Nicron

If you can only bank fish try the ponds in Tuscan Lakes off of 96 in League City. Just park off the street so the residents don't get mad. I have caught some nice fish out of those ponds with plastics and traps. If you have access to a boat try Clear Creek launching out of Walter Hall Park on Hwy 3. You can also try Hall's Bayou heading north out of the public ramp on 2004. You probably wont catch much bank fishing at either and Clear Creek has a consumption advisory I think. Good luck.

We fished Palo Gaucho again this weekend near our place. The morning started with a giant school of shad near the boat house so with that in mind I started throwing a soft plastic segmented swim bait with a belly weighted hook right to the edge of the grass. We hit some of the coves near the main lake entrance on the South side out of the wind. Landed 2 very nice fish almost back to back. I would drag the swim bait to the edge of the grass and let it fall and they would inhale it. My brother was throwing a root beer/red flake creature TR and picked up a few more right on the grass lines or at the base of trees and brush. Seen several nice schools on the graph in about 10 feet + and tried some deeper presentations with no luck. No huge numbers but the fish were decent in size. Wind kept us off the lake on Sunday morning so we just sat on the dock and caught crappie.

Fished the whole week of Christmas. Fog, wind, full moon, rain, and more wind made for a miserable trip. Still better than work. Fished mostly the Palo Gaucho area near the main lake entrance since the weather was limiting. Picked up a few decent fish on a T-rigged Sweet Beaver in black w/ red flake letting it fall off the top of the grass near the banks. Also picked up a couple on a black and blue flake wacky rigged senko in the afternoons. A white spinner bait produced only one fish for me early one morning and I had nothing on the shallow cranks I was having success with previously. After listening to some wise advice from a local I tried a couple of points with 25-30 foot of water with a Carolina rigged (which I can not stand to throw) watermelon/red plastic and low and behold there were fish down there. Nothing big and not a bunch but at least it wasn't a bust. Found huge schools of shad near the surface in the evening but found no bass under them. We tried swim baits, cranks, flutter spoons, and traps with no success near the shad. My brother fished near Lowes and had consistent luck with chrome traps in the evening and watermelon and blue/black creature baits T-rigged near the grass lines early in the morning. Should be back up in a couple of weekends and plan to concentrate on nothing but deep water slow fishing unless things change drastically. All of the usual spots we have had success were barren wastelands this past week.

Back out this past weekend with about 50 bucks worth of spoons to try out. Once again the Rapala DT-6 in shad with black back produced for me off the bank in the back cuts. Had 2 aggressive fish on a silver Shadow Rap in about 3-4 feet as well. No bites on top at all. Moved into some deep water and tied on a 4" rattling spoon from BPS. Second cast landed a 3# catfish in about 20-25 feet. Went back out that afternoon near the main lake entrance. Tossed out a Sexy Spoon in about 35 foot that had shad schools suspended at about 20 feet. Picked up 1 bass just a hair under 4#s. Had trouble with all the snags so went back to cranking with 1 white bass deep. Moved shallow late Saturday afternoon and my cousin picked up two decent fish on a brown structure jig near some submerged grass near the bank on back to back cast in the exact same spot. Sunday was about the same with more fog early. Water still stained and down a degree or two from Thanksgiving weekend near Palo Gaucho. Went down to Lowes for a bit mid-day and had no luck. Will be back out there for the week of the 19th. Anyone try the M-Pack snag free structure spoons? Looking for some feedback before dropping $14 a piece on them. Nick

Hi everyone. Been reading this thread for a long time. Recently we purchased a place on Palo Gaucho bayou and have been going up quite often. We were up all last week for Thanksgiving and I wanted to share what (sorta) worked during the week for us. I stayed mostly in the bayou near the cabin and fished around the Hines creek area. Had cold fronts and the full moon during the entire week and the water was pretty stained. Early Morning: Yellow Magics in Bone and Japanese Shad (one or two pops and let it sit), white double willow leaf spinner run along the grass lines, and a Doomsday Turtle in watermelon rigged on a small weighted hook Mid Morning: Rapala DT-6 in silver with black back pulled from the shore out to the deeper water or near boat docks, SK Red Eye Shad in sexy shad run along the grass or under schools of shad on the surface, Missile D-bomb in super bug color T-rigged along grass, . Mid day - afternoon: 6XD (chart/black and chart/green) in 20 - 25 feet, Red Eye Shad pulled under the schooling shad that were everywhere, Watermelon Red poison tail jig with matching craw style trailer (dropped near bluff wall and let it fall), T-rigged Zoom Big Dead Ringer in June Bug From what others have posted recently seems we were moving too fast or not quite deep enough to find a consistent bite. As you can see from the list we tried a little of everything but could not find a solid technique good enough for more than 1 or 2 here and there. Besides 2-3 decent keeper fish that maybe pushed 2.5 - 3lbs they were all on the smaller side. We are still in the process of learning the lake but we are getting there. Nick