Fishing Possum Kingdom

I recently bought a place on PK. I like to fish for crappie and sand bass. Could someone who fishes that lake regularly give me some pointers where to start? I have a dock and also a boat.
Thanks

My folks had a place on PK for about 45 years in Caddo Creek, we used to catch crappie under boat docks and would look for the sandies when they were chasing shad in the open water. Alot of times we would catch sandies while fishing for largemouths, mostly off points.

Has PK recovered from all the algae blooms?

Sink some brush under your dock and the crappie will show up, sink lots of brush!!

Yup,she's alive and well.

The flood in 08 put most of that water down the brazos. That Golden Algae came from a boat brought up from the gulf. Whitney may still have some of that but the TPWD can no longer find much GA in the lake.


June 25, 2013

Possum Kingdom Reservoir – A water sample collected at the dam contained low concentrations of P. parvum and nontoxic water.

http://www.tpwd.state.tx.us/landwater/water/environconcerns/hab/ga/status2.phtml#brazos

I am no expert. The guy you need to speak with is Randy Wood. That said, I have fished PK for three years and have caught just about every species in the lake. Where is your dock? This is a 65 mile long lake and it fishes very different at Neely Slough and the Dam vs North D & D and up toward the Brazos.

If you are going to fish PK, the first thing you need to do is learn to use Fluorocarbon line. The lake has water as clear as those you find in the Ozark Plateau. I use a 20 LB test Fluorocarbon leader on 12 LB test mono. Seems to work well. You'll need a lighter line for crappie but stripers and LM bass will hit the same stuff and you will lose them.

Sand Bass fishing at PK may be the best in Texas. I have never fished anywhere that had as many white bass or as many 16 inch white bass as PK. I think this is due to the sand bass recovering fast from the GA and over populating the lake. These white bass will frustrate any crappie fishing you do, as they are far more aggressive and hang out in the same places allot. Anything white or Chartreuse seems to work. My favorite bait for them is a 16/ oz Chartreuse jig with a white body chartreuse tail jig made by Rage tail. Last summer, I could catch a limit of sand bass in about an hour at the cliffs marina in Neely slough. Every single cast caught a sandie. If you ties on three jigs you caught three sand bass.



Striper fishing is still very good at PK but the fish are scattered. The state wrote off the lake after restocking several times before the big flood. In the future, they need to just drain these lakes with GA and get it over with. The stripers we have now have survived multiple GA attacks. The state stocked stripers again last year and last fall I started catching allot of 8-10 inch stripers. Those will be 16 in this year. They have to be 18 to keep.



While not know as a Largemouth Bass lake PK has some seriously big bass. There used to be Smallmouth in the lake but the sate stopped stocking them. I hope they re stock the smallies after they come to their senses that the lake has recovered. The salty water must be good for these LM, as they fight very hard. Early on, I lost a lot of them until I discovered premium hooks like Gamakatsu.



The Crappie I do catch at PK tend to be big. Those 8-10 inch guys that dominate at other lakes are probably devoured by bigger fish.


Since you have a dock, you should look into getting some of these green fishing lights. It will save you a bunch of gas because you wont have to chase fish all over the lake. They will come to you. There's a dock on Gaines bend with these and every evening massive numbers of fish come into that cove to feed on the minnows and shad attracted to that light.

http://underwaterfishlight.com/

Good luck to you. I will be out later this week to see if the spring fishing has taken off. Should start any day now.

Excellent post. Thanks for sharing. Some friends and I are renting a house and a boat for a long weekend out there soon. This will come in handy!

As of last May, I was told that most fishing on the North end of the lake (From Costello Island - up the River) was pretty dead due to previous GA blooms. I fished PK a lot as a kid, but not too much since previous fish kills. I would be curious if any bass are caught mid-lake to North anymore?

great post PK

A boat brought up from the gulf, Really!!! And draining the lake would do no good whatsoever !!

According to TPWD site, Golden Algae is native to estuaries where salt and fresh water mix. It's also found in salty rivers and streams. The story I heard was it was brought in by a boat. Considering the lake was without GA from 1941 to 2001 I find this story plausible.

In 2008, PK had a massive flood and all flood gates were open. I remember this, as I was staying at the cliffs hotel and could not drive home via hwy 16 due to the water going over the bridge. Not much GA in PK since that. They still find a little GA in the lake but the lake water was flushed down river.

I did see some gulls working in 2011 and that may have been some shad killed by GA. Could have also been cold water, as it was in February.

As for draining the lake, if changing the water would fix it it would be better than losing a decade. When I first started fishing in PK in 2011 people told me the lake was all but dead. I was pleasantly surprised to find it not so. I went to the TPWD website and found that they electrofish the lake and rate it fair to excellent for all game fish.

Pic from my first trip on the lake. I was pleasantly surprised to catch so many fish in a "dead lake".

Striper fishing will pick up now that TPWD is stocking again. Anyone with a dock will tell you PK has some might big perch.



http://www.tpwd.state.tx.us/fishboat/fish/recreational/lakes/possum_kingdom/

yes I thought the algae came from upstream

good news about the comeback for sure

Very good news! Thanks for the posts. Now... where would one have the best success bank fishing from?

the water is really low, I would go to one of the D&D's

Any grass in that lake? Been meaning to get up there for years now might have to finally give it a go.

Hard to fish that lake from the Bank. The only area I had success was in Neely Slough back in 2011. The fish stay deep allot. Even the largemouth will go shallow to eat at dawn but be back out in 40 feet later in the day.

Truth is, to fish PK you need a boat.

None that I am aware of. If the lake came up to full pool there would be plenty, as there are high weeds where I caught limits of sand bass in 2011.

PK Bass fishing is not about weeds. It will be about LM moving in shallow very early to eat sunfish and gizzard shad that live around docks and structure. Once the sun comes up, you'll need to move deeper. I do not target largemouth much in the lake but catch quit a few. The deep running crankbaits I use on my striper rig to carry my jigs down 25 feet quite often catch nice LM bass. These bass will hang out in the drop offs off rocky points similar to what you see at Texoma. You'll also find them in some but not all of the standing timber on the shallow side of the lake ( the lake is a flooded river. Bluff side is deep, sand side is shallow)

Sounds similar to Belton

Don't tell everyone PK! That's my dock. Save some for me

They need to get their own light. It's a very big lake. I'm investing in some portables


Your dock sold me on them. Amazing how that little shallow cove changes once the sun goes down and those lights turn on.

You'll have to let me know how the portables work. I'm looking a pt buying one myself so I can get into deeper water and drop it off of the side of the boat.

I sure will. I think night fishing could be very good at PK.