Texas Road Trip

[RJW-Host]

Thought I'd post a road trip report.  I take an annual trip to Texas with some buddies and we arrived Friday night here in Yantis Texas, aka Lake Fork.  We arrived to 38 degree temperatures and 3 to 4 inches of rain.  The fish were just coming up for spawn earlier in the week before the Iowa like temperatures and rain arrived mid week.

Due to weekend crowds and muddy water, we decided to hood up to the boat and head about 40 miles east to a power plant lake called Monticello where the water turned out to be clear with surface temperatures between the low 60's and mid 70's.  We had 5 fishermen between two boats (I ended up 3rd seat in the back of my cousins boat behind my dad).  After 10 hours of fishing between the 5 of us we managed to land around 20 bass with the largest just over 5 pounds.  Unfortunately I failed to boat a fish as everyone else caught fish around me. I'd like to think fishing was tough and they seined the fish in front of me! LOL With temperatures in the 40's with misting rain, wind and fog all day I was glad to see the truck, knowing that I have the six more days to redeem myself at fish camp!

Today is a new day and I think we're going back to Monticello to let Fork clear up and to avoid the weekend crowds that will surly be in the few mid lake coves that are not muddy.  I'll continue to post our road trip excursion for those who want to hear and tonight I hope to give you a story and some pictures of some fish!

Live from Texas in search of lunkers!

PS.  Todd, I now know how hard that third seat is to catch fish from.  Used water bites!

[todd]

At least when I was in the back I did catch a few fish. Ya gotta watch out for Arthur, he'll front end ya every chance he gets. Just kidding old man.

[rellison8]

Sounds like you had some good fisherman in front of you!     Or that's the story I would use. 

I'm sure its an awesome trip either way.

[RJW-Host]

Sunday & Monday:

Sunday greeted us with another foggy and misty day that again would shield us from the sun all day with temperatures in the 50s.  While the weather was not good, the fishing was the opposite.  Between two boats and five fishermen more than 40 bass were landed with over 20 fish between 4 & 6 pounds.  In total I believe 4 were over 6 pounds with 3 breaking 5 pounds, 11 over 4 and the remainder between 1.5 and 3.5.

The hero's were Ron and Bennie who landed all the 6 pound fish on top water Poppers.  The reset of us had a great day catching multiple fish up to 5 pounds.

Monday Ron & Bennie headed to Rayburn while me and Dad headed back to Monticello.  The temperatures did little to raise water temps at Fork, so we thought we'd give it one more day before hitting Fork today.  Monticello didn't disappoint.  The sun came out and the topwater bite was gone, but the grass fish were still there and eatting the fluke.  With just two of us in the boat, I was able to have a great day landing one over 5 and several between 3 and 4.  Dad landed several fish as well and in 7 hours we had a total of 16 nice fish landed.  By far these are the toughest fish I've ever had on the rod.  Todd can attest to this since he was here last year.  I think something comes out of the power plant into this lake that puts these fish on steroids.

Ron and Bennie reported a total of 4 fish from Rayburn up to 2 pounds.  It takes a lot of confidence to leave fish like we're catching here to head to Rayburn, but a guaranteed hotel room will do that to you.

Today we're heading out on Fork in search of big fish.  The water temps at the dock are reading 63 degrees and the water is slowly clearing from the 4 inches of rain late last week.  I'll try again an post pictures tonight.  I do not have high speed here so I'm not sure how they will load.

PS.  If Fork turns out to be slow, Monticello is just 50 miles away and we're not too proud to drive there again!  LOL

PSS.  First sunburn of the year, being back down south I'm literally a red neck.

[RJW-Host]

Fork turned out to be tough on Tuesday and I was the only one who boated two fish just around 2 pounds.  Monday someone here caught one over 14 pounds, but everyone we spoke with struggled on Tuesday.  We headed back to Monticello on Wednesday and early the bite was on.  We again caught several fish in the 3 to 5 pound range again.  My dad landed the big fish of the day though at just over 8 pounds!  We're going to try Fork again on Thursday.  With some luck we'll hook into some nice ones.

Heard from Ron & Benny today and Rayburn has been good to them as well with fish up to 5.5 pounds each day.

[RJW-Host]

Today's big fish.

[todd]

I call and you don't call me back. What's the deal. Tell kenny he's looking awfully gray. Oh tell your dad to put his teeth in and smile he just caught an 8 pounder. And one question. Is there any Lone Star left in east Texas? I'm jealous. I should be with you boys showing you how to throw that wacky worm.

[RJW-Host]

Another tough day on Fork.  Only 4 fish total caught today between 3 of us.  I'm not sure why Fork has been so tough, but it has.  We did finally see some buck bass in the shallows and did catch one off the bed.  But with the front that went through today, I'm going to close out my trip back at Monticello.  We have been there 4 of the 6 days and it has yet to disappoint with multiple fish over four pounds and one topping 8.  Dad is heading to the house, but Kenny & I will give it one more try.  I'll be back home Saturday night bringing and end to one of my best trips to Texas in years.  I'll try and post one more report tomorrow night, then it's back to the grind.  How's the weather back home?

[BBain]

It's your typical Iowa weather. Yesterday it was 62 here in Shenandoah. Today it toped out at 55. I'm jealous, I havn't been to Fork in 6 years.

[rellison8]

Looks like you are catching a few nice fish.

Bummer on the slow bite on Fork though.   You always hope when you take a trip like that you catch the fish at the right time.   Don't always work out though. 

[RJW-Host]

After struggling at Fork on Thursday, we headed back to Monticello to close out the 2009 Texas Road Trip.  And although the day was not quite as fast (a front moved through Thursday evening and left us with blue bird skies) we did catch 6 fish with my largest tipping the scales just over 6 pounds.

It was a great trip overall and although Fork was tough, the warm water discharge lake of Monticello just 50 miles turned out to be a big hit producing so many big fish between 4 and 6 pounds with dad catching the week's lunker at just over 8 pounds.  Next year, I think we may return to our normal February trip date and plan on spending time at the warm water discharge lake!

I returned to Iowa on Saturday and was greeted with sunny skies and temperatures in the 70's.  It's a good thing my boat is still in storage, or my marriage may have suffered some undo strain when I would have tried to finagle a trip to the lake after being gone for 8 days.  LOL

Below are a couple of pictures of two of my last day fish.

[rellison8]

I returned to Iowa on Saturday and was greeted with sunny skies and temperatures in the 70's.  It's a good thing my boat is still in storage, or my marriage may have suffered some undo strain when I would have tried to finagle a trip to the lake after being gone for 8 days.  LOL

I have been there!  Many times.   Nothing better to relax from a long fishing trip than coming home and going fishing.    Not sure my wife feels the same though.