December Trip Results

Went out to deep East Texas just recently with Dfitz for a little 5 day Carp and Buffalo expedition and did pretty well! Caught loads of fish but only took pictures of the significant ones. I'll break it down day by day from my perspective, Dfitz has all of his photos so I'll let him post 'em.

Day 1: Dfitz arrived to the location about 2 hours before I did. I would've been there an hour sooner but I just had to have Chick-Fil-A during the lunch rush hour! That line was wrapped 3 times around the building, lol. Once I got there we set up camp and took the kayak out to bait up, 50lbs of range cubes and 5 gallons of boiled deer corn straight out into the swim as the sun was going down. Managed to catch a few catfish but ended up pulling the rods out of the water as night temps were absolutely freezing on day 1.

Day 2: Woke up at first light and it was still crazy cold! Thankfully we had seen the forecast and we had passed the worst of it. Took the kayak out and dumped 25lbs of cubes and another 5 gallon bucket of deer corn. Kept myself busy with a bit of microfishing! Ended up catching nothing but Bluegill even though we had cast netted Longears and Redears. Was disappointed as I've yet to catch my first Redear. Catfish came steadily throughout the day. Baited yet again (25lb cubes and 5gal maize) just before sunset. I finally had the first target fish right after the sun went down! A gorgeous Smallmouth Buffalo. Left my rods out all night and ended up catching a few, nothing special though!.





Day 3: Woke up at first light yet again, kayaked out another 25lbs of cubes and 5 gallons of maize. Saw quite a few fish in the swim! Fished hard and managed to catch a beautiful mid 30s buff. Action was starting to pick up and we were catching plenty of cookie cutter Carp (12-15lbs) and Buffs (low 20s). Had two or three doubles too! Took out some more bait before sunset (25lbs cubes and 5gal maize, you know the drill!) and caught my first "bigger" Carp right after the sun set. Left my rods out all night and had plenty more cookie cutter fish. Nighttime was wild on day 3, we heard so many fish crashing we couldn't believe it. It was like sweet music, lol. Was pretty tired so I didn't fish too hard at night but I vowed to try my best on day 4. Dfitz and I were trying to catch the chunkiest catfish we could (full up of our bait) and I got my "Fat Cat Award" submission at around 10PM with this chubby Blue.







Day 4: Woke up early and rebaited my rods before putting out bait and the fish had arrived! I was getting bites so fast I could hardly keep 2 rods in the water. After catching a ridiculous number of fish and wearing myself down I took the kayak out yet again for another round of cubes and maize. And when I say wearing myself down I'm not joking. The fish there fought harder than any I'd ever hooked into before, and the bigger ones were simply impossible to move without fighting them like you were surf fishing in saltwater! Those fish had me walking back pulling then running and reeling to gain line. During the hectic morning I'd caught what would end up being the biggest Carp of the trip at 23lbs 9oz and put her in a floating retention sling in the water for pics once Dfitz woke up. Had countless fish throughout the day and numerous doubles as well! Took so many photos Dfitz ran out of phone battery so I'll upload two of his bigger catches. Baited up yet again before sunset (a bit heavier this time, 25lbs of cubes and 10gal of maize to finish everything off) and I fished well into the night, bagging 2 more 30+ buffs and countless other cookie cutter fish.



















Day 5: Woke up at first light on day 5 to very choppy water and high winds! Made fishing very difficult but I soldiered on and was rewarded for my efforts. The fish were in the swim so thick I could only fish with one rod, it would tear off within a minute of casting every time. Had loads of fish yet again as I attempted to pack hastily before my rod would inevitably tear off. I managed to get exactly no packing done until about 1PM when I finally decided to pull my rod out of the water. Had a chunk of a 36lb Buffalo which was my biggest for the trip and a 20lb Carp among lots of cookie cutter fish as well. Hated to leave with so many fish in the swim that were so willing to eat but I had to do it. Till next time, East Texas!

Awesome post and as always. Great job guys. Those fish do not have a chance with both you and Andrew on their tail!



Side Note: Andrew is one HECK of an Angler and dedicated to the love of the Great Outdoors! Have fished with him on several occasions.

Well done guys! Great report and some super pics. Just curious, due to the colder water temps, how deep was the water that you guys were baiting?

Water temps weren't too cold, they stayed at or above 60 for the majority of the trip! Most of the fish were caught in roughly ~15ft of water.

Thanks Banker and Curt! Andrew is dedicated for sure!

Very...nice. It's an amazing optical illusion you have with your (awesome) photos. If you didn't post the LBs, we would all assume you were catching state record fish.

So now I'm thinking there is no such thing as too much chum Nice to see that theory in action.



Awesome Report and Pics - I bet it was hard leaving biting fish like that. Good problem to have. Congrats!

Hehe... The benefits of being a little dude!


Yessir! You don't need to bait heavy but I love doing it lol. It seems to work for me! Definitely sucks to leave biting fish. Next time I'll have to take off for longer

Thanks goes to TXMS for teaching me what I know on how to catch these fish . Finley is a perfect ambassador for the sport of Carp/Buffalo/Suckerfish and I expect we will see great accomplishments in the years to come. On to the trip specifics, we were fishing only 75-100 yards apart from E/O, but the water in front of us was different. I would use my Hobie and go out to a second ledge 20-23ft, I could not cast that far with my 9ft rods. I did well further out on day 3 and the morning of day 4, but after that closer in was fine, we had the fish with us.

These fish were strong as mentioned, and I had 2 hooks straighten on me. My heaviest landed was a 39lb Smallmouth Buffalo and a 20lb Carp, both fish are now my pb. Also caught a couple lmb throwing a lipless crank one evening and some Blues/Channels everyday, no idea on how many total Carp/Buff, but it was a lot,

Looking forward to the next one. Here are my pictures.

Very impressive. You guys hammered them.

Thanks for adding to the report! Dfitz now has a Buffalo PB that's bigger than mine!

Thanks Chuck, hopefully we have an opportunity to fish together in 2020

Awesome job guys!

Oh baby, now that’s fishing. What size line were you using?

Great job fellas! Some truly AWESOME fish there.

And I was all happy with my 12lb Small mouth buff the other day lol.

Thanks everyone

Thanks! 15lb test hooklinks, 25lb test mainline. So essentially 15lb

Thanks Dan and pop r!