No Fishing Report But I Still Have Tips and Tricks...

 I have not been on the lake like I would like to be this month but there have been some projects that were time well spent. There was Cathy's hip replacement, grandkid babysitting, playing a couple of musical events, attending a couple of musical events, getting all signed up for Medicare supplements that I'll need in a few of months, the high winds of the last couple of days and updating my will just in case all this kills me. This does not keep me from sharing my time honored fishing tips and tricks with you. 

Lake Sam Rayburn is a made made lake. When it filled there were some areas around the boat ramps cleared for water sports, a few boat lanes cut for safe navigation and there were old, open farm fields but much of the forest was left standing in the valleys of the Angelina and Attoyac Rivers as well as all the big creek and slough drains.  

When the lake first filled this timber was great fish habitat but occasionally people got lost because even though you were in a boat it was still like a walk in the woods. It's been at least 35 years since I found someone lost on the lake. Since then some much of the flooded timber has rotted away it's easy to get a visual on you location and see landmarks miles away.

If the lake is dropping and it probably is now that timber that rotted away at the the water line or just below gets reveled and becomes a hazard to boating because it's been gone so long there is a whole generation of fishermen that have come along since it has been gone. Let the lake come on down 10' or 15' and you will see what the flooded forest looked like.  

I often see people speeding through areas that were once various hazardous because of stumps just under the water. Lucky for the newer generation on the lake much of this is gone but then boating is different. There are computer chip navigation guides that load on to your depthfinder/GPS and it is also possible to save a path on the GPS so you can go the same, safe way every time.   

   

 There are still some good stumps sticking up as you see in these photos. These are some big tall trees in 40' of water. That's a lot of tree. I don't think there is a tree in Big Sam that does not have a string tied to it. These strings may have been the remains of some one's fish baiting or artificial reef building project, a trotline or a strange abandoned fishing getting plan that never quite came to fruition.  

So here's the tip, I never tine up and fish at trees like this. I figure that everyone else is doing that already and if it's been fished all the good fish are caught and there are nothing but undersized bait stealers left. In this day and age I have also heard of instances of lake rage when one man finds another man fishing his spot. I don't want any of that.     

Not sure about this one. Do I fish or fly a kite?

 

Here's another tip, tie up to the stump that is the hardest to tie up to. I'm talking about a a stump barely showing out of the water or if you are near shore where there is vegetation find a sprig or a flooded stick bush hardly sticking out of the water all by itself. Places like these will hold fish because they are different from all else around and because they don't look as fishy as something that seems obvious other fishermen pass them by.  

By the way, one more tip. I never buy rope. Once plastic rope is manufactured it's always plastic rope. I have plastic ropes I found floating in the lake or washed up on the beach that I have been using for decades.  

Cathy don't care about any of this though. She just knows if you cast, a fish bites.