The morning started off rough. I launched across the causeway at the Galveston Bait camp for the first time. I woke up really early (for me) in hopes of getting on the water by 6am. I didn't figure in that it was a Saturday and that there aren't a whole lot of options when it comes to launching a boat in Galveston. A not so steep boat ramp only made matters worse. After waiting in line and thanks to some help from a by-stander (pushed my boat off the trailer) I finally got the boat in the water. I picked up a pint of shrimp and headed towards the causeway. Using side scan, I located the best spot that appeared to have a good number of fish. Otherwise, I imagine you would be guessing at which part of the bridge to fish. I didn't have to move much and proceeded to catch a limit of trout in one spot. I had a number of undersized fish as well. I was using shrimp under a poppin cork and the bigger fished came off a longer leader. I also caught a few on a carolina rig but preferred the cork for most of the morning. Tide was outgoing but wasn't moving much. The best part of the day according to the solunar chart was supposed to be from 9-12 but I had a limit by 9am. I left the fish biting to try a few more areas. Caught a few rat reds with the shrimp I had left. I was off the water by 10:30. It was a great trip and one of those that I had to make a video for. Thanks for reading and enjoy!
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I knew it was going to be windy, but I wanted to test out the new unit at the front of the boat. The day actually started off quite nice and I was able to fish the main lake at a few spots. I didn't have any luck at main lake points and could not locate any schooling activity early in the morning. I ventured over to the dam area and found a nice patch of structure on an old roadbed in 20 ft of water. I caught the one above on a jig with a green pumpkin craw trailer. The wind picked up almost immediately so it was hard to make the same cast with the boat moving around the marker so much (spot lock on a minn kota riptide is terrible). I moved closer to the dam and fished a ledge in 15 foot of water and picked up another fish on the jig. This is about the time the trolling motor gave up. I need to figure that situation out as it charged all night long and should have been good the entire day. I ended the day fishing some reed beds for perch. Caught a few but nothing worth making a video for. Thanks for reading.
We had a decent day on the water this Saturday before the front passed through. Can't say that we developed a pattern but we focused on grass flats in around 10 feet of water. This seemed to produce the bigger fish. Slower moving baits also caught the bigger fish (carolina rig and slow-rolled chatterbait) compared to moving baits (swim jigs and hair jigs) which seemed to attract the dinks. Water temps were around 70 degrees. Lots of beds in the back of coves but it appeared to mostly be tilapia. We did see some smaller bass hanging around beds but they would not bite a thing. They were also very finicky and never really sat on a bed. We attempted to catch one for a while but quickly went back out to deeper water when it became apparent we were wasting our time. Weather was great and It was good to be able to fish with my dad again. Thanks for reading and enjoy the video.
My dad was able to join me for some white bass creek fishing. Weather turned out to be better than expected which is always welcome. We fished from sun up to 11. We managed 17 keepers all of which came from one hole. Last trip I found several holes holding fish but that was not the case this trip. We fished around the first horseshoe from the parking lot at Irwin Bridge without a bite before coming back to our first hole. We were using 1/32 ounce homemade jigs in white/white and white/chartreuse. I wouldn't say that color made a difference on the bite. The current seemed to be running a little more than a few weeks ago which decreased the water clarity in some spots. The creek level didn't appear to be any higher with the recent rains. One thing I noticed while cleaning fish is that there were more females in the ice chest this time. I only had a couple last trip but there were a few more this trip. That leads me to believe there should be a few more weeks of catching to look forward to. Enjoy the video and thanks for reading.
After missing the white bass spawn last year, I told myself I would at least give a shot once this year. Left the boat in storage and ventured over to Somerville lake for some bank fishing. A fishing forum thread held a lot of pointers and tips. I knew where I was going and generally what to fish with. I attempted to scoop some crawfish in the morning but I guess the cold had them burrowed up. Plan B was a few homemade jigs. I arrived to the creek around 8:30 to a brisk 50 degree misty morning. On my second cast I caught a keeper within sight of my truck. That told me all I needed to know about my jig selection. Fished with the same jig the entire trip. Chartreuse tail with a white body and black head. A little trick for fishing light jigheads I found is to put a few pinch on floats on your line. Without the visual aid, I would have lost a lot more fish than I did (setup below). Most of the fish were after current breaks, but I also caught a few before the current breaks. Felt like I had the creek to myself as well. I suppose everyone else had their favorite honey holes, but being my first time, I just stopped every ten yards or so till I found fish. Felt like I wasn't far from the parking area the entire trip. Ended the morning around 11am with 17 whites and a crappie. I would have finished out my limit, but my backpack cooler ran out of space! Thanks to all of those who contribute to the Somerville thread. I learned a lot from it and it surely helped me put together a great trip. I'll be back, it was a blast.
Well for the bagillionth time, the weathermen seemed to get it all wrong. Forecast called for 60 degrees at the worst post front. It was comfortable in shorts when I left the house. When I arrived at the lake it was a cool 50 degrees. The parking lot was FULL so I wasn't the only one to assume it was going to be a nice day. In a rush to get one of the last parking spots I left my jacket in the truck. I would come to regret it in the next few hours. Fished 7:30 to 11. The winds steadily increased from the North with fog and mist increasing as well. I started off flipping reeds with a jig. I ended up landing one before heading back to the ramp to get my jacket. I resumed fishing in the same cove but worked my way down a grass flat in deeper water anchoring every now and then. I caught another 2#er on a watermelon chatterbait. I let the bait fall to the bottom while warming my hands up. This caused me to fish really slow which is always a plus when fishing a chatterbait. I called it quits around 10:45. Thermometer in the truck read 48 degrees as I pulled out of oak thicket around 11. Definitely not the fishing trip I envisioned but caught a couple. Thanks for reading and for the close to 10,000 page views over the last few years.
Water temps: Main lake 65-67, Discharge 74. Winds NW 10 decreasing as day went on. Starting off the day, I stopped at several offshore humps and ledges. Baits of choice for the day were a flutter spoon and ned rig that I wanted to try for the first time. A dt14 and 6XD were also in the mix. I found a ridge that appeared to have some suspending fish on it close to take off. I worked my way down the ridge with no luck using the spoon and crank bait. This appeared to be the theme of the day. I found several areas where the fish were suspended along ledges in 12-15 feet of water. I couldn’t entice them with anything I had tied on though. At the end of a ledge on my fourth stop, I found a few fish on the bottom on a point. I worked a crankbait around it for a while before moving on top of the point (10 feet) and casting out into 15 feet of water. Eventually I picked up the ned rig. On my second cast, I hooked into a 4lb’er. One thing I learned is that you definitely need light line and a soft tip rod. My set up was too much for the 1/5 ned rig. I ran around the lake to a few more spots and only managed one more small fish which I caught while casting into a few giant bait balls around the summer school area (SE corner of the lake near dam). I didn't see any large arches around the bait so I went back to the ledges I started off fishing that morning. There were still a few suspending fish in the afternoon, but not as many as I saw in the morning. If i were to fish this weekend, I would work a pre-spawn to spawn pattern. I never fished close to the shoreline, so I would imagine it is getting close to spawn time on Fayette. Don't count out the offshore bite though, you may catch a good one.
Looking at my timeline to the right, it appears I need to be making more posts on here. Should be manageable now that I have my own boat, thanks to a great deal my dad made me. Thanks for reading! Installed a new unit on the front of the boat so I decided to test it out rather than chase white bass from the creeks around Somerville. It worked great and made it a lot easier fishing from the front of the boat. The only problem was that the wind pushed me off all of those fish it was marking! I left the lake with spot lock envy. Only caught a handful but they all seemed to be in 5-10 feet of water on grassy flats. Carolina rig worked the best. I did catch one good one in the big oaks by Park Prairie but the wind quickly pushed me out of that cove. I did notice that a lot of the shoreline vegetation is growing back which is pretty exciting. Some of my biggest bass on Fayette have come out of the reeds in early summer. Looking forward to trying that out in the future. Thanks for reading.
Fished Fayette County from 10-2 with the goal of trying some new baits and fishing deeper water. My dad gave me a bunch of Livingston lures this past Christmas that I have always wanted to try (but could never bring myself to buy myself). I mainly fished a 6XD (hint on color-Keith Combs special) and a Livingston crawfish color crankbait. The sound on those lures is pretty cool, I must say. Water temps were 70 around the discharge/dam and got cooler on the East side of the lake. I caught a few around the dam on the Livingston lure in 10-15 feet of water. The other couple of fish came off a deep grassy point in around 15 feet of water. I thought it was a decent day for being the day after a front until I heard a guide say they caught 40. I guess I should have tried something different!. It was great being out on the water again and I hope to have a lot more reports in the future now that I have a truck to pull a boat! The jeep just wasn't cutting it.
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July 2019
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