Texasfivegun and I, along with another friend, left out of Holiday on Saturday afternoon around 2:00 to see if we could find some true striper and some twak frankenhybrid. With the wind blowing fairly well, we decided to work the dam area and the flats around the stripe.

We started at the spillway and set out our spread. Two big, u-rigs and two small. Water temp was showing 68.7. We had blue speckled grubs, pepper flake grubs and chartreuse sassy shad. And chartreuse grubs.

Running our baits from 14-18', we didn't find fish till we got close to the shallow stripe area. In the 25' water, and rising, we had a quadruple knockdown with only three people on the boat. Got three rods in but got one got cut off. On that hit, we put five fish to 26". Four hybrid and 1 striper.

We continued to work that area and continued to put quality fish in the box averaging 22"-24" fish with a few big nice frankenhybrids throwed in along the way.

At one point, a school of hybrid, surfaced as we were trolling. This is the second time this has happened while we had a spread out. They were right on us and actually hitting the side of the boat. Texasfivegun, made a cast with a chartreuse sassy 4" into the mix and hooked up. We weren't able to stop because of the spread being out and by the time he got his fish in we were past the school. Three of our four rods went down and it was a fiasco for a little bit. For all folks that say the big motor being on, spooks fish, and I'm sure most do, the idle speed of my four stroke, seemed not to disturb them. Just an observation!

Ended the day with a limit of fifteen hybrids/stripers and about 5 or six mag sandies. A tired crew and one friend with a little sea sick hangover. Lol

Sounds like it was awesome trip
time for a fish fry

Just as a pointer my friend as a kind reminder your four stroke has the same exgaust as a two stroke. I have a 200HP 4 stroke Yamaha. When you turn the key on, not just in gear your motor is very loud. Just like a two stroke. This time of year fish are shallow. Use your trolling motor please.

Jimmy Smith

Mr Smith I don't know about your Yamaha but this was not the first time we have had this happen. The fish started busting the top less than fifty yards infront of us. We could not go around them even if we wanted to. I watched two fish stun shad then turn and eat them less than ten feet infront of the bow. Tow shad on the port side tried to use the boat for cover and the big fish hit the boat, this happened once before.

I picked up a sassy shad rigged rod and cast about twenty-five feet off the port quarter and hooked up as the lure hit the water. Before I could land the eight pound four ounce fish three rods hooked up. Capt John netted and slung my fish on board. Then we landed six more fish the smallest was a little ovrer four pounds. If we didn't have two nets fish would probably have been lost.

That's how it happened. We trolled through the school of servicing fish cought seven good keepers and left them still breaking the top behind us. The barge trolling behind us cought a double. The surface activity was over before we got redeploied but we did catch two more on our next pass through the same spot.

Just sayin Jimmy, this was the second time that has happened. I know for a fact that big motors, runnin and gunnin, will put down fish but we were trolling through when they came up all around us. I definantly never run trhough people fishing for just that reason. When they come up under you and actually hit the boat, its just one of those things thay shouldn't happen but does anyway.

Also, just to clear any air, there were ZERO folks around us besides a pontoon boat behind us. They were trolling also. No others there.

I would imagine that Jimmy Smith has seen more schooling fish chased down by folks running their big engine than most trollers have seen busting beside the boat.
Stripers seem a lot more sensitive to noise than hybrids imo.

Glad you got on fish and caught a few.

Trolling is great! But for anyone that wants to catch a lot of fish, ues your tolling motor. Respect for everybody. They still sell fish at Walmart and Brookshires.

Thanks fastguy. We have been super fortunate these last few year , catching good numbers and quality size on most every trip. Just like anything else, practice, practice and more practice, helps more than any one thing. As I'm sure everyone knows.

But just like when sitting in a deer stand, smoking, and a huge buck steps out anyway, some things just happen.

Gonna hit it again on Wed. CC or T-wak.

you cant fix ??????? WHAT

Captjohn thank you for not trolling through schools when others are fishing them!!!!!!!!! As you know it pushes the bait and fish down and brakes them up. Mr Smith has to put up with this ever week. Some days fish will stay up for hours if SOME people dont mess them up. You sound like a good man thanks.

2 oz slabs do damage to the side of trolling boats oops

Many different ways to fish. Common courtesy works for ALL involved. What I stated was just an observation. Y'all have a good un! See ya on the water.

Im constantly amazaed by the stupidity of people on Tawakoni

It use to be pleasurable to go fishing there. Now Tawakoni is starting to look more and more like lewisville without the tit flashers.

Last Thursday there were 13 boats successfully fishing a school and there was a guy in a blue wave that just had to run his 4 stroke yamaha through the school not 1 but 4 times. What a tool.

The internet is killing fishing on public lakes! Its like getting a stick in the eye.

Nice Haul Capt.John sounds like a fun trip - we did really well Friday 5-6-2011 - I took my best buddy out there this - AKA McLovin - he had a B-Day the day before - got out on the lake by 7:30 AM went straight to Sun Point - caught fish constantly for 4 hours and pulled off the lake @ 11:30 AM. Caught well over 100 fish today - no size to them at all worth bragging about but we had lots of fun - 18 hybrids and stripers caught all released - 80+ sandies caught - Kept 50 for the Fryer 11-15 inch fish. All fish caught trolling DD-22's and Bomber A crankbaits chartruse color - and down rigging striper jigs with my special hydrasport creations LOL. beautiful day no wind sunny and cool temps - water temp 70 degrees - looks good for the weekend - the wind will pick up a little bit good luck hope this post helps - clete

anyone fishing friday through the weekend???