Saterdayt at Tawakoni

Warning: if you do not like driving in down town Dallas or like a lot of people around you then do not go on weekends.
My brother and his son came down from SA for the weekend fishing trip. We got to the state park around 10. With in 15 minute found birds it was game on. There were several boats all caching fish. There was one boat that keep their big motor on the hole time. But it did not seen bother the fish gust, the people around them. There was a guide also fishing also when the boat got next to him I was thinking to myself here fexen to be butt chewing. But no the guide gave the young couple some slabs and thy started wering the fish out. But then another guide showed up. When the boat came 75 yards from him he was vary vary upset and the young couple left and did not see them any more. I was thinking to myself maybe there moter would not start if you turned it off it was an older boat.
Next stop found hybrids and big sand bass. But then came all the people. I have never seen so many people drive through the fishing spot. I guess thy wanted to see what we were catching lol
All in all it was a good day, out lots of good fish and good times.
Keep safe and remember it that time of year

Sounds like a good trip. Tawakoni is becoming a crowded lake and summertime is not here yet.

Fished Possum Kingdom this weekend. Just normal weekend boat traffic. Water is clear and pretty on the lower end of the lake.

With Texoma all muddy and many metro lake swollen from the rains people are searching for new places to go.

PK: I wish I could have seen the guide give the slabs to the kids. That was really a nice thing to do. I also wish I had been there to see the other one. I would have given him a piece of my mind. I have been on fish and have guides ruin my spot by running up on me, because they couldn't find fish. I guess it just like everything else, there are some good ones like Kerry and Randy, then there are some jerks like the one you described. I am glad there are more good guides than bad. Glad you had a good day.

You can tell a huge difference on weekdays also both in the numbers of fishermen and size of fish compared to others years back.

I see people regularly that are boaters, who really want to fish. They don't have a trolling motor and most of the time no anchor and if they do have an anchor, they have some incredibly thin line on it that couldn't possible survive any real anchoring strain, but was cheap enough so they bought it. They have to leave their engine on and from time to time shift into gear to avoid collision with those of us with trolling motors set to spot lock.

With decades of fishing experience I rarely see fish react negatively to motor noise in lakes. If fish are boiling on the surface, I have seen them keep more distance away, but not leave an area. Sometimes starting a engine will spook them a bit and certainly someone running through the fish at speed bothers them. On occasion when I stop at a spot to see if there is a bite I do not turn off my engine. Sometimes with clients, I have even forgotten to shut it off if the action is quick and I am focused on helping clients with stuff.

All to often, I think the motor noise upsets the fisherman and not the fish. I like it when a boat moves away from a group of fishermen using its trolling motor to get a little distance before starting an engine, but on really windy days, it isn't reasonable to expect people to troll more than 20 yards before turning the key. For some very serious fishermen, they want to fish daily, but can't so when they get on the water, they are really focused and really serious about catching. So when they perceive someone doing something the interferes with that, they get agitated. Sound travels 4 times faster in water than in air. A boat could start a motor 300 yards away and it would still be heard underwater. I think people just have to relax, take a breath, and realize that we all share the water and in doing so some days are more crowded than others and not everyone knows about fishing etiquette. I am much less offended by hearing someone's motor running than I am their crowding me and bumping my boat, or casting lures across my boat. Good communication and kindness goes a long way.

Very well said Capt Craig!

Man seems like every Tawakoni post ends up with something negative. I'm glad I don't get to fish there very often. Judging from the posts on this forum it sounds like a war zone. We like camping at the state park, but I think we will skip the trip there this year.

Tawakoni is a great lake. I really enjoy fishing there and the State Park is very nice and well maintained. Both boating and fishing are a lot of fun and people get very excited about catching fish. Sometimes that excitement causes people to focus on catching fish and they ignore boating safety or common courtesy.

However, this is not at all limited to Tawakoni. It exists on every lake to some degree. It is impossible to know when and where and at what time it is going to happen. Those that are lacking in knowledge and courtesy will only learn and benefit when others help them by offering suggestions and by letting people know respectfully that a behavior is considered negatively by others. Yelling at or flipping someone off only creates more anger in others. If the situation is so bad, move a little to avoid the negativity or if you have to leave the area and find another spot to fish.

Well let me first start off saying I am the couple that was out on the water that kept his motor on the whole time we were there and I apologize for any inconvenience it might have cause or if it ruined any of your guys' fishing.
I have been working on this boat (1979 bass tracker with 40hp Mercury) for several weeks and thought I had it running good. So we decided we were going to go to Tawakoni for our anniversary and get away and do a little fishing. Well we didn't get out on the water until about 10 Saturday morning and started off fishing a point across from walnut cove and I decided to kill the motor. Well after two hours trying to get it to start it finally started and we decided we would just leave it running so we wouldn't be stranded again. After getting it running we thought we were going to go to the dam and fish because we had heard good reports there but this was our first trip out on the boat and the first time on this lake and after starting towards the dam decided it was too far and too much water for our little boat. Well on our way we seen all the birds diving and boats gathered around and figured they were fishing for striper and my wife nor I have ever caught any striper or hybrids but we have caught sand bass before and made our way over to try out luck. When we arrived I noticed everyone using there trolling motors but I was afraid if I killed mine I wouldn't be able to get it started again so I didn't for some time. After catching several hybrids I wasn't sure if the were legal or not, I knew the length but wasn't for sure on the double or single tooth patch so I drove over to another boat and asked a gentleman in that boat and he gladly told me the difference in them. I did get a little to close to him but it was because I couldn't hear over my motor and I'm sorry and thankful to you for your advice.
We started fishing again and were catching a few and I decided I was going to try my trolling motor and see how it did before killing my motor. After trolling for a min I noticed the wind starting to carry us off again so I pull my trolling motor up and the prop came off in 40' of water. So , so much for killing my motor and we continued to pull up in between a couple boats and then drift back jigging off the bottom. I would have used my anchor but it was only 30' long, we didn't plan on fishing that deep of water.
My wife was kicking my butt and another gentleman in a blue epic was nice and giving us a hard time because she was giving me a reel whooping lol. After a little bit we werent catching any decided to come around one of these boats and another boat was off to our right and I'm guessing the owner or one of the others guys on his boat was yelling at us but I couldn't understand what he said, my wife said he was yelling saying, you are going right through them! and some other things but I couldn't hear him. After that our time over there was pretty much ruined so we didn't want to upset anyone else and went back to the cabin to try and repair our trolling motor. I know the motor is loud and I'm sorry, it didn't seem to bother the fish we were catching and several of the boats around us were catching a lot of fish. But if it ruined your fishing I am sorry and will be better prepared next time. To the guy that gave us the advice thank you and the gentleman in the blue epic thank you for your patience. I know there were a couple of other boats there and I'm sorry again if I ruined your time out there. Also thanks to you guys on here that give a person the benefit of the doubt not knowing their circumstance.
Sorry if this post seemed all over the place but we had a lot going on and was trying to explain it the best I could.
Justin

Hey man we saw ya'll out there. We were in the white Bay Stealth with 4 guys in it. Glad ya'll had fun! We fished by yall for a little bit, but I guess we never got close enough to ya'll to hear ya'lls motor, didn't even realize you were running it.

Were any of ya'll out there when those people started popping shots off in the water off that dock? What the heck?! We could hear the ricochets. I saw a few people fire up and leave but we stuck it out lol

R00 i was in the blue EPIC and you did not bother me. my wife catch twice as many fish as I do lol. If you see me come by and say hi. Just be careful out on main lake it can get rough in a hurry. Send me PM and will give my number if you need help we are there almost every week end. There are a lot of good people at Tawakoni and a few grouchy ones out there lol

Hey Steve, we saw yall too. We were in the same area for awhile. We went and did some searching around then the wind kicked up and everybody left. We went back to that point and wore them out for a little while with the lake to ourselves. We were taking waves over the bow constantly but it paid off. We paid for it though, all of us but 1 was sea sick after we got home lol. My buddy said he almost fell over in the shower washing his hair!

You should have been there Sunday. Bay of Tawk lol
I got my weekly shower

I don't mind as long as they are courteous.

I can't tell you how many times, we're drifting or anchored up fishing live shad, all of a sudden 5 rods go down at the the same time. Get them re-baited while another 2 or 3 go down. Get all the fish in the boat and lines reset, look up and there are 5 or more boats close enough for me to jump from mine into theirs. Kinda makes me giggle. . .

I was out on Sunday, man it was rough!

Question - do you guys prefer drifting or anchoring up? Personally, I like drifting but then again i've never really tried to anchor on structure out there. Why do you prefer either one?

My trolling motor has spot lock. If I am fishing, I prefer to use that feature. Anchoring is a last resort and I don't drift when fishing white bass or stripers.

If you don't have spot lock, but do have a trolling motor, I would advise using the trolling motor and good multi-tasking in order to stay in one spot as best you can and not crowd anyone else while still catching fish.