Conroe Crappie Spawn

The black crappie are in the shallows oriented to grass/weed beds. Shannon and I caught a good mess Friday evening using jigs tipped with minnows, spider-rigging in 2-4 feet of water. The fish are bedding up next to the hydrilla at the back of coves. The rig we used was a 1/2 os egg sinker above a swivel with a 18" leader below with a Slider jig head tied on. Tipped with a minnow and rigged weedless, we would run the egg sinker just below the waterline.



Now is the best time to find large concentrations of fish. If you want some good table fare, get on the water now and start fishing.

BCCC Tournament; 2/4/06

I fished this event with Shannon. Catching crappie was easy. Finding fish with some weight to them was the problem.

We weighed in the 10 fish limit the only problem is that the total weight was 8.98 lbs. We couldn't even manage to obtain a 1lb./fish ratio.

12 teams entered the tournament and we finished in 4th. In the top half but, not a money paying spot. Most importantly though, it was fun and we learned to fish a different lake for us.

Lake Houston; 1/29/06

I made it out to Lake Houston by 3 p.m. on Sunday afternoon to try and prefish for the up coming BCCC Tournament. Having never fished the lake, I felt lost the entire time I was there. I scouted the East Fork portion of the lake and fished some but, wasn't very successful.

I was able to catch only 2 crappie. 1 was just over the 10" mll and the other was a tiny little thing that made me wonder how it got the minnow in its mouth in the first place. Along with those 2 fish came some white bass and a yellow bass but, not more than I could count on all my fingers. I never did find a large concentration of fish.

As I was leaving, I was passing a boat that was crappie fishing and asked them if they wanted the one fish that I had kept. They said sure. We spoke for a minute and they indicated they were going to fish the tournament the following weekend as well. By the looks of their ice chest and the size and amount of fish they had, I have my work cut out for me.

Should have gone fishing.

Well, I listened to the weatherman today and decided to stay at the house. Dumb move. He was wrong again and I was wrong for listening. It is cloudy but, not raining and fairly calm.

Oh well, the garage has been swept and the oil changed in the truck so, some good was done.

ETCC Club Tournament

I fished the East Texas Crappie Club January Tournament yesterday, 1/21 and finished in the middle of the pack, 4 of 7. I weighed in the 7 fish limit with 9.56 lbs. The winning weight was 10.87 lbs.

This event was on Lake Conroe and based at Stow-A-Way marina. The conditions were windy but very warm for January. The morning started off in the high 50's and by mid day was in the mid 60's. It was cloudy most of the time with some sun shinning through for an hour or so. All of the fish that I caught were on the main lake or just inside a main lake point. The magic depth seemed to be 23-27 feet of water. I fished 2 locations one being the old trestle on the tramway and Hunters Point.

Fishing the trestle was challenging due to the wind and it being out in the wide open main lake body. I wasn't able to control the boat with the trolling motor so I anchored upwind from the structure and drifted back to it, tying off when I got to the place I wanted to fish. I really needed an additional anchor to drop off the back of the boat to keep it from swaying to and fro but,I made do without it. I was able to pick up 5 fish from this location with 4 of the larger fish weighed in coming from there. These fish were structure oriented. They were tight to the submerged remnant trestle structure that was in place to cross the river prior to the lake being impounded. Finding this spot requires you to read your map and use a depth finder or gps. Once you find it, learn it, fish of all species are there fall through pre-spawn. I caught a boat load of yellow bass, a few white bass and one largemouth. The largemouth was about 17" and I would guess about 3 and a half pounds.

Fishing Hunter's point was just the opposite. Fish were not holding on vertical structure but rather they were on the bottom of the old creek channel that dips in close to that point just inside the cove. The depth would change from 23-27 feet and as I would transgress that depth change is when I would catch a fish. I never found a group of fish but would pick one up here and there strolling the area back and forth spider rigging. I caught more fish in that area than the trestle but, they were smaller on average. I ended up the day with 12 keepers (10"+) to choose from for my 7 fish to weigh in.

I wish I would of taken some pictures to go along with this post but, my handheld gps only lasted about 5 minutes due to having bad batteries (forgot to check how charged up they were before leaving). So, the camera got robbed of its batteries to power the gps. Finding fishing locations was more important than taking pictures. Maybe next time I snap some photos.

Flounder Run Is Near

As my wife kindly encourages me to forget about the preseason football game on tv and get my butt out of my chair and help her retrieve all the fall decorations that she loves to put out on Labor Day of each year, I realize that even though the temps are still in the mid nineties, fall is on the doorstep and will be here soon.

I am anticipating another fall run of Flounder in the lower Galveston Bay area. The annual migration of these flat fish takes place starting around the last of October through the month of November. It seems to peak the week or two before Thanksgiving. The tactics for targeting these fish are simple. Find an area that goes from shallow marshy areas to the open Gulf. Channels around passes are ideal, even better if there is some sort of man made or natural structure for them to use as an ambush cover during their migration. Rock piles, dock pilings, bulkheads and depth contours are the ticket to success.



The Galveston Ship Channel will more than likely be ground zero for my focus this year as well as some areas along the Bolivar Peninsula as well. Live shrimp dangled in front of them will certainly get bit but, the hook up on this fish is different than others. You have to let flounder take the bait and wait, I usually count to 30 or so after feeling the slight bump-bump-bump from them grabbing my offering. Flounder like to roll the bait around in their teeth for a while before taking it into the mouth. If you pull too soon, you'll end up reeling in half of a bait and nothing more. After the 30 second wait, I pull on the rod as if I were going to drag the bait a foot or so, if there is a little resistance, BAM! set the hook.

Here are some photos of last seasons catch.

Dave, Roger and Greg with a mornings catch.



Roger in the water bringing the one to the box.



Greg with a 6.5 lber caught on a red flake w/white tip Saltwater Assasin.



Dave doing his impersonation of Dolly Parton.

I need to go fishing, huh?

Wow, I knew it had been a while since I messed with this last but, I didn't realize that it had been since Feb.

I have done quite a bit of fishing since then. Currently my attention has been turned toward the surf and bays trying to figure out saltwater species. I am not having much luck but, it is a blast trying. Eventually I will quit finding where they aren't and stumble on to where they are.

I am going to try the surf in the morning. The seas are supposed to be near flat conditions, clear water and a 4 tide day. Supposedly, that is all the magic ingredients for a banner day. I'll see though.

2/19/05; Lake Livingston - East Texas Crappie Club Tournament

Shannon and I signed up for the February East Texas Crappie Club (E.T.C.C.) tournament held on lake Livingston and hosted at Galloway's Marina located near Trinity, TX.

Unsure of what to expect since this was only my second time to be on the Lake and Shannon's first, we were very grateful that some of the club members offered some advice on where the had fished before with some success. They advised us to fish in Caney Creek which was just a short ride from the marina to the Northeast. Since the boat lane was a bit tricky if you had never been that route before, Ron even offered to lead us to the mouth of the creek which we accepted quickly.

Once in the mouth of the creek, we decided to start fishing there and not impose any further, allowing Ron to go up the creek without us. That decision proved that our luck had not run out yet. Just a few minutes after getting the spider rig setup and deployed we ran across some submerged structure within 15 feet of the bank in 7 feet of water. The structure stuck up only a foot or two from the bottom but, it held a concentration of crappie. Most were small but we were able to fill our 7 fish weigh in limit before 9:00.

Due to the fact that there was a large amount of boat traffic, and they were all going past where we were fishing, around 9:30 or 10:00 we decided to make a move since we weren't catching large fish to see if we could do better up the creek. So, there must be better fishing right? Wrong. We used the trolling motor and spent the next 3 hours looking for better fish and only caught one additional crappie which was smaller than the ones we already had in the livewell. That is until we found a log jam on the end of a long slow outside bend of the creek. There we found fish in the same 7 foot depth level holding close to the sunken timber. We were able to replace 4 of our fish from that location. Although some of the fish caught at this location were larger, we just couldn't seem to keep them biting. After spending another hour there without another fish we decided to move back to the original spot to try it again. Once there, we were able to replace 3 more fish. Now all of the fish to weigh were at least over a pound in weight.

We ended up in second place out of 12 teams. We had a total 7 fish weighting 9.26 pounds, which was a much better stringer of fish than I ever imagined we would get. With a wink of the eye, we were told that we weren't going to get any help next time.

Win or lose, the E.T.C.C. is comprised of some very nice people and is always a pleasure to fish with them. Call Glenn Tate if you are interested in joining or would like any information of the monthly tournaments. His number is 936-594-1887 and he will gladly fill you in with the details. The March club tournament will be held on Houston County Lake near Crockett, Texas.

Saturday, 2/05/05; Conroe

I fished out of Shannon's boat today. Roger and I met Shannon at his house around 7 am and headed to the Stubblefield area. We went all the way past the Stubblefield bridge and tried the oxbow area a bit with poor results. We caught 2 crappie and a white bass. The water was cold from the recent front and the rain that came with it, 43 degrees in the Stubblefield area. On he way out, we went into Stubblefield lake, someone has cut the laydown away that was covering the cut from the bridge to the lake down since the last time I was up there.



By this time it was well after noon and we went to Fisherman's Cove at Stowaway Marina for a burger.

From 2 until 5 we fished deep structure in 32 feet of water in the main lake and that is where we found some fish. They weren't large fish but, they were there in numbers.



Oh, I almost forgot to mention that I didn't catch any crappie, they were all caught by Shannon and Roger. I was jigging with a single pole in the back and they were running a spider rig in the front.

1/29/05 Conroe

Fished it hard for a short time, 11-3:30. I ended up with 4 good enough for the freezer.

I need to branch out a bit because they are on the move. The sure aren't stacked in the same hole that they were in 2 weeks ago. I think I need to head to some deep flats in the 20-25 foot range closer to some spawning areas that I know of. The 3 black crappie I cleaned yesterday had some egg sacks that were starting to get real bright, larger eggs and plenty big blood vessels going to them. They are just short while away from doing their spring fling, 2-4 weeks I'd guess. Some will spawn the next full moon I'd wager. The white crappie that I cleaned had much paler egg sack, with less developed eggs. They still have a good while before they are ready.


Oh well, that is why it is called fishing and not catching.

Had fun as always.

Tough, windy day.....

I fished with two friends from work today. One of them being Roger, webmaster and owner of www.fishontexas.com. The morning was nice but the fish weren't cooperating very well. I fished the same location as I did earlier that week near Caney Creek in the main lake, 25-33 feet deep. We were able to catch 13 keeper sized crappie from 8 until noon.



The wind really picked up around 11 and the bite had ceased so, we decided to try and go catch some whites. I went to a place that had produced well for me in the past early, early in the year in upper Walden Cove. That was a bust. We put the boat on the trailer, grabbed a burger in Willis and then headed north to Cagle. Put the boat back in the water and scratched out 5 more keepers from the dark water pond.

Monday 1-18-05 Lake Conroe

This is the first topic on my first blog. I am going to attempt to start record my fishing trips and the results but, I will more than likely forget all about this in a matter of time. I guess you can say this is my New Years resolution.

I fished Lake Conroe last Monday. I didn't get to the lake until after 1 p.m. and was in my truck heading home by 4:15. Blue skies and very light wind. I was able to fish in the main lake without any problems from wind or waves. I started trying to jig fish under the 1097 bridge without any luck. I fished in the middle of the bridge and worked 3 or 4 sets of pilings. The water depth was 24-32 feet deep.

I then gave up on the jig fishing and went to Stowaway Marina and purchased 3 dozen minnows. I set up my spider rig on the main lake near the southern edge of Caney Creek. I found some structure in 33 feet of water and the bite was fast and furious for about 30 minutes. I was able to catch 14 crappie/12 keepers, 2 catfish, and a ton of yellow bass. The crappie bite was quick but died out when I started catching the yellow bass. I went through the 3 dozen minnows in about an hour and a half.