Hopefully this will help in compiling some helpful tips for people for Tawakoni. I will not be fishing it often, for the record.

For starters I am only sharing what I know. And I don't know diddly about this lake. Wanted to take mason out and take a peek at the lake. I put out some feelers out on the forum but didn't get any replies. We went blind, and for the first time on a lake I was really impressed. I know there is probably a good amount of tips on the lake here somewhere, but I couldn't find them.

Also, I didn't want to post this on the Grapevine thread.. This lake will ruin it for you, these fish are strong. Even holding a hybrid by your thumb is surprising when they give you a head throw.. Pure muscle.

We launched at the dam, and to be safe picked up several dozen shad right on the ramp. Wanted to wait for light before heading out, so we checked out the map. Right before we left the ramp a couple boats arrived. I met a local police officer from the nearest town, he advised us to stay on the southwest side and could pick up sandbass galore. Mason wanted to target Hybrids and Striper so we went out to a large hump and looked around the main end. We worked in a bit and found a channel that had fish in it, but they would come thru quickly. Several guide boats showed up in this area, and with live shad were picking up some numbers occasionally. I noticed the guides all used splashers, and live bait for the morning. Mason picked up a couple nice hybrid at (Waypoint #1). We stayed at this spot and just kept working the spoon, and blade bait until about 10:30am. We only caught 1 fish on a shad, and it was a surprise. All the remaining fish we caught for the day were on artificial baits. Used the large Cordell silver spoon, a large white spoon, and the cabelas "mean eye blade bait". The 1/4 oz blade bait caught 90% of the fish for the day, it is easy to cast and you can work the bottom quickly. We did more casting and working it back on the bottom, than vertical jigging. Never really saw any large schools of fish, but rather fish here and there. As we only fished the area relatively close to the ramp, we concentrated on working as many good looking points that we could find.
At about 11am we ventured off the main point towards the banks, and checked out a couple main points. We ran into large schools of small hybrids, and sandbass. They were moving in wolf packs around the area quickly. I could see them coming on the mega360 and almost predict where to cast. (Waypoint #2) was the point where we caught allot of smaller fish, but any fish is better than no fish. Just west of this area (Waypoint #3) is where we worked the hot part of the day. We caught sandbass, small hybrids, goo, crappie, and landed a 5lb largemouth on 6lb braided. This small point has some larger size gravel on the top, and this is where we caught most of the fish. Mason took breaks, and we did some swimming to cool off as we fished. We took a joy ride around a bit, and drove towards mid lake, but the main point we stopped at was vacant.
We went back to (Waypoint #1) area, and ran into a very nice man (Brian) who was very helpful. He described what he had been doing, and had caught many fish lately. He was sitting in 25 foot of water about 150 ft from our waypoint, and working a 5" long yellow jigging spoon. He would drop it to the bottom, reel up 8 cranks and then "Rinse and repeat". He noted that the area was not that good on the graph at that time (prob 1pm). He did allot of looking around, searching and pouncing. I very much appreciate his information, and friendly help..
Since we caught some good fish there, and we didn't know anything about the lake we stayed put. It was a grind, but about every 45 minutes we would hook up with a big sandbass, or a hybrid. We stayed in this area from 1pm to about 4pm. I was looking forward to the afternoon bite, and didn't know if this area was any good so I simply scanned for guide boats. None seen, so the afternoon bite must be good up the lake, or on the dam. I could see many boats over there, but didn't want to be running all day long. Around 5pm we went out to the very end of the point (Waypoint #4) , and worked this area for a while. There are tons of catfish up on top of this point. We probably caught 30 small catfish on the blade bait here. I picked up Mason's rod which has 10lb fluoro and hooked up with a good fish, had to get on the trolling motor on 10 and go after it. Fish was spooling me, and it was getting close.. After I moved a bit, he turned and I was able to get him wore down at the boat. Was fun, and reminded me of the coast. Was nice to let mason see a striper, and he was just glad to hold it before releasing it. All fish were released We just picked up smaller fish from this point on, and at 8:10pm were at the boat ramp. The drive back home was brutal, and I had to stop and get the blood pumping.

I know this might not be much, but if it can help anyone get on some fish I'm happy. Didn't do any waypoint buzzarding, and just used the map and electronics. I am looking forward to next week, think we are going back, and this time will look at mid lake areas. I remember seeing some maps of Tawakoni that had some good tips, but just couldn't find them. Maybe they will resurface.

This lake is a beast, and I am here to tell you I would hate to see it in 25 mph winds. When you can look across a lake and have a hard time seeing the other side, it is something to be cautious about. And for this reason I stayed in the areas we did, I think it is better to just hang in there and keep chugging. The more we fish the lake, the more we will learn. And we both had already said it was worth it by 8am when mason landed a monster sandbass, and two good hybrids. I forgot how hard these suckers pull, and we were running light tackle. I was using the same gear I would use at grapevine, and it was not the right tackle in my opinion. I would scale up to 12 or 15lb fluoro, or 10lb braid. I was using a swivel with about 12"-16" of 20lb fluoro as a leader, and this was helpful. The braid is attached to fluoro with a (alberto knot) which is the bees knees. We caught allot of small fish along the points closer to land, but it helped during the slow time of the day.

Basically in every spot we were casting, letting the bait fall to the bottom. Then pump it up and let it fall.. You can feel the blade bait vibrate when you pick it up, and most of the time it was on the fall..


Waypoint #1


Waypoint #2


Waypoint #3 about 500 yards west of prev waypoint


Waypoint #4


This is my trail for the day, which shows we didn't even scratch the surface of this lake. And it was about 10 gallons of gas.



This bait caught the most fish, we even traded the bait between our rods and mason would then catch more fish. The original color was fire tiger, than I painted over. For some reason the green made a difference. Will take some fire tiger lures next trip. The sweet bait caught the bass, striper, and biggest sandbass. Might be a coinkydink..

















Thanks & God Bless

Prosise

Awesome write up!!

Thank you for the information. I really enjoy your great input.

Great report, and smiling kids with fish are always a win.

i didnt see your post before. would have gladly shared what ive learned. you need to hit cooper up next month for hybrids. got a feeling youd figure them out. good running into you out there. next time ill be in the new boat!

BTW. you drove right past one of my favorite places to fish. Lewisville in the winter can be quite epic

Great report. Waypoints 1 and 4 are on Wolf Creek Humps, one of the best structures on the lake. Your venture to the east side of the dam took you to another great spot - the Propellar, one of the Southeast Dam Humps. Here is a map I created for another fellow to show the main spots on Tewakoni:

Thank you for sharing, that is good info. Looking forward to learning more about this lake.

Lots of grins on your boys face ! Awesome

nice fish, thanks for the report

Thanks for sharing sir!

Wow!
What a report and WTG!!!

You guys really got after them!

Always enjoy the posts from you Prosise. I need to venture away from Lavon and try these other lakes! This thread is very helpful.

Great post! Very helpful. I have not fished this lake before but live in east Dallas and would love to try it some time.