shouldnt a good guide be able to catch fish year round?

Yep....but there are times when a lake is just off. Most times the fisherman will blame the lake but there are times when a lake is just bad. My recent observations mesh with the "dead sea" analogy on Ray Roberts.

A good guide will tell you about the conditions and what to expect not just take your money to make buck.

Great question Jeff and response Wes. I caught my personal best 2.64 last winter on RR. Crazy how much this year has changed everything with the low water levels. I think a lot of Shad have died off this year with the quick cold weather that happened. East Texas lakes seem to be better than the metroplex, plus West lakes that have been low for a long time. It's crazy that there is more water in Benbrook than Grapevine.

Hate to disagree but the shad have not died off at RR. There are literally thousands of them In the boat slips and shallows. So much that they fill up your graph and cast net pretty quick. I think the fish have so much to eat right now.... We r catching a few and they are fat. Just wished they'd get going good. I'll be out there all weekend. Pray for me! Lol

I would chime in on what and where and when ....
and I never go to RR ....
but as yawl know I aint got a clue anyway
btw ,,,,,did you just say the shad were um .....
"shallow" ?...................

Well I mean up in the coves and stuff. My boat is in 22' water and we are catching hundreds of shad in 10-15 foot of water. All around the boat docks. There are hundreds of thousands of them. It makes me think, and I'm no pot by any means, that they have all the food they want. We can't get the bite to hang. It's a few here and there. You can see the shad boiling at the surface all day long.

Oh there's still a ton of shad but none deep. Even if they gorge all day, they will still bite. At LOP your graph will actually black out because of all of the shad and the fish will still bite your minnow.

All im saying is that fish still eat in the winter.... just seems like some lakes go dead in the winter or people just havent figured them out

Yep they each year round. The winter time is an excellent time to catch them and Ray Roberts is a good wintertime lake. I must admit I didn't spend a lot of time out there trying to figure them out they were just not in their normal spots.

Some lakes do seem to be on fire in the wintertime while others seem slow. I would agree people just probably haven't figured them out yet because the crappie didn't leave the lake and they must eat.