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Welcome to Ricky's Guide Service
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One of the great things about keeping a log of your fishing trips is being able to go back to it and see what the fish were doing in any given month and start your next trip using the same pattern. This has paid off for me MANY times in the past and I am certain it will pay off again. A lot of people come to East Texas each year from out of town, out of state and even from other countries to take part in some of, if not the best, bass fishing in the world. Now, nothing beats an up to date fishing report, which we also have, but when that is not available logs from previous trips are hard to beat! I have compiled a condensed version of my logs that detail the patterns that I have seen time and again on these lakes. Click on the month that you are interested in to see what the fish should be doing when you get here.
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09/29/2005
Palestine and Fork - TX,
October Looks Great for Fall Fishing
Can you believe the weather we've had,100's one day and 80's another. We have watched the weather turn bad for the folks in New Orleans and with the last hurricane that blew through our area just recently I hope and pray that you and your families came through in good shape and I hope you didn't receive much damage from the high winds.
For our lakes well we needed the rain that we got. As you know our lakes have been very low and for some the fishing has been tough and others, well fishing has been pretty good. Last month when reading about the grass problem some think we have, kind of bothered me. You know as a fishing guide on the lake I like fishing grass, as I have always said, "you find grass and you will find bass". I know the grass has been very thick back in the Kickapoo area and also in the back of Flat creek, but the reason for the grass being so thick is the lack of water. As most of you know, we always get down low in the summer months and then the lakes come back up in the fall. Well fall is now here and we will begin to get the much needed rains and with the rain the lakes will come back up to their normal pool levels.
Now you say well we still have the grass problem. No, once the lakes get to full pool in the fall months you will also notice the water temps drop as well. With the dropping of the air temps and the dropping of the water temps the grass will start to fall back to the bottom of the lakes and this will take care of our grass problems for another year.
For those that are worried and have noticed a drop in traffic to the lake, well I have also noticed that there has been less folks visiting the lake this year, but I don't blame it on the grass in the lake nor do I blame the die off of catfish, but I do blame the high cost of living and gas prices the way they have increased. You know all this has hurt everyone, including me. The average family can't handle all the extra cost. If a man is not making 40 to $50,000's per year and has his ducks in the right pond, well he can't go fishing much less playing and running up and down the lake. He has to conserve and take care of his family first.
As for the catfish dying, that's just Mother Natures way of keeping the lakes from over populating and other fish having to starve with as they are all competing for the same food. Each year we have a certain number of all fish that die off and it's caused by the water getting hot and no wind blowing to keep the water circulated.
Think about this, go down to your favorite bait shop where they sell minnows, if you will notice they will have an air pump in the tank so that it keeps the water circulated, which will keep their bait fish alive. Now if you were to turn the pumps off what will happen, well that's easy all the bait will die? That's almost the same thing that go's on in our lakes. The only difference is that in a lake we will get a thing called a thermo-cline and this is caused by hot temps and no wind. In a thermo-cline you will have one portion of the depth that has oxygen and another that has no oxygen. Say you have a section of water that is 30 foot deep; you may have oxygen from 10 feet down and no oxygen above the 10 foot level. This is a thermo-cline! You will find thermo-clines a lot in lakes that have no grass or vegetation in them.
Now here's something else to think about, God put plant life on earth why? Well let me tell you the plant life is for oxygen and that's what keeps us breathing. With the catfish dying this summer where did you find them? Were they on the south end where we have no grass or up north where we have lots of grass? That's right they were all on the south end where we have no grass.
I hope for some that don't understand about grass in our lakes that this might help you understand that because we have grass in our lake this doesn't mean that our lake is dying, it just means that God is here with us and trying to help out with our fish and wildlife. And for those of you that were concerned, well we take our hats off to you to for caring about our lakes. If anyone out there has any concerns please always contact the folks that know and let them explain before anyone decides to panic. You can bet that if we have a problem in our lakes here in Texas we have the very best that oversee our lakes each day.
Now here is how I will fish for bass this month and what other fish will be doing and where you will find them.
I like to fish in the main creek channels in the fall. I will pick out a creek that holds good cover and good depths and this is where I will find my larger fish.
The lures of choice will be a medium running crank bait, spinner bait and the one spinner that I prefer most will be my 430 special in a chart/white color. I will fish it along the shore lines up next to any and all cover I can find. What makes the 430 special so good is the speed the you can fish it. It works well when fished like most spinner baits, but works best at slow speeds and it is designed to run at a slower speed than most all other spinner baits on the market. The next lure of choice will be a tube jig rigged with my screw lock system. The screw lock system is so much better than the conventional rigs because it will fall in a different way every time you pitch into the water. Color well I like a brown or watermelon color best of all. Last but not least I like to fish a jig n pig in the fall. I will fish the tube and the jig in both shallow and deep water. You will need to fish slowly for best results.
For the crappie fisherman well you can find the crappie moving into the 14 to 17 foot brush piles and they can also be found under the main lake bridges. The best lures will be small jigs.
Sand Bass will also begin to move some each morning now and you can catch them on spoons and rat-l-traps.
Hey we are hoping to have our TV show up and running next month, but we still need more sponsors. If you would like to be a sponsor then contact me at (903) 561-7299 and I can get you an advertising package to you. We will have more than 500,000 homes that can view the show and with that you can reach folks you never dreamed of contacting.
As always I would like to say thank you to the ones that fish with me each month and I would like to welcome you to come fish with me as well. If you have special needs in fishing that you don't understand then fishing with a guide is one of the best ways to learn. I also have gift certificates available for the up coming holidays.
You can reach me at (903)561-7299 or (903)530-2201 and also by email ricky@rickysguideservice.com
Until next month remember to keep only the fish you can use and release the rest so that our children can enjoy the great sport we call fishing.
Good Luck and Good Fishing
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