Summer Fishing Report...

Cathy and I made it to the lake yesterday for a fishing trip. We've had some lake trips this summer and as per our summer water activity the past few years we have not been too mad at the catfish but instead spent our time tubing and swimming in relief of the hot weather. We swan yesterday but decided we did not want to get out of practice cooking fried fish. 

Though we headed out in the late afternoon fishing was slow for fillet sized fish was slow and we caught a bucket of these miniature blue cats. The Sam Rayburn Lake record for blue cat is 83 pounds. The biggest one we have personally caught was 32 pounds. These have some growing to do. I think I have found small catfish up to about 8" in the bellies of larger catfish. 

Seems our old favorite place that's usually a go to spot from August through January has dried up the past could of years. I think maybe other fishermen have discovered it because last trip one of the grandkids snagged some kind of bait bucket fish attractor and pulled it up. We let it back down but generally extra fishing pressure means small fish are the only ones left. 

We checked around the area to discover a new spot and nearby we clocked 52' depths which means with the lake being 8' low it's normally 60' deep in this spot and and fished the edges which were 25'deep finally producing enough fillet size fish for a fish dinner for two.  When the water comes up the tie ups to old stumps we used will be under water. 

Here's the what the world needs now is another picture of Cathy with a catfish picture. 

With a swim, a nice breeze and an Astros game on the bluetooth speaker it was a nice afternoon on the lake. Supper was even better with Fried catfish and farmers market okra and collard greens. 

 

Miles and Miles of Shoreline...

I like fishing. Sometimes people pass on tips to me like, "They are really biting down at the old community hole..." and I have headed down there to get in on the fun. Usually though at a place like that I don't catch anything. I get there and it's crowded with everyone else that heard they were biting at the community hole, there's trash left by Johnny come lately opportunist, my fishing tactics are tuned into a different kind of thing and all in all it's not exactly my idea of a great time in the outdoors. Fortunately, living near the biggest lake totally within the state of Texas there is plenty of room to get out there and at some of my favorite spots I may never even see another person. 

Even though it was the beginning of a holiday weekend we had been tubing with no one else in the area and had pulled to the shore for a picnic when this group of boaters and jet skiers, there was at least 4 miles of empty shoreline between here and the nearest launch, put in right next to us. That's my boat and you can see how close their set up was. 

To their credit they did not bother us. The kids were kept in check as pap paw warned, "I'll whip so hard you won't be able to go to school next year," and someone else advised, "Don't cuss, there's people over there." Now I don't doubt pap paw was probably kidding about the whipping and I warned Cathy not to cuss either but you get the idea. We are bombarded by input from various sources everyday and the lake should be a getaway. 

We finished our picnic and resumed tubing. The also tubed and jet skied in the area but thankfully kept to respectable distances. 

Only boater that came close was the Angelina County Sheriff's Department Patrol Boat. We were fully in compliance with the law and our pro tip is you don't have to tell them where you caught the fish. Just say at the community hole. 

 

   Miguel and the boys tube

There's one person who won't be on the tube this summer and it's our resident knee board and stunt specialist, Mary. Won't be long now.

There are a couple of people in training. Here's Ezra trying for daylight.  

Luca tries for outside the wake but it helps if you have some weight. 

Here's the boat ramp, Friday afternoon the third of July. It's not crowded. 

There's miles and miles of lake out there for you to fish, tube and have fun.  

Summer Tube Season Lake Report...

I'll admit that I messed up. That's getting easier to do because at this stage of my life it daily occurs to me  that there are many times I messed up. The latest mess up occurred to kick off summer 2026 tubing season at the lake. I had a brand new tube, never used that had been purchased in the winter months at a charity auction to benefit a good cause. It was still stored in it's packing had the crew waiting  patiently to put it to good use. 

They all loaded on it including Milo, who just turned three. Following the big brothers is his main occupation. I started out slow to see how the towable performed but as you can see from the photo all were too close to the front and the tube immediately nose dived and dumped them. That was enough for Milo. He made no more attempts at water sports for the day and like many of my other failures in judgment and experience this will be a scarring memory.    

Apparently no one else noticed or got hurt physically or psychotically so they were good to go.  

I started both Ezra and Luca on the knee board from shallow water, almost on the bank and it was such a good start it had me contemplating if I could start like that instead of the belly start and crawl to kneeling which was a move Ezra soon mastered.    

I think both boys got their mother's knee boarding gene and will soon be showing some tricks. 

Water was 82 degrees which in the warm sun seemed better that the water aerobics pool has been lately.  

I might think about fishing sometime but right now being a tube boat driver seems like gainful employment.  

Outside the wake. 

After admitting all these failures and mess-ups all I really wanted to do was spend the summer at the lake with a girl.  

A tube boat driver requires an occupational stump watcher to sit up front. 

 

Pre-Big Bass Splash Fishing Report...

 This weekend is a Big Bass Splash Fishing Tournament on Sam Rayburn and the lake was strangely quiet the day before an expected 3000 entries try to hit the water and win. There was plenty of parking at the ramp and I could only see one camper in the park but many campsites are still in disrepair from Hurricane Beryl and after all the popular big bass spots on the lake are on down a way and it was a perfect day for our late afternoon catfish trip. 

You can see from this photo how close to the shore we were. Right in front of the boat juts a little sandbar which when we untied to leave we let the stiff south wind blow us up on and caused me to take a swim in belly deep water to float us off. The water is 82 degrees which is probably a little warmer than our water aerobics class has been lately so swimming season is on us. 

Cathy caught this fat channel cat on the first cast dropping her slip cork rig in a 4.5 foot deep creek which dead ends in the first photo but at normal lake levels is passable into the the Deer Stand area cove. Final total was 8 channel cats, nice fillet size. There was a lot of shad activity in this cove and we had many throw backs as it was just full of 8 to12 inch cats in a feeding frenzy. 

The lake is so low looks like I'm bank fishing in this photo.

I think this is a man made structure of branches piled around a stump to create a fishing holding spot along an edge leading up to a point which when the lake comes up should hold some fish. 

Of course we ate fried catfish, blackened potatoes on the blackstone and salad. 

I pronounce that summer has arrived. Be careful with those tournament fishermen on the lake this weekend but truth be told we caught these fish after the time of what will be their final weigh in so if you leave late should be good.  

  

   

 

 

 

More Catfishing...

 Cathy and I along with her brother Matt spent a Saturday afternoon fishing on Big Sam Rayburn. Water is still low and recent rain have the level creeping up with the boat dock at Hanks Creek just barely starting to float. That's evidence of improvement as a few weeks back the boat grounded a few feet short of the end of the dock making it a big step over for a fat guy like me.  

Fishing was slow as our usual spring pattern is catfish on slip corks around bushes but the water is still not anywhere near bushes along the shore. We managed to catch 9 catfish with Cathy again taking most fish and big fish honors on a box of stocky channel cats. I managed one fish so I did have a meager supper while she ate big piles of fillet meat.  

A couple of trips back this was all fat blue cats holding to the shore lines but I think a warmer than normal March has led them to finish up shallow water activity and they have been replaced but the later spawning channel cats. Even thought the weather was fine for shorts on the lake yesterday the sun seem to beat down and after cooking fish in the garage I felt a few mosquito bites so I am predicting a long hot summer. 

Hazy smoke on the lake off down in the direction of a recent 6000-7000 acre fire in the Angelina National Forest. I have not seen any news of a new fire and it seemed to disperse with the evening wind. 

There were several pairs of ospreys in the area, the first we have seen this spring. I thought they were year round inhabitants but they have been noticeably absent. They were engage in feeding, diving and nesting behaviors in shoreline trees but we did notice this nest along the long boat cut. The full pool of the lake is 164.4 feet and the level is 155 right now or 9 feet low. That means with a return to full this spot they chose will be at least 5 or 6 feet underwater. Cathy points out she will probably be disappointed in him for choosing this stump. The nest seemed to be under construction, thinly built with no chicks or eggs. It was a temptation to knock it in the water so they would maybe choose another spot but we decided to let nature take it's course. 

If it ain't fried it ain't food! 

   

  

February Blue Cat Fishing Report...

 Recent rains have the lake up a bit. After she backed the boat off the trailer Cathy could pull up to the dock barely grounding the bow of the boat for me to step aboard after parking the trailer as opposed to the last time we launched and I had to jump to avoid wading aboard. I also expected the fresh inflow of water to muddy things a bit but the water was clear green and it was a beautiful feels like spring day on the lake in the middle of late winter. 

We set up on a windy point off the main lake long cut with the back of the boat tied off in 18' of water. Normally that spot would be at least 8' deeper and the stump we grabbed would be far underwater but this position allowed us to cast slip cork rigs to 4' of water so the distance of the rise from deep to the bank was probably about 50'. First couple of fish were nice fat channel cats and then blue cats the size of the one in the photo started hitting. I think I threw back one 12" channel as I did not want him to be scared occupying the livewell with the big girls. I had decided I would keep no more channel cats with the size the blues were but I never caught another channel. 

Since we were fishing right on the depth break all the fish we hooked in shallow water provided a challenging battle. When hooked the ran back toward the boat and under the boat to try and reach the sanctuary of deep water. One of the things my dad used to say when he was trying to judge the size of fish you had hooked was, "Is he trying to run under the boat with it?" We say that all the time also. 

Note the lay of the land here in the background. Normally at pool level the water is about 5' deep on the ridge behind Cathy with an old creel drain on the other side. That creek flows out to a big "S" curve in the submerged channel of the Angelina River. We've caught thousands of catfish in this area and I have probably fished it for at least 50 years. Once I found an arrowhead on the bank here and I often see people sifting for arrow heads when the lake is low. I would imagine a beautiful area with many indigenous people living here several hundred years ago.   

Final count was 10 cats in two hours fishing. We could always catch more but because Cathy's replaced shoulder makes skinning catfish harder for her and that makes me principle fish cleaner we quit when I decide I have all the work I need for the day. The Zamoras came over and we fried and blackened fillets using left over gumbo I cooked at the church Fat Tuesday party as a side dish. 

Once again we enjoyed being out in our refurbished boat and thanks go out to our children who put in the time to carpet, install seats and clean. When we talk to other fisherman on the lake and they get a look at us with all the rods and big net in the holders I can tell their impression is, "these people mean business."  

   

  

The Ever Popular Fishing Report...

 Last February, March, April and May there were almost more catfish caught than I could clean. This February is off to a bit of a slow start. Last trip was good fishing deep but it's high time for the blue cat to roam the shallows for world class slip corking. Only problem is the lake is 9' low and the shallows are dry dirt. There are still the old flooded creek channels and instead of hitching the boat to the willows and buck brush there are plenty of the normally underwater stumps allow premium tie ups. 

Using this creek channel strategy and slip corking we managed 5 nice cats even though it was a noisy boat with all three Zamora's on board. I suspect we might have been positioned right in the catfish path of travel from deep to shallow to find our baits and scared off some verses the multiple paths to the shallows that the high water affords but that's just technical stuff about fishing that goes on in my head which is not necessary to verbalize to others who just need to know, "cast over there."

How crowded can a 20' pontoon boat get? Pretty crowded as I didn't make many photos yesterday. 

I did take this photo on the way back across the lake. I think he might have been meditating on how bad he was or contemplating the nap they all took on the way home. 

Five catfish won't feed the Zamora clan so since they were asleep almost before we drove out of the park Cathy took them on to a rendezvous with their dad and I cleaned fish. Pop Pop and Grandma out lasted them again and the prize was red beans and rice with a side of fried catfish. Eat it everyday if I could.  

See you on the lake.

  

     

First Fishing Report 2026...

 The first fishing trip went off without a hitch. The new boat seats were comfortable, the motor ran like a top, the new Bimini top and frame kept us shady, the new rod holders stored our gear safely away, the fish bit and I looked around just in time to see someone poop over the side of the boat. I think the last time I saw that was when I was in high school. I won't name names of either pooper but I will always wonder the eternal question of who taught them how to do that? 

Ezra scored the first fish of 2026. 

There was a bit of wind but not too much to be dangerous. A good wind usually puts us to slip corking for fish chasing bait on windblown sandbars and in the backs of coves but with wind comes the challenge of seeing the cork and timing the hookset which can be difficult for younger fishermen so we elected to fish near drop offs in 25' to 30' water with the bait dropped over boatside straight down. The action was just fast enough and we landed 17 fat keepers. 

We also threw back a bucket full of this size blue cats. The Sam Rayburn lake record for blue cat is 83 pounds. This blog notes that by mid April spawning blue cats had moved out of shallow water and were being replaced by swarms of egg laden channel cats. None of the fish we caught this trip had eggs so the question is how old is this fish? Maybe 10 months old. If so that means slower growth than I would expect for a fertile southern reservoir or a more recent birth than last February or March.. Maybe the scads of small blue cat are simply a food base for the big double digit fish that we know are there but we rarely catch on rod and reel.   

The lake is still low, maybe lower than our last camping trip. I like it like this for fishing but be forewarned that if you launch the boat with your compadres backing it off the trailer after you park you will get you feet wet as there are no good pull up spots without grounding the boat 5' from shore around the Hanks ramp.  

I'll put off camping till the lake comes up as there is not good access to my favorite camp spots by water but looks like the fishing year is off to a good start.

Those cats are now swimming in our belly. 

More Boat Modifications...

I've often written about those four stages of outdoorism.

Stage 1 is you want to catch all of them.

Stage 2 you want to catch the biggest one.

Stage 3 you want to have nice gear.

Stage 4 is you just enjoy being in the outdoors. 

As I meditate on these four stages, which can be kind of a spiritual thing, I perceive there can be some going back and forth between each one and sometimes a person, like my wife can become stuck (actually I believe she has moved on for now) in that stage where she wants to catch all of them. Today I found myself in that stage where I wanted my gear to be nice so in continuing with boat repairs and modifications I installed rod holders.  

These were not the kind of rod holders that position your pole for the bite but rack style holders to get the pile of rods we always seem to accumulate off the bottom of the boat and out from underfoot. No one is getting any younger and believe me when I say trip hazards are real. I carry so many rods because I'm a fishing opportunist. If it's biting I'll catch it so I needed equipment rigged for various species. I've given some of that up. See stage four.    

 

I installed holders for 9 poles to travel in upright positions. I also bought a new landing net, see stage three which stored like this is a better ready position than how we kept the old one which was tangled in all the rods we used to just throw about on the bottom of the boat. This does reduce storage to 8 rods but the old net had a couple of holes and if your wife has ever lost a fish because the net was tangled and couldn't be deployed or the fish slipped out the holes I say you, my fine fellow have never had a proper butt chewing.  

I have always considered the measure of a good fishing pole being that you could step on it and it wouldn't break. With this new system and poles no longer under foot I might step the old rod budget ( see stage 3) up a price point.  

Weather looks good so maybe some on the water action tomorrow with fish photos to follow. 

I believe the only repair task left is installation of the stern navigation light. I bought a new one but the base if too wide for the rail. I could modify the old base but I think a couple of C-bolts will serve better. Alos not critical for legal operation but the old docking lights on the front are out and before a camping trip they will be a cheap easy replacement.  

My boat looks so nice I really don't care if I catch anything at all so see Stage 4.