Me and a few buddies from work are planning a trip to lake conroe in a couple of weeks (around the 22nd-24th). None of us have ever been to the lake before and was curious if anyone had any lake tips they wouldn't mind sharing with us. I'm not looking for spots but just maybe an area to start; north end, south end, a creek chain. If the lake has any timber, grass, or boat docks. If it's an open lake that's easy to run and a good ramp to launch from. Also if there is a good place to get a good map of the lake and maybe some locals to talk to when we get there. What techniques ya'll have had good success with. I know the weather is going to change before then but any general help would be great. Also is there any where to get some good reports from the lake. Also you can pm me if you don't want to give any info out here.
Thanks
James
See you on the water.

not much grass except for the far north end. Fishing is tough right now in conroe. I usually put in in april plaza off of 105 and with your graph on you can find some good water close. Stop at gander mountain on the way and grab a map, some of the areas posted on the map are pretty good.

James what cypressskeeter said is pretty much it. I also use April Plaza on 105, good ramp. Another option is Stowaway, nice ramp and a lot of tournaments run out of there, it is north of the 1097 bridge and puts you closer to the upper end of the lake. I have only been once since the 1st due to the weather and other commitments. There was a pic either here or on one of the boards showing an 8.8 lber caught on a main lake point, or so he said!

Good luck and be prepared for rough water, it is rough on a good day.

brush piles & boat docks

Fish really, really slow....

Another good ramp is Scott's Ridge.... Kinda way out there, but it puts you on the north end of the lake, which I like the best. Good luck.

Conroe is one of the most under-rated Bass lakes in TX! Because of its close proximity to Houston and reputation as a recreational lake, many bass fisherman seem to overlook this lake. Thats a big mistake! Conroe can offer some of the states best fishing. I think that only Fork has recorded more shareLunkers than Conroe. Im not big on official stats, but you still cant overlook a claim like that. I believe the lake record is around 16 lbs.

The only tourny I ever fished on that lake took 36 lbs to win. The only place where I have seen so many 8 lbers at weigh-ins was Falcon, however; this was in the max of Conroe's spawn! Besides for having some big fish, Conroe also has good numbers! I have fished the lake about 10 times and have always caught a limmit, and most times well over 50 bass per boat! They have a good stocking program and longer length restrictions on bass!

However, Conroe can be tricky at times, especially for new anglers or first time lake goers. The lake is full of man made stuff such as boat docks, marinas, concrete, and other stuff. There is not much grass because of the home owners, and it is hard to locate brush cause the tops are mostly choped off by pleasure boaters.

First off, use the man made structure/cover to your advantage. Fish dont seem to care if the structure/cover is natural or man made, it all does the trick! You can catch fish off the docks, concrete pillings, or other stuff in the water. A good tactic is to fish the little docks, latters, slips, and steps that are on the little creeks and canals. If you want to fish docks remember, not all docks are created the same. Pay attention to what sort of docks hold fish: depth, shade, proximity to creeks/coves/main lake, water color, ect.

Now there are also many natural areas of the lake that dont have houses and such. On the Northwest portion of the lake you can find shorelines littered with timber by way of huge stumps. These areas look great for stump knocking a jig, or buzzbaits early.

At the Shamrock/shell (cant remember exactly) boat ramp you can put in and hang a right towards the bridge and find good fishing. There are a few humps out there that contain little area of hydrilla. This area can be good in the mornings, I have caught some good sacks out of this area. Also, alot of people hang that right and continue under the bridge, Ive never gone that far but you might want to try it!

If the fishing gets tough out there, find you some of the little backyard canals on the eastern shoreline of the lake and fish them with a weightless senko wacky style, or a shaky head, or drop shot. Go up and down these canals targeting shoreline cover. Some of them have little piers, slips, latters, or steps and some or more natural with over hangs, laydowns, and brush. You may find grass in some of these areas too.

Good Luck!

If you put in at Stowaway you can drop the trolling motor and catch fish right there. It is a huge area that a lot of fish get released at. There is creek channels, timber, laydowns, and it covers a lot of acres just north of the bridge at STOWAWAY...

Just a thought..

Hey thanks everyone for the tips. I hope we can get up there and catch a ton of 'em. Yeah Last years results in the SAL program and seeing some of the tournament results from there is what gave us the idea to try the lake this year. So hopefully we can grab us a couple of hogs while we're there. And if anyone else has any thing that can help I'll take all the info i can get.
Thanks
James

Good luck, the lake has taken a turn for the worse since the grass was removed. They could be spawning in a few weeks if this weather will warm up a little. Should be some fish up shallow by then, don't overlook up north. Plenty of places to go up there too.

i fished it last weekend. Its very very tough, and rightnow the temps are in the 30s and its been raining for almost 24 hours its going to get tougher.

Yeah the weather is what we were worried about. We are hoping that maybe some of this water will go away for a few days and maybe increase in temp about 10 or so degrees for a few. But I know how that goes. I'm sure everyone is hoping for that. But o well we'll still head up there and chunk until we can't chunk no more.

Conroe's getting closer but according to the TPWD website Alan Henry is second with 25, Rayburn 23, and Conroe 16. Conroe has put out a bunch lately so it makes it seems like it has more. I had to take up for my home lake. Sad to see Alan Henry passed it by.

When did the grass take a hit up there? We saw that there were several big ones caught up there last year and looked like some good sacks caught on some of the tourneys this year. Have most of the bass resourced to deep structure without the grass? I was hoping that maybe we would catch some starting to move up shallow this time of year. I wonder how much the cold and rain has affected that?

look in the freshwater reports on this site about conroe and you will learn alot about it. I live close to conroe and i pass it up to go to livingston. Conroe is taking a turn for the worse but there are still some big ones in it, Until Conroe Home owners assoc find out and ruin it.

Usually takes a few years for the lack of grass to take affect. The lack of available cover for the forage base really hurts the lake. There really isn't much else for them out there but brushpiles and boat docks. There are still good fish in the lake but it won't be the same Conroe until they allow a good coverage of grass again.