I have been receiving a lot of phone calls from customers concering guide trips. Thought I would take a few minutes and update everyone on the status of Eagle Mountain.
Fished Eagle Mountain many years and this is the latest my records show that they have come back to the main lake from spawning. We were catching fish in the river in the first week of February which was early. We have had murky water from rain and wind. As of last week the water had cleared and the temp. had got above 65. But still no fish back in the main lake except a few small males way north.
Have spent many hours on lake the last six weeks along with several other boats assisting me and the fish are just not back yet.
I have several customers who have asked to be called when the fishing picked up. I still have my list and I will
call you when it does get good. Right now it is a boat ride.
I am on the lake every other day and as of last Friday it was still no good. Should get good any day.
Lots of discussion on why the fish are so late with a lot of people. Once again the longer I fish the less I know. LOL
Johnny

Great report and service to your customers

Thanks for the update on one of my favorite lakes!

Johnny you are spot on. Thanks for the updates.

Any day now the fish will not know what hit them when you are on the water. Hang in there.

Hope so Don.
Johnny

If anybody has any theories on why the fish are staying up the rivers so long this year
chime in. Would love to hear from some people.
Johnny

I guide a lot of the creeks around Dfw and we haven't even seen a big wave of females yet, it's just the cooler weather that's doing it, lake temps around here are still in the high 50s and low 60s in a lot of cases. We didn't have a cold winter, but we haven't had any hot weather either and its prolonging the run. I predict it'll still be a month before it's completely over.

My guess is mild winter and the water temperature has just seem to maintain around the same temperature give or take a few degrees for months we're having the same problem here mid March proof the stripers almost vanished and we're seeing a couple here and there but they have not returned and not to open up they all went over the spillway bull [censored] we were catching plenty of them November and December and fishing was pretty good and we were throwing almost all of them back. Then more huge rains and we rose up another several feet and in December and January and It got tough again then they started biting good in late February to mid March I seen it once before when the lake Had rose right at spawn time and for a month it was like there were no stripers. Most of our area Lakes here are completely infested with shad from a mild winter and flooding conditions allowing monster spawns. The fish are obese and don't have to work real hard to eat plus they're very comfortable and just about any place as water is staying around 60-65 FOREVER. A lot of people look to me for answers and I don't have the best ones these are just theories that I feel are true

I have been fishing EM for 40 years and almost every other week since January and on two different trips in March finally got one sandbass each trip. Both were caught in the river. What I am seeing on EM is the same thing I have seen in past years and is what has taken place this past year on Lake Texoma. Several lakes included EM were in a drought stage prior to the rain last May. When I was fishing Possum Kingdom, Granbury, and Whitney regularly back in the 90s, anytime there was a major rain condition and muddy water started flowing into the lakes on the upper end, the stripers and sandbass would stay in the clear water out in front of the mud. This makes for easy fishing until the mud pushes all the way to the spillway or dam. Then the flood gates open and a lot of these fish go thru the gates. This is what happened on Texoma this past year as stated by the Oklahoma biologist. The flood gates have been open on EM for several months this past May, June, November, December, and March of this year. EM was in a low water drought stage in 2014 & 2015 during the normal sandbass spawn. The Oklahoma biologist and already stated the striper numbers are way down on Texoma for 2011 and 2014 due to drought conditions and poor spawning. With the river and creeks being dry on EM in 2014 & 2015 it is very possible there was a poor sandbass spawn. The average lifespan of sandbass is 5 years. Males can grow to 9 inches and females to 13 inches after the first year, but it takes females two years to reach sexual maturity. Most of the 2014 & 2015 sandbass would now be legal to catch, if there was a good spawn. Like Texoma, EM will probably be in a rebuilding stage for the next couple of years. Sure there are still some sandbass in EM, but probably not the numbers everyone is accustomed to. I have fished PK and Tawakoni the past few weeks and caught limits of sandbass on both lakes. Some North Texas lake are doing better than others. Hope everyone can get on the water soon.

This is what I have been thinking also, Thomas. Just didn't want to be the bearer of such news. lol

Johnny, I keep watching for your updates daily. I've got all those new Ugly Slabs and Flies I'm anxious to try out.

EM sounds like her sister to the north.....They will wake up soon enough.

I have been fishing the river and creeks on EM since Feb. and they are definitely not as thick in there as they were, but I am still finding females with eggs. Nowhere near as many as a month ago. It was catching fish every cast cast some days once I found them.

My guess is they went farther than I can take my boat, or they are finding they way back to their main lake spots.

I'd be glad to tell you when/if I find them on the lake again. I'm starting too look now that the creeks are slowing down.

For what its worth I live on the main lake and at night I can catch some magnum sand bass off the dock. Several were large females full of eggs.... no large numbers but enough to be there to catch