In a couple of weeks the lake level will go back to normal and water wont be going over the spillway any more lol

Fish are there but are spreading out a little down stream and they're not moving, no need to shad just come to them, they're spoiled Brad fish, lol. That's the bad news, the good news is I caught my biggest fish there to date 24"

Btw, GW came by yesterday and checked on people but didn't check my fish, so here to the GW, a hybrid and two football wb...




White bass 16" not to brag about the wb but to reassure some folks that they're really wb not undersize hybrids...

Well it's Christmas morning, did the shopping with the wife yesterday...
Heading to the spillway right now to get my bucktail and weighted bobber back, hope nobody caught that big mama that broke off my 20 lb braided line on Tuesday.

Merry Christmas everyone, hope y'all get the gifts you want. All I want is a fat striper or hybrid this Christmas.

Report for Christmas Day, 12-25-2015
Haven't got a full day of fishing in about a year now, it was a wonderful feeling driving through the country side with road mostly empty. A nice cool mist blanketed the ground gave a nice accent to brown and green pastures and trees... by the time I got to Flat the mists were cleared, and with nice breeze and partial cloudy sky, perfect, right? Got to Spillway, Birds gathered at the spillway, a group of guys were casting like mad to the spillway. So I parked my suv, ran to the back and opened the back hatch, oh oh left my wader at home...

Cont'd,
As it turned out no one caught any fish in the Am hours, those birds were circling the diving comorants not the hybrids, lol. I couldn't join them without my waders, so I fish the river... nada. People started to come and soon the banks were lined up by fishermen... up and down the river no one caught any fish except the two gentlemen who used crawfish as bait, they were pulling catfish, hybrids and drum and out fish everyone else. So I thought can't beat them, join them, went to the car and grabbed my net,.. well without my waders, couldn't catch any shad at all... drove to the lake boat ramp looking for shad there, no luck, but oh boy lake looked like a ghost place, no sign of life at all...

Cont'd p2,
Got back to the river just passed noontime, had a new appreciation for fellow fishermen because they made the river such a festive place compared to the lake... I couldn't catch any fish anyhow, so I started walking around talking to people... some people brought their wife, buddies or just like me just a couple of fishing poles and a tackle box... there were no jealousy, we cheered on every time someone caught a fish, and shared our fishing stories when fish were not biting... as the sun warm up the water and with the help from a local gentleman I found some shad under the bridge, by then the couple who fished across the river also caught some shad... I started to catch some 13" blue catfish, just then the lady across the river landed a nice hybrid...

Still hunting for my striped bass for Christmas, lol, grabbed my net and with all my might threw it as far I could toward the middle of the river and caught some nice 6-7 inch gizzard shad. Within minutes with live baits one of my poles slammed on the water...it was just a decent blue catfish. .. at around 2:30 pm that the party on the spillway side erupted, those guys started to catch one hybrid after another... back to the river side, the catfish dinks were playing hooky with my big baits,... the real catching still belong to crawfish guys... I gave away the only fish that I kept to the gentleman who helped me catch shad and he asked if I brought extra flukes... I gave him one dark gray metallic fluke for the evening color... a moment later he caught a nice striper with that fluke,... yeah. timing probably has a lot to do with his luck because he went through his own flukes all day without catching a fish, like everyone else. Lol

In sumary, for number the spillway is the place where limits of hybrids are still being caught, but larger hybrids and occasional stripers are caught down stream just not in number. From what I gathered early morning and late afternoon are more productive, but today all fish were caught in the afternoon... I didn't get my Christmas striped bass, but I must admit that I thoroughly enjoyed my day at the river.

Been lookin for big Gizzard shad and havin trouble, been trying on main lake to no success, good to know river might have some. If i can brave the blizzard I may try after big cats next week when it's 25 degrees

Fish were hungry yesterday, limited out in less than 30 minutes, left them biting...
Went back today to the same spot and fished for two hours only managed one whitebass. Fish were in a different spot today or they weren't too hungry just haven't figured out to make them strike on a day like this. Two gentlemen with surf rods know how to do just that because they caught a good stringer of wb and hybrids while I was there and kept on fishing when I left. Did learned something today so hopefully I'll be wiser next time

All caught on flukes yesterday, but them fish don't want no flukes today, they want whatever those two guys were throwing and of course their presentations not mine, not today anyway

Another pic from yesterday

Nice fish

Nice

Thanks gentlemen
The water is getting low, pray for more rain. The birds told me that the are no more fish at the spillway and skunks are taking over the place. But hears that b4 2... Will update y'all later, skunks and all

Slow and cold. ... you know it's slow when you see the master fishermen in waders just sat on the bank like lazy birds, lol. Lots of skunks yesterday, only saw one young man caught one or two keeper stripers. After he left I fished his spot and caught one 20" striper, that's hours of casting... the good news is I my new 11' Tsunami Airwaves surf rod caught a fish on its maiden voyage.

A mini review of Tsunami Airwaves spinning surf rod
It's a pretty good rod for haft the price of my Daiwa TD 12' surf rod. It's construction quality is NOT nearly as good as TD, e.g. outer eye rings are not round with very noticeable bumps and somewhat sharp edges, etc. After hours of jigging the joint can become loose. The top haft section actually wennt flying in the water one time and after I applied pressure during insert I had a tough time taking them apart. Other than that, this rod cast effortlessly and far, after hours of casting my arms weren't tired, I couldn't do that with the TD. I also bought the casting version of this rod 11' also. Would I buy another Tsunami rod? Probably not but I wouldn't buy another TD rod either, lol money don't grow on trees you know, so will make good use of the Tsunami rods at Tawakoni and save TD rod for DD if and when I ever make it over there.

Oh BTW, I saw the Tsunami 11' rods in action lakeside bank dead sticking with fresh gosh minnows, they are super sensitive, they catch 6" yellow bass as well as hybrids and stripers in 10-15 mph wind.

Glad to hear your catching some bank,
Good job
Lavons been prett decent with some times where you will just sit for two hours before you fish lol
But yeah the tsunami are a good intermediate rod, it has the sensitivty plus backbone. For the price you cant beat.
The new daiwa td are garbage bought one and sold it the day after.
Gonna go with coustoms now. But gotta work my way up to get one lol.
Good job again bro.

Thanks Tornado, I caught a few, nothing like your stringers, though. Lol I think TD DIAMETER is too big, but I have yet to loose a fish with the TD rod, and I lose 5 big fish in two days with tsunami rod, it's too stiff, very hard to manuveur big fish without either breaking off the leader or ripping off fish mouth....

Probably last update...
Water barely going over the spillway. It probably won't last through this weekend, without rain spillway will be dried by Monday.