Lake Tawakoni

Hopefully this will help in compiling some helpful tips for people for Tawakoni. I will not be fishing it often, for the record.

For starters I am only sharing what I know. And I don't know diddly about this lake. Wanted to take mason out and take a peek at the lake. I put out some feelers out on the forum but didn't get any replies. We went blind, and for the first time on a lake I was really impressed. I know there is probably a good amount of tips on the lake here somewhere, but I couldn't find them.

Also, I didn't want to post this on the Grapevine thread.. This lake will ruin it for you, these fish are strong. Even holding a hybrid by your thumb is surprising when they give you a head throw.. Pure muscle.

We launched at the dam, and to be safe picked up several dozen shad right on the ramp. Wanted to wait for light before heading out, so we checked out the map. Right before we left the ramp a couple boats arrived. I met a local police officer from the nearest town, he advised us to stay on the southwest side and could pick up sandbass galore. Mason wanted to target Hybrids and Striper so we went out to a large hump and looked around the main end. We worked in a bit and found a channel that had fish in it, but they would come thru quickly. Several guide boats showed up in this area, and with live shad were picking up some numbers occasionally. I noticed the guides all used splashers, and live bait for the morning. Mason picked up a couple nice hybrid at (Waypoint #1). We stayed at this spot and just kept working the spoon, and blade bait until about 10:30am. We only caught 1 fish on a shad, and it was a surprise. All the remaining fish we caught for the day were on artificial baits. Used the large Cordell silver spoon, a large white spoon, and the cabelas "mean eye blade bait". The 1/4 oz blade bait caught 90% of the fish for the day, it is easy to cast and you can work the bottom quickly. We did more casting and working it back on the bottom, than vertical jigging. Never really saw any large schools of fish, but rather fish here and there. As we only fished the area relatively close to the ramp, we concentrated on working as many good looking points that we could find.
At about 11am we ventured off the main point towards the banks, and checked out a couple main points. We ran into large schools of small hybrids, and sandbass. They were moving in wolf packs around the area quickly. I could see them coming on the mega360 and almost predict where to cast. (Waypoint #2) was the point where we caught allot of smaller fish, but any fish is better than no fish. Just west of this area (Waypoint #3) is where we worked the hot part of the day. We caught sandbass, small hybrids, goo, crappie, and landed a 5lb largemouth on 6lb braided. This small point has some larger size gravel on the top, and this is where we caught most of the fish. Mason took breaks, and we did some swimming to cool off as we fished. We took a joy ride around a bit, and drove towards mid lake, but the main point we stopped at was vacant.
We went back to (Waypoint #1) area, and ran into a very nice man (Brian) who was very helpful. He described what he had been doing, and had caught many fish lately. He was sitting in 25 foot of water about 150 ft from our waypoint, and working a 5" long yellow jigging spoon. He would drop it to the bottom, reel up 8 cranks and then "Rinse and repeat". He noted that the area was not that good on the graph at that time (prob 1pm). He did allot of looking around, searching and pouncing. I very much appreciate his information, and friendly help..
Since we caught some good fish there, and we didn't know anything about the lake we stayed put. It was a grind, but about every 45 minutes we would hook up with a big sandbass, or a hybrid. We stayed in this area from 1pm to about 4pm. I was looking forward to the afternoon bite, and didn't know if this area was any good so I simply scanned for guide boats. None seen, so the afternoon bite must be good up the lake, or on the dam. I could see many boats over there, but didn't want to be running all day long. Around 5pm we went out to the very end of the point (Waypoint #4) , and worked this area for a while. There are tons of catfish up on top of this point. We probably caught 30 small catfish on the blade bait here. I picked up Mason's rod which has 10lb fluoro and hooked up with a good fish, had to get on the trolling motor on 10 and go after it. Fish was spooling me, and it was getting close.. After I moved a bit, he turned and I was able to get him wore down at the boat. Was fun, and reminded me of the coast. Was nice to let mason see a striper, and he was just glad to hold it before releasing it. All fish were released We just picked up smaller fish from this point on, and at 8:10pm were at the boat ramp. The drive back home was brutal, and I had to stop and get the blood pumping.

I know this might not be much, but if it can help anyone get on some fish I'm happy. Didn't do any waypoint buzzarding, and just used the map and electronics. I am looking forward to next week, think we are going back, and this time will look at mid lake areas. I remember seeing some maps of Tawakoni that had some good tips, but just couldn't find them. Maybe they will resurface.

This lake is a beast, and I am here to tell you I would hate to see it in 25 mph winds. When you can look across a lake and have a hard time seeing the other side, it is something to be cautious about. And for this reason I stayed in the areas we did, I think it is better to just hang in there and keep chugging. The more we fish the lake, the more we will learn. And we both had already said it was worth it by 8am when mason landed a monster sandbass, and two good hybrids. I forgot how hard these suckers pull, and we were running light tackle. I was using the same gear I would use at grapevine, and it was not the right tackle in my opinion. I would scale up to 12 or 15lb fluoro, or 10lb braid. I was using a swivel with about 12"-16" of 20lb fluoro as a leader, and this was helpful. The braid is attached to fluoro with a (alberto knot) which is the bees knees. We caught allot of small fish along the points closer to land, but it helped during the slow time of the day.

Basically in every spot we were casting, letting the bait fall to the bottom. Then pump it up and let it fall.. You can feel the blade bait vibrate when you pick it up, and most of the time it was on the fall..


Waypoint #1


Waypoint #2


Waypoint #3 about 500 yards west of prev waypoint


Waypoint #4


This is my trail for the day, which shows we didn't even scratch the surface of this lake. And it was about 10 gallons of gas.



This bait caught the most fish, we even traded the bait between our rods and mason would then catch more fish. The original color was fire tiger, than I painted over. For some reason the green made a difference. Will take some fire tiger lures next trip. The sweet bait caught the bass, striper, and biggest sandbass. Might be a coinkydink..

















Thanks & God Bless

Prosise

Awesome write up!!

Thank you for the information. I really enjoy your great input.

Great report, and smiling kids with fish are always a win.

i didnt see your post before. would have gladly shared what ive learned. you need to hit cooper up next month for hybrids. got a feeling youd figure them out. good running into you out there. next time ill be in the new boat!

BTW. you drove right past one of my favorite places to fish. Lewisville in the winter can be quite epic

Great report. Waypoints 1 and 4 are on Wolf Creek Humps, one of the best structures on the lake. Your venture to the east side of the dam took you to another great spot - the Propellar, one of the Southeast Dam Humps. Here is a map I created for another fellow to show the main spots on Tewakoni:

Thank you for sharing, that is good info. Looking forward to learning more about this lake.

Lots of grins on your boys face ! Awesome

nice fish, thanks for the report

Thanks for sharing sir!

Wow!
What a report and WTG!!!

You guys really got after them!

Always enjoy the posts from you Prosise. I need to venture away from Lavon and try these other lakes! This thread is very helpful.

Great post! Very helpful. I have not fished this lake before but live in east Dallas and would love to try it some time.

First off, this lake will flat out ruin it for you. What an amazing fishery, second time on the lake with no pointers.. And for the record, I got my butt kicked today.. Nothing better than getting my butt kicked by little man.. All fish released. Me and Mason headed east early this morning and launched at the Dam about 6am. Picked up couple dozen shad at the ramp, but it was harder than last week. Headed to the large hump just west of the ramp and went to the same waypoint we spot locked at last week (Waypoint #1). Using the smaller shad we caught some fish on bait, nothing on artificial. Mason was really wanting to catch his first striper so we focused on the deeper water today, and didn't venture towards land at all. We were about an hour into the fun when a guide that was about 200 yards to the east, waved us over. He had extra shad, and gave us a bucket full. We had some larger shad, but never did any good with them. The 2"-3" shad did well. Kudos to Matt's Guide service 214-415-0166 for being so kind. We fished here until about 9:30 am, and then went out to the end of this large hump. Picked up a small striper out in 31ft, but there was nothing really out there. We left that area because the waves started coming over the bow. We looked around the Dam, but did not connect with any fish. One thing we did notice, the areas we drifted into, or used the trolling motor to access we caught fish. The areas we motored into we did not catch fish, until about 30-45 minutes later. Might be a fluke.. Anyhoo Came back to the same area that we started at, and ended up catching more fish on bait, but we were running low on smaller bait and that dried up. We went back out to the end of the point and looked around, nothing was caught. By the way, we did anchor up on most of the areas today, as the wind was pretty high. We had a lull until about 4pm, Mason thought we should go back to the area we started at. We went back, but this time drifted into the south side of the small channel. Fish were thick in this area, but we were not getting them to bite. Had some dead shad out, and I was working the jigging spoon with no luck. I started changing the presentation of the spoon, was using a quick pop off the bottom. Changed to a very slow lift, and a slow drop back to the bottom and they were all over it. Only had to lift it about 3 feet, and the slow movement down did the trick. The movement is about 1ft per second. Don't know why, but it worked. From 4pm, to 6pm it was "On like Donkey Kong!!!". Not only did mason catch his first striper today, but he caught prob 6. This was at (Waypoint #2) We caught some really nice fish, and allot of them. The slow presentation was good, using the Large Cordell spoon with a smaller hook on it. The small hook make a difference, his had a X-caliber hook and I had another brand. These are wicked sharp, and you really don't miss fish that often. I will make a movie tomorrow, but wanted to share.. This is not even all the pictures, I have more.. The video will be good.. All the fish from 4pm to 6 were on a spoon, using the slow lift and drop..

Waypoint #1


Waypoint #2


Trail for the Day.

I agree that this lake will spoil you for fishing other lakes. It has more bait available than any lake I have fished except Lake Proctor. Your pictures were great and it was good to see your son doing so well. Your comment about Matt Cartwright echos my experience with working with him. This was a great update. Thanks for posting.

Nice Hybrids and stripers! That one great lake I just hate the drive from Keller dealing with I635 in the Garland area.

FANTASTIC! Can't wait to get back out there.

Here's a tip (I think). With live bait anchor on top of the humps in the very most shallow reading and hold on.

Sorry it took me so long to post the video, been a bit lazy. Sorry for the video quality, there is something on the motor housing that is causing this camera to rattle. At 11:30 we figure out the spoon presentation that works. Video is long, but I make them for the Grandparents. You can skip thru, and I tried to speed up the clips some. Everything up to 11:30 was bait, with an occasional spoon fish. Everything after 11:30 in the video was caught by the large Cordell spoon. Had a couple errors in the video, but I am rolling with it.. Take care, and do not go to Tawakoni..

Great trip and excellent post. Enjoyed every minute of the video.

Good Luck,
Bozz

Great video and looks like a great day you guys won't forget.

Awesome video! Those fish were wearing y’all out!!

Absolutely epic day y’all had. Well done!

Great reports.

Sunday 8-15-21 Coop-Taw trip. Was very nice not having to deal with wake boats on a weekend..


Me, Mason, and his friend Keagan headed out early. Thanks to CORRECTION "NotaGuide" for sharing lake info for Tawakoni and Cooper lake, much appreciate the info and look forward to wetting a line with you Mr. "B". We wanted to try another lake, and he led us right to fish. launched at Cooper Lake at 6am, two throws of the cast net and we had shad for the rest of the day (South State Park ramp, bait by metal sea wall for swim area). Long story short, we jumped around the humps like a grasshopper to locate the fish. Stayed on the lower end favoring the dam area. In the morning we started at the middle of the dam, and saw some massive explosions on the surface. Would have sure enjoyed hooking up with one of those fish. Water going over 10 feet in the air. Did not have any luck, and the surface expulsions were very random. Broke up the lake in 4 sections and spot checked the two largest main lake points and then moved out from there. we did see a boat catching whites on the south side on a mail lake point but they looked like small fish. We dialed into some good whites at (Waypoint #1) and they wore the boys out until the word "Hybrid" was mentioned. Mason was playing random music , and it would immediately help the fishing. You can see the graph light up with green in the background.. The more music, or redneck thumper we used the better the bite was. Never hooked up with any hybrids. Boys got a bad case of "Hybrid/Striper" fever and they voted to move to Tawakoni. (we had probably a limit for each of us if you counted fish over 12" long. We pulled out at 11am and launched at the dam at 12:00pm on Tawakoni.
Long story short, lake Tawakoni was tough on me. No wind at all for most of the day, with a slight 140 degree oven bake feeling. Wind is your best friend for fishing in my opinion. I knew it was going to be tough with the conditions, but we made the best of it and didn't get skunked. I don't know much about the lake, and the areas we have been catching fish at over the last two trips were showing fish. Rigged up a decoy rod with a small bait hook, and at every location would drop the catfish line. You can catch catfish, and Goo all day long at the areas we have been fishing at. On my graph "Hummingbird helix" you can see the difference between bait, smaller fish, and the big ones. All the spots had high activity, but they were small fish. Caught small catfish everywhere down to 24ish, then it would transition to Goo as we went deeper. Something to look for at spots is the size of the fish, and how active. It is easy for me to tell small bait clouds, larger bait, whites, big school of whites, and larger fish like the hybrids/stripers. The hybrids/stripers will be more of a think line with will move up slowly. With all of the side scanning, I only saw schools of "Whites/hybrids" near the spot we caught fish. The schools I was watching on the mega360 were moving relatively quickly and not handing around for long. There is tons of bait up in the real shallow top of this main point, but we stayed out on the drop hoping for Hybrids. We broke the lake up into halves, and we went north and spot checked Sun Point South, and Sun Point but only the east side of each point as it extended into the lake. Sun point area all the way to the east had fish up on the end of a hump, and we caught some Hybrids off the drop. We were up on (Waypoint #2) vertical jigging some kind of structure. Wasn't timber because I got hung up, and my lure retriever felt mass. We caught a few Hybrids, and whites here before backtracking to the south side.
South side was a bust and not even the mosquitos were biting at the limit areas I knew, so I went right back to the point we caught fish at (Waypoint #2). Interesting thing that I ran across while moving from the south side of the lake to the north. I have my transducer setup so i can see down sonar pretty well if I am not going too fast, and I was pinging some massive signals crossing the lake. I stopped, and it was near the old creek channel. A forest of trees, with fish in suspended in them. Or I think, I could see movement but it was not something i wanted to fight with hangups. Don't know if people fish the trees out in the middle, but they come up really close to the surface.
After moving on and getting back to the North side , we stayed here until about 7:30pm. Filled a RTIC cooler with a mess of donkey whites, and one decent hybrid for Keagan's Mom. I'm not going to sugar coat it, it was tough. I even activated the 12yr splasher mod, and it didn't help. We worked back to the ramp at dark, and we spot locked about 100 yards away from land and the boys let me take a 45 min nap. Getting up at 3 and doing a trip like this is tough. The first trip we made a couple weeks ago, I really should have stopped for a nap on the way home. So after that i made it clear with the boys that we would stay till dark, and I could recharge the batteries. The bugs are insane at Cooper lake away from the water, and bad at tawakoni so we stayed out a bit. After the power nap, I felt like a million dollars. The boys took the white light off the back of the boat, which was attracting bugs. As we eased up to the ramp a truck pulled up, and quickly showed me what type of lake we were at. Game warden spot checking the ramp at 10pm, and he asked about the white light. This lake is a beast, and seeing a Game Warden enforces stability in safety and keeps people safe. We pulled out the boat, and did a (safety inspection/license/fish check). I have two fire extinguishers in the boat, one was in the red, the other was close to the red/green line. I had a short talk with him, because the best friend you could ever have is the Game Warden. They are all on the level, and I have crossed paths with many Masonic brothers who are Game wardens. Also you will get the best info on all the best fishing for your area. Wish I would have gotten his name, pretty big guy, and he could probably go bear hunting with a switch. He was very informative in a few things. First, his checks out on the lake the day before showed the fishing is off. He only had one boat with fish (not a guide boat), and they were in the same general area we found them Secondly, the dam ramp is about to get a big update. They are expanding this area with a pavilion and all the finishing's of a real park. So i would think the free launch will go away. He said he has ran into some small issues down at the dam in the past, but nothing that was of concern. I can tell you, when I first heard his voice about the white light on the back boat I felt the authority in his voice. He doesn't mess around, and made sure we covered all our bases with the checks. Cool thing happened, when he started the boat checks Mason handled the checks while I got my wallet put up. My dad taught me some very valuable things, and one of my favorites is: "People do what you inspect, not what you expect." And that is the SOP of all supporting entities for quality/safety, wish we had more resources for them. Sometimes I think we should have about three per lake when the whites are running up the creek.



Movie below. Cooper lake is 0:00-18:57, then Tawakoni is the rest of the video.



Cooper lake Waypoint #1




Big school of whites (Cooper lake)




Tawakoni Waypoint #2





Cooper Lake in the morning



Keagan's first Hybrid, Tawakoni was glass

Awesome post. Thanks for sharing.

Great post, thanks for the information.

Looks like you found the forest at Tawakoni. The eastern edge of the forest runs north/south pretty close to your western most track in your 4th image from the bottom. Most everything west of there is a solid forest of trees. If you had seen it in around 2014 when Tawakoni was 16' low, it would scare you to death. There are trees 2'-3' thick at the normal pool waterline. Hitting one of those would destroy your boat. Be sure you are well east of that line when running between Sun Point and the Wolf Cove humps. Basically run within 1/4 mile of the shoreline anywhere west of that line to avoid the forest in the middle of the lake. Anyone with better knowledge of the exact boundaries of the forest, please make corrections to the map. This is from my memory of how it looked roughly 10 year ago. I know there are trees north of the Greenville pump station, however I don't know where the boundaries of that forest is. Please mark the map if you are familiar with that area, too.

As mentioned, the main lake timber is a major hazard especially during this time of year when the lake normally goes below full pool. If your map package doesn't have it well defined, I would spend some time with side scan to drop a few waypoints at the southern edge so you stay clear of trouble. There is a boat lane running east/west through the woods that had buoys marking it when I was a kid. When the lake is low you can see the lane and drop waypoints and save a trail so you know where it is. In high school my friend put a hole in their boat out there.