Fished this week at PK and once again came away without a single Striper. I spent all morning getting threadfin shad for bait up a creek. Shad were very hard to find and were only in one creek. I don't think there is a single threadfin in Neely Slough or anywhere down lake. ( there's a few there now that I released at the cliffs marina) Netted several large crappie and a keeper channel cat in the 1-2 foot muddy water chasing shad. All the fish returned to the lake.

I have fished this lake since 2011 and have never in the past seen a time when I had a bait tank full of shad I had to release because nothing would take them. I see very few fish on the fish finder. I stayed on the lake after dark and even the green lights I fish only had carp on them. I could see that maybe stripers are uplake wanting to spawn, but this has not happened in the past in May. Usually, this is one of the best months on the lake.

Makes me wonder if this is caused by an unreported Golden algae bloom over the winter or something else. If this persists, I think I will need to just bring my boat back to the metroplex and let PK sit for a while. This is something new I have not seen before.

I hope some lake guides will give their opinion on this.

It’s weird here on Texoma as well. It’s not terrible but it’s way beneath what May normally is none of us can explain it

it is weird this year to me over in Proctor also for May.......

I fished PK this past Wednesday! Hit a number of post spawn structures without marking a single fish. Had SI out 100 ft scouting these areas. The bait found was so tiny and sparse , the bait net stayed on board.

The Carp were everywhere , and the water clarity north was super muddy.

On Cedar Creek Lake I normally catch one or two legal hybrids when I fish for white bass, but to date this year there have been only 3 or 4 legal hybrids caught despite plenty of white bass. We are catching 3 to 8 short hybrids per outing.

Proctor is usually my “go to” white bass lake. The last 3 weeks, have caught 50 to 100 10 to 14” hybrids per trip, with only a few whites mixed in. No legal hybrids. One thing I have noticed there and PK, is lack of shore birds working the shad in the mornings. What shad I have seen are very small, about 1”.

Small shad would be a good thing at PK. That would mean we have some still alive to spawn.

I think PK is a beautiful lake but poorly managed by TPWD and the BRA. Just my observation over the years.

Been a down year for hybrids at Phantom for me this year. Lots of whites but few hybrids. Normally this time of year I am catching plenty!

I have noticed this too at phantom. Last year was the same for us with it being down. We have done extremely well in past years. I don’t think all the guide pressure has helped that lake with it being fairly small.


Tight Lines!

Went to PK yesterday, 5/25 and started on north side. Up in willow beach slew, the shore birds were lined up everywhere. Started noticing bigger shad and crappie were dead and dying all around. Then noticed the tiny shad were everywhere in distress.
Moved back down lake toward sandy beach and didn’t see any other dying fish. Caught a couple nice stripers using perch for bait. About 7:30 pm, seen several groups of sandies busting the top, caught some but was learning livescope more than fishing.

Fished Proctor Saturday and Sunday. Caught two keeper hybrids and 3 unders. No sand bass. Trolled umbrella, threw Rattle Traps and Meps and dropped minnows….. nothing. Marked some fish but nothing substantial.

The sand bass run in DFW was bad this year as well, I know several folks who are “in the know” and the fishing was just off. I went a few times, caught maybe 15-20 fish (catching 50-100 is a slow day for me), then I pretty much quit trying because it was just so bad. The most eventful thing I had happen was a hybrid tore a hole in my net in a rapid while I was netting minnows