Squaw

Fished it Friday, man was it “off” compared to how it normally fishes. We still managed a fair day, but I noticed a couple of things I’ve never seen out there before. 100 boats on a Friday and 80 on a Thursday before school even gets out for Christmas break. So awesome on a weekday to have people pull up 30 yards in front of you and dropping the trolling motor like it’s no big deal. I expect that on the weekends, bummer deal it’s happening on weekdays too.

South end of the lake was turning over. Foam and nasty ness floating all over the place down there. Really had the fish in a funk. Mid lake to upper lake were definitely better. Never seen this on a power plant lake before during the winter time.

For the first time ever out there we caught some seriously sickly looking fish. In about the worst shape I’ve ever seen fish that were still alive. Typically we seem to catch fish that are super healthy and full of vigor.. some of these didn’t even fight, just bit and gave up. Caught a few of these from all sections of the lake from the dam (aka the parking lot) all the way to the river. I’ve only been fishing this lake for about 4 years, had plenty of tough days where the bite was off but never have I seen sick looking fish like this. Curious if any of you have seen the same.

All in all we ended up doing best throwing SK 3xd’s in 32-35ft of water and crashing it into tree tops that were 8-10 ft down.

What was your biggest fish?

About 4 lbs. . First trip this year without one pushing 5.

Were they glowing?

breaks my heart!

I am done out there for the year I think. Between business and not wanting to deal with the s show its turned into I'll just chase crappie or something for the next 3 months. And yes, we caught some skinny looking fish last week.

Did you turn your lights off before backing down the ramp? I wanted to ask before WAWI!!!!

Fayette County is in similar condition. I’ll be chasing some coastal fish and other options until it’s had a chance to settle down a bit and maybe ramp up for spring.

Must of been off from the MLF style tournament .

I’ve been out there 6-7 times this year. Today was really good for me. I caught the better one( 4.70) on a wacky rig while we were all staging waiting on fog. Then I caught a few good ones on a shaky head. Then the morning bite went rogue for a bit. Finally found the good ones again on windy points, dragging a cotton candy/chartreuse lizard on a c rig. Boat was in 35 FOW, and fish were coming in around 25-30FOW

The lake is a [censored] show for sure. I’m starting to think that better than 80% of boat owners really are pretty clueless about the day in/day out routine of launching/driving/loading a boat. The boaters nowadays also don’t give a [censored] about where they are going. I had one idle between me and a point, as I was dragging my bait and line under his boat. I yelled at the two dudes, and they acted like they didn’t understand. But they heard me. And they watched me catch a 3-1/2 from under their Blue/Silver Nitro Z21. I guess either they were SCARED to get the boat on plane away from the shore, for fear of that they might fall out, or they were graphing to see what I was fishing. I told them to stay there, their boat was helping the bite. Idiots.

When your Chevy blows its transmission on the hill....roll back out of the way. It makes for a long wait when your right in the middle of the road. Same goes for the Escalade that couldn’t get their FX up the hill in the afternoon. Why would you drive your wife’s soccer truck to Squaw?


Off my box.

We had a dude motor right up to us and started throwing a cast net with big weights. We caught them today in25 to 30’. Throwing bass assassins with weights hooks. Got two over 3 3/4 but the rest were good healthy 2plus lbrs All were healthy no sickly ones.

You are correct about clueless boaters

found the key to the problem in this situation. 70-75% of the time this is the explanation. Nitro/Tracker are notorious for this behavior. Certainly Not all, but many.

Yea a lot of that happening. I swear they just traded there ski boats in for bass boats.
I have had a lot of guys drive right by us with the big motor as we’re fishing

Not a brand thing. One of the nicest dudes today was in a Red Silver Tracker. He was bank busting and I was c rigging. We made small talk as we fished past each other. Totally polite. He asked if he could take the inside. I gave him the whole bank.

yep, as a I said, not all

That's funny...last week these two old a holes motored down in between a buddy and I in our kayaks. Complete disregard for us. Closest I've ever had someone cut me off, even when I've been in my boat.

What kind of boat is that? Having trouble seeing.

And yall pay 30 bones to experience all this?

Yes, you want to go. We can take my boat

Though i don’t know the situation it’s extremely hard to not accidentally cut off a kayaker. I try To be mindful but i had one 2 weeks ago pointing one way, looking like he was fishing that way, so I went What I thought was behind him and opposite way and he proceeded to tell me he was fishing that stretch just had his back to the wind lol

If you'll pay entry lol

I can do that. I've been meaning to call and see how you like being a homeowner

Spot on. If you own a boat you should know how to launch, trailer, follow rules of water when driving your boat and respect others on the lake. I had some douche hit the back end of my trailer in the parking lot then proceed to block me in by parking behind my trailer (that he just hit) while he chatted with his buddies. Guy never bothered to get out of his truck to check my trailer for damage or say a word to me about it. Thankfully another guy gave me a heads up to check for damage and there wasn’t any. I had one of those ‘I hate people moments’. It’s not that difficult and doesn’t take much effort to be a decent human being. It’s simple.... Treat others as you want to be treated.

Fished Squaw Saturday total fish caught was 25,all healthy. Never seen so many people who couldn't back a trailer and were so slow to load there boat.

Probably more to the story than shown here but if you are offended by anything shown in this pic you probably are in a bad mood fishing every public lake in Texas!

Truth^

Must be so many rookies fishing now! I had two guys in a white Nitro Z8 go between me and the bank as I was off a ways fishing the point, so not a huge deal. But then these guys drove between him and the bank and right across where he had just thrown. He yelled at them, but they acted like they didn't hear him. Just no respect at all, but could use some respect teaching the old fashion way! Just sayin
All the fish I've been catching look healthy.....

Oh. That was me. I had the boat model wrong I guess. Damn. That ticked me off.

Then. They sat there looking at me. Wussies

Steez, I was just wondering what made you choose a cotton candy/chartruce lizard? I have some baby brush hogs in cotton candy, but haven't thrown that color in many years.

Looked like a tilapia color to me. The purple/silver-ish with the green.

That makes sense.

Man all I see in some of those post “especially about Squaw” are people complaining and whining! I I couldn’t imagine fishing with some of y’all. If y’all aren’t catching anything I bet it’s because you’re blaming it on the lake being fished too much or someone fishing to close!

That’s me. If I ain’t catching fish, it’s anyones fault but mine.

The lake is certainly a little off compared to the last few years. I hear fishing was really good until around Thanksgiving, but numbers have certainly decreased since then. Personally I've only been out there once this year for a charity tournament. It's fishing way different than past years for sure. However, the ramp situation is so bad I will not be back. We sat in line Saturday to load from 2:25 until 3:15. The same two trucks had the two good ramps blocked for a solid 15 minutes. When we left right at 4pm there was still a line all the way up the hill and through the parking lot. The good news is the "cold water" lakes around here are still fishing really good. No reason to travel 3 hours to fish at that circus.

If he can hit them with a cast, they shouldn't be there

Truth ^^^^^^^^^

LOL !! I know that boat LOL, don't know the guy personally ,but a friend of mine does. I've have had to deal with him before.

I fished Sunday if I was slow I’m sorry. Everyone seemed ok to me, but I’m never in a crazy hurry. I really dislike that lake prob won’t bother it again until closer to TTO

Those 2 guys pulled right in front of us and started fishing right on top of us

Might be hard to tell but it was me and another buddy fishing a stretch of bank. My buddy was about 30 yards from me and these 2 guys came in hot in the very back of this cove and shut down right between both of us. I couldve tossed a bag of plastics on to their boat at one point. Seemed like they pretended we weren't even there but oh well, just surprised they wanted to be right where we were fishing bad enough. Might of have made them mad catching fish as they were passing us on the trolling motor.

Almost had a fishing report for Squaw without going to a ramp loading critique......almost!

The fish are always biting and easy to catch. The “Ramp Report” is the important information at that lake. We all know this. If you are asking how to catch a fish in that lake, it’s likely that you lack the experience to launch, load, park a trailer, etc.

Squaw Creek sucks and has for many years and for many reasons

Do we need to sick WAWI on them?? He can Patrol on the water also.

Wawi is done out there for the foreseeable future. The lake has gone to hell and there are too many idiots. I'll get some work done for the next 2 months then hit some quiet lakes that arent being overrun by the masses. Its shamefull what has happened to squaw.

You guys must be able to put up with alot more BS than me-with all the negatives at the ramp and out on the lake I would never fish there-
don't care how good it can be. Must be an age thing-I'm 70.

Yep

A few weeks ago I was fishing a small slew and that same boat idled past me within 10 feet of my boat just to stop 20 yards ahead of me and cut me off. I know Squaw is not my own personal lake and that it's been stocked using tax payer money and people are free to act however they choose. But, at the same time common courtesy and common sense is definitely something that needs to be a priority when you're in any public place.

Good lake to get a line pulled during the colder months when other bodies of water can be tough for some. Other than that though squaw is without a doubt in a downward spiral from what it use to be just 4-5 years ago.

These kayak guys need to find a lake that doesn’t have 150 250 horse bass boats doing 70mph all around the lake. It’s not safe for then

for a great first post.

I fish out there regularly and I don't even think about the ramp or the rude people. That's pretty much every lake I go to nowadays. I just tune it all out and go fish. I enjoy the lake and catching fish in the winter. But Im a pretty easy going guy. My #1 rule in life is " People are crazy, just accept it and move on". Makes life much easier at least for me.

That is so true!! life is to short!

Solid post there

I was out there yesterday and had a good time. I mainly wanted to get out of the house so I stayed in Granbury Wednesday night and ate dinner and had a few cold ones watching the Baylor game. I’ve only been once and that was 4 years or so ago. I was all by myself so i really tried to be in the back of the line. I got there right before 0600 and was the 3rd boat In line lol “for some reason I thought guys started getting in line around 0430” They let us in a 0700 and I launched my boat parked it on one of the unserviceable ramps and parked the Tahoe. Everyone seemed nice.... I caught a dozen or so 2 to 2 1/2 pounders on a white spook around the islands and missed quite a few more. I then flipped the brush in about 10 to 15 fow with a senko and caught some more. The wind started picking up and I’m halfway through a pretty severe cold so I left around 1230. I wasn’t feeling well all week but cabin fever was starting to set in. Alll in all I had a good time, boats were all around me but we all said hello and fished. I’ll go back next year around this same time. Happy new year everybody!

I took my backup tournament partner out there the 2nd for my annual cabin fever trip to Squaw. There were 70 reservations left the night before, so was thinking I might could explore a few spots that are always arses to elbows with boats that I have never fished. Did that on one spot but had 2 boats come up within 30 yards of me and box me in on one point. Overall it fished a little off, caught about 25 but the normal 2.1lbers on average were about 2.4lbers being the difference. Got slow about noon and I pulled out a fairy wand rig for the first time in two years and drop shotted 4 of the nicer fish caught up north in 30ft of water but got bored with that (but if I were in a derby, I would be video gaming all day). Better more active bite was in 77 degree water closer to the discharge on red plum shaky heads. Good thoughts by Champion1 above, know what you are getting into, lower your normal fishing etiquette expectations in half when you get on a popular wintertime 3,000 acre lake, and make the best of it.

Almost went this morning!!!!

Sounds like there is a story here.

Judging from the pictures I think you made the right choice of lakes to fish.

Had one of my better days out there in awhile caught quite a few from 7:30-10:00 without seeing anyone around us catching much anything, guys grumbling around us it was slow and had been much better earlier in the week, could have had lots more but figured out the shaky head deal later in the day on a jelly worm.

Yep. Objects in pictures are closer than they appear. If he is throwing at that bank and they cut between him and the bank they have no respect for other fishermen.

We had two guys in an aluminum boat come within 20 feet of us during a tournament on Palestine a few years ago. As they kept getting closer I was telling my partner, "Surely they aren't coming right here." Yep, they did. Pulled up right beside us and threw out anchors off the front and back. I said, "Don't mind us, we're just here fishing" but they acted like they didn't hear me. The same thing happened on Lake Tyler in August during a night tournament. A guy and a woman pulled right on top of us. She actually said, "Hey, it's a big lake." I don't think she knows what that means.

Sportsman's etiquette and consideration went out the window twenty years ago on Texas lakes.

Lmao and motorcycles shouldn't drive on the highway 🤣

Yea when they started selling boats to every tool with a credit line fishing etiquette went out the door. Now its flat bills and white sunshades, $10K worth of graphs, 4 extra trolling motors, and a boat that cost as much as house.