I've been fishing a couple of times a week for the last month in the Trinity River north of highway 19 above Livingston. The fishing is getting better and better as the water is warming up. I'm getting about 20 to 25 fish per trip on rods and reels on fresh shad without getting out early. About all you have to do is find the top end of a hole or where a creek mouth joins the river and you are in business. The only problem is that the gar are busy as well. I don't mind that too much though. They offer a pretty great fight and keep you interested. The Gaspergou are also biting and some of them have been exceptionally large. They hit like a freight train and fight real hard.

At first it was most;y just blue cats but now the bigger female channel cats are making a strong appearance. These fish are running from nice eating size up to about 7 lbs. The bigger ones and the flatheads are hitting in the early morning hours but I usually don't go out before about 10 so miss that bite. I am not a morning person.

I've been trying all sorts of baits but still haven't found anything that is better than the fresh shad. The strawberry chicken has worked pretty well the sour gummy worms didn't do anything except make my fishing partner laugh at me. I think that my next trip when the gar start I'm going to go to punch bait and see if that will limit the gar bites letting the catfish bite be better.

I don't work at fishing very hard anymore. Tournaments turned something that I loved into hard work. Now I mostly do hillbilly fishing. I go to a place tie up and then just throw out and relax. The fish show up after a while and we just enjoy the peace and quiet of the river on week days. On the weekends if I go out I run up in the creeks to get away from the skiers and wake surfers and do much the same. So far this year the white bass haven't been real good. In years past I often combined white bass fishing with jugs for catfish. As IO go up a creek I would throw out jugs as I fished for the wite bass and then gather them in on my way out. This sort of thing fills a freezer fast.

Since I retired and fish two or three days a week filling the freezers of my and my friends and fishing buddies has not been a problem. 24 catfish Saturday produced 12 lbs of boneless filets. We are doing this at least a couple times a week. I see a lot of fish fries coming this summer.

As May rolls in I will probably move down to just south of the 190 bridge and start fishing the bulkheads in the shallow water. I love to take kids during that time of year. The bite is usually fast and the cats are just the right size for fishing with zebco 33s so the kids can have it easy and not be learning how to cast and just catch some fish.

IF YOOU ARE EVER LOOKING FOR SOMEONE TO GO WITH, LET ME KNOW SPLIT EXPENSES OF COURSE ND FISN. I ALWYS ENJOY A FISHING TRIP.

We use chicken hearts soaked in garlic a lot. Good read, that's what catfishing is all about, relaxing!

nice report sounds like you got a good hold of things.