Fishing has been steadily tapering off at FPH for me. Not finding much in the way of decent schools of hybrids so this morning after about 45 minutes of trying to make things come together I turned to channel catfishing under a bobber in a baited area and had back to back action! It was a fun change of pace and maybe it’s easier and better to do than fish for the tough late summer hybrid bite?

If interested, find some rocks or stick ups in 4-7 fow and put 20% range cubes out. Put a bobber on with a #6-#8 treble hook and a B.B. weight 4-6 inches above it. I used punch bait and caught a ton of channels 6 inches to 14 inches long back to back in one spot. Great for kids and inexperienced guests!

Dinner! Good job.

those will eat good!

Clay several people I know that fish Ft Phantom say a huge amount of fish went over the spillway during the past several months while the lake was over full. On this forum couple of post about stripers at Possoum Kingdom being almost non-existent and someone saying they haven’t seen a striper in past two months. Also one report of 1000’s of dead fish below the dam at Grandbury. I know Lake Belton lost most of their hybrids thru the dam over last 5 years. I read an article in a magazine the stated TPWD now suspects more fish go thru the gates or over spillways than they previously thought. What is your thought on this? For me hybrid fishing at Phantom has been so bad this summer I have put my boat away and gearing up for hunting season.

I'm not sure what to think. Late summer has been and always will be tough on most occasions it seems. I have been having incredible trips even once the spillway ran over so I honestly don't think it made a big difference IMO but what do I know, maybe it has? But over the last month the fishing has consistently been turning down to where I am not planning on fishing for them hard for a while but scout a little every trip while I perhaps channel catfish.

I am not sure if A) I haven't found their consistent late summer locations where they gang up or B) they just don't gang up in big schools very often in the late summer or its short lived when they do. I reached out to a few people including Wes (Bendarod), Bob Maindelle of holdingthelineguideservice, and a striper guide on Texoma and it seems "B" is correct even on their lakes year and year which makes me feel better that I likely am not missing anything at FPH or some catastrophic event took place. I doubt its that bad.

I wouldn't put away the boat just yet though lol. That channel catishing was a blast!!! We set up on poverty point right before it goes into the spillway cove near the boat ramp of that fancy smancy house on the northern part of poverty point and had a blast in 4-7 FOW : ) Between three of us we probably caught 30 keepers, probably 50-60 short channels, and had our bobbers go under probably over 150 times total with or without a successful catch. This may be my new late summer fishing just to change it up. Theres probably a million places you could chum and catch channels at but that just happen to be one of the two spots we tried since I have caught a casting net full of catfish there in the past trying to catch shad lol.

I can assure you their suitcases are still by the door..... phantom is one of the few lakes with an actual spillway which I believe is a good thing for keeping fish in the lake.