pm) I had 6 bass in the boat with another 2 that got off the hook to Laura's one 4 inch bluegill that tried to swallow the worm with a mouth that was no bigger than the worm.

So that was proof enough for me that the weightless fall DOES make a big difference in the eyes of the fish. Based on my tests so far this tells me that the slower fall presents a much more natural descent. Water clarity was 82.5 degrees and we were fishing right up on the bank in less than 3ft of water.

Lake Ray Roberts AM Fishing Report - 6/14/2008

Fishing was really good today on Ray Bob. I put in at Buck Creek at 6am and ran over to a cove north of the Buck Creek boat lane. Started out fishing a grassy point and had 3 1.5lbers and 2.4lber in the boat before 6:30am. Worked back to the other side of this grassy point where there is some stick ups and lots of felled trees and had several other dinks and 1lbers.

At about 10:30am when the sun was getting up over head the wind started to pick up out of the east and the back side of this area I was in was pretty well sheltered with just a light chop on the water. I trolled on down the bank and picked up 2 back to back 4lbers. One was 4lbs flat and the other was 4.3lbs. Wind got stronger and the sun made for the typical blue bird skies so the bite died at 11am. Only lost one fish that was about 3-3.5 lbs because the bass wrapped the line around a tree and when I finally got it to the boat it broke free of the hook before I could get the net in the water to pick it up.

The only thing I threw out all day was a 4 inch Watermelon Red Flake Tiki Worm Tex-posed on a Gamakatsu 3/0 hook without a weight. Then I'd use some Garlic Chartreuse Spike-It on the head of the bait. By spiking the head of the worm instead of the tail I was able to avoid most pan fish bites which makes the bait last longer.

Water clarity was really good at 6ft before the winds kicked up where I was and the temperature was in the high 80s. Seems like things are really heating up on Ray Roberts.

        

Lake Ray Roberts Fishing Report - 5/17/2008

Fishing was good today on Ray Bob. We put in at Buck Creek at 6am and ran down to Sand Branch. Started out hitting the mouth of Sand Branch on the north main lake point. There was some shore line grasses that had a lot of bucket bass in them. Threw out some Paca Craws from Net Bait and 4 inch Rattlesnakes from Grande Bass in Watermelon/ red flake.

Picked up several hatchlings and one keeper bucket bass at 14 inches or so in the first half hour. Then did some fishing for sand bass with the Beast Slab from RJR Lure Co. with very positive results.

Total fish caught was 5 Largemouth Bass and 19 Sand Bass. Wife met me around noon and went out to do some Sandy fishin and picked up 4. We pulled out at 2:30pm.
Pictures added on the gallery page.

Lake Ray Roberts Fishing Report - 5/03/2008

Put in on Saturday at 6:15am up in Buck Creek with a club buddy from McKinney Bass Club to prefish the end of month tournament on Ray Bob. We started out hitting some coves near Buck and then worked our way back out as the bite got slow and the day wore on. Partner had 5 15-17inch largemouths and one dink on a Chartreuse chatterbait with a chartreuse blade. After that the bite went cold around 11am. We gave up on largemouths and decided to go track down some Sand Bass. I rigged up some "Beast" slabs for us from RJR Lures and we set out in search of the birds that dive down for the shad the sandies push to the surface. I also tied on one of my Elyktric Stinger flies to pick up the doubles. As soon as we left the little cove we were in near St. James Hump we saw em and BAM it was on! We caught about 45 and had 26 keepers in the boat in short order. Went in search of more down south near the main pool. Gave up at about 4pm and went back to prefishing for the tournament. I showed my partner some new places since he hadn't been to Ray Bob before and we saw another club member who was camping out on the water for the night. Day's catch total was 6 Largemouths, 45 Sand Bass and 2 Crappie.

Lake Ray Roberts Fishing Report - 5/02/2008

Went fishing tonight after work for a couple of hours. Put in near the marina and fished the back banks of the marina pool. Pulled out several nice largemouths in the 3 or 4 hours we were there. Mainly fished T-Rigged watermelon/red flake and Pumpkin Pepper tiki worms. We found a few areas with some submerged shoreline grasses where the water clarity was pretty good. Saw some grass carp and gar working the banks as well. We had 4 slot fish caught between 5 and 6:30pm and then the last one came just before sun down. All in all not a bad fun fishing trip. Water clarity was poor where the wind had been stirring things up but in the back pockets the clarity was pretty good. Water temp was 72-74.5 where we were fishing.

Lake Ray Roberts Night Fishing Report - 4/28/2008

Last night I put in about an hour before sun down at the ramp across from the marina to get some night fishing in. The wind broke and it just seemed like a perfect night to go out, troll slow and pick up some quality sleeper fish. I found a 6.9lb largemouth hanging off a point south of the marina in 4-5 ft of water with a black & blue jig right at sun down. Water clarity was about a foot+ and water temp was around 69 degrees. I had one other bite near the ramp shortly after on a T-rig'd Tiki worm but the fish wraped it around some underwater vegetation and I couldn't get it out before the line snapped.

Lake Bonham Report - 4/26/2008

Bonham for me was disappointing. I caught one fish the entire day and my partner Brandon Shook of Ultimate Bassin took Big Bass in the tournament. We had 5 dinks caught before the first hour was up and another 6 by noon but only one keeper and it ends up being the one that puts Brandon in the money. I was just really hoping to place this time around. It seems all the recent club activity just killed the bite because all of our usual spots were not panning out as expected. We didn't have a single keeper bite in the normal pockets and the one dock we've never hit before ends up being the one with the biggest bass on it. Kinda funny how that played out. Water clarity was less than 6 inches to 1 foot as usual on Bonham and temperatures ranged from 68-70 degrees.

TBF Get Together on Lake Ray Roberts Report - 4/19/2008

The TBF event was lots of fun. We had some raffles going on and lots of food. Turns out there was a TPWD Angler Education event going on the same day so we got a chance to talk to a few extra folks and introduce them to the site. We went out in the morning as a group running with 2 or 3 other TBF members and hit some wind blown points on the south end of Isle Du Bois State Park and then later moved back up to Sand Branch. We were on the hunt for some Largemouths in the morning but when that didn't fair so well we decided to just go fishin for sandies. 3 of us on my boat and we hit the 2 main pool points where the sandies school up and chase shad. Birds over head to lead the way, it was a lot of fun. Caught 6 keepers out of the mix, took em back with us and cleaned them for the grill.

Lake Ray Roberts Report - 4/12/2008

Click here to see my plan for this trip

Well, my plans changed again thanks to the wind. Wind was blowing hard from the NNE at 17mph and gusting up to 25mph. As a result I didn't make it all the way down to Sand Branch in the AM. I ended up fishing the cove under the rail road tracks east of St. James Hump and St. James Hump. In the cove arm I saw several 3+ft gar and lots of turtles so already my hopes were sunk for this area. I know this little arm is productive as I've caught some quality bass out of it last year and it has all the makings for a productive bed in such a small area. Grasses, trees, rocks on the railroad bridge and plenty of structure as well as direct access to the main lake to make a run for it. Should have been a gold mine this time of year.

I tried throwing out a small yellow spinnerbait with a red willow leaf blade and gold colorado blade. Also tried a chatter bait, T-rigged 4 inch lizard in watermellon/chart. and a few chatterbaits in varying sizes & colors. I did see 1 bass hanging off a point on the north bank near the back of this cove but after 30+ minutes I just couldn't get him to bite. He seemed really lethargic. When I first saw him I was scanning from the boat running the trolling motor at near full speed and I was 6-7 ft from the bank. He didn't make a quick run for it like they normally do, he just slowly went under and then resurfaced on the point a minute or two later after I passed him and got into position. It was really kind of interesting to see this happen because normally I'd have burned the spot by trolling passed him that quickly. I was surprised to see her resurface in the same spot that quickly. I'll be hitting this point later in the month for sure. The bass looked to be a quality 3 or 4 pounder.

On St. James Hump I did have a couple of solid bites on a C-Rig YUM 6 inch lizard in watermellon/chart double curly tail as well as on a C-Rig Buzzard Snot Tube from Kamakazee Bait Co. they were really soft baits though and I was having to use a really heavy weight to counter the wind. As a result I couldn't get the hook set in time before they let go. I tried vertical jigging over the hump as well with a Yum craw tail in watermellon/red flake but didn't get any hits on that.

After all this, I moved way up into Buck to try and get out of the north winds on the other side of the launch and threw out the same deep water presentations in about 23ft of water. Didn't have any hits up here though. I thought about running south to hit the main pool for sandies but decided not to because the wind and waves were just too rough. Always kinda scary to see a 20ft bass boat passing you at 60+mph coming clear out of the water on a 3ft swell like a jet ski. At 3pm I gave up and decided it was best to put my boat camping plans on hold. Water temp is on the rise though... seems to be holding steady at 62-64 degrees but the water clarity was still less than a foot thanks to all the wind. Seems that the best color presentations right now are bright neon's, silver and dark colors like a rich brown or black are producing the strongest hits which is to be expected in poor clarity and highly oxigenated water when the bite is lethargic.

Coming down with a cold so I think I'll rest up tomorrow and go out again on Monday.

Lake Ray Roberts Report - 4/6/2008

Wind picked up as expected today with gusts well over 20mph. Not a fun experience at full speed. Nevertheless it was still fun to be out there fishin. I gave up on fishing the shallows and trees in Sand Branch because I couldn't keep the boat in a comfortable position. Tried fishing deep in 30 to 45ft of water and just letting the boat drift but that didn't really work either. To finish out the day I ran up into Buck Creek and beat the bank along the boat lane. Several folks I'd talked too said they gave up on bass fishing and tied off to a tree to do some catfish fishing. I hit the bank where the current was slow with spinnerbaits, shallow shad cranks, T-rigged watermellon /red flake french fries from Double ZZ Custom Lures with no success. Water clarity was very poor at maybe a foot...maybe and the water temp was about the same as Saturday at 59-62. Had a really hard time focusing on the presentation with the wind throwing me around all over the place. Hopefully next weekend and week during my vacation things will get better. I'll have daily reports April 12th through the 18th so check back regularly to see if I finally made the 10# club!

Lake Ray Roberts Report - 4/5/2008

Put in about 6am and decided to try my hand at Sand Branch as it was recommended to me by Big Tuna of Texas Best Fishing. Caught one 12.5 inch large mouth on a grassy point on the south side of this area. Water clarity was still rather poor except up in the back of this area where there wasn't a lot of current. Picked up the fish on a watermellon /red flake french fry from Double ZZ Custom Lures. Winds were mild at about 4-7mph I believe so there was just enough surface chop to move the boat around a wee bit. Winds were expected to pick up during the overnight so we'll see what the weather brings on tomorrow's trip. In the mean time, I spent a lot of time canvasing the Sand Branch area looking for elevation changes, grasses, etc. Just looking for those potential spots and I believe I've got a few good locations mapped out for future trips. I think this area is going to be dynomite later in the year. I know I can catch Sand Bass on Ray Roberts any day of the week in Spring/Summer/Fall but I'm really trying to hone in on where the largemouths are and what they want to bite. Water temp was around 59-62 degrees.

Hubert H Moss Lake Report - 3/29/2008

Today we fished Moss Lake north of Gainesville, TX for the McKinney Bass Club March tournament.

Water clarity still sucked at only about a foot but we had some good activity from 1lb to 5lb 2oz on Moss Lake today for the McKinney Bass Club.

We had 7 teams show up for the meet, all placed except mine because we didn't catch anything above the tournament limit. We caught lots of sandbass, largemouth and spotted but none of them were over the 14 inch limit for largemouth/12 inch for spotted. I'd say we all pretty much canvased the entire lake at least once but I heard the best catches came from the northwest and southwest arms into the main lake points where these arms join with the north and south arms.

So, unfortunately on the books my team blanked but at least we caught some fish. Most of my team's fish were 12.25 to 13 inches. Reports came in from other members that fished the tourney that said they caught several good size crappie and also a drum or two which I thought was strange.

Didn't see any "floating degris" that was reported last week on the Texas Fishing Forum so while the clarity was poor it was still a good day of fishing. Probably going to go back tomorrow to use up my 3 day pass and try some of the things that worked for other teams. Gear that worked ws chatter baits, carolina rig lizards, jigs, spinnerbaits & shallow/lipless cranks.

Lake Ray Roberts Report - 3/01/2008

Good day on Ray Bob. Put in at Buck Creek at 6:30am and stayed up north in the trees. Water was muddy at 50-54 degrees. Didn't have a lot of success today but results were positive fishing the shallow grasses in the pockets where the tips were out of water around 2ft deep. We were having no luck with larger presentations. We threw everything from cranks to spinnners to tiki worms and salamanders staying in one spot for awhile. There was no current where we were trying so a scent trail wouldn't really develop but I was landing the baits on or over the potential beds looking for that laying in wait momma. We slowly downsized the presentation, still hitting the beds in the grasses and picked up one nice girl at 10:30am with a small black buzzbait. She was 4lbs, 18 inches. Water was chocolate milk as usual on Ray Bob so we were using darker colors on noisy baits hoping for the reaction bite on the silloette. It paid off...first fish since October on this lake...quite happy I found her.

roberts-Lake Ray Roberts Report - 2/24/2008

Decided to take the boat out to Ray Bob in the afternoon. Didn't produce any fish due to chocolate milk (low water visibility). Up in the shallows where there is no current, water visibility was maybe about a foot. Water visibility in the deeper waters (6+ft) was maybe 6 inches. No wind and clear sunny skies made for a good trip but still couldn't get the presentation right. Tried everything from watermellon/red flake tiki worms to cranks and traps to various spinnerbaits. Saw a few bass jump but just couldn't get them to bite what I was offering. Water temp was higher than I've seen all winter at 50-54 degrees up in the shallows on the south end of the lake by the main pool. Water level is down right now so most of the shore line vegetation is out of water which contributes to the slow bite.

Seems most of the fish have moved north up near Wolf Island and Indian Creek as well as way up the West arm past FM 3002 north of the tree line. I expect to see little activity down near the main pool before April. Only spot near the main pool that I've found to be productive right now is the banks between Isle De Bois and the Overlook. Its not creek fed back there and far enough off the main pool so there is good visibility at about 3 or 4 ft in the rear southeast corner. Bass are still prepping their beds right now and hibernating so while the lake is producing some good fish, my experience so far is that the bite is soft, few and far between.

They are pretty spread out right now at about one every 50 yards. My guess is it'll stay like this for at least the next 2 weeks. More rain is in the forecast so I don't expect the clarity to improve for at least another 2 weeks...maybe 3. Stay up north on the main lake and hit the pockets on the banks facing south/southwest with a shallow crank or trap in natural colors or red/orange or a combination of both and you should find some good bass out for the last winter meal. As always, fish SLOW...water temp is still below the 60 degree mark so the bass are not active just yet. Another 2 or 3 weeks when the clarity improves and it'll improve significantly as always.

Lake Fork Report - 2/23/2008

Fishing was good today on Lake Fork. Mostly fish around 3lbs-5lbs. Rains came in Wednesday thru Friday causing depth visibility to decrease on the West arm up in the creeks. Slow presentations simply didn't work today with most fish caught by the club on the East arm up in the bay. Visibility was at about 5ft or so. RatLtraps and shallow cranks in red, red/orange, and natural colors working the best. Water temp was 50-51 degrees. Air temp was 30-32 around 6:30am and 57-60 degrees around noon with winds coming primarily out of the south at 5-10mph.