Lake Conroe - Sept 2010

Limited out on large mouth bass during the third week in Sept while fishing Lake Conroe. During my stay at Silverleaf Piney Shores Resort which is located on south-east side of the lake near the dam. I launched from their private marina and headed north about a mile to another cove which has a sunken road with a underwater bridge structure located in approximately 21' of water. This area has little to no boat traffic due the many tree stumps hidden just below the surface. Live bait produced several large crappie and a couple of bass. When the bite slowed and I had all the crappie I wanted to clean; I move to the skinny water for some larger bass. It was tough going at first to find something the bass would find appetizing. Finally they started hitting soft baits like hackberry hustlers. Released all bass so that they could become future "sumo wrestlers". Waters edge was most productive in the nooks and crannies. On the way back after I started targeting bulkheads, piers and boat docks which line most of the shoreline. To my surprise I caught 2 cat fish on suspending mirror-lures as they slowly drifted to the bottom. I had backlashed my new baitcaster reel when it bounced off the seawall and dropped straight down. Bingo - the catfish sucked up my 3" hard bait and the fun was on...as he spun the yak around heading to a pier about 15 yards away; I thought I left the troll motor engaged...but it was not engaged - it was a short sleigh ride :). I imagined a bass that had been super-sized or maybe a huge gar. The surface water boiled numerous times as the fish went nuts. Landing a 6 3/4 pound catfish on light tackle that gave me a short ride...very cool. He fought like a redfish...well almost?! Kept the legal catfish only because it is my sisters favorite fish to eat as she was targeting cats back at the private marina.

My second day of fishing was surprisingly good as I limited out on bass. Spotted a medium size school of shad boiling on the surface and was able to pick off a few white bass as they ravaged the bait - it ended way to soon and lost valuable time struggling to find and rig up my white/pearl slabs. The white bass I caught were on a Little Joe custom slab with a short thin red and silver trailer attached to the treble hook. After that energy rush - I fished about 3-4 miles of piers, pilings, boat houses and bulkheads to get my large mouth limit. Switch to a spinning rod/reel as I was missing to many fish with the new baitcaster. I am still working on accuracy using baitcasters...as I am mostly a spinning reel nut. But I am trying to experience new things in my second stage of life...next think I will try fly rods when I master the baitcaster? Later I released all large mouth and a small 4 lb catfish (who thought he was a bass)...never realized that catfish would hit hard baits; but as I have stated before - I am always learning new stuff. Guess that's why I love this sport?! Kept a couple of the white bass for dinner.

My third day fishing consists of several hours spent on the piers at the marina with my sister and my wife. The three of us rolled a donut for our extended efforts. Perch do not count in my totals - but the girls boasted about how much bigger theirs were compared to mine. Sister was using a rod and reel she picked up at the salvation army for $10 bucks. They were both amused at how the cheap rig out fished my $400+ rig. It was a long evening...but that's fishing. (Although I will not admit it - I did enjoy watching them have so much fun).

My final day to fish netted only a couple small bass on soft plastics in skinny water around the boat houses. I spent about 5 hours paddling and/or trolling the shoreline to locate future spots...next time I will focus on crappie around 15-20 feet deep; maybe under the northern most bridge...it has always been good for me during the evenings and fall nights.

Sorry I do not have pictures - waiting for recommendations from PACK members on a water friendly camera to purchase. Oh - I did get a few cell phone pictures...then gave up due to poor quality. Will attach a couple when I figure how to get them off my cell phone?!

~seacow ~<;"""><<