well, weather was so nice that i loaded up the family and headed off to lake grapevine for some evening fishing. The 17 foot tracker is kinda crowded with 4 people on board but we made the run over to the dam since that was pretty good last week. Bad news is the sandies were very spotty there today. Picked up the little ones shallow in the bubble area but no big ones. What we did run into was schooling under slot black bass. Caught 20+ in maybe a 30 minutes period. Caught them on live shad, curly tailed jigs and swimming lures and everyone was catching fish which is fun.

Just a heads up that I did see sandies trying to start schooling by the dam tonight. Problem was the crazy waterskiers were driving them right back down (not to mention getting within about 25 yards of my boat which was ticking me off). I am ready to start chasing the surfacing fish and looks like they are starting to heat up.

Glad you were able to get into something. Thats one thing about the Vine, it's more a rec lake than anything so your gonna have to put up with the jet fleas and skiers/tubers until the sun goes down or they get too drunk to function. Lots of nice sandys and some good kittys there. The LMB population I believe is making great strides as well with the slot limits they've had out there for the last few years. I think in a couple of more years they may just have a share lunker to donate to TPWD, If you like the green trash fish .

The key to fishing Grapevine - and surviving with your sanity in tact - is to get there early and leave early.
I want my boat in the water as the sun is barely peeking over the dam. And I'm dragging it out usually before noon.

That's still a pretty long day during the heat of the summer. Heck..I'm usually trying to rehydrate after getting the boat in the water.

That is so true about Grapevine. Get there early and leave early. However, now the recreational boaters are getting there early these days. I went out last Saturday, and at 7:45, the fools were out already. Man, there is no sleep for the weary. But it does look like the lake is getting back to normal. Good report.

The good thing about those pleasure boaters that get out there that early is that they aren't hung over. I think the majority of them have sense when they are out there that early. Of course you still get the occasional wahoo. But you get the occasional wahoo fisherman too.

I'm hoping to be out early on Saturday morning. Hoping. Hoping. Hoping. Hoping.

I don't mind the pleasure boats so much. They usually keep a decent distance between them and boats that are fishing. Is is the waterskiers that seem the worst. They will run within 25 yards of my boat when I am fishing. Last night there were two waterskiing boats making the same run up and down the dam constantly.

Jeff, I am going to try to get out early saturday if weather permits. Hope to see you and others out there! Doubt I will do the dam though since ski traffic will probably be crazy saturday. THinking maybe murall park for some suspended sandies? Or if we get lucky, they will be out on main lake surfacing.

I am thinking of taking the kiddo out saturday maybe do a little perch jerkin'. good luck to yall this weekend and be safe!! If you see a big fatty on the southside by the island areas gimme a shout!

Murrall Park... Where is a good place to fish in that area? The rock crusher? The fingers/coves?
I am pretty new to the lake, but now its my "home" lake. We have been fishing the island in the afternoons with mixed luck. Sometimes its on, and when its off, it seems to be off for hours. Then we hit the dam, after that, we go back to the island and back and fourth. Last Saturday morning, we got skunked. We forgot about the rock crusher area. We need some more areas to try.

We also did see a couple of skiers at 7:00 am around the island, but they weren't too bad and seemed to stay a pretty good distance.

We will add Murrall Park to our list of places to visit.

also try in front of meadowmere they are there sometimes too.

gonna try and use a floating piece of wood with rope dangling and bright orange painted nails sticking out to keep the pwcs and skiers away. i know they dont like my markers when i place them around my boat. gonna get more bouies today . haahhaaa

Maybe if you caught something you could cut it up and use it for bait. I don't think theres a size limit on PWC's.

Now that is a thought... I could just place a half dozen floats around my boat and maybe that would keep the skiers at a distance.

Re: murall park, we just use the graph to look for suspended fish. Either they are there or they aren't. I usually don't give it more than a few minutes of trolling around and watching the graph. If I see concentrations, we stop and slab them a while. If not hitting, we move on. Maybe others can chime in with better tips. Murall park is usually the 3rd or 4th place I will try if other more consistent places don't work. My favorite two places are twin coves area and dam area. I can usually get fish somewhere in one of those two areas. If they don't work, we also try murall or the area near the dam (forget the name of the park). There is a rocky shore area over there and we have caught good numbers of sandies there in the summer but usually just early or late.

a buddy of mine tore them up at the Vine last night. I'll let him tell you where he caught 'em if he wants to divulge.

I hope he shares. We went out tonight and fished the island, then Murrall Park, then the dam, then the island, and nothing. Three of us where fishing each with a different lure, rattle trap, Little George and a different colored rattle trap. Nothing all night. We are pretty new, so any tips would be good.