Barrett ask your dad if he ever cut doughnuts on the football practice field in a 66 El Camino , i know he did because i was in there with him , 1971 or 72 during school
He got in trouble !

tons of milfoil (not hydrilla) in most of the creeks and a lot of the main lake flats all the way out to 8'-9' deep. acres and acres of it!

These next 2 weeks is going to be busy also

I think you are right ,Mark

I saw 2 boats this morning at ramp , none at marina ramp

Limit started out years ago at 18" min 3 fish then went to 14"-24" slot. Then a few of the guides and others as evidenced in the other thread thought it would be good for business in the area and pushed for the 14" MLL. For whatever reason we don't seem to have the good numbers of fun fish, the 1-3 pounders we used to have which would keep you occupied while hunting a big fish. My guess is the tournament pressure and mortality, lots of gar, there is better grass this year but there has not been in the past few so no where for fry to hide, etc...Whatever the issues, if it is going to be pounded like it is, it needs some attention from TPWD if it is going to remain a good fishery. I crappie fish too and bass and crappie have not been the same, not good old days same, I am talking not the same as just 2-3 years ago.

I took some friends out Saturday for 1/2 A day and there were multiple boats jockeying for room on the best pieces of cover in every spawning pocket we tried to fish. 287 teams were fishing the HS tournament is what we were told. When the wind kicked up it got even smaller. We boated a few small ones but I did not see another fish caught and we were all over the lake.

I didn't start Fishing RR until 2006 , before was Texoma

Yeah, It’s off limits till Friday for TXTT. Then goes off limits this Sunday night for Basschamps the following weekend. It’ll be back to the normal amount of boats hammering the lake in no time.

So basically if you are crowded lake sensitive this Friday - Sunday will be busy, then next Saturday will be busy, after that it’s all over for ‘23.

Some of y’all have forgotten how bad the lake sucked during the slot. The fishing was not good toward the end of it, the only difference was you got to not catch fish with less boats around.

I was against the slot getting removed. I was wrong. It didn’t make the fishing worse. I wasn’t wrong about the economic impact here locally, but that is another topic. 2014 was the best year out here since the 90s. We had multiple 50 fish days with some 9lbers. Fluctuations in water level is RR’s problem. Either it’s low and the grass can’t keep up with the water dropping, or we start getting good grass and it floods and they can’t get the water out fast enough because it all has to run through Dallas on its way to the gulf.

The lake is in really good shape habitat wise right now. If you’re not seeing grass you’re just not looking. You don’t even have to venture into the timber to find it. And yes there is acres of hydrilla along with the massive amount of milfoil. I’ve pulled up growing hydrilla in 3 separate places that are all miles apart.

The problem currently is the fish population hasn’t caught up to all the habitat yet. It will. Give it time. That is if there isn’t a flood. There is deep enough grass that they can not pull enough water out this year to kill it all.

I don’t like fishing around all the other boats either but that isn’t going to change. The slot is never coming back, and there are just more and more people moving in around here.

Let me start by saying I hate the lake..... or it hates me I'm not sure. I thought the lake fished better this year than in years past. We had really good practice 2 different days with more bites than I'm used to getting. We got bit during tourny ok but I could not get a few in the boat. It happens. Considering the fluctuations in weather and them pulling water along with the pressure I was surprised at how good it fished. So you go out during the high school regional that everyone knew was up there on a tough wind day and gripe about it being rough. Have you fished any other lakes around lately? If you don't want to fish around a bunch of boats you better get a job that let's you fish on Tuesday cause like it or not there are tons of people fishing and it's not gonna stop. It's every lake around. Honestly I'd swap you more tournaments for less wake boats that I get to deal with. At least at ray Bob you can get in the trees and avoid that nonsense.

I understand I am swimming up stream since most of the people here are tournament people and could care less about the impact a tournament has on a fishery. I fish when I can, I had 1/2 a day Saturday available and that was it so yep I got in the middle of the mess. Yes I fish other lakes a lot and catch plenty of fish. I am trying to bring to light a problem that WE are creating on several popular lakes by not spreading these competitions out. If I put a bug in one club tournament directors ear and/or one of these big trail schedulers ear and even one of them decides to choose a different lake next year that is a win! I understand also that is not likely to happen...Two more weeks and the tournaments will be gone for a time. No more unpopular comments from me...Good luck and good fishing to everyone!

I wish i was good enough to fish in a tournament , period

Four of us fished Sunday and no one caught a fish. I didn't get anything that I even thought might be a bite. Granted, three of us live at least 200 miles away and have only been on the lake about three times so we don't know the best areas. It seems like a really tough lake with a low density of bass. The carp and gar populations are apparently thriving.

We will go up the 29th for our beating, go home, and hope for better on Tawakoni.

Lake Ray Dream Crusher