Posted By: Doug
Purtis Creek and Tyler State Parks - 04/29/03 01:44 AM
A buddy, James, and I went up to Purtis Creek State Park for the first time Thursday 4/24 - Sun 4-27. The water is warm, and the visibility is good. This moss was worse than I expected for the time of the year. We did pretty well the first couple of days. My fishing/diving buddy has just taken up fly fishing this year and is hooked on it by the way. I caught several bass in the 1.5 to 2.75 pound range and one really bad boy snapped my leader in spite of all I could do. I was trying to turn him, keep him off the bottom in deep water and out of the logs. He never turned. I caught the others near shore in shallow water and the bigger ones all buried themselves in the moss on the bottom. They would wear themselves out in the moss and by the time I dredged them to the top they were easy to net. I caught them on gurgle pops and (mostly) bream killers. I also caught some really big blue gill, one of the biggest I've ever caught, on a white gurgle pop late Thursday. Saturday we went over to Tyler State Park and fished that lake a while that morning. I caught a 15" bass and one 12 - 14" that I didn't measure - both of them on a bead head Bitch Creek. Tyler is a nice park, nice little lake, lots of moss, rather domestic, lots of kids, paddle boats etc. If you're going to fish it, during the week is probably the best bet. We came back and fished Purtis Creek a while Sat PM. I caught 1 blue gill. That seemed to be pretty much the same for most of the others we talked to. The wind was brutal Friday but fairly still Sat. Sunday, per plan, we didn't fish, just headed home.
The weekend before, James and I went up to the Caddo Gap Arkansas area with some friends. One of the guys, Mike, has a place up there on the South Fork of the Caddo. We fished the South Fork and Mike's pond. Friday PM (4/18) and Sat AM were nothing short of phenominal for perch fishing. I was tossing a bead head bitch creek to them, just letting it sink with little action, and BIG perch were slamming it nearly every cast. We caught fish all weekend but there was a couple of times those two days that were at least as good as any fishing I've done in my 43 years of slangin' bugs. Doug
The weekend before, James and I went up to the Caddo Gap Arkansas area with some friends. One of the guys, Mike, has a place up there on the South Fork of the Caddo. We fished the South Fork and Mike's pond. Friday PM (4/18) and Sat AM were nothing short of phenominal for perch fishing. I was tossing a bead head bitch creek to them, just letting it sink with little action, and BIG perch were slamming it nearly every cast. We caught fish all weekend but there was a couple of times those two days that were at least as good as any fishing I've done in my 43 years of slangin' bugs. Doug