On the water from 5 till 11:30. Caught about 40. Lot of unders but several 3s and one around 7. Found them staging. Caught 5 on consecutive casts. TRig and cranks. The most disturbing thing though as we were going to dock there was a party barge with at least 6 people cleaning their tilapia haul. One guy was actually in the water cleaning fish. This lake is headed for disaster with all the net pressure and don’t tell me there is not a bass or two that are kept.
I was out on the 18th too and also the 13th and 15th. Got there around noon on the 18th and stayed till 5:30. Saw an older guy in a beater boat tossing a castnet around the bank just outside of the Oak Thicket launch. He almost caught a guy in a kayak and was throwing systematically up and down the shore a cast or two out from the bank. Hauling in buttloads of tilapia and creating a lot of commotion. Saw him as I was loading up and he had a chest freezer in his old, beater pickup that he dumped all 5 tons of fish into. Don’t know WHAT he’s doing with them all. There were also the usual guys wading up to their armpits, throwing nets all over that shoreline. Fishing was good though. Plenty of 15-19”, hefty bass that only wanted Texas rigged plastics. Tried cranks, jigs, and swimbaits, but only got eats on the plastics. All in 2-7’. I’m guessing bigger girls are a bit deeper and I’ll check that out next time.
They do tons of damage to forage and bedding areas. I go to the lake on weekdays and weekends and there is always someone cast netting. Why don't they allow them to use dynamite, long straight nets, or the old telephone crank, they all do residual damage. Even though they are supposed to take only tilapia, i saw one group had a token rod and reel with them to claim the bass was caught on it, not the nets.