thediscochef

I bring a grocery bag and fill it every time I'm at Ray Roberts. People can be disgusting.

Quick update on the trip back - skunk at FOUR lakes. Ivie is inundated with boats and zebra mussels, which cut my line twice. I counted 67 empty boat trailers at Kennedy. You can't actually even see the dirt that makes up the shore at Padgett Park, as the shore is completely covered with huge clumps of rotting zebra mussels. The stench was unimaginable. I didn't last long. Never going there without a boat again, and never on a weekend. Total waste of time. Same with Brownwood. Except the water at Brownwood looks like a mud hole. Ivie is at least clear on the south and east sides of the lake. Proctor is somehow muddier but at least mussel-free. Stopped back at Possum and a good size LMB spat me at the shore. I packed up and went home. The end. Sorry for the book of whinging ??

Yeah it was a heck of a backlash, sent my lure flying into the lake sadly. I would love to fish with my dad again, cherish those moments. Nice smallie!

I mean, it essentially ties the state record. I would be emotional too. Those PigPatrol guys catch some massive gar. Not sure if this guy is with that YouTube crew but it's in the right area for it...

In total probably close to 2k in gear, I've lost or broken probably close to 400ish. Booooooo

Lots of great answers here. For me it was the 1/8oz chatterbait micro with 2.75"-3.5" fluke sticks and shad shape worms, no skirt. I spent probably four straight months with only that tied on last year, from about August till NYE. I caught a 19lb blue cat and a 7lb lmb on one, all the way down to crappies, Sandie, and little black bass that probably only recently started hunting shads. I found the smaller lure to have a wider size pool of fish that can try the lure, as well as better success on pressured waters. It helped increase my initial catch rate which in turn gave me much confidence that chatterbaits do indeed work. Best used on BFS or spinning tackle. Gave me the confidence to go buy bigger more expensive CBs to narrow my targets now.

My guitar player works at the Texan, you will have a very nice stay and you will be about 2 miles from Bass Pro. That park is about the only place at grapevine I've visited that I thought the drive was worth it. Tight lines, maybe I'll see you there!

Down in San Angelo for work, I took a detour to Possum Kingdom and Hubbard Creek Reservoirs. Possum is absolutely amazing, beautiful clear blue water and so many rocks and docks to cast around. Spent about 90 minutes, caught two LMB and six Wipers. This was the largest fish I landed, I lost two more that felt much larger. First time I've ever actually wanted to set up tent camp and stay somewhere in 100 degree heat. Hubbard Creek was kind of the opposite...that's where the pictured backlash ended my day on cast #2 LOL Hubbard is murky as heck, max 18" vis, less than a foot in others. Didn't bother with Lake Fort Phantom Hill, it's being reported as even murkier. On the job as I type, I leave here Sunday and will be hitting a few lakes on the way back. Hopeful to find a shore spot at OH Ivie but thinking Brownwood and Proctor will be better access. I'm finding that I much much prefer clearer water over the usually 2-6ft vis I have back home. Whitney and Possum are now favorites.

OK followup time I went to Katie's Woods today. I didn't really spend a ton of time actually fishing. But I did look around the park a bit. If you're staying where I think you're staying you're in for a very nice time. Katie's woods is by far the best shore spot I've seen at grapevine of the four parks I've been to. There's a trail on the west side of the boat ramp area that leads to a main lake point and a nice rock ledge going up into the cove across from Sandbass Point Ramp that looked really good. The only issue you may have there is landing something of size from the ledge. Then point looked a little more friendly, but more importantly unoccupied. The areas around the boat ramp and near the hotel has a good creekbed cove near some little covered brick picnic pavilions, and some flat/shallow spots on either side of the ramp itself. The areas nearest to parking were more occupied. 1 kayaker and one empty boat trailer. Water 2-4ft vis. The lake is completely full right now, technically in flood stage. You should have plenty of access to keep you occupied. It's a good place to have a south wind, too, which has been common lately.

They're a ton of fun, that one might be the largest I've caught in looking at other photos. Probably right around 2-3lbs. That one absolutely smashed an ultimate jerk shad, I thought it was a solid 3-4lbs LMB until it didn't fight like one. They fight like a giant sand bass, you should check them out when you can. They run with stripers and also sandies so found in many places but not always the same places.

Got a nice little wiper today while casting around crowds. Heat index well over 100 seems to be here for a while. I have a work trip to San Angelo coming up, which will take me right by OH ivie. Have to see if I can find a shore spot there...

For four carrier braid, it's Yo-zuri. For eight carrier it's sufix. Always 20#. There's a cheapo amazon brand that makes the most color steady red braid I've ever seen, the roll I got was decent but I think the sufix has higher strength so I've been using it more. I found the power pro super 8 slick v2 to fray quicker than I would like. Seaguar braid looks good but is more loosely woven than others in my experiences. Berkley big game braid is great for the price (like all Big Game products) but fades quickly. Coastal Camo Sufix 832 is currently on all my equipment, I can see it a little easier at night and I have a very high confidence in its strength and consistency.

I think I've been fishing water that's too deep also

I used the micro almost all year last year. There's really not a wrong way to do it other than snapping it off. Slow straight, just fast enough to thump plus a couple speed variations has been the most productive for me. On the small baits I use BPS split tail stiko, the regular less bulky fluke, and Yamamoto shad shape worms. Sometimes crawz if I'm fishing it bottom contact. I tend to shy from paddletail and thick middle baits on smaller chatterbaits; it'll vibrate at a lower retrieve speed. Bigger blades get bigger plastics like the Zako and the Razor shadz

That's my go-to color for clear water most of the time. Most places within an hour of me are max 4-6ft clarity most of the time. Which is why I typically opt for the hard jerkbait

I have other options that are just as good and less hassle. And this isn't about what's cute it's about what looks like it'll eat better. You do you.

I definitely can't tell what's good eating without looking at it first, so yes, I use my eyes in the process of deciding what I would like to eat. A smaller, cleaner looking LMB looks tastier than a 5# beat up fish. You have a choice between two hogs, one looks old and battered, the other looks young and tender. Which one do you think will eat better? You're out here for me today lmao

I've always seen them labeled as soft jerkbaits so this makes sense. Might have to tie one on for clearer water next week...

We're all zombieposting, embrace the continuity ?

What I carry depends on where I'm going and how far I have to walk...and how close to 100 degrees it is outside. Days like today...it's 70-80 degrees out, I'm probably going to a spot that's close to parking because everything here is flooded to hell right now. So today, I will have my dad's old plano 6803, two rods, and a landing net. I have walked up to a mile with that gear before but it is a mule. For longer walks, it's a molle belt with pouches and flambeau 2003 boxes. This limits what I can carry, but I tend to only use about four or five baits total anyway. In the 6803 I have about 10-12 bags of plastics, three spools of varying leader, tools, a scale, and probably 25-30 jerkbaits plus lipless cranks, a Frog, a pop max, an a frame spin, a googan contender junior, chatterbaits, and moon eyes. I don't really need much else. I won't even throw half those types in a day, let alone a bunch of different colors. The belt carries all the tools and the scale, but about a third of the other stuff. Which again, is enough. It's hard though, I have a mountain of tackle sitting at home and there's times during a skunk that I wonder what in that mountain would shake it. Then the fomo sets in. But the more I think about my tackle the less I think about how I'm fishing, and the worse I do.

I've never caught a fish on a fluke that wasn't on a chatterbait. Nice!!

Yeah I got a little creative with my line experiments last year, when I started using casting gear this year I started all over basically. Leaders on casting stuff have so far been only a source of irritation for me. It's not always the knot that fails, but it's usually within one inch of the knot. A few folks on this forum told me to use mono to solve the issue...only just now accepting it lol I do not like working with mono at all and the hooksets are different. But of the stuff I used yesterday the mono did as well as anything and required the least amount of fuss.

I've never caught an lmb over 2ish# that looked good to eat

I've been kind of grappling with this a bit lately. I use rods with small guides so knot noise is an issue but for me I've found myself breaking leaders off on casts 5x more since I moved to baitcasting reels. It's not every week that I snap something off in the air, but it's way more than it used to be. Part of that is me using heavier lures than I was. But I also think that a leader knot will weaken after touching guides enough times. I've used double uni, crazy Alberto, and kreh style knots. I had issues with the Alberto coming undone for some reason, the uni is noisy as heck but stays tied better. Honestly? After watching yet *another* jerkbait go sailing into the lake...I just respooled my jerkbait combo with 10# sufix seige. My lipless combo has 14# sufix elite. Imo the mono gives me fewer nests and less overall concern about the integrity of my line and therefore more focus. I will say that I find the braid much easier to handle when nested though. While the braid certainly can add a noticeable extra cast distance...I can still just about spool out a tatula CT with 14# elite and a 1/2oz red eye shad during a cast. At some point being able to set a hook from that distance becomes a concern. There's one place I go where the extra distance would be of use, but that would also put a huge felled and submerged oak between me and my lure. So maybe it's not so useful. The place I think I will miss the 20# braid to 15# copolymer setup will be dragging treble hook lures through thick hydrilla. I may keep a combo set like that for that purpose. Otherwise I may not look back from mono.

This thread is older than most of my friends kids lol I have only ever kept one fish outside of guided trips. It's not that I have some moral whatever with it - it's that I fish enough to see how poorly some follow fishery rules and enough people at the fish cleaning station, etc that I know fish of all sizes are being harvested at a pretty solid pace. I don't see a need to contribute to that, especially when I don't enjoy cleaning fish. It's not going to kill the fishery for me to keep what I catch, but it sure is easier to just pack up and leave when I'm done at the water.