texasfishingforum.com logo
Main Menu
Advertisement
Affiliates
Advertisement
Newest Members
TraeMartin, Power-Pole CS, T-Rigger, JoeGoes, EcKo
119150 Registered Users
Top Posters(All Time)
hopalong 120,579
TexDawg 119,518
Bigbob_FTW 94,889
John175☮ 85,892
Pilothawk 83,260
Bob Davis 81,483
Mark Perry 72,289
Derek ðŸ 68,312
JDavis7873® 67,416
Forum Statistics
Forums59
Topics1,037,831
Posts13,935,274
Members144,150
Most Online39,925
Dec 30th, 2023
Print Thread
New to boating near Grapevine Lake #10841676 05/13/15 07:31 PM
Joined: May 2015
Posts: 22
C
Carlos@Coppell Offline OP
Outdoorsman
OP Offline
Outdoorsman
C
Joined: May 2015
Posts: 22
DFW members,
I am new to boating, I recently acquired a Keywest 176DC, not quite a bass fishing boat but it’s rigged with rod holders, trolling engine and livewell. If you have boating experience (backing up trailer, launching, loading), more often than not I’ll have an open seat, closest lake to me is Grapevine, Lewisville is not too far,
Carlos

Re: New to boating near Grapevine Lake [Re: Carlos@Coppell] #10843242 05/14/15 10:55 AM
Joined: Apr 2015
Posts: 363
F
Fullofit Offline
Angler
Offline
Angler
F
Joined: Apr 2015
Posts: 363
Welcome to the world of boating. Good luck!!! Hopefully you will learn from others mistakes. Here are a few I've done (glad no one was taking video back then). 1. Launched boat and started heading out of the cove and couldn't figure out why boat was going so slow. Figured out I forgot to put the plug in and was taking on lots of water(the first thing I do now is put all the plugs in). Luckily made it back to the bank. 2. Loaded boat and all my stuff and started heading to the lake. About 30 minutes into my drive I realized I forgot my boat keys. Doooh!(I now put my boat keys in my truck as soon as I hook up the boat) 3. Bought brand new Lund boat. Second time I took it out it was a little windy (side wind). Tried multiple times to get the boat on the trailer before I figured out how to do it. Now I laugh at newbies that can't load a boat in the wind. 4. Had a flat tire on my boat trailer on my way home from the lake. The bad part was that my spare tire was out of air (I now check all my tires the night before I go fishing). 5. Went fishing for sandbass on Lake Tawakoni about 10 years ago by myself. I launched by star harbor by the dam. I decide I would just troll over to my normal spot instead of using the big motor. No sooner did I have both poles in the water, when one pole bent in half and starting stripping line. Threw boat in neutral and the other pole bent in half as well. Thought I was hooked on stump. Reeled up a 15 lb striper and then realized I didn't bring a net. Wasn't fun picking up a fish with a mouth full of treble hook. Other pole had 12 pounder on it. Ended up catching 8 stripers, kept 5 biggest ones. Fished for sandies and caught 25 in less then an hour. The fish wouldn't fit into my 48 quart cooler so I threw some in my storage compartment. Spent 3 hours round trip going to the lake for 1.5 hours of fishing. I now leave the net in the boat and take a 70 quart cooler with me every time. New boat also has 2 live wells so it's not a big problem anymore.

Re: New to boating near Grapevine Lake [Re: Carlos@Coppell] #10843255 05/14/15 11:18 AM
Joined: Apr 2015
Posts: 363
F
Fullofit Offline
Angler
Offline
Angler
F
Joined: Apr 2015
Posts: 363
Part 2: I used to leave the plugs in my old boat all the time. I lived in an apartment and didn't cover my boat. We had lots of rain one week and water filled my boat up to the bottom of the seats. Gas cans and everything else had water in it. Had to replace batteries as well. Now I take the plugs out as soon as I pull the boat out of the water. Good idea anyways to keep from spreading zebra mussels to other lakes. I also keep boat cover on when at the house.

Re: New to boating near Grapevine Lake [Re: Carlos@Coppell] #10846626 05/15/15 05:12 PM
Joined: May 2015
Posts: 22
C
Carlos@Coppell Offline OP
Outdoorsman
OP Offline
Outdoorsman
C
Joined: May 2015
Posts: 22
Hi Fullofit, thanks for sharing your early boating bad experiences, I took the boat once to Grapevine, and I managed to put too much throttle when launching and driving on the no-wake area... nothing bad happen but my neighbor who was teaching me got a bit unsettled...
Carlos crazy

Re: New to boating near Grapevine Lake [Re: Carlos@Coppell] #10847297 05/15/15 10:05 PM
Joined: Aug 2010
Posts: 298
C
ChrisTexan Offline
Angler
Offline
Angler
C
Joined: Aug 2010
Posts: 298
If you don't already have them, get the plugs that stay tethered in the hole.. if you do forget, water flowing in will tend to push the plug in also, so it'll slow the flow (I fished all day with one out one time, the bilge came on after about 30 minutes, ran about 20 seconds, repeat, all day)... first time I forgot I was upside down with my head 3ft under (my plugs are way under 2 "step cutouts") with my wife holding my pants to keep me from falling in, LOL. But I got it in, because it's already there, just has to be screwed in.

I actually experimented that next time, I went close to shore when I realized why the bilge pump kicked on, then waited, it ran so short, I realized it wasn't a big deal and fished all day no issues.

If it wasn't tethered though, it'd have been much worse I'm sure.

Re: New to boating near Grapevine Lake [Re: Carlos@Coppell] #10847474 05/16/15 12:07 AM
Joined: May 2015
Posts: 2
K
KayakJack Offline
Green Horn
Offline
Green Horn
K
Joined: May 2015
Posts: 2
Carlos,
I live in Lewisville and a very very skilled bass, catfish and sand bass fisherman and fish on lake grapevine all the time. The best lake in the area for shad and the fish I stated above. I fish from my FS10 Kayak with Lowrance Elite 4X HDI with downscale imaging on the lake quite often. On April 30th I paddled out of Murrrell Park in the Flowermound area and just outside of the cove to the Southwest about 100 yards I found a drop off of 24' and a large school of shad. Water drops from around 17' to 24 pretty quickly within about 40 feet. You will see a large mansion (house) brown across the lake on the Grapevine side. If you leave the Murrell boat ramp and pull out of the cove, there is a lot of covered picnic benches on your left. Turn towards that large brown home across the lake and watch your graph. I caught 34 sand bass and one large blue catfish (around 20-25 lbs) using nothing but a FLE FLY. Its a slab 1 oz vertical jig in the shad color. I went back on May 1st and paddled and didn't even make it out of the cove of the Murrell Park cove and right to the left (south side) of the NO WAKE buoy the shad were jumping and I caught 58 sand bass within two hours. Every drop and cast of the FLE FLY was landing a sand bass. Most were 8-9 inches and the keeper limit size is 10" for white or sand bass.

My strongest suggestion to any fisherman is good electronics for graphing and fish detection. Mine is color and has Sonar and Down Scale imaging with split screen. LOVE IT. I find schools of shad, crappie, and structure with ease. I have been a boat owner (NOT CURRENTLY) for over 15 years and spend my spring and summer on the water fishing or skiing.

For some great catfishing on Grapevine. TRAIL 4 in Murrell has a cove that leads to the North of the lake and fishing in the past October and November I was using my cast net 6' from that point and was catching 4-5" gizzard shad in groups of 20-50 a throw of the net. Shad are very tough to keep. They give off a large amount of ammonia when traumatized and also shed scales. The best way to keep them alive is to put them in a ROUND 5 gallon bucket with fresh lake water. No more than 12-15 at a time in that size bucket. After about 10- minutes use another ROUND 5 gallon bucket with fresh lake water and a aerator and dump the shad only in the bucket selecting the size and ones you want to use for bait. ROUND buckets only as shad are a schooling fish and swim in circles. If you put them in a square bottom bucket they will all move to the corner and suffocate each other. This way of moving from one bucket to another allows them to calm down, stop the ammonia production and scale loss before you aerate. I set out 4 medium to heavy 7' baitcast rods with weight slide rigs and circle hooks from the point off trail 4 point and even the other main lake points from the bank. October and November I caught a 18, 21 lb blues, a 9 lb black bass, and a 7 lb drum (not worth eating but fun to catch all with live shad. I also caught numerous amounts of 5-9 lb blue and channel catfish which are perfect for eating!....the ones over 15 lbs getting really stringy and tough....

hope this helps you with some of my luck with Grapevine and some of my lucky spots....watch for the birds early in the morning right at sunrise and then cast either LIL GEORGES, RATTLE TRAPS or cast and vertical jig the FLE FLY for some great excitement!

Im not hard to miss ... I look like Jack Nicholson but IM ALOT YOUNGER and look like him when he was younger.


Jack in Dallas!!!!
If I ain't fishing, I ain't HAPPY!
Re: New to boating near Grapevine Lake [Re: Carlos@Coppell] #10853178 05/18/15 07:44 PM
Joined: May 2015
Posts: 22
C
Carlos@Coppell Offline OP
Outdoorsman
OP Offline
Outdoorsman
C
Joined: May 2015
Posts: 22
great advice kayak Jack, I hope the weather gets better, I really want to have a weekend with no rain & little wind for taking the boat down to grapevine lake again...
carlos

Previous Thread
Index
Next Thread

© 1998-2022 OUTDOOR SITES NETWORK all rights reserved USA and Worldwide
Powered by UBB.threads™ PHP Forum Software 7.7.3