Well I thought it would be fun to get on the road at 1am and head over to East Texas to fish Lake Palestine with North Texas Kayak Championship Trail (73 anglers) and the Texas Bass Nation Kayak Series (68 anglers). After a few pit stops I got to Flats Creek Boat Ramp around 530am. There were quite a few other anglers there but not overly crowded.

I had never seen the lake before and was going to focus on main lake boat docks and brush piles but that just did not pan out. I fished hard the whole day but could not get anything going. Out of all the docks I fished I might of found 3 or 4 with brush piles around them as the others were bare except for the walls of ice that was built up on them, eventually melting and falling off later in the day making a heck of a racket.

I threw everything at them including jigs, tx rig tube, spinnerbaits in different colors and blades, cranks, lipless and a variety of glides. It wasn't until 1pm when I got my first bite along a retainer wall that I was lucky to land. It was a chunky 19" fish that inhaled my lipless crankbait.

I fished hard the rest of the day and with 3mins left in the day I landed my 2nd fish another healthy fish right at 15.75" on a flat sided crankbait and that's it.

It was a tough day for a lot of folks I think in both trails anglers from around 35th place and down didn't catch a scorable fish. I would definitely love to go back on a warming trend and fish that lake and I wont be going to another far event with that caliber of anglers without practicing first. The anglers that caught fish really put a whooping on the rest of us that's for sure.

It was a long drive back especially through the metroplex right at dusk.

Final standings

2025 NTXKC - Lake Palestine 21st of 78 anglers

2025 Texas B.A.S.S. Nation Kayak Series 19th of 68 anglers

Great report, thank you for sharing...

Another great report and didn't know there was two Kayak tournaments on the same day.

Good job for first time on the lake.

What did the water temps range during the day ? I'm just gonna guess 45-49 ?

cant find the tournament results anywhere... heard my old Palestine fishing buddy, MC won it.

Solid post and fish. Good job Sir.

I saw it get up to 52 at the end of the day and it started off at 44

He did that ol fishing son of a gun!
https://tourneyx.com/leaderboard/standings/2025-ntxkc-lake-palestine

https://tourneyx.com/leaderboard/standings/2025-texas-b-a-s-s-nation-kayak-series-lake-palestine

thanks Justin... just looking at some of the names, that was tough fishing..