Hit the lake with Mike at 7 am yesterday. Decided to go where I have never been before and see what was out there.

Same story. 18 ft is the magic number. It really does not matter where we go as long as long as u find structure in that depth. If you power fish- spending no more than 2-3 mins, fishing everything you see or know, you should limit. We hit standing timber 14 ft-22 ft, Brush piles, and rock piles in 15-26 ft. Most of the fish were 1-5 ft off the bottom. Black/chart on 1/16 th oz was the choice, as always. I would post some cool side scan pics, but my boat is not here to pull the pics up. Next report, I'll post some up.

To get a better understanding of Side Imaging, you can read a blog I wrote with some pics to explain at the images.

http://fishgame.com/ctblog.php?p=3

I scan everything before I drop the trolling motor, to make sure there are fish there. Even if �I have have a honey hole, I scan it first. I scanned a spot yesterday I fish a lot, and I had to stop the screen. It had more crappie on it than I have ever seen before. Over 50 were boated in this one spot with 31 keepers. In less than an hour. �The structure was one single tree in 18 ft of water. So what I'm saying is, scan it before you fish and decide if the amout of fish at the targeted structure, is actually worth your time. I don't stop unless I see more than 15. If you don't get bit within 3 minutes, �go to a new spot. Sometimes minnows out fish jigs, sometimes jigs out fish minnows (90% of the time jigs rule the water).

Nice report and photos...

Nice report Carey. Yesterday was good on the weather . Glad you got into the fish

Nice report & Info. Carey!!

Those are some nice slabs

Keep doing your thing T-fly !

Very very nice!!

Good job Carey!

Stupid East Wind.... Fish bite the least when it's blowing out of the East. WHATEVER!






Above is what y'all need for the tourney this weekend on Lavon. 14-15 inchers. (7) 14 inchers and you will be in the top 10 I would think.

Started the day out meeting the one and only "Dutch", as we all call him, at the lake. He wanted to learn how to use his side scan and actually catch fish on Lady Lavon. Didn't take him very long to figure it out. I had him follow me around the lake and mark stuff and had him go venture out and find the fish on his own. He did very well..... Dutch and His son were landing tons of fish at every stop. Caught well over 100 fish today. Dutch and his son were using jigs and I would back them up and send down a minnow. Sometimes they would hook more than I would. But in other spots, minnows dominated. Fishing was at it's peak at 830 am. Slow in the early morning, due to they are still out hunting. As the sun comes up, they find the closest structure to sit on for the day.

Again though, 14-20 ft of water. Today the pattern was 2 cranks off the bottom pretty much everywhere. Black and chart Thump Buddies were the ticket. I did however, see Dutch catch multiple fish on diff colors and combos. Every time I looked over at him, he had a new color on. Lol...

After we got done and the heat got to them, I went out before this storm hit and got my limit before the rain got there by 15-20 mins.

Great report Carey, and congrats to Dutch and his son

There ya Go Dutch!!!

Good job Dutch and Son!

Thanks again Carey for a Great Day on the water. We both learned a lot. Color doesn't matter, except when it does.

Funny.

Forgot on the water and after pics. But here is Marcus with a huge bag of crappie.



He loves fish.



Had a good day this morning. East wind was annoying again, but some monsters were getting yanked out....... No pattern change.


14 yr olds can do it.






Dads can do it too!

To windy for me today. 4 - new to crappie fishing people, wind, snags and hungry crappie dont match up. We caught a bunch and lost a bunch. Wind got really bad by 9 am. Caught some good fish. Same pattern

Decided I needed a bigger boat. I have been quiet for the last five days due to no boat and was waiting for the shop to put her together. She's 19 ft long and 7 ft wide. Just plugged her in, to charge, for her maiden voyage in the morning! Fits 8 people now.

Sweet!!

Keep growing, T-fly !

I think I'm done. This one I will keep and name.

Nice lookin rig!

lookin' good!

Outstanding!

Nice rig Carey and good looking fish. We gotta hook up again soon. Its been a while

congrats carey

I love fish too, apparently not as much as Marcus. Nice boat

That boat is to dang purdy. Needs Crappie slime all over it real bad.

Well, today was a tough one. Pretty much people on every hole I wanted to fish. I think it's time for some new brush piles to appear in the lake. I have never seen this many crappie fishing people on the lake before. Crazy.

So, I went way way north. STILL a ton of people everywhere. Crazy.

With all the people anchored in the brush piles, we had to go look at old honey holes and found 2-4 per spot. Talked to Randy and they had the same experience today. Weekdays are way better obviously.

Went to some newly sunk structure. Apparently, it grew legs and walked off. Side scanned the area, and it had walked 32 yards from it's previous position a day ago. -I love it when people anchor RIGHT in the middle of the brush and then drag it away.... Just love it......

Still boxed 18-20 but we had to work hard for them. Lost 4 big girls at the boat. Only one 14 incher and the rest were 11-12 inchers. Same pattern.



Got a 13 inch black crappie today

Nice catch! Will you be having another tournament on lavon this summer?

Thanks Carey for a great trip( minus the getting out of the boat part). It was tough today, minnows were best, but I kept being stubborn and trying a Jig at most spots and managed to boat a few on one of my hand tied jigs and a few more on Thump Buddies. All in all a great trip and can't wait to do it again.

Nice new boat!

Great report.... Really like the new boat. Should be a fishing mochine!

So, I got bored and decided to put a old hose to use and a old umbrella.





12 ft tall bamboo columns.

Cool!!

Now that's a crappie condo! Nice new boat you got too!

What a condo. that should really attract them!!!

Very nice report TFly!
Helpful, details, ton of pix...
Oh, and once again, very helpful to novices & advances alike!!
Thanks again TFly!!!!!!

It was just like fishing Fork on a Saturday in June Carey. I ended up with 22 keepers for the day and that would have been great except I had two people with me. The wind and boat wakes keeps it fun as well trying to stay on the structure. I wish I could have gotten on more fish but everywhere we moved it would only produce 1-3 fish. Tough days are always good learning days though.

2 person Hot Trip Special! Tomorrow AM Trip Now open. I need to fill it. $175/ 2 people. 6 am till 10 am. PM me or call me or text me.

if i didnt have a doctors appointment to get my mri results i would be all over that for sure!

I have the pm slot open now too. 3-7 pm. Same deal. Thought I had to go to the airport. Crappie all day now!

Carey that's a nice condo. Never seen one like that before. Should hold plenty of fish.

Ur gonna really like that G3 with the Yamaha.....Looks great!

I have had the 16 ft G3/ 18ft G3 and now im trying the 19ft G3 out...... Im almost all the way through thier whole fleet.

I pinched a nerve in my back last night, so I am going to see if I can get out and fish or not. So, I am going to attempt this shortly.

Sorry for the delayed reports. Super busy and to tired to type. So, here it goes:



-Grass Hoppers are everywhere on the lake. Happens every year this time. Ya'll should start to see the Freshwater Sponges popping up soon. They look like a jellyfish with eggs. And no, they are not gar eggs floating in the lake. The whole jelly thing is a whole colony of animals. Means the lake is healthy!


Friday Morning (Hubbard):

My guys for the day were here on a family reunion, so, we were limited on time. So, instead of a crappie trip, I told them about White Bass and Hybrid Striper fishing. 6:05 am, graphed fish in 23 ft of water and watched them move up to the point at Robertson Point. So when they came up to chase shad, 6:15am, we were right in the middle of them, I never had to turn the main engine or the trolling motor. After about an 1/2 hour, people started to figure out we were on fish and came to join the fun. The fish started to move off the flat and all of us followed them. Everyone was catching. I had the guys fishing a 4 chart swimbait with a chart fly 18 -inches above the swim bait, burning it on the surface. The guys landed 97 keepers ( white bass) and 12 hybrids ( 4 keepers) They had it down to the count, due to they had a very high wager going. All fish CPR'ed due to they were in a hotel. Off the water at 9:30 ish.






Friday Afternoon (Lavon):

Started the trip at 2:30pm at Lavon, for crappie. These two, have never been fishing before. So, it was a learning trip and catching trip.



Started them out in 16-18 ft of water in submerged timber chasing crappie. Caught some monsters too.



All fish were 2-5 ft off the bottom everywhere we went. And there were fish everwhere we went. I had to tell them most of the time they had one on and set the hook. Near the end of the trip, they were doing it all on their own! Dad was in the background, it was all about the kiddo this trip, and he hooked into a nice Flat Head Catfish that took him for a ride.



Dad asked me about the Black Bass fishing on the lake in the early morning and I told him we would give them a shot for an hour later in the day. So later, we went to Black Bass town and I got him one on the line.


3 lbs


He loved the fight, so we took off to a spot I always catch a big one at. She was in the exact spot I catch her in every year. Dad jumped her 2 times and was all smiles the whole time. He did perfect!



8 lbs for his 2nd ever Black Bass. Could have stuck the kiddo's head in its mouth!


I kept seeing fish, on a submerged road bed where the rocks were on the sides of it. I had them drop down on them and found some more monster crappie right where the Black Bass was.






Ended the trip about 6-7 pm. No hero pics due to it was way to hot to put the fish on the tailgate. Lost a lot of hooks, but your not crappie fishing unless you get snagged all the time. I pour my own Slabs for sandies and powder paint them myself, as well as my own Jig Heads. So then when I loose stuff, I dont have to think about lossing 3 dollars every time I snag.

Saturday AM trip: Crappie:

East wind and rising air pressure made it a difficult trip, we really had to work for them. The pattern was 2-4 fish per spot, then you had to move to the next spot. Minnows out produced jigs 10:1. We only had 10 minnows. lol, so 95% of the fish were on jigs again.



This little guy, we will see on the water a lot. He is already a jigging pro. Good job teaching Dad. All I had to do on this trip was to put the boat on top of fish and they did the rest.



No clue how many we caught, but we did not limit on this trip. 30-40 keepers? I have no clue how many we boated though? All my days are getting merged together...... Taking Dad out again mid week to learn Side Imaging and how to find the structure and fish. See you then!

Sunday AM trip (Lavon) Crappie:

Met the guys at the lake at 6 am sharp, and we were fishing at 6:15. Hit a community hole first and pulled out 16 within a half an hour. All fish were 11-12 inches here and my guys mentioned somthing about my website, big fish, ect. They were poking at me about the average sized fish. I toild them the next spot holds some monsters and quit complaining about catching keepers. So off we went to the big fish hole. And he landed a big fish. 15 inch White Crappie! Blind in one eye.



Then a 14.5 incher



Later we went to some deep timber and started to look for some more white gold. Dropped down on some brush in 20 ft of water and my clients rod started to bend in half.




Nice Flathead!

After we got that fish in the boat, we tried again to catch some crappie in the pile. They were there!







Everywhere we went, again, was full of fish. 15-16 ft was magic today.







Tip of the day:

Dont bounce your jig all over the place like you are slabbing for sandbass. HOLD IT STILL. If you get bored and insist on jigging the jig, drop your rod tip, 1 inch, and immediatly put it back to the starting point every 10-15 seconds. That way the jig will sit in the strike zone longer.

Tuesday and Friday AM slots are now open for some fish catching action. Contact me for the trips. Sandbass on Hubbard, or Crappie on Lavon. Or, we can hit Hubbard for some Crappie. Ya'lls choice!

Damn! I always enjoy your posts and pictures. Great job!

Nice report Carey!

Today was temp hot! Not fish hot. Boated 23 I think. Lots of big girls today. I had another little person in the boat. She can bait her own hook and crappie fish like a pro. Good Job Little One!



She caught pretty much all the fish today.

Dad and Gramps did fair. But, its all about the kiddos when they board my boat.









Saw something neat today since the whole lake was glass. The channel catfish were everywhere today on the surface. They were eating all the grass hoppers. Every 40-50 yrads was a channel cat crusing the surface looking for hoppers. Wish I had my fly rod. I used a jig and bobber and landed 12 in 30 mins to 19 inches. All released. I would just putter around till I would see a V in the water from the fish cruising the surface and just cast ahead of them. They would hear the jig hit the water and attack the bobber 1st then the jig most of the time. Fun stuff. And I am serious, they were every 40-50 yards. All over the lake.

Man it's freaking hot outside.

Started the morning off at Hubbard looking for topwater action (didn't feel like slabbing today) on sandies and hybrids. Found two schools but nothing that was keeping my intrest. They guys were having fun, but 8-11 inch fish are not my game. I told them we can hunt some more but the action would be over within 30 mins or so and I suggested we hit Lavon for some crappie instead.

Got to the lake and I gaurenteed them a fish at the first stop within 1 minute. And I delivered....











Caught 40-50 crappie, blacks and whites. After the heat started to get to them we retreated to the on lake restaurant and got a couple beers and cooled off. My temp said 103 at 11am. I noticed my fly roin was still in the truck and my client today said he flyfishes, so we stopped on the way in to see if I could get my client to hit a carp with the fly rod, we saw a couple good ones, but they spooked. Hit the marina and got some good blue gills all over the marina. 8-9 inches was the average. Nothing under 8. All released. All on the fly rod.



Not tailgate shots today.... Way to freaking hot. I picked up a rod and dropped it it was so hot. Anything metel was dangerous to touch. I read 91 degree surface temps. Lowest I saw was 89. Sandies should start their annual boil every morning very soon. So we can go limit on sandies, then an hour later go limit on some crappie!

Great job as always, T-fly !

Round one:

Fishin picked up at 830 and on fire till 1030 and slowed. Landed about 50-60 fish. To hot to do a hero picture otherwise the fish would bake on the tailgate. 6-7 fish were over 14 inches.







Round two at 4 pm.


.......:..... To be continued.

Great report. Hope it cools off a little.

Round two:









Used minnows and Black and Chart Thump Buddys.

Landed over 60-70 fish. Lots of right at ten inchers. If they were not 10 inches, they were 13+ inchers. Had to teach the guys how to crappie fish. They caught on quick. Except Dr. kept jigging his live minnow. Almost slabbing it. - he did catch a magnum sandie though......

Hit three bush piles. Windy. Not as hot out. Steady bite all day. Not epic, but fun as always.

When they would say there are no more fish on the pile, I'd grab my rod and drop down and show them they are still there. Lol, got to keep the jig in the strike zone. If you jig it up and down, the crappie are going to think you are retarded. Hold the jig or minnow still!

I'll have to say, today was one of the better fishing days except for the wind. The first four fish that Bobby landed were all over 13 inches. Huge and fat!





But, the area we were in was a bit slow and not much shad in the area to hold fish. So, on to the next spot, two boats already there. Went to the next spot, one boat already there. Went to the next spot and did ok with a dozen keepers or so. Everything was on standing submerged timber. Brush piles were void of fish, at least the ones I checked. Hit deep submerged timber, but there was a current from the wind and didn't do to well there. Scanned it with my Humminbird 898 and saw a couple fish here and there. But they had moved out of the area. Bobby has a 898 as well, so it was an electronics trip as well. Showed him the light and I have set him free to do it all on his own. I decided to hit one more spot to finish his limit, and on the way, I stopped at a single tree, and holy molly, it had over 200 crappie on it.



My side imaging lit up with the white dots all over the tree. He finished his limit in no time. Fish moved up to 12-14 ft depths today. Any deeper and you got nothing. Gizzard shad invaded the rail road track area. They were there in the bajillions! I could not even throw a bouie on structure, cause I couldn't see the bottom they were so thick.



Got two Black Nosed Crappie today too......


Lots of big fish today. Landed about 10-15 that were 13 plus inches. Only kept 11 inchers and up except for two or three 10.5's that gut hooked. They were inhaling the Thump Buddy's in black and chart on 1/16 th oz jig non painted ( I have no clue where my pink powder paint is at..... Didn't matter though, they were actually swallowing the jigs!



The crappie were slamming the jigs today. Some of them hit harder than I have felt in a long time. Everyday I'm like a kid at Willy Wonka's Chocolate Factory. I love seeing my clients face as a huge crappie flops on the deck. It was not an epic 100 fish day, but it was big fish day! Lots of Big Fish with a limit of crappie to fill the freezer.




I'm will be on vacation starting tomorrow till Wednesday. Going to blow some cashn in Vegas..... Have fun y'all!

That's a nice mess of fish!!! Congrats.

Well, my flight to Vegas got moved to tonight so I hit the lake. Got there at 630 and scanned some trees but they were not loaded up yet. It's been year since I targeted the Black Bass, so we hit the banks with crank baits. Landed 6-7 Blacks all on cranks.





After I had my fun with them, it was time to hit the crappie.



Fun day. I didn't have to run and gun all over the place for once. Casual fun chatted with a bunch of y'all, gave Oscar a 14 incher, cause all he was getting was 10 inchers, lol.........


- all fish released -

Well here I am in ST. Louis at the hotel getting to see all the fun you are having...I'm jealous as usual.

Tomorrow I will be on the Beach in Pensacola Florida by 11am...hope I made you jealous...LOL. :-)

As always I enjoy your posts and pictures. Keep up the good work!

Illl be in Vegas in 6 hours. Lol. I will be having fun before u even get to Florida. But, I would rather fish in FL than go to Vegas....

OH My My My I have been away from the Forum for to long. Congratulations to everyone on their nice catches. Jealous I am. Boat looks nice Carey but how does it feel is what I want to know. Dennis and I should be ready upon your return (if you return). Maybe a evening/night trip on Hubbard or Lavon would be nice. Less the heat.

Boat is way smoother and bigger. More room!

Report: Monday 1 hour of fishin

Rain kicked us off the lake this morning so we pushed the trip to another time. I waited out the first storm and headed out. Hit the black bass till 10 am and caught 6. Nothing over 4 lbs. 3-5 lbs average.

So, I hit two spots for crappie. First spot picked up 8. Next spot finished my limit plus some. Then the next storm started moving in on me. Left them biting.

Very weird day. Got them in 14ft and over 20 in "7" ft. One in "6.5" ft. Jig didnt work very well. Minnows ruled the day. Not an epic trip. Had to work for them. Wind was blowing in every direction. Not a lot of options to fish today. But it was fun.

No pics today. But fish were in 14-7 ft again. 10-12 ft was magic. Everywhere we went we nailed them. Biggest was 14 inches for the day.

I fixed the video, so it might take a bit for it to flip over the right way......



He got a nice flathead while crappie fishing today. Fun stuff. All the crappie we got today were in 6-14 ft today. The black crappie are shallow mainly is what I have been finding. Caught over 100 fish today. Sorry, no hero pics. Im off to Broken Bow to guide some trout so I was in a rush to get stuff done..... Minnows and Thump Buddys



Sandies invaded our spots today and could have had a 4 man limit in no time..... But it was a crappie trip today and the guys didnt want anything to do with sandies....

Nice job !

Nice work putting your clients on the fish. Nice bonus Op, too! kept waiting for the landing net lol...nice grab!

had a great time while fishing w/carey today! only wish i got the phone to record sooner,oh well,blessed day,doing what i love to do and blessed to see another birthday....as its been forestaed,if you catch fish,thats a bonus,whats more important is the company....

Glad you had a good time and enjoyed yourself. Carey is a awesome fisherman with a ton of knowledge. Bet you learned alot. Congratulation on your catch.

nice reports Carey! Congrats to all.....

kb,we did learn a lot and that was my co-worker that caught the flathead and biggest crappie of the day,,,,

He also caught the largest crappie, blue gill, white bass, and biggest largemouth- even though it was only 6 inches.

Finally had the day off today to do some things. Sorry about the delayed posts. I get home from 10 hours on the water everyday and I pass out on the couch within minutes.... That heat is crazy some days.


13 inch Black Nosed Crappie

Fish have been shallow the last week. My depth has been 6-14 ft down on rocks, brush , and timber. About 9 am is best fishing time as the sun get up a bit.



Carolina rig a minnow on a size 6 hook with a 4 inch leader. Hold the minnow in the depth the crappie are at and it won't last long till you get a thump.....

One of my trips was a " Catch whatever is biting best at the moment"

So, we started with largemouth bass first and set up on a point I know always holds easy fish. Within 45 mins, they landed 7 Black Bass.









After the large mouth bass expedition, we went to a secret crappie spot.





The guys actually got bored of catching catching crappie so they asked to go get sandies. So we went slabbing for sand bass. Caught about 100 of sandies and a bunch of doubles, and caught a couple crappie on slabs and the flies I tie on above my slab.



My tailgate pretty much looks like this everyday, sometimes twice a day.

Or the cooler looks like that.....

When they are hitting jigs, black and chart is working good. I started using purple and chartreuse Thump Buddies and they love to thump them....

So today was my day off, and everyone asked what the heck I was at the lake today..... ......

Because all I do is guide and fish...... So I was there to get my own limit of crappie, but first I wanted to find some black bass too....



Caught 5 chunks and moved on to crappie.



1 hour limit after I hit the black bass......

That is some reel nice work on all those species. I made a mistake by sharing our new crappie taco recipe with my wife's good friends and they put in a request at least twice a week. That's ok because I love em too. See ya soon.

Impressive as usual, Carey. your dedication to TOW is admirable. I enjoy your reports and appreciate you sharing your knowledge on the current bite. You make fishing look more a science than an art!

Same pattern the last week. 12-14 ft down is magic in 14-15 ft depths. Minnows are still king of the lake as the water heats up. You will need a 1/2 lb of minnows per person usually. Brush was killer today. Timber, not so much. A lot of timber is right under the surface now so be carful. The island cut is a no go now. Very shallow and has concrete right in the middle of it. So go around the island. Two hour limit today. Most were 12 inches, biggest 14 inches. Left them biting with 37 keepers and 14 dink crappie and a couple sandies thrown in.

Fish 12-16 ft of water on average. 18 max depth on brush. Fish are holding 10-14 ft brush that sits in 14 ft is magic sometimes. 15-16 ft is ok but fish will be in 12-14 ft of it most of the time. I have been finding the big ones hugging the bottom. It's luck to land on a pod of 13 plus inch fish. They move around a lot at night so the next day, your honey hole a couple days ago will be dry. Make sure you have at least 20 things on gps in those depths, and u should do well.

Timber is popping out 2-5 fish per tree in deep water. Again fish are holding at 10-14 ft but scattered through the timber.

Black Crappie are shallow. You have to stump and tree hop in 5-8 ft of water in protected coves. Or brush in that depth would be killer. Long rods are important while doing this. If you bump the structure with the trolling motor or even boat, you probably spooked the whole school. The blacks are targetable in the shallows. You will still catch them randomly while deeper fishing. Blacks weigh more than whites, so if you pattern the black out, fish them hard. 7 13-15 inch black crappie would win it.

Fish 13 inches and plus are what you are looking for. I, personally, would only be looking to box 14-15 inchers to win the money. ( I'm talking about white crappie now) now I'm sure you have heard me say minnows will win it. You die hard jiggers might need to bring some minnows and just bite the bullet. Two people, I recommend you buy 1/2 pound of minnows per person. If I was was in the tourney, I'd get a lb and use all the bigger ones first. If you can net up some thread fin shad and keep them alive in the bait tanks, 4-6 inchers, all you will get is bigger crappie. Great great bait!

I Carolina rig them.

8 lb line
6 floro for leader
1oz slip weight
Two way swivel
Size #4 hook or #6. -smaller one when fish are slow to bite.

I slip the weight on the main line first.

Tie on the swivel

Add 5 inches of 6 lb fluorocarbon as leader and attach hook. 3-5 inches on leader. No longer unless fishing standing timber or bridges where there are not a lot of snags the minnow can get into.

Don't stay in one spot for more than 15 mins and no bite. I usually move after two to five minutes an no bite. If you anchor on the brush, you just spooked the school. They are shallow right now. Water is very clear in some areas. Plenty of structure to fish for everyone on this lake. There is no way I can fish more than 20-30 way points in one day. There is no reason to, unless they are slow. As long as you are in this depths, you should do very well. Hold that minnow as still as possible is the depth they are at and you should have fun. Bring lots of hooks and weights. If your not loosing gear, your not catching fish. I have a bunch of pre made, by me, leaders I can attach quick, without having to re rig the whole setup. Don't let your line hang at an angle, it must be up and down, vertical.. If it's at an angle, your over a limb or u have a fish. Bring lots of hooks and weights, ya I said it again, but I'm serious.

At the entrance of every cove there is timber. Find those areas and again, you should have fun. Use as many rods as you like. Spider rigging submerged structure will rake them in if the sandies stay out of the way. Lot of work for that though.

Bring ice ad water and keep hydrated. Cold water tastes way better than hot water.

Fish are biting and a lot of big fish are being caught.

Yesterday we got top the lake at 730 am and the fish were biting at every stop.










Lake record



Went through a pound and a half of minnows in less than 3 hours yesterday.

Yesterday was crazy good with all species biting. I sleep in a bit and got to the lake about noon. It's was hot out! I decided to target whatever was biting and gave the best action. So I tried the Largemouth first.

Caught some small pigs.





As I was fishing a point, the sandies started to boil literally all around my boat. The shad had come up and tried to hide next to my boat and the sandies were hitting the side of the boat chasing the shad. Caught about 50 of those all 9-12 inchers, kept a couple for neighbor that like fresh fish once a week, and then, the yellows moved in so I left.

Then I hit a brush pile for some crappie. I was in 15 ft fishing a pile that produced very good the day before. I caught one.

So, I moved 40 ft closer to shore and hit a sunken willow tree in 10 ft.



Limited in less than 30 mins. Caught about 40 off of this 5 ft tree in 10 ft of water with 4 being 14 inches and one being 15 inches.

Moved to the next brush pile 100 yards away in 10 ft and the same thing, rippin lips for 45 mins. In less than 2 hours my talley was at 87.

Then my buddy called and wanted to come play. Ate lunch and we went back out. He wanted to bass fish, so we went to a spot, side scanned it, and the fish were stacked in the spot. Caught about dozen black bass from 2-4 lbs within 20-25 mins. Left that spot and hit a brush pile for more crappie, caught 6 there and Jeff even brought up a 14 incher and was bored of them cause there was no hard fight to them. Ok, so we hit the bass again.

Average sized for the day.




Found them pushing shad up on point on the flats near the dam. Used Lake Fork Tackle ring fry chart TX rigged. I'd say a solid 15-17 lb stringer was caught. We never did hook a big one though on this trip. There are a bunch of 5-8's out there.

Also a paddle tail chart with 1/4 of the tip cut off. LFT

Can't really say anything new. Fish are doing their thing as usual. 10-14 ft down on structure.

Lots of 14 inchers and 15's











Almost forgot to mention we stopped to throw a limit of sand bass in the boat before we hit the crappie.



Sandbass we holding on all the submerged roads and old submerged ramps in 10-14 ft of water. 1/4 oz chart slabs are key with a jig or fly 18 inches above. I had my guy today drag the slab over the road beds. If they were not in the middle of the road, they were on the sides that are lined with rocks. Side Scan helps with this. I'll mark one side of the road with a bouie and then the other. Then, we cast through the bouie like a soccer goal and drag it all the way down the road and repeat. Landed over 150 sandies in an hour. Then we moved on crappie. No surfacing activity. On a side note, don't sit on the road beds. They spook. You have to cast to them.

Another slow day today. I thought it was going to be faster fishing.


Crappie are doing the same thing as they have been for a month. 10-14 ft.



Had almost 20 in the boat within 30-45 mins. Only one small throw back today. Most fish were 12 inches average to 14 inches. Minnows and jigs.

My client asked how the sandies were doing on the lake. So we went to a submerged boat ramp.








Caught 30-40 within a 1/2 hour and moved on to crappie again. He didn't want to keep any sandies. I bet if we anchored on the spot, everyday you could catch over 500 of those sandies within 5 hours. Every drop produces 1-2 sandies.


$150 /2 people 5-6 hours of non stop catching. �$75 a person

Let's go fishing catching!

TexasOklahomaFishingGuide.com

Humminbird Pictures:



School of sandies on a huge ball of shad.



Submerged tree with crappie on it. All the yellow blobs are crappie.



Massive school of sandies on the slop of the small hump.



Above, you might want to slab this hump! All sand bass.



A tree loaded to the T with crappie on it.

Report: Same thing as always. Sandies and crappie were nailing our baits all day long. A bit slower due to the cloud cover, but it was still very good fishin!



Sandies and crappie doing the same thing today. Hit the largemouth first, they didn't wanna play, so we hit the sandies. Caught 50-100 of those, then crappie.

Same patterns. Wind died completely and the lake went to glass at 3 pm, slowed way down.

Today was a kid trip. Dad said to keep the kids happy. PERFECT! So that made it my choice on what to fish for. I love days like these.

The amout of fish you pass on the way to your favorite fishing spot is crazy. You can launch your boat and actually catch fish right there. Heck, you can stand on the bank and catch fish on the ramps. Largemouth love ramps to ambush shad eating the algea. Ramps usually have rock on both side and obviously, an end. The end of the ramp usually drops deep due to all the back wash from boats trying to trailer the wrong way. So the Largemouth sit on the rocks and below the ramp where it ends and come out and attack shad out in the open. -but now I just rambled... So anyways, you pass a lot of fish. Here is what I am talking about. I decided to try and get as many Lake Records in the boat I could get! So it was a catch everything day. Last night I rigged all my rods for everything that swims that was catchable with rod and reel.





------New Lake Lavon Jr. Records

(pending paper work)------

Channel Catfish Jr Record Holder Below:



Blue Gill Jr. Record Holder Below:



They were under the tires as usual. 3-5 ft down. We used raw bacon for those. Bacon stays on the hook, the white fat part. you can catch 100 gills till it falls off.

I think this was in December. It was winter in the video. Summer time is stupid easy for these little critters.



White Bass Jr. Record Holder below:



Found these in the same places. The sandies were on the move today. Got them at the Road beds and glass house. I was side scanning in 15 ft of water looking for them. Then I thought it was chatter cause it said the fish were in 2 ft of water right up on the bank of the point. Joined another boat that had kids and everyone was catching.



White Crappie were also landed ( mostly by the little one. He was a Crappie King! Same Pattern on these as usual. Most were in 10 ft on brush).



I goofed up and and mixed lakes up. I thought we had the Jr Record Largemouth (Black Bass)to we stopped fishing for them. Only took 15 minutes to land a keeper. Wish I would have double checked on that one. They were popping shad everywhere. Saw some 3-4 lbres bust right near the rocks and casted to one that busted and he landed a good one though.....



Stopped at 8 spots which all hold different kinds of fish all thier own ( blue gills live over there, Black Bass live here, Crappie live there, sandies live 40 ft that way, carp are around the bend ( we had that record too, but it bent the hook str8 !) ect.... and the kiddos landed every single fish we were targeting. Made my trip easy and the fish were working with me. Crappie were way way slow today anyways

Nice looking boat, Thanks for your help, and your fishing reports.

Crappie are doing their thing still. So are the sandies. Same pattern for both.


One of the (9) MRB's is void of fish.




MoonRiver and his buddy put a dent in the population today.





They were so thick, the guys would snag them by accident.

The fish didn't eat till 735 am and them it was almost every cast a fish was boated. Same pattern. If you don't know, read some pages back. Crappie were also doing the exact same thing. Landed about 20 of those in an hour, lots of 10-11 inch crappie.

All sandies were caught on Chartruse Thorn's ( slabbing spoons I make, not for sale though ). 1/4 oz

Crappie on Thump Buddies in Purple and Chartruse and minnows.

Below is what we were doing all day...... Limited 50 sand bass in 1.5 hours. - and it was a bit slow actually.



End Result: Fish Fry

Great pics and video Carey. it's nice to see the live action. Were you guys fishing a submerged boat ramp again? I'm going to give it another try on the crappie this weekend since it looks like the weather is going to cooperate.

Thanks again for the report! Keeps us weekend warriors going!!

Crappie 10-15

Sandies on all 9 roadbeds I have found

Today was stupid on The road bed. It was loaded up with 100's of fish. We were crappie fishing



But they asked about white bass fishing, so we hit the road bed for 10 mins a caught a fish on every cast. Then �back to crappie. Yesterday before the storm was pretty good, but again, today it was loaded to the T with them.





All sandies caught on Chartreuse Thorn's 3/4 oz in 11-14 ft of water on road beds

Brush in 10-14 ft is the magic number for crappie. Minnows rules, jigs not so much.

All I can say is I'm glad I'm not a crappie or a sandbass in lavon. My days would be numbered. Great report Carey. you make it look easy.

Been busy and the 12 hour days are draining me of energy, so, I'm sorry about the delayed reports. I'm going to mix up all the species of fish into one report to save me some time. So, here we go:( FYI- pictures are all out of order)

White Bass:

They have been doing the same thing they have been doing for 3 months. All 14 roadbeds / old ramps ( that I have found so far) are holding fish. Today we pulled a limit out in about 2 hours. Marcus threw back all the fish that were 12 inches or smaller so he had some big fish for the grill today. The wind was out of the south and it was bit choppy today but they were stacked up. Then the wind shifted out of the west and they moved somewhere. So off to the one of many, RB's. Side Scanned it and the fish were loaded on this one again. All three of us got a double on the first cast. Just crazy fun. You actually get bored of catching them after awhile......



Yesterday, I had a couple guys hop on the boat. They said they were newbies. They usually just sit on the bank with some earthworms, but they never caught anything. So we hit Lavon at about 7 am and set up. They usually turn on by 730, but they were late.



We started to boat fish one after the other by 750 am.



We never moved from this spot till 11 am landing 100's of sandies. They caught more fish, obviously, and the biggest fish of their lives. They were a hoot.





After they had sore wrists and the fish would not quit biting, we called it day. I asked them if they ever caught a crappie before. They said no. So, I stopped at a magic brush pile and I gave them a crash course on jigging. I said we wouldnt leave till they both landed one.



So, yeah!...... Everyday has been great on the White Bass bite. Only the day we got the tail wind from the hurricane was it slow. It was super slow. But other than that, the bite has been going strong and almost impossible to not limit.

The Crappie Report:

Fish are very easy right now. 8-15 ft depths.

The reasons some of y'all are having issues:

1- your fishing the same structure you were fishing when the lake was 5-6 ft higher. They moved out of those areas for the most part. Plus those hot spots are now visible and get hammered. You need to find new brush piles in deeper water. 15 ft seems to be a good number, but I have 4 piles in 10 ft of water, and the fish are stacking on them. So again, learn to find new brush. You must cover a lot of water. Every so often, you will land on a big school of them and catch 20 keepers off of it. -Just have to find that spot.

2- minnows are king. Jig bite will pick up as it gets to 75-80 degrees and minnows will not be king anymore.

3- your fishing in your honey hole to long. Move to find those aggressive fish and put the crappie in the boat. Don't wait on them, go get them!

As some of y'all know, I guide year round for rainbow trout in Beavers Bend State Park @ the Lower Mt Fork River. They stock this river with 4200 fish every other Thursday year round so there are always fish to be caught. Its only 2.5 hours from Dallas and your in the mountains. You don't have to fly fish either. You can do it anyway you want. Drag a minnow in the Blue Zones and you will limit quick. Drag a 1/8th oz white rooster tail on 4-6 lb line on a spinning rod. or fly fish using all kinds of different flies that will produce a nice fish in your net. 20 fish landed is a slow day on my end there. 50-75 is an average outing with Tally's of 100 being broken on occasion. Big fish swim here. My client hook a Rainbow Trout that was about 25 inches on Wednesday. 5-7 lb trout right there. Hooked another one later about the same size. Both got off. They looked like a salmon. Huge fish......



Lower Mountain Fork River Fly Fishing Report:

So yup. Same thing everyday up there. I have been up there once a week or so for the last couple months. Nothing has changed. Crowds have gotten way smaller since school is in now. We saw 4 other anglers on the red zone all day.



Night and day compared to the last couple months. In two weeks it will be a ghost town and no group of kids everywhere. All the canoes going downstream all day long, was ruining a lot of my holes and the fish were super spooky. But now, they are starting to come out and feed again. Caught a lot of fish that have been in the river for awhile.



Super pretty colors. Lost Creek and Evening Hole was stocked full of fish. A few good fish have made their way to the bluffs again. So fishing the whole river has started to get better. But, here comes the heat again......




lol, Fish will always be there though. Just have to throw what they want to eat. Spillway Creek fished pretty good. You really need to focus on the shady spots when the sun is up. They will stack up on top of each other and there will be 20-30 fish balled up in a shady pocket the sized of a large trash can lid. When you go into lost creek, watch what they are doing since they are easy to see there. Then take the pattern you have just learned from them and hike up Spillway Creek. Lots of fun but mending and high sticking is very important. Side casting is too. Some casts need to be thrown up under a over hang to get the fly to drift in some hidden pockets. Don't just drift the obvious spots. Drift the fly in every spot you can everywhere.




The browns have been hiding under the small grassy overhangs along the shore lines. Very tough to get out. Most of them are caught before dark and on WB's at night.








Cant wait till Nov/Dec when it gets cold. No pressure from anglers, so they stock 4200 fish 0n top of the last stocking that barley got a dent in it. Great winter fishing up there and views. The cabins are super nice too.

Mike Landed 32 rainbows
Chris landed 15-20
I landed 75 and quit and went home while they were still biting.

Thanks, crappie is tomorrow. Today was sandies. Hit a brush pile in 11 ft and pulled out 12. Only pile out of the wind. It was blowing out of the south then the west then the south.......it had the crappie confused a bit. Sandies steady/slow. Actually had to work for them today.

Lost about 20 slabs to the rocks today. But I made 100 more twenty mins ago!

At the start of the trip, I asked my guys if they knew how to throw a bait caster. They both said yes. Both rods came back to me like this: " Carey, I have a tangle."



...... You think?

So the spinning rods got busted out. Same patterns on crappie and sandies.

It amazes me that I see some of y'all on the water fishing the same road beds, but you don't have the gear I told y'all they are biting on. I have used every lure there is to throw for the sandies on Lavon. 1/4 oz Chartreuse Thorn's work best, but a bomber 1/4 oz will do the exact same thing, seeing as to how they are the same mold the Thorn's are.

Again, 1/4 oz!

Anyways, got to the first spot, and Momma, land a triple! 3 keeper sandies in one cast. She did it a couple times at that. The guys said it was her trip, so she was by my side the whole day. Everyone had fun catching fish as the schools of sandies would swim by. They were roaming today, so when one person hooked up, everyone else did too. We hopped roadbeds and drop offs trying to find active fish, but again, they were roaming and wouldn't sit still.





On the way in, I had one secret brush pile that is hidden from the wind, and you. Told Momma this is the day she will catch a crappie. She pulled out 12 off of one pile. She said she is an expert now..... She got two monsters at that!





In my head, this was a very slow day but steady. Air pressure was dropping on us the whole time. When it would steady out, the fish started to bite again. Winds were all over the place too. Still good action though! Im just used to an "every cast" bite.....

But aren't all rods bait casters? Didn't realize there was a difference until now...

Too funny. Great photos and tips. TFS as always, Carey.

Crappie didn't pick up till about 10 am. Then it was on fire.



After I was done with my client, I went out.

45 min limit of crappie, one channel cat, two sandies.



And a 15 inch kicker that had a small 6 inch yellow bass hanging out its mouth. Off the water at 145 pm

Sweet! Minnows or jigs?

Here is a video to show you what I am doing.



( Click on Picture Above to Start Video )




(25 Fish Limit of White Bass)

So, yup. 40 minute limit today. Only reason it took so long to limit today, was I did the video, so it took 10 mins off my focus time!

After I hit the limit, I picked up Paul from the boat slips and we hit the crappie. We got a 2 man limit ( 50 ) of crappie, on 3 different brush piles in 9-12 ft of water. All on minnows, within a 2 hour period.



( 25 Fish Limit of Crappie )


Easy easy day...... So are all the other days

Been a while since I got into the Crappie like we did today and even longer since I left them biting. Thanks, Carey.

Started at 8 am today. Sandbass were on the roadbeds but had lock jaw. Tried multiple times, but would only eat live minnows or shad today. Still loanded close to 50 sandies....

Since they were slow, we hit the crappie. Steady bite today and not a crazy bite every time you drop. We actually had to wait 15 seconds before we got nailed most of the time. So, it was steady today and I have no idea whow many fish were boated. 100's is all I can say.









I found some Black Bass as well.





Saw another dead striper today. this one was 24-25 inches. That makes 5 total dead ones in the last week or so..... All healthy and fat. Lake might have turned but I dont see any other signs that it did.

Good job of catching TarponFly

Had to share this pic of a Rainbow Trout I caught yesterday:



Full report in the fly fishing section.

Windy as heck today. Forecast was 12-14 so I said the heck with it, let's go! Lol, it was more like 20-25 mph. We were stuck on the south bank all morning long. Tried to go diff places but the waves were stupid big. So, we fish 8 diff brush piles in 4-15 ft. One deepwater condo in 18 ft also produced. 41 crappie with two throwbacks, lots of sandies, a blue catfish, and some yellow bass and 3 largemouth were landed. Sandies were thick on the roadbeds in the morning. We didn't stop to target them, but one of my piles is within casting distance of one, and I was landing one every cast for a bit till we ran out of crappie on the brush pile.

Minnows were king today again. But the guys did try jigs here and there and caught them on every color. No pattern today, just fish the structure. The fish were IN the brush today. Lost lots of jigs and hooks. Shad were thick as gravy everywhere we went. Might have been slow for that reason.

Every fish was 10.5-12 inches or they were massive 13.5-15 inches. None were in-between. The 14-15 inchers looked like they were going to explode they had so much shad in them. Lots of them had shad tails sticking out their throats.

The big fish definitely made up for the smaller fish. I told the guys they would land 5-7 big ones over 13 inches, and they had 8 slabs and the rest were11-12 ish.

I would have pushed the trip to a better day, but they were a 3 hour drive home, so we had to stick it out. Not a two man limit day, but almost.

In another post, I saw someone talking about the trees, yes they are there, but u have to tree hop a lot to get a steady bite. They r good for 3-7 crappie per tree. Another guy answered how to fish them, but I tend to shy away from them unless I'm tired of trolling around with the TM. But that rare. End of October I will hit the trees a bit more when the fish go deeper and will be hanging spa round them in more numbers. If you don't have a trolling motor, standing timber is your only option. Don't anchor on my freaking piles! I found one of my piles 81 ft away from it's original drop spot today. Fine with me, cause I had to side scan it to find it again and some of y'all will go back there and it is obviously not there anymore.

Attention: the Dad and daughter that were at my last 2 seminars, that fish lavon w/o a trolling motor, please email me a date to go out. You two have a free trip on me....... You know who you are.



And all the female fish had egg sacks. Some we bigger than others and some looked like they were going to drop eggs tomorrow, but they won't. This is a yearly question on the forum. All fish are developing eggs right now to spawn in the spring. I catch spawning fish in a creek in the winter, or December-January they spawn in this creek. It's a secret creek, so don't even ask which one. I don't only guide at Rowlett Creek and White Rock Creek in the winter months, I have many others. I go to which ever one has more of a chance to limit at. But again, the crappie won't spawn this year. Just once a year. In the fall the temps go down and the water cools off. So the shad push up shallow to feed due to the oxygen levels are higher now. So the crappie follow them shallow and sometimes stay in 2-4 ft is there is good structure. I have been finding mainly black crappie super shallow these days, but no big push of crappie super shallow yet. Water was 75 degrees today and freaking windy.

Amen Brother! You are the Man! Great report as always.

Grabbed the guys at 10 am and hit the water. Glass calm out. Then a storm moved in about 3 pm and the clouds shut the bite down. Never hit a massive school of them. Most on one pile was 7. Jigs worked and minnows worked. Minnows work a little bit better, but jigs worked ok as well. We caught them as deep as 17 ft and as shallow as 6 ft. No pattern.



The fish were inside the brush. Not many at all, were on the outsides.