Hall's Bayou 9/26/2014

I did get down to Hall's Bayou on Friday and yes I'm late getting a report up.  Been a little busy playing with the granddaughter and also helping you with the weigh-in for a great kids tournament.  More about the kids tournament in another post.

It was a very windy day on Hall's and the water was that tea color that I don't like, but it has been a while since I have been able to take the boat out and get in some fishing.  With that fact alone it was a great day!!!  I never was able to get the bass to bite, or at least bite what I was throwing at them.  I really wanted to see if could get some fish to hit a buzz bait on the bayou, so I fished one from Throw-n-Thunder lures maybe a little longer that I should have.   It is a great buzz bait and makes great sound and has great appearance coming across the water.  I did have a bunch of fish blow up at it,  but none of them took the bait.  I've seen this with top water baits from time to time in the bayou so that doesn't mean a buzz bait won't work on the bayou.  It means it just wasn't the right day for a buzz bait.

So after being a little hardheaded and using the buzz bait too long, I switched to a Throw-n-Thunder lures spinner bait.  This spinner bait was the Rumble Bee color and one that I had picked to be a great color for the bayou.  It didn't take too long to get my first hookup with the spinner bait and with a pretty good fish, but the fish came off.  This was repeated 3-4 more times with a couple other hit scattered in with no hookups.  This told me the fish were being really tentative when hitting and explained why all the blowups and no hookups on the buzz bait.  I was still a little on the hardheaded side and kept throwing the spinner bait.  After all it was drawing strikes and strikes from some good fish so it was only a matter of time before I got a solid hookup right.  Well at least that is what I hoped for but in the end I was wrong.  It took a Gator Gar or something else with sharp teeth decided to take my Rumble Bee away before I gave up on the spinner bait.  It was weird as I was working the bait in on 30lb braid and I felt nothing except all of a sudden I didn't have a bait on the end of the line.  So I'll be ordering a new Rumble Bee come Monday.

Next up to bat came the Santone Lures Rayburn Swim Jig in Acid Perch with and XZone Swammer in Cisco as the trailer.  I also dipped the tail of the Swammer in Spike-It garlic chartreuse as I always do for my jigs.   Well it didn't take this combo long to put a small redfish in the boat.  I would go on having a lot of losses and misses with this combo, but I did put more reds in the boat.  Not sure if I was doing something wrong or if it was just one of those days on the water.  Hey I'm really not complaining as any day fishing is a Good Day!!!   I would have liked to have my strike to catch ratio a little higher but I'll take what I can get.

It was a beautiful morning running down the bayou in the boat and the video turned out so well that I even worked up some new entrance and exit clips from the footage.  Speaking of video, here is the highlight footage from yesterday.  I didn't put too many of the misses, and losses in mostly the catching.   Hope you enjoy.

Until next time, Tight Lines and Take a Kid Fishing!!!

Coming Soon

I know I haven't posted in a while, but the weather has been killing my plans.  Looks like a great weekend for fishing just a head so stay tuned as I try and make it back to Halls Bayou for some Texas Bayou Bassin.

Until next time, Tight Lines and Take a Kid Fishing!!!

Lake Nassua 9/14/2014

Today is my wonderful wife's birthday and normally I'd be spending it with her, but she is visiting her mom and sister.  So I felt like I should be doing something and decided to go check out the catfish hole.  I wasn't disappointed either.  Here is the video so I don't have to do a lot of writing and you don't have to do a lot of reading.

Until next time, Tight Lines and Take a Kid Fishing!!!

Let's Catch Some Catfish

That is exactly what my son, daughter-in-law and I did yesterday morning.   I tell you if you want to put a smile on someone's face that doesn't fish a lot then take them catfish fishing.   Take a look at my daughter-in-law face.  Plus it didn't hurt that she also whipped up on us boys pretty good on her way to a great day fishing.

We ended up keeping 10 good eater catfish and left them biting because the cooler we took wouldn't hold any more.  Sure there weren't any monster like you see in some of the magazine articles but hey it was Labor Day and the Texas sun had the temps pushing 100 by 11:00am when we pulled up stakes and headed home.   Didn't check the water temp but I can bet it was in the low to mid 90s.   To catch a mess of catfish like this fishing from the bank this time of year you have to be doing something right.

So just how did we do this under these conditions and have smiles on everyone's face?  It is simple, well it is simple if you are in a spot where catfish are hanging out.  We were fishing close to the bank on the deep end on Lake Nassau which is located near the Johnson Space Center south of Houston Texas.   You can find a lot of lakes big and small to catch catfish, but you can't just pull up anywhere in a boat or the bank and start catching fish.  The right spot on your body of water is something you are going to work on to find for yourself.   In this case there are Cypress Trees along the bank and if you know Cypress Trees they have one heck of root system that extends out into the water. Also these trees were shading the water and I'm sure cooling it some in this area.  There is also a aerator system in this lake with one of the outlets near where we were fishing that created a slight current.  A perfect spot for cats to hang out on a hot Texas Labor Day.

Now what were we using for bait and how were we fishing this bait?  The bait of choice was Little Stinker Dip Bait in Chicken Liver favor.  The rig was a Slip Bobber rig that allows you to cast and still get your Dip Bait down within a foot or two of the bottom.  Believe me when I tell you that the old wives tale about catfish being bottom feeders is very false.  Sure you can catch catfish on the bottom but they find your bait by smell and go to the bottom to get it.  If you fish a foot or two off the bottom you will catch a lot more catfish I promise.  So how do you rig a Slip Bobber rig for catfish?  Well let me tell you it is a lot easier to show you than to tell you and that is why I made the video attached below.  I know the video shows up pretty small here on the blog, but you can click the screen Icon on the video to make it larger.

Now I do have to warn you that this rig does not work well drift fishing or in fast moving water.  If there is a slow current you are fine fishing it but you have to have enough slack in your line to allow the sinker to pull the line through the bobber to the bobber stop.  Drift fishing from a boat or anywhere there is a swift current the line won't be able to slide through the bobber and the bobber will be pulled down to the sinker.

If you are in a good area and using a Dip Bait favor the catfish like you will catch them on this rig; just ask my daughter-in-law! You might have to try a couple different dip favors which there are many favors out there and many brands to choose from.  We have found that the Little Stinker works well for us, but I will admit we haven't tried them all so there might be others just as good if not better.  If they are better you had better take a really big cooler to put all your fish in because you will have a bunch.  Oh and find you a shady spot so you can kick back while fishing.  Sometimes there is 15 to 30 minutes or so between feeding runs in the area.  No sense in not kicking back and relaxing a little and sipping on a cool drink while watching your bobber.

Until next time, Tight Lines and Take a Kid Fishing!!

Tournament Approach

There are a lot of folks fishing bass tournaments these days at all different levels.  I started back in the 80s and though I don't fish as many or the big tournaments much these days my approach stays pretty much the same.  When I first started fishing them I would fish for big bass all day long using big bass baits.  Let me tell you it didn't take too many tournaments of only catching one or two fish for me to change that tactic.  When you show up to weigh-in with two 5 pounders and get beat by folks with five fish limits of all 2-3 pounders something has got to change if you are going to win.

So what did I do to change my approach?  I started fishing for a limit first then looking for big bass.  I would find spots on the lake that were holding schoolie bass and hit them fast and hard with crankbaits for my limit.  Then I'd switch to my jigs and worms and move to the locations I'd found some bigger bass.  The first tournament I used this tactic I won my first tournament.  I caught my five fish limit in about 30 minutes and then spent the rest of the day looking for bigger bass.  I was lucky to catch a 4 and a 7 pounder and ended up with a little over 17lbs and Big Bass.  No that isn't a great weigh-in by today's standards but in the 80s that would win a lot of tournament and put you in the money in almost all the others.

Does this approach always work out the way it is planned, well no.  Heck it is fishing and things go bad even on the best day on the water.  I've had days when I'd have to catch 50 schoolie bass to get my 5 keepers and it would take hours.  Then there are the days when you can't get the bigger bass to bite so you don't have a good anchor for your stringer.  So I'm not telling you this is the way to go out and fish your next tournament.  All I'm doing is giving you something to think about before your next tournament.  The way I see it five 1 pound bass are better than showing up at weigh-in with an empty bag.

Until next time, Tight Lines and Take a Kid Fishing.

Great Folks Great Baits!!!

Yesterday I drove 4 hours one way to meet the folks of Santone Lures.  Let me tell you it was worth all the time and gas as they are all awesome down to earth Texas folks!!  In fact I'd say they were better than their baits but I'm not sure if I'm authorized to give out Sainthoods or not.  Maybe I'll just say they are Saints in the Tackle Business as they really do care about their customers and make the best quality baits I've seen on the market in all my 50+ years of fishing.  That is a combination that is hard to beat, Great Folks Great Baits!!!!

The event was held at East Texas Sonar in Longview, TX and if you are in the area you owe yourself a stop by their place located at 3200 North Eastman Road.  If nothing else you will see the best selection of Santone Lures for sale that I've ever seen in a tackle shop.  We have a local shop that carries a few colors and sizes but nothing like this, it was awesome!!!

As you can see they have every color in stock and this is just the Rattlin' Jigs and Rayburn Swim Jigs.  I forgot to take a picture of the selection of Texas Finesse Jigs and Spinnerbaits. If you can't get by East Texas Sonar and your local tackle stores don't carry Santone Lures you are still in luck as you can order them from the Santone website and here is a link.  Santone Lures

I was lucky enough to win another Santone Shirt in the raffles. I also didn't spend too much money on jigs to have to worry about my wife shooting me when I got home.  But I did get two of the hot new colors in the Rayburn Swim Jigs and some more of the Texas Finesse Jigs and Piglet Shaky-Heads.

I'll be set if the weather gives me a break sometime in the near future.  If it keeps clearing like it is my son and I might have to make a trip to one of the Bayous and give these some time in the water.  One way or another I'll get some fishing in soon and get you folks a report on the bayou and also how well these bait attract the bass.

Until next time, Tight Lines and Take a Kid Fishing.

Customer Appreciation Day

Folks on Saturday Santone Lures and East Texas Sonar will be having a Customer Appreciation Day from Noon until 3:00 at the East Texas Sonar location on 3200 North Eastman Road, Longview, Texas 75455.  There will be free hotdogs, chips, drinks, and cookies! However there will also be some new colors of the Rayburn Swim Jigs available, along with shirts, prizes, and as well as the Santone Lures Military Swim Jigs to give away!  

The new Rayburn Swim Jig colors have me excited as they are some great new colors as you can see.
That is why I'll be getting up early Saturday morning to drive 4 hours from my home to Longview. So if you want to get a chance at getting some hot new colors, meet the good folks from Santone Lures and East Texas Sonar come on out.  Hey you can come hang with me also.

Until next time, Tight Lines and Take a Kid Fishing!!!

Crank Baits

I'm going to tell you up front that I'm not a big crank bait man.   Sure I use them from time to time and I've even won some tournaments throwing them, but they just aren't my fishing cup of tea so to speak.  Do I own crank baits?  Sure there are always some crank baits in the boat but you won't see me throwing them every time I go fishing.  You might ask then why have any at all, which is a good question and why I'm writing this piece.

Crank baits do have their uses in the manner in which I approach fishing.  That is especially true in the late summer and early fall when bass bunch up and attack schools of shad.  If you don't have some good ole Rat-L-Trap or another lipless style bait in available you might just miss out on some of the fastest bass fishing you have ever seen.

You can also use a lipless style crank to locate feeding bass just about any time of the year.  They are very affective in attracting and catching bass.  I think it has a lot to do with the rattling noise they are famous for making as they are pulled through the water.  I still think the original Bill Lewis Rat-L-Trap is the best of them all, but that is just my opinion.  However they have been catching fish for almost as long as I've been alive and for a fact as long as I have been fishing.  The other thing about these lipless cranks is they very closely resemble one of a bass' favorite foods; Shad.  Most of the lakes have shad in them and most if not all of the bass in these lakes have dined on them at one point in their life.

There is another crank that I use a lot to catch these schooling bass and that is a Rapala Shad or Shad Rap.  They also have rattles and they really resemble shad very well.  Their one advantage is over the lipless cranks is they can be worked slower in the same depth zone.  This is because the slower you retrieve a lipless crank the deeper it will go which is just the opposite for Shad Raps.

Shad Raps float and have a lip that causes them to dive when they are retrieved.  The faster you retrieve the deeper they dive.  How deep they dive depends on the size of the lip and the type of line you are using.  They give you a different action all together from what you get out of a lipless crank bait.  In fact a lot of times you might find a bunch of schooling bass and after catching some of them they will quit hitting the lipless bait.  If that happens then switch to a Shad Rap and 9 out of 10 times you will be back in business.  You might have to play with how you retrieve them a little but once you find what the bass want it is back on!!

If you have been reading my blog much you can pretty much tell I'm a Jig fishing fool.  If I'm not fishing Jigs then I'm likely fishing plastic worms on one rig or another.  In either case when I'm fishing Jigs or Worms in deep water (10 plus feet) I will have my crank bait rod loaded with a deep diver like a Strike King 6XD.

Why do I have a 6XD ready if I'm planning on fishing a jig or worm you might ask.  The answer to this question is no matter how fancy our fish finders are today they still can't tell me if the fish you see on a creek channel are bass and if those bass are hungry.   So instead of making 4 or 5 slow retrieve casts with a jig or worm burning up time; I make those first 4-5 casts with the 6XD.  A lot of times if they are bass I've seen on my sonar and those bass are hungry you will get one of them to hit the crank bait.  You have now identified that these fish are bass and will hit.  I then put down the crank bait rod and proceed to fish my jig or worm.  If I don't get any hits after a 4-5 cast with the crank bait then I figure they aren't bass and go look somewhere else.

You might ask now, why I wouldn't just keep fishing the crank bait if I'm catching bass?  Well if you have ever thrown a 6XD or similar deep diving crank bait you will know it is almost like work.  So I put them away and fish a less work involved jig or worm.  Now don't get me wrong here; if I'm fishing a tournament then I'd likely make more casts with the crank before going to the jig or worm.  Cranks are fast and they can cover a lot of water in a little time which does give you more of a chance to catch bass.

Hope this has help you in some way.  Remember even though you might be a head strong jig or worm fisherman like me there is room in the boat and in your method for some crank baits if used right.

Until next time, Tight Lines and Take a Kid Fishing.

Clear Creek Bayou

I know there were some of you waiting to see a fishing report from Clear Creek Bayou. I'm sorry to say there isn't a report or at least not one from today.  We have had a bit of bad weather move into the area and it might get worse over the next day or so.  What that means is I'm going to have to put on hold my return to Texas Bayou Bassin; well at least for a day or two.  We will see what Friday brings weather wise.  Saturday I plan on going up to Longview Texas to the Santone Lures Custom appreciation get together and meet some of those fine folks and pick up a few more of their awesome Jigs in the process.  So hang in there, there will be a fishing report sometime soon, I promise.

Until next time, Tight Lines and Take a Kid Fishing!!!

Texas Bayou Bassin - The Return

It has been a few months since my last trip to one of our wonderful bayous south of Houston Texas.  Normally you can't keep me off of them, but this year was a bit different than in past years.  It rained a lot in late spring and early summer which had the waters in the bayous all sorts of messed up.  Then after the worse tournament I've ever been a part of ended with only 3 fish total brought to the weigh-in; it was time for a break.  So the past few months I've been driving a long way to fish some of the lakes with the closest being over an hour's drive from my house.  I've been catching bass in the lakes but it just isn't the same as busting them good in the bayous.

Why have I decided to take a midweek and late afternoon trip to Clear Creek Bayou?  Well there are two reasons; first I have a friend in town on business from Virginia and second the water in Clear Creek is looking really fishy.   I drive across Clear Creek every evening on my way home from work and for the last week or so I've been itching to get out and try my luck.  Even though the water is looking good, we have to remember that it is still the middle of August in Texas.  That means the late afternoon is not the best time to try going fishing.  However with it being the middle of the week and school back in down here there shouldn't be many boats out there if any at all.  In fact there likely hasn't been any on the water since Sunday.  This means the bass might have calmed down some and are laying up in the shade waiting for something to swim by them for a snack.

We will be well armed tomorrow with boxes full of Santone Lure Jigs, my Throw-n-Thunder spinnerbaits as well as my XZone Lures Slammers and Swammers.  Oh and don't forget, I'll have a few boxes full of Trick Worms also.   In fact it was Trick worms that my son and used to almost break into the top 3 at our last tournament on Clear Creek.  That was the day that my son was catching them on a shaky-head and I was working them over on a drop-shot.  So in short this will be a really good test of those lures that I've not tested in the bayou, but if worse comes to worse we will have some Trick Worms to fall back on.

There is another interesting thing that occurs in late summer on the bayous and it runs into early fall.  That is sort of an annual feeding the bass have on the shad in the bayou.  If you can find the bass busting up the shad, then you can spend hours catching bass.  They may not be wall hanger bass but the numbers you can catch sure does make up for the size.  Well and then there is always that chance there is a 3-4 pounder under the schoolie bass; that is where a good swim jig comes in handy.  Oh and I got some of those awesome Rayburn Swim Jigs just for that chance.

I'll likely not get home in time to make a full report on the fishing tomorrow so watch for my report sometime Thursday afternoon or evening.

Until next time, Tight Lines and Take a Kid Fishing!