After enjoying great success on Lake Lavon recently, guided and lead by Catfish Tim of course, it was time to put it all into practice this week as I would be holed up at Lake Ray Roberts for a few days in my RV.

The weather of course has been sightly inclement to say the least. March winds a blowing, and throw in some sleet and snow and its been a no-no for this old guy in his small boat.

Yesterday things took a turn for the better, so off I go!

A cold start!



And I'm off!



Conditions:
Light wind - 5-10mph from the north
Weather - sunny
Air temp - started at 30F and went up to 52F
Water temp - 49F

The cunning plan!
I haven't had a lot of success on RayBob, so was going too take my time spotting fish before soaking any baits. The plan was to head to the creek at Johnson Branch and head up to the end.



Nothing. I didn't see a fish anywhere. So that was a fruitless hour spent at 3mph watching the fish finder. I went all the way to the end and back out again. I then went deep and spotted a few fish, but not much, and decided to soak some baits. I then get snagged, twice dag blasted!

After just over half an hour a bite, but its a small dink.



An hour later and two more. It's tough.

I did have some special entertainment while bobbing around.


(short movies)
https://maddbrit.smugmug.com/RV-Trips/RV-Trip-14-Lake-Ray-Roberts-Spring-Break-2022/i-wsFWqSz/A

https://maddbrit.smugmug.com/RV-Trips/RV-Trip-14-Lake-Ray-Roberts-Spring-Break-2022/i-4gLZhD7/A

Very cool.

I tried a couple of other areas but couldn't spot ANY fish anywhere. I went over a LOT of ground.



Then the wind got up (of course it did!)...

(short movie)
https://maddbrit.smugmug.com/RV-Trips/RV-Trip-14-Lake-Ray-Roberts-Spring-Break-2022/i-SXTgBZ8/A

So I decided to throw in the white towel and head back.

'Hey Bluecat Bob, you aint no Catfish Tim!' - yeah, I knew that lol!

It was still a good day. Any day bobbing around in a boat on a beautiful Texas lake is a blessing!

To add, I will be back at it in a couple of hours, and going to try the big creek on the south of the lake (by the camping area) and also south by the Dam.



Any advice or tips much appreciated.

Wish me luck, I'm gunna need it!



A little bird told me my buddy Geno (Skeetmaster) had a bumper day on Lavon yesterday, just to rub it in how bad a Cat'r I am - lol!

Maybe it's just Ray Bob and not Blue Cat Bob that's the problem... Good luck today buddy. Wish I could get out there...

Glad you had a good time and didn’t get skunked.
Maybe they where laid down in the mud and hard to see on sonar ..

Day 2 done.

Another sunny day, but a windy one. I launched with a stiff SE breeze, 12-14mph (forecast 10-15 to increase to gust up to 20mph in the pm). I headed out to an area just west of the dam and scanned. Nothing (again) and the breeze was getting up. I deployed two wind socks and was still drifting at 0.9mph and taking waves over into the transom.

(short movie)
https://maddbrit.smugmug.com/RV-Trips/RV-Trip-14-Lake-Ray-Roberts-Spring-Break-2022/i-9MLSrgw/A

I decided it was too much and headed off to a leeward creek. It was a wet ride in the two feet waves in the middle. I was again spotting for fish, and nothing, nada. I checked the 75 feet depths, the creek channels, the creek mouths, the creeks, and it looked completely baron.

Weird.

I only fished for a couple of hours but not spotting any fish life, I called it a day.

To add insult to injury, the wind shifted to SW, so I returned to the boat ramp with the wind coming straight in, with small rollers lapping the shore so a pucker moment loading the boat on the trailer.

A skunk in the boat.

Conclusion.
Ray Bob is tough to fish.
Someone has removed all the marine life!

The forecast was for an increasing wind, but it died down to nothing later this afternoon.



Areas I fished today:

Thanks, and yes I thought maybe the same about the fish, but here is the thing, I didn't spot any fish, anywhere?

Tech tip Bob. See if you still have a transducer...

Tim, too funny!

I would seriously roll on the floor laughing. And we would NEVER let Bob live that one down!

Bob, Looks like this trip has been a bit frustrating for you. Ray Bob is a fickle bi$%&. I've had some of my all time best days there and then....well you know. If you do still have a transducer, I would have to say that at this time of the year you would probably need to head way up into one of the main feeder arms and start searching really shallow water. At this point I wouldn't even worry about the sonar. I would just go fish. This is the west arm of the lake.




It will take you forever to get up there but I'm sure there's gonna be fish getting ready to make a run up the river. Who knows though with this weather. After a couple of days of really warm weather, this is where I would fish. I would anchor fish where I could cast two or three rods into the middle of the channel, and two or three rods onto the shallow flat.




Or, I would just pack everything up and head to a different lake LOL!

Regardless of what happens, just remember, you can't do any of this at home! Good luck man.

Nah, Geno's wrong... I'd drift South East...

Ha!!

Tim for the win!!!!!

This is the fish finder view ANYWHERE on Ray Bob, I swear!



There may be a reason I never see any cat’rs fishing this lake….

It was a beautiful evening last night, fish or no fish.



I decided to reward my efforts with some Babes Chicken at Sanger. Oh my….

Last night was windy, the RV rocked me to sleep.

Got up early to go fish of course and was greeted by this:



Ok, I know when I’m beaten. This ain’t Lavon!!!

It’s 32F and blowing a hoolie.

Boat is headed back to the storage with my tail between my legs….

Neat thread!

I had a day like that on Lake Worth towards the end of last summer. Checked every single place I could get my boat in on the lake. (I had a pontoon boat at the time). Never marked or caught a single fish, till nearly 11 am. Saw some guys that had fished way up the only creek that came out of the Nature Center, and they had caught fish all morning. I couldn't get my pontoon back there. But, I can get my new boat back there!