Sam Rayburn Update from Nov. 5-8 Fishing Trip

[Dink2]

I'm back from our Rayburn trip and had an AWESOME time. The weather was perfect -- low 50's at night and high 70's in the day with little to no wind. I miss seeing all the wildlife in East Texas. We saw lots of deer, ducks, and even a bald eagle that soared right over our heads.

Before I get into the fishing report, a couple of quick hits: (1) Thanks again to Jack for your help -- we fished a couple of your recommended spots, as well as, some of my old spots from the early 90's when I was in college down there. (2) We stayed in Dixon Cabins in Harvey Creek -- nice setup and spacious cabins. (3) We ate in Broaddus all 3 nights -- 2x at the catfish restaurant and once at the mexican food restuarant -- both places were off HWY 147 and were very good.

Fishing Update: Water temp was 68-70 degrees -- perfect!! Water was clear down to 5-6 feet south of the 147 bridge, but pretty murky north of the 147 bridge. As a result, we stayed below 147 The best water depth to catch fish was between 8-12 feet and near the hydrilla (which is completely submerged due to the extra 3.5 feet of water in the last 2 weeks). The submerged hydrilla made fishing a little tougher.

Thursday: After 4.5 hour drive, got to the boat ramp at 4pm. My dad and I fished until dark and caught 11 bass - up to 3 pounds. We fished inside the 2 islands outside of Hog Branch (Harvey Creek area). We caught our fish on texas-rigged worms (motor oil and black/blue tail) and Yellow Magic topwaters at sundown. Another boat with us caught a 7 pounder on a Yellow Magic - beautiful fish.

Friday: We were on the water before the sun was up -- wow, was the fog thick. We started on Jack's recommended point and creek behind "deer" point (halfway back into Harvey Creek). Unfortunately, we didn't get one hit on topwaters. We left and fished the 2 islands again in Hog Branch and caught 10-12 fish on chrome/blue rattletraps and worms (same as on Thursday) in 10-12 feet of water on the outside grass lines. At 11:00am, we went back into the creek in "deer" point and fished it again. I remember Jack saying that the rising water may have the bass in the back of the creek, so we did just that. Wow, was he right. The fish were stacked in that little creek, especially on the backside of the "S" in the creek (it's tight back there with little room to maneuver the boat). We caught 8 bass up to 4 pounds in about 1.5 hours. We fished the 2 islands again picking up a few more fish on rattletraps. Then, we went into the back of Hog Branch and fished the same pattern as deer creek. We caught a few more fish there -- a couple of 2.5 pounders and some smaller fish on worms. The day ended back inside the smaller of the two islands catching a couple of more fish on topwaters as the sun went down. We finished with 37 fish on the day.

Saturday: Wanting a change, we trailored over to Caney Creek and put Jack's recommendations to use once again. Your directions were perfect Jack. We fished the main point on the north side of the cove, then turned the boat due south and fished the humps that were out there. We also fished the back of the creek on the north side of Caney. We couldn't fish the south creek in Caney as there were 2 duck hunters over there and apparantely, there were a lot of ducks flying...lol. Between gunshots, we were able to catch several bass, but no size (largest was about 1.5 - 2 pounds). The fish were caught on worms and rattletraps. About 10am, we headed back to Harvey Creek and fished the same spots -- back of deer creek and the 2 small islands outside of Hog Branch. Both spots picked up more fish -- same size range. The only change is that I ran out of motor oil worms and started fishing a Zoom Worm -- watermellon with red flake, then dipped the tail in chartruese. We finished the day with 27 bass.  The only disappointment of the day was that the topwater bite was none existent Saturday night -- not sure what happened.

Sunday: Fished from sun-up to 10:00am. We moved spots and fished the back-end of Indian Creek. I have never fished that far back there and have been missing out. That is some fishy water in the back of Indian -- every cast looks like it will hold fish We caught a lot of fish (up to 3 pounds) on Yellow Magic topwaters. The fish were not holding to structure, but rather were in the middle of the creek in the mouth of Indian (we didn't catch any back further into the creek). After the sun came up, switched to a Fat Free Shad crankbait (runs at 5-6 ft.). We then fished the "brushy" point on the east side of Indian (about half-way point in Indian cove). It was holding large schools of 12-16 inch bass -- caught 10 or so on worms (watermellon with red flake, chartreuse tail) in about 1.5 hours before having to leave for home.

My apologies for the long post, but I wanted to provide back my findings. Hopefully, someone finds it helpful and can use it to catch some more bass.  We are definitely coming back next November 

[fishfordollars]

Sounds like ya'll had a great trip. Glad I could help you out. I was pretty sure those fish would move back, but wanted you to check out the mouth before you hit that area in the back.

Good job, and congratulations on figuring out the fish.

Jack

[Catt]

Dude that's what I like

When we try to help someone out we need to know what happened good or bad so we can offer farther help. Your detailed report can also be used by other anglers wishing to visit Rayburn.

[fishfordollars]

You can bet I will use it this weekend in the tournament Saturday. That is probably the most detailed report I've read in a while on this site. Problem is it's been read by several others I'm fishing against so it's no secret now.

Should be a slugfest come Saturday.

Jack

[Catt]

My money is on you

[Dink2]

Jack,

I provided a lot of detail -- but not all the little details  ;D  Either give me a call (972-989-7412) or email me (alanmachost@dewolffboberg.com) with your email address, so I can give you a few more techniques that should help.

Thanks,

Alan

[fishfordollars]

Jack,

I provided a lot of detail -- but not all the little details ;D Either give me a call (972-989-7412) or email me (alanmachost@dewolffboberg.com) with your email address, so I can give you a few more techniques that should help.

Thanks,

Alan

Thanks, I will. I've got it on my mind to fish the region 45 American Bass Angler qualifer out of Mill Creek Park this weekend(Sunday) or another that is out of San Augustine Park on Saturday. Heck, I may fish both.

Jack

[HitmanFO]

Great post Dink2... not sure when I'm going back to Rayburn, but I'll be reading this again when I do!

[fishfordollars]

Well it was a great report.

The weather will change down the road and the bass will start the move out to deeper water. All you have to do is know where they are now and when the weather starts south, just get on the trolling motor or outboard and follow them out. All the way to the river ledges if it cools down that much.

Personally I wish it would, so they can bunch up in the usual spots for this time of year. When they are set up like this everyone catches them and it makes it that much harder to seperate from the field. Give me the colder, deep fish anytime. That knocks out half the field(Me included at times), but it makes it  a little easier to draw a check.

[alwayslooking]

quote]Heck, I may fish both.[

[fishfordollars]

Well I'm off to the lake. Plans got changed up some this week.

Only fishing our club tournament on Saturday.

Monday night my neck locked up on me. Had a ct scan Wednesday morning and several injections that afternoon. Would like to say that the shots helped, but that would be overstating it. It is somewhat better, but I cannot turn either way and the only way to raise up out of the bed at night is if I roll over on my right side. Have meds to control the pain, but it is still to much to try and fish both days.

Needless to say the wife is less than pleased with my decision to fish.

Will give a report Sunday when I return.

Jack

[Dink2]

Good luck Jack and I hope the neck gets to feeling better.

[fishfordollars]

Thanks...The neck did not hold up. I quit fishing at around 11:00. Just could not stand to make another cast. Caught a lot of small fish, but it was just not worth the pain and aggravation. I did spend the rest of the time just running up and down Aysh Bayou putting some hours on the new motor. Had a couple of issues with idiot boaters that I am going to post about to get everyones opinion.