At Caliham the whole area or cove to the right (as you back out the ramp) was FULL of reds. They are all running on top and rats to bulls were seen just about every minute from sun up until about noon when it got hot. In the early morning they were in 5 foot to 10 foot and by 11 they were in 20 foot.

We were targeting bass at first but by 10 AM we switch to target the reds. Saddly, we failed. We threw top water, spoons, lizards, divers, spinners, ZERO hits????!!!! I caught bass in the AM but when we targeted the obvious reds nothing?

On the way out we talked to a bank fisherman who did well with the reds from the jetty on mussels found in the shallows.

reds???? I think u might have lakes or bays a little off....

Yea, I have never heard of redfish on Choke Canyon. There are some gaspergoo, which are almost like Black Drum, but no reads to my knowledge! I fish Choke a whole lot and I have never heard of any redfish talk on the lake. TPWD has no information that any were ever stocked in the lake either.

Like Will said, I think you have your lakes confused, or maybee your fish. I was at choke sunday too, and there was a lot of surface action but it was mostly gar and some kind of grass carp type thing.

Anyways, the bass fishing was fairly good. I didnt catch anything big, but I did catch small bass 1-3 lbs at a high rate. The shallow cranking bite was really on around rocky points, with big chunks of rock and hydrilla. We also caught a few fish off of senkos and spinnerbaits, but crankbaits worked best. We fished mostly the 4 fingers area!

Anyways, I think that the closest lake with reds is Braunrig outside of san antonio! TPWD says they are in Coleto but I have never seen any either!

Now this is a classic fish story - Jason there are no reds in Choke Canyon, perhaps you were seeing the large carp, gar or goo but not redfish.

Debra

It actually pretty comical! Just giveing you a little bit of a hard time, but you were wasting all that time throwing lures at Carp, while at the best bass fishing lake in the state! Too Funny! Yea, I bet yall did have a hard time at getting a hookup!

However, in Jason's defense, he is from San Antonio were they have two lakes that have large redfish population. I will admit, those golden carp do look alot like redfish at first glance. I come from the island and when I first got big time into bass fishing I thought they were redfish at first glance too! But, I will assure you, there are no redfish in Choke Canyon.

I dont know what the bankfisherman were telling you but they must have been crazy as foxes. Like I said, there is a fishable population of gaspergoo, but no redfish!

Those were most likely Gaspergou, as they spawn about this time of year.

We used to catch them on the Nueces up to eight pounds and they were in huge schools, and would hit regular jigs and bass baits, and really put up a fight.

They don't cook up bad either if you feel like messing with them as the filets you get you will have to work for, and they aren't worth it with the smaller ones as the bones are thick, and filets are thin.

Check out the link!
http://www.tpwd.state.tx.us/huntwild/wild/species/fwd/

Water clear; 67 degrees; 6.77� low. Black bass are fair on chartreuse/white spinnerbaits, crankbaits, and Carolina rigged soft plastics. White bass are slow. Crappie are good on minnow tipped jigs. Drum are slow. Channel and blue catfish are fair on punchbait in 10 � 12 feet. Yellow catfish are fair on trotlines baited with live perch.

So the report above says drum are slow.... what drum are they speaking of..... becasue as said above in Calaveras they had reds and I have caught them..... ugggggggg...... CARP!!!! WASTED DAY!!!!!!

I dont think they were gaspergoo that he saw, because they were busting at the surface. Those golden colored carp mess around at the surface and on the tops of grass pads and look alot like redfish to the untrained eye! Like I said, I grew up on the island and when I first got into big time bass fishing, and caught my first glimps of them on Choke, I thought they were reds for a minute too. However, after tossing a few lures at them and getting a good luck, you realized that they are some sort of carp. I garuntee that is what he saw.

I was at choke on sunday too, and the carp were all over the place on top of the water. Gaspergoo do not come up to the top like that on a normal basis. However, they do hit small jigs like you said, along with rattle traps, crankbaits, and a variety of other shad imatating lures! Every once in a while you will catch a great big one, near 10 lbs, but mostly they are about 1-3 lbs.

There are supposed to be a few reds in Coleto, according to TPWD stocking records. Also, you can catch them in the nueces river below labonte park (spillway)! I heard that someone even caught a 36 inch Tarpon at the spillway a few months ago!

I believe they do have the Goo confused with the Reds, Several folks this week have told me that the Goo are spawning and people were catching them off the jetty/pier area of Caliham with Mussels that they collected on the bank at the 75 acre lake. Another guy told me that they caught 57 on Friday and 40 on Saturday using jigging spoons tipped with nightcrawlers by the dam. So while the carp may be on top splashing the Goo are spawning and even some die hard bass fishermen are catching them for the freezer. Just not telling their buddies that they are Goo fishing!!!

When it says drum are slow... that is a gaspergoo, it is a freshwater drum similar to a black drum...

They weren't gaspergou if they were on top. Goos are being caught on the bottom this time of year.

We used to catch boatloads of them every April before 9/11. We'd tie up to the second concrete pillar on the dam. Roadrunners and Heddon Gay Blades vertically jigged off the bottom were top producers. Now that the dam is buoyed off, the whole area is off limits.

We'd fillet the small ones (1-3 lbs.) for frying and the larger ones we'd fillet on the halfshell and grill (just like a red or black drum). Best eating fish in the lake aside from crappie.

It had been a few years since I went to Choke and targeted them so I did just that last month. Anchored up on a steep dropoff and commenced to jigging a Gay Blade in 15-17 feet of water. Caught a half dozen or so nice gaspergou plus a few LMB, including one that must have been pushing 6.

Below is the lure. Out of the box it comes with a rear treble and front double hook. Back in the good days the stock hooks would be destroyed after a couple dozen drum so we came up with this modification which has proven to be effective. Plus it's much easier to unhook a fish quickly compared to the out-of-the-box version.

Well I'll be........ never knew!

My buddy and I kicked ourselves hard on this one..... I least I spoke up and we didn't gear up for a day of Reds next time.... but those guys look fun too..... what I saw must have been carp though, but I swear I saw a black spot on the tail ALL moring????

Thanks for the education!!!

Like I said Jason, those golden colored carp do look a whole lot like redfish. Coming from Braunrig and Calveras, Im sure you did think they were reds when you saw them. Even guys with some experience can be thrown off by them, like I said, I even had the thought that they were reds when I first saw them yrs back.

However, they are just some kind of carp! No reds in Choke Canyon. As for the gaspergoo thing, Im sure people were catching them on the mussels or whatever, but they werent the fish that were on the surface. Those were the carp. They might have been seeing the carp, and catching the goos, and just figured it was the same thing!

Dont yall think it is weird that Goos will hit a wide variety of fast cranking lures in the freshwater, but their saltwater brothers (black drum) wont even bother chasing a lure. I have logged many hrs saltwater fishing when I live on the island and have never once caught a drum on a lure. You hear stories every once in a while about them taking a gulp or DOA, but thats it. However, I catch freshwater drum all the time while bass fishing. On lures like traps, cranks, jerkbaits, and such. I think the reason why freshwater drum hit lures is because they dont have as many crustacians to eat in the freshwater, which makes them key in on baitfish a lot more. On the flip side, saltwater drum have lots of bottom dwelling crustaceans and dont need to chase bait fish like the freshwater drum do.

Caught (and released) this big ugly on a tout.



Saltwater fly fisherman consider catching one on the fly a big deal.

Hey Sean,

If I caught anything on a fly rod other then the back of my head it would be a big deal!!!!!!!!!!!!

Glad to see you are still around and Goo fishing too. You ever do any good on the whites in the river this past Feb? I never made it up there to fish for them. Always work or the weather not cooperating.

Jim