Fished a stretch of the Fabled Elm Fork I had never fished before, from my 2 man boat!

Put in at the boat ramp ABOVE the Sandy Lake Spillway, and headed upstream towards the 35E bridge. Saw some of the most fishy water you could ever hope to see in any river in this part of Texas! Wow! beautiful, serene stretches, huge brushpiles in DEEP water,wide, meandering bends in the river.

I am definitely keeping this area in mind once the crappie season starts in November/December!

We set out to find some pan sized channel cats, with chicken liver for bait. But also, a crappie rod, a bag of tube jigs, and the ever present rooster tail, just in case the Legendary river decided to let us get into some sandies, black bass, crappie, or hybrids!

Well "dog days" fishing isn't always top notch, and today proved to be no exception! Oh, we did catch fish, a good number of them, but something was working against us, when we got a goodun' on, we got them as close as the boat, and either the fish broke off, or in one case, the hook came untied!

My friend and coworker, Jose De La Cerda and I both suffered the same fate!

First he laughed at me because a NICE fat channel cat came off at the boat! When I told him the hook came untied, he quickly figured I had not quite earned my scout knot tying badge! Then, when a LARGE, fat, feisty Flathead literally bit my line in two at the boat(maybe 5 pounds, maybe more!), he lost it! But then, when a VERY LARGE fat Blue cat broke him off at the boat, the excuses poured out: The hook was too small, the drag was too tight, the line was too light,and on and on!! It was a nice blue, maybe 8-10 lbs, and i had the net at the ready!

We caught one keeper channel, some beautiful kentucky spotted bass, and several throwback channels.

Beautiful stretch of river, some incredibly fishy looking spots, and we DID tangle with some dandy rod benders!

beautiful but small kentucky spotted bass:



Another pretty, but small kentucky:


A"representative" sample of the throwback channels we caught:


The one "keeper" channel, fat, healthy, distinct markings:


Definitely going back during crappie season! Should be dynamite!

Rudy

Nice report Rudy! I'm going to have to try that in my kayak some time.

It is perfect for kayaking! You will love it!

Rudy

I know where that Sandy Lake Amusement park is. But I'm not familar w/how to get down to the elm fork banks in this area. If somebody could point me in the right direction of how to get down there, I would appreciate it greatly.

Strangely enough Rudy when I fished that EXACT area around two years ago, we caught the same thing. We only had one fish break off though, but we caught several small channel cats, and couple of decent spotted bass, with the biggest just under 18". Did you get all the way up to I35?

I've gone downstream from lewisville to hebron and up from sandy lake about a mile or so, but never been between hebron and there.

Oh yeah, the last time I was there, there were a couple of jokers FLYING through the creek on the jet skis. Must have had a death wish or something.

from sandy lake park keep going toward coppell . you will see the bridge that crosses the creek / pull in on the right before crossing . there is ample parking space and there is also a ramp .cant miss it its right past the plant nursery on the right coming from 35

Thanks. I know where you're talking about, guess I just never paid attention. Appreciate the info.

Nice fish! Fished near that area from shore in a few spots before.

Excellent post sir, as usual... too bad the big ones broke/came off.

Did you get up to the confluence of Denton Creek (from Grapevine) into the Elm fork? That area looked mighty fishy even when it was flooded.

In response to the the post about jet skiing that section, I recognized that stretch of river before I read the text from the first picture with the water intake in the background. I have flown by there on my jetski when we got tons of rain in '07, lots of fun, I even took an inlet out to the overflow reservoir to the right of SB I-90 just past I35, I could see people looking out their cars probably wondering what the heck I'm doing out there.

This is a vid from when it was inundated with water coming from north and stopping a few hundred yards before the water intake.
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-5494369772807936207&hl=en
Next to George BushTp...
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=4013435268833990158

Those jetski videos are something else. Noticed you were hitting 55mph or so at several points. I was expecting to see you buzz by two fisherman in a little boat though LOL. There are a lot of kayakers in that section of river.