I'm thinking about going to Ray Roberts for the first time Saturday. I am hoping that some of you familiar with the lake can help me out on a couple of questions.
1. Where is it safe or not safe to run? Is it pretty obvious or underwater obstructions that I should be wary of?
2. Coming from Arlington, where would be a good ramp to use?


Being a weekend, I am sure that there will be some sort of tournament on the lake. No larger tournaments or any thing else planned on the lake this weekend is there?

Texas Team Trail will be out there on Saturday.

About mid-lake down is safe to run on the main lake until you get into creeks or coves then you will see timber. Above Wolf Island is heavily timbered and no official boat lanes. You will need to take it slow until you determine where and what is safe to run.

Jordan Park is good ramp to start. (Barring any strong North winds.) It's near mid-lake with variety of areas close by to check out.

The State Park is a nice area too. It's might be easier / quicker to reach from Arlington. I would avoid Ray Roberts Marina on Saturday due to the tournament. However, it might be worth trying there if you go on Sunday.

If you see telephone poles behind you in a cove, BEWARE!!! The points are pretty clear at normal level, but there is a sand bar on the west side between Spring Creek and the bridge on the Trinity River arm. There will be 300+ boats out there and it can fish pretty small. Try looking for a Shad spawn on the rip-rap.

Heck, since they will be off limits, fish the boat stalls in the Marina!!!

Thanks everyone for the heads up. I'll just wait until another weekend. I don't feel like getting crowded especially since I don't even know where to start. The marina idea did sound intriguing but too far to drive just to fish a marina.

Marina has plenty of areas to fish and holds good fish. I always fish the marina when I go to RR.

Unless the whole marina is off limits my guess is there will be 50 boats fish through there on a tournament that size.

Usually just the boat stalls and shoreline on that side are off-limits. That was my suggestion... yes, there will be numerous boats on the breakwater, and in the back of the three �creeks� that feed the Marina!

Go Sunday - this will be the first weekend in a while where the wind will be tolerable. From what I�ve seen, the Sunday crowd starts a little later than the Saturday crowd so go early. Fish from south to north because most of the pleasure boat traffic is heaviest by the state park. It�s a good ways from Arlington but it�s not going to get any closer. Do it!!!!