Caught this fish last night on a small perch. I've Been fishing a lot under green lights off my boat at night and caught this one off one last night.



I was out fishing with my neighbor Don in Neely Slough last night. First place we tried we could not even draw minnows with the light out in Nelly slough. It's been like that since the flood. Fishing is way off. Checked the light on his dock where there's usually a lot of fish but no sand bass were hanging around. After that, I decided to go out to one of the docks on the mouth of the slough that has a big mercury light on all the time and set up there with two anchors. Last week I caught a nice crappie there and fantasized that there might be a big school of crappie under that dock. Pretty soon we had a good school of minnows and lots of fish under us around 30 feet. Nothing was biting though. ( probably a bunch of carp)

Don was fishing a jig on one pole. I had one pole with a slip bobber rig and a shinner at 18 feet and was fishing a little chartreuse jig tipped with a minnow, a rig that worked well last week. Earlier that day, I had caught some minnows with a seine and had caught about 10 small perch. I decided as an after thought to rig one of my 7 foot ugly sticks with one of those perch and set it in the rod holder at the front of the boat. I figured it could not hurt. Normally with a green light fishing at night one pole is all you can handle. However, this year fishing is so slow you could fish 4 poles or more.

We'd fished about an hour without a bite when suddenly that rod with the perch starts screaming out line like crazy and turning the boat. I grabbed the rod and began trying to turn the fish but couldn't gain an inch. My immediate thought was this was a big flathead. The fish dragged the boat with two anchors about 50 feet and was about to pull us into the dock we were anchored next to when I made the decision to manually stop letting him have drag by holding the line. I knew he might break the line but figured if he got much further under dock he'd foul me on cable anyway. Once I stopped the drag the fish reversed his direction and headed out into the lake giving me an opportunity to let him have more line and wear himself out. When I finally saw the fish, I though it was about the same size as the 18 lb fish I caught last year. The fish last year was just shy of 32 inches but very very fat and this one was in good shape but not porked up like that big gal last year.

I did catch a couple more fish when we checked out the green light that's on a timer up at Magic point. Only saw a couple sand bass around that light. This is in stark contrast to last year when that light would have a 50 foot swirl of bait fish and you could see gobs of sand bass and stripers working it along with big cats and LM Bass. I guess magic point is not so magic anymore. Don didn't get a bite all night and we were out from 8-12.

I was not fishing much when the last flood happened. I don't know how long it will be before fishing comes back. I still catch a few fish but I'm concerned because I do not see many fish on the fish finder. I think we had a good spawn, as I must have seined a couple dozen bass minnows that I promptly threw back when I caught the perch. Had equally as many jump over the seine. At least the bass guys will be happy in a few years. I ballooned some of those perch late in the evening in Neely before going out later that night and only got one bite. I watched one of the local Guides fish Neely this morning and never saw them catch a fish. I think they were using shad, as I saw a bait tank. I guess I should be thankful PK is clear and we can still use it. Those poor folks at Texoma have lost the entire year.

Nice fish and a solid post. Thanks for sharing.

Nice work Mike. Very good fish. Looks like blackened striper for dinner.

Great job nice catch

I think your right about that Joe. Haven't had much striper this year. The thought never came to my mind that while we were praying for rain it would wreck fishing at the two main lakes I fish.

Excellent story and fish.

If it helps any, the striper fishing on my home lake , Lake Livingston, is way off this year also. Dallas area has been flooding us with water for months now.

Pk, less time staring at screen, making excuses, posing for pics & more time fishing. Some have been putting consistent limits in boats last 4 weeks vicinity your picture backdrops. Few off days but not many. You do not need to lose sleep to catch fish right now.suffer in silence! Artificial ,live bait.

congrats on the catch

great catch

Sorry to hear about that on Livingston. I think I'll try crappie fishing Fork and Ray Bob when not at PK. With Texoma flooded it makes things a little tougher.

Nice catch Pk a 10lbs striper fight like it wants to take off your shoulders, sometimes too much...lol

They are fun to catch bank fisher. The short 20 feet or so of line that I have out on these poles when fishing under the light at night magnifies the initial hit. It would not be so dramatic if I was trolling with 120 feet of line out.