If you do go I would suggest focusing on the main Lake points. We were fishing secondary points and even farther back yesterday and didn't really have very much luck.

Also keep your head on a swivel the boat traffic was pretty high yesterday and that was on Friday I probably wouldn't go out and my kayak on a Saturday. But that's just me I don't like having to constantly be looking over my shoulder and flagging people down because they're not paying attention and looking out for people in small vessels like kayaks oe SUPs.

I was out on my yak yesterday afternoon for a couple hours and thought the same thing. Really busy for a friday afternoon. It was constant boat waves and I gave up after a couple hours. Was seasick on the way in and that never happens to me.

Something I failed to mention on the last update. The sandbass bite is best when the sun comes up, and from 6pm to dark. I have ran into many schooling fish during the day, but if you are looking for keepers the schooling fish are not where I would be focusing. The good fish are hunkered down somewhere in the depths.. I have caught some good fish running a crankbait around the schooling fish but you do not catch that many.. That is why I like to dial into them deep, then you can fish for them all day long..

7-23 update.

Sorry I didn't post last night but I was pooped. (Friday 7-23) I launched at 4:30am and pulled out at 9:50pm. I fished for the green bass for the morning, took a break and pulled on old cedar tree off the bank at twin coves point to plant out on the lake. I would share this location, but it is too close to a shared waypoint that was given to me. I don't think this would be honorable to the person who shared it with me. Anyhoo, bass fishing has been good and several methods are working. As soon as the sun comes up I am throwing a baby chug bug up near rocks that are close to deep water. Both points at twin coves are where I started yesterday. About when you think to put on sunblock (9-10am) I have been focusing on slow texas rig presentation and picking up some really nice fish. The top water bite has one small requirement, and that is little to no wind. If it is glass they will crush it, and I mean jump out of the water trying to get it. Yesterday it was windy and the bite was not so good.. So if you have to sneak back into a cove and find some banks with some calm water it will help..
After I planted the cedar tree I went over to Grapevine point (The boat ramp that is closed between Murrell point and Twin coves). I walked the bank on both sides and picked up leftovers from lazy people. Still surprised I have not seen any snakes back up in the plant growth. About 3'ish I started hunting the sandbass. I fished the end of Murrell point about 200 yards of the drop, and picked up maybe two sandies and many gaspergoo. I hit a couple of humps on the south side near the island and did the same. In these areas I am not seeing much bait. The thermocline appears to be in the 35ft range, but might need a confirmation on this from you seasoned veterans. I then headed to the lower end north side and there is much bait. I hunkered down closer to the dam on a drop and slowly worked the small jig and picked up some whites, but they were moving thru fast. I turned on the redneck thumper (bluetooth speaker) and they were a litte easier to catch. I Then changed two more times and did the same, I focused on 22-24ft depth working on the actual drop. One the steep drops you might get hung up more so I had to change the presentation. The one thing I found I had to do, was not jerk the spoon off the bottom. If there was something to get snagged on, it was harder to get off. So I started lifting it up easier waiting for the strike. I found that after a while the fish would move in, but surprisingly you don't see much on the sonar. All I used was the map, and the sonar combo. If I saw something come onto the screen of the sonar I could typically catch it. I was sitting in the back of the boat, and the transducer is right under me by the motor. I caught crappie, goo, sandbass, and bass in two spots at 24 ft. One thing I did as an experiment, was to upsize the spoon to see if i could cull the smaller sandbass. I caught less, but much better sandbass. If you have spot lock it is really easy to do, if you are using a manually controlled trolling motor I would anchor. My boat swings side to side when anchored, so I would use two which is a pain in the butt. It works, but moving is work. On the weekends the wake boats are out in full force, and it just isn't worth it to me. They have no clue about others safety, I have to walk to the back of the boat to keep the waves from going over the bow. By the way, you need to be prepared in this heat. I wear long sleeve quick dry shirts, and get them wet to stay cool. Also, I drank all three of my insulated water bottles yesterday which is 192 oz of water. Plus I had two pedialite 12oz drinks, after a long haul like this I will typically wake up with what feels like a hangover from dehydration..

If you are in a kayak, canoe, etc anchor up with one of those small foldable anchors with 4 ft of light chain on it. I have one for the canoe and it holds in any wind. Couple years ago I was fishing murrell point in the canoe, and I wanted to fish the drop. I tied a knot at 25ft from the achor, and when I was out in deeper water I would drift in towards the hump. When I felt it touch, I would pull it up and ease out and drop it in deeper water. I would let out rope until i got to my marker bouy. This worked well. ALso, I would use the lowrance navionics app on my phone which had good detail. But for some reason the last update changed the amout of detain on the map.. If you want some rope for an anchor let me know, I have a spool of mule tape which works well.

Anchor for kayak or canoe.


Academy sports Link


Crappie:
It was crappie day for me yesterday. I was doing some looking around and found two brush piles on the south side of the lake. They were full of small crappie.. If you know of a brush pile, I would give it a try. They are stacked in the brush piles I have been checking.

I get asked about my setup occasionally. I use 6lb and 8lb Kastking braided line from amazon. But beware, if you see that the line is getting twisted allot you need to unwind it. After removing the lure and leader, I will either have my son pull it out down the yard and then reel it back in. In the boat, when I am moving spots I will take off the lure/leader and let the line out as I am idling. When I get a couple casts out, I will then reel it back in. It will unwind and there will not be any twisted line. This helps with the wind knots, which can kick your butt.
Amazon link





Moon sunset when I started fishing.

Sunset

Moon coming back up at the end of the day

Wow...what a great thread here.

Just now getting back into fishing, with life (and boat issues) settling down a bit. I have a ton to learn though. I'm a catch/cook/clean kinda guy, but don't mind going after greenies for fun.

I live in south Grapevine close to Heritage HS, so I consider Lake Grapevine my home lake. I'm here because it's absolutely kicking my butt. lol.

Looking forward to keeping up with this thread and I hope to see you guys on the water soon.

jay ballauer

Greetings Mr. Ballauer.. Sounds good, and if you see me out i will happily let you know if I have any info.


Prosise

Thanks for the kind welcome, sir! I'll certainly keep an eye out on the water for you.

Other than learning all the patterns for fish in general, which I know in concept but seldom in practice, I just struggle finding structure on LG, especially on the southeast side close to where I usually put in. I haven't trusted my boat to drive me all around the lake (a variety of motor issue over the last 3 years) and the quality and inconsistency of the view on my graphs (twin Garmin 7607xsv at helm and Garmin 741xs at bow) has frustrated me. I see your graph images posted in this thread and I just smh, wishing mine looked as good. I actually have my transducer (GT50) wire running across the deck to aid in troubleshooting interference. And I think I need to tweak my ducer location on the transom slightly, as I might be running slightly low. It might be a moot point anyway since I plan to upgrade the bow graph with the most recent ducers soon (GT-56 and Livescope). I'll upgrade to a Garmin Force TM at that point too, since spot-lock will be a game-changer for me.

Well, that's my sob story anyway...lol. It's hard to enjoy a fishing trip when you don't trust your tools. Some of that is my own fault as I insist on doing everything DIY, but I'll likely let the pros do future installs...too much wheel spinning when I DIY.

I very much appreciate people here on this forum being willing to teach and help...you can watch all the videos in the world, but knowing how and when to apply them is almost impossible.

Best regards!

Just got home, with the weather forecast at 100 I decided to fish the full moon. Launched at 6pm sunday and went to the north side and started looking for sandbass. Not much seen, and I did not see any surface feeding. I caught about 6 on the drop but it was work. When the sun went down I had about 2 hours to kill before the moon started to show its face. I put out lights on the boat, and there was much bait but nothing caught. Took about a 45 min power nap and when I woke up the moon was up.. Worked the dam twice, and silver lake marina. (was slow rolling a big black/blue colorado blade spinnerbait) Caught two decent smallies, and one decent bass. All the others were dinks. Ended up down at grapevine point for the sunrise and sandbass were active, but were all small. This lasted about 20 minutes, then all was quiet. I headed to Katie woods ramp, and when I put the boat on the trailer the sandbass were schooling at the back of the boat. Caught about 5 small fish before heading to the house. Was a real nice night, and at 8:57 saw the most amazing falling star. It was bright blue, then broke up and went into a yellow fireball. Was north of us, and I saw something in the news up near the Oklahoma border about a sonic boom. Only one fisherman on the water, Mr. Anderson was searching for some crappie. With the full moon the fish will feed more during the night, and the daytime can possibly be tough fishing. If you want to catch some fish get out before sunrise and be ready to pounce, but the schooling fish are small. But small is better than nothing. Heading to bed.

Fished yesterday from 5:30am to about 6pm. First of all it was hot, and I mean crazy hot. Little to no wind, and the high temps made it uncomfortable. I am used to the heat, and kept my clothing wet to help.. At 6pm I finished 200 oz of water, and still was thirsty. Headed for the house, and cooled my heels.
I started the morning at silver lake marina (on the east side by the boat ramp) trying to pick up a smallmouth, but that didn't happen. Several small bass on the top water, and the sandbass were working out at the end of the marina. I finally eased out and started looking around the surface feeding and found the good fish down at 30ft. But Sometimes I had to let the bait go all the way down to 40ft, then work it up to them. A few were down at the bottom in 38ft of water.. Caught almost two limits of fish mostly in the 11-13 inch range. Over on the west side of the marina, towards the Gaylord there is good depth. As the small fish were feeding on the surface, I could see large numbers of fish down at 30ft and down. Caught some really nice fish, and even bumped up to the large spoon to try and get the bigger fish. The fish eased over to the area where the Large Tires meet the new sea wall. I saw there and caught good sandbass for at least 45 minutes (prob in the 10:30am timeframe: corrected based on screenshots). Then all of a sudden they moved on, I looked around but was not seeing the numbers of fish down at the 30ft area. Had some great video, but that video is now on the bottom of the lake. I pulled two large cedar trees off the bank, and while I was planting them knocked my camera off the motor. Might be able to get it with a magnet, but probably gone. As there is so much bait hiding in the marina for cover, I would think the fish will hang around this area. Scotts landing is the same, it has lots of bait up around the boats. As the brush is now out of the water, the bait have to find something to hide in for safety. But as the surface temp is so hot, they will have to go down. I saw large bait balls all around the marina in the 15ft range, so keep an eye out. A friend highlighted a good point about the marina's, the new small bass are working the marina's hard. You might see fish blowing up on the surface in the slips, or next to a walkway but these are typically the small bass. Take care all...

Had to hold my polarized glasses over the cell phone camera


To Help with the description, the (S) was where I would see the surface schooling. The Star is where I was catching them down in the 30ft range.

Work Day, and all luck. Was at the right place at the right time. Launched at 5:00am, pulled out at 8pm. Worked a couple spots for bass before sunrise but no luck, when the sun came up worked the dam and caught some small fish. I did catch a smallmouth, which was a treat. About 9 I headed over to Silver Lake Marina to see if anything was there. I didn't see any sandbass, but ther was tons of bait. From this point to about 12pm I planted brush.. Ended up planting 6 good areas with brush, most were up the lake. Pulled some good Cedar off the bank in Silver lake. Cleaned the beach, and for some reason pulled into a cove just west of twin coves, walked the banks and picked up some trash. I pulled another small cedar tree and prepped for deploy, as I left this cove I ran right into schooling sandies. I focused on the deeper fish and had a great time, some were real good fish. I scaled up to the bigger spoon, and focusing on 10-15ft depth based on the graph.. Ran into a couple that i helped back a couple months ago, and they were enjoying the sandbass crush the spoon. They however did not have a rod/reel in their boat, and I did offer. After this died out i was done, 230 oz of fluids and many dips into the lake to keep cool. Today was all luck, no skill. I was just at the right place when the sand bass found the shad. I will add the video when it is done rendering, I am going to add the whole thing. Not wanting to do any editing today, I am pooped..


This shallow cove has quite a bit of bait cornered.. The star is where I was catching the fish


Didn't get pictures of a couple of the cedar trees.. Will take a good cleaning to get all the small wood out of the carpet.

I changed to the large spoon at the 5 minute mark, check out 17:00 that is funny. The fish were under the boat, or hanging around the boat for a while. Take care. I muted the conversation with the other boat. I stayed back from the schooling fish, and it payed off.. Forgot to mention, I still have two anchors if needed. One is an anchor/chain/rope, the other is an anchor only.

Fishing 7-30-21 *** Not a lick of wind on the lake the whole day, hot as Hades... When I started this recording the wind was dead, by the end it was maybe 10mph and felt great..




This screenshot is at the 17:55 point in the video. Screenshot when i was over them, but most of the time I would see a couple in the 10 or 15ft range. But you can see the smaller fish vs the bigger fish.

Prosise, I wanted to thank you for this fantastic resource. I am a new freshwater angler and decided on Ray Hubbard as a home lake but I might have to move to Grapevine after reading all 11 pages of this thread haha. This is some great info for a freshwater noob like me, really helpful stuff. Good luck to you sir and thanks again. And big respect for those all day fishing grinds, I can't get any of my buddies up here to stay out that long!

Thank You LordoftheMorning.. Much appreciated. Launched late 10:30am due to the rains, and there was some color in Meadomere creek. Pretty good rain this morning, and the water was flowing into the lake from the creeks. Short and sweet, not much to offer. Only thing biting today was goo, and flies. The biting flies were all over me today, never remembered them on the lake before. Did some brush planting, and only small bass caught. i ended up down near Rock Ledge park working a spoon in 24 ft. Picked up a few but it was work. I searched many good areas looking for the sandbass, but cannot really give you anything. Wx was beautiful, and the sunset was really nice..

Good job! I will be out tonight and Thursday after 5 to scout out the sandies. It been a different year for sure on GV. Hopefully I will have some feedback to help.

8/3/21 - Hit a few places and found little action. the ridge just east of the island was the only place I caught fish. Only caught about a dozen and most were legal length for once. 18 ft depth was where I found them. 3/4 oz slabs white/metalflake work for me. Still slow for me. I will be back Thursday evening to see if it improves for me.
I saw no surface action tonight.

8/5/21 - PM - Found a lot of small fish today. Most were 9". The Rock Crusher area humps were the best. Had one hump that produced a limit of gaspergoo. Found quite a few sandies out on the west side of Meadowmere but still not finding the larger sandies. Murrell and the Island didn't produce last evening. Most on 3/4oz & 1 oz slabs. Caught a few on little george's deep. Saw no surface action again, but the wind picked up and the lake got rough.