Neches River Fishing Report...

We made the trip to Chandler River Park on the Neches River to fish the white and yellow bass run. White bass were in short supply and we only caught a couple but the yellow bass, which have no size restriction or limit cooperated and in about three and a half hours or so we had supper.   

I can imagine this area could be crowded if the bite was on good for a weekend day but we were pretty much by ourselves at a favorite spot where we have caught these fish three years in a row now. We had pretty much stopped fishing and were sitting on a log eating lunch when a couple of guys came by and asked how we were doing and when we said a few they immediately stopped and started fishing. We had spread our chairs pretty wide on the bank taking up a lot of space so for a community hole like this I don't know which was the worst manners but since the bite had slowed we let them have it.  

I'd like to bring my canoe here sometime and I did talk to a kayaker who claimed it was the worst year in 30 years he has been fishing the spring run. I had seen some internet chatter that the yellow bass had taken over this part of the river. That's ok with me as the white bass is a bit of a course meat and I've eaten enough of that in my life and prefer the more panfish type quality of the yellows. We don't need a freezer full of these things. Nothing is fishier that a package of white bass fillets caught during the spring run thawed out for a 4th of July fish fry. I doubt the yellows would freeze well either.   

SOMEBODY said I looked like an old man in this photo. Maybe just a river rat. 

Thanks to my friend Quince who gave me a package of inline Mepps style spinners purchased off TEMU. I'd say they produced a dozen of these fish with second place going to the old favorite Roadrunner and third a simple ball head jig.    

Without the TEMU lures we would have had a nice fish fry for me and Cathy but with them we had enough fish to invite the Zamoras over. 

Yellow bass fillets makes an attractive plate. 

If you invite this crew you better have 21 fish. 

I also made a dew berry cobbler with a bag of berries the boys picked last spring and with the vines loaded with blooms I thought I better clear it out of the freezer. 

Sitting around the fire made everyone want smores. I passed on these but the warmth felt good. On a windy March day I don't think anything can be colder than sticking your hand in an ice chest full of white bass to fetch another fish to fillet. Somehow we will carry on.   

 

Tackle Box Reorganization...

As a retired guy I mostly piddle around each day in a viscous unrelenting cycle of tuba playing, grand kids and fishing. I guess I am easily amused because when I finish the cycle, I start it over again and I have found that I usually find something new each cycle so maybe these are deep subjects with many meanings, shadings and analogies of life that hopefully I have enough time left to get to the bottom of. I took the time this past week to rearrange all the tackle boxes. 

I rarely buy a new lures so it's not like the collection of fishing lures are growing but I do restock the easily consumable and hangable things like hooks, weights, panfish jig heads and plastic lures. I had come to a system of stackable flat boxes that I kept in the boat compartments and switched out into a little tool bag satchel that I stocked with the appropriate gear then carried in the canoe, to the beach or wherever the trip took me. I used two old big tackle boxes to reduce the flat boxes by 4 or 5 so this is a more compact assortment than before. Many of the lures pictured here I bought as a teen or young adult, were my dad's or in the case of the big silver box gifted me from a life time collection by friends Suzi and Charley when they went through some recent downsizing.         

This is the box that gets the most use, the catfish or just general bait fishing gear. There's hooks, weights and slip corks. 

My dad's old tackle box. I cleaned this out by sorting the various lures into other specialized boxes and filled this with the content of the three flat boxes that held most of my saltwater tackle. There's one box left that is saltwater plastic tails so this reduces from about four boxes that I usually carried in a big boy scout backpack to two boxes. Sometimes I only saltwater fish once or twice a year but with the recent generator purchase for the RPod camper we hope to make use of the free camping on Texas beaches this summer.    

Top box here are Rapalas (some of my dad's favorite lures) and small crank baits. Bottom box is the saltwater jig tails. 

Yellow box is a Charlie Brewer Slider kit of bass sized lures. I like the slider worms and probably catch more bass on the panfish sizes than I do on these. On top of that is the rattle trap box. A rattle trap is a good bait, fresh or salt. It's an idiot bait. Any idiot throw it out and reel it in is gonna catch fish. 

Here's a couple of boxes of plastic worms the bottom one I found floating in the lake. The day I found it I posted on the Sam Rayburn Fishing report page my location if the owner was looking but no takers. Top box is old Hellbenders and deep diving crank baits. I don't know how many times as a kid I caught a big bass out the back of the boat on a Hellbender while the old man was trying to crappie fish.  

Cranks, top waters and spinner baits. Some probably a good 40 years old from the dawn of the golden age of mass produced lures.  

The old box Suzi and Charlie gave me. I combined these lures, sone from the collections of their parents with my dad's stuff from his box to make a general bass fishing box of cranks, old Devil's Horse top waters, chuggers and idiot baits. If some modern bass fisherman invites me I'll take this and maybe throw in a flat box of the plastic worms. . 

I labeled the boxes and so far if I have used a lure I return it to the right box. I guess all this will work time I cycle around and start piddling again. In my dad's old box there were at least 10 deep diving magnum Redfins that we used to catch the hybrids out of Rayburn on in the early 80s and I have a stash of them somewhere. It's a cycle that may never be finished.  

 

White Bass on the Neches River...

We hit Chandler River Park to see id we could cash in on the spring Texas white bass run. We fished there once last spring and with the closing of our favorite place white bass spot River Ridge on the Sabine River we are going to be regulars each year here. 

Cathy catches a yellow bass. There's no limit or size restriction on these and while most people are looking to cash in on white bass I think I prefer to eat the yellow over the white as they taste more like a panfish where the the whites are coarser meat similar to a saltwater drum. I think we had about 6 white bass, one 19 inch hybrid striper and the rest yellows to total 23 fish.     

Cathy's brother Matt with a nice 14 inch white bass. All fish caught on road runners with a few taken on regular crappie jig heads. I dress my runners and jigs with the plastic tail of my choice and while we caught a few on each color I tried they seemed to like a white straight tail. Naturally fishing in an East Texas river we hung up and lost a hat full of jigs but I have probably seen worse days for hang ups on low water trips to the Trinity River for white bass. Best bet is to go to Walmart or Academy and buy the multi pack of undressed road runner heads and a couple of packs of your favorite plastic tails. Don't wait till you get near the river. Last year I noted in a convenience store not far from the park road runners were two for $8.   

Hybrid striper. Made my Zebco 33 complain mightily. 

Cathy with the stringer. 

Of course every one wants their photo with the fish. 

 I suspect this might be a crowded fishing spot once the run is in full swing. A good many cars in the lot and it would be a good place for a small boat or kayak and we saw quite a few.. Last year I installed a trolling motor mount on my canoe with the intention of fishing here but nice mess of fish without it.

We did not walk too far in and I am glad I did not have to drag this stringer up a steep Trinity River band so don't catch more than you can carry.  

Shallow Water Catfish and a Baked Stuffed Catfish Recipe...

 To continue our recovery from covid it seemed like a fishing trip would be definitely the ticket. A little deep breathing exercise, some sun and a chance for a good heathy fresh caught supper seemed like just the ticket. 

There were signs of spring on big Lake Sam Rayburn. The boat ramp parking lot pretty full but still easy parking, the lake is up though rumors persist that the level will be dripped for construction work on the damn riprap, water temps in the shallows hitting that magic 65 degrees where everything where all fish in the lake get hungry and the sights of folks moving around and planting fish attractor spots. 

We hit the area called the Canyon for the first time since the water came up. It's a place of islands and shallow flats with an old submerged railroad tram crossing what was a hilltop before the lake came in and deep water near by. We caught mostly channel cats in about 4 feet if water as opposed to the mostly blue cats we had been catching across the lake at the spot known as the deer stand but I did take big fish with this blue. I experimenting with the saltwater popping corks, giving a little pop now and then to attract fish. He never took the big cork under instead just swimming off with it due south down the lake before I turned him back.  

Cathy swings one in. Usually I set up with the wind and it makes the corks lay out for better placement on the spot but I marked a deeper spot with a floating buoy, let the crosswind drift the baits till the reached a shallower spot and that's where the fish held, right at that change, less than a foot.   

News Flash! Dead bait on the bottom fisherman catches bass on lure. Since were were recovering from COVID I told Cathy I did not want to clean 30 or 40 fish but just a few cats for supper and maybe try to locate some white bass. No white bass but she caught one and I caught 3 of these.   

They were light colored from the muddy water but in the photos they look like Kentucky Spotted Bass. WE tossed them back but these are legal fish. If camping would have been a nice blackened fillet on the grill. 

We ended up with 10 catfish. We caught them between 1 and 3pm, a midday bite. As you may know Cathy is not an early riser. I don't think it has occurred to her that if  she fished early she could be home for a nap later. 

I took the big blue and the largest channel cat, four fillets to make a cream cheese bread crumb stuffed supper. 

Soften cream cheese and chop fresh spinach. Fry bacon and reserve stir fry celery, onion, peppers in the grease. Mix these veggies with cream cheese, spinach, a squeeze of fresh lemon and one cup of bread crumbs. Season Cajun, Italian, Greek, your pick. Place two fillets on greased cookie sheet on top of a bit of butter and top with stuffing. Top this with the other two fillets and a sprinkle of your seasoning choice. Top each with a slice of bacon. I baked for 15 minutes at 350 then broiled to brown a bit. Served with cheesy oven roasted potatoes topped with the reserved bacon crumbles.       

  The shallow bite is on. It will keep you healthy. I'm ordering more catfish bait today. 

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Slow Fishing Report...

It was a fine morning for canoe fishing and even with my malfunctional camera lens closure that leaves a smudge on seemingly only the best photos a good day for pictures, bird and turtle watching. My fishing log shows that in the past I have been piling up the big bull bream this time of the year but I could not find them today. 

I wish there was some way to measure the erosion of this point separating the two coves at Hanks Creek. In years past spring time fishing has yielded many a white bass in this spot but either because

of the changed topography or something else I have not been able to arrive at the same time they do for several years now.        

Is this a turkey? 

The campground was a hub of activity with work underway on the campsites that spent several months flooded a couple of years ago and then there was a truck spraying the vegetation growing from the riprap protecting the camps from eroding and at the boat ramp rocks also. 

Spraying is the name of the game on area lakes and I can understand controlling invasive species like giant salvinia that can destroy life in a lake. I saw a spray boat in the parking lot of HEB the other day but this spraying is to prevent old trash trees and weeds from undermining the rocks. It's something a crew could do by hand. 

I hate to be a pessimist but I noted no protective gear in use and one day when this guys doc gives him a cancer diagnosis he will say:

Did you spray chemicals?

Did you work in the sun?

Did you eat Wieners?

Three strikes you are out!        

I am a turtle. Are you a turtle too? 

Turtle swimming under the canoe. 

Two fish was all I could manage. I think we had more bull bream on the last camping trip to Hanks. I'll either hit the catfish next time or if canoeing head over to B.A. Steinhagen where there is a good chance for monster bream. 

I did have a new recipe I wanted to try and until I get on the fish check this guy out for action and some good cooking ideas at Outside the Levees.  

On the way home I noticed the cows laying down. That's never good on a fish day.  

 

Fishing Lure Tips...

We were on our way to hit the spring East Texas white bass run and made a pitstop at one of those bright, shiny and modern convenience stores. It was all colorful and cheerful with clean restrooms, unlimited choices of caffeinated beverages, high carb snacks and probably brought in a million dollars a year in beer sales. In a place like this which is in close proximity to a hot public sandbass spot there is also usually a small tackle corner which I like to check just incase they stock a brainstorm lure locally made by the resident fish whisperer. There was nothing like this and the standard white bass staples hung on the racks including my favorite the Blakemore Roadrunner. Recalling a Trinity River trip I took decades ago when the water level was low and though the fish bit well I hung up and lost a ball cap full of hair crappie jigs on the old river snags it occurred to me that a few more Roadrunners for the box wouldn't hurt. I passed when I saw the premium market price with the sandbass run full on was $10 for a pack of two dressed with tails. I didn't need them that bad.   

They have been making Roadrunners since 1958 and I've fished them for about 40 years. Except for maybe the so called rough fish like gar, carp, buffalo, and grinnell which I imagine would bite if it crossed their path, I have caught everything else in Sam Rayburn Reservoir using this bait. Once I even hiked to the top of a rainforest mountain in Puerto Rico and caught some fish I never identified with a Ronco Pocket Fisherman and a Roadrunner. 

Even though you can buy a Roadrunner with any kind of wiggle tail you think attracts fish I usually buy mine in the bulk packages, undressed and they are $5. I then put my own tails on them. A few things to know about the Roadrunner is that you can't fish it wrong as long as you fish it slow and that any color is right as long as it is yellow, white or chartreuse. Usually I'll keep a few red or pink heads in stock and either the 1/16 or 1/8 size depending on the skill of the casters on the expedition. 

Grab a couple of Roadrunner packs, a variety of plastic wiggle tails and some light fishing tackle and head out to any place, any country and catch a fish dinner.    

 

Neches River Fishing Trip...

 

Seems that I've noticed a groundswell of public opinion that Cathy catches all the fish. We don't really keep count even though one time she tucked a wooden child's toy abacus into the fishing pack which no matter how much longer the Arabs or the Chinese or who ever the next war is with has been doing math than we have it was nowhere near adequate to manage the numbers we're talking about. That made us pretty much abandon keeping a count but there have been occasional trips where one of us did not speak to the other one much. 

Whatever the score is I want ya'll to remember that I always pick the spot and yesterday I picked Chandler River Park to see if we could cash in on the famed Texas white bass run.  Actually the white bass were not very cooperative as the spawning run seems to be happening in waves, good one day, off the next but we did manage a nice string of yellow bass. There is no size limit or numbers restriction on the yellow bass and while they run smaller than the whites I find the meat less coarse and tasty like a panfish.    

Our favorite white bass location, River Ridge Campground on the Sabine River, is closing down this year due to the health of the owners. It has been good access but this spot is about the same distance away and there are no fees to fish. As with any public spot there can be others fishing the same area and I imagine a weekend could get crowded but everyone I met was polite and courteous more so than the average largemouth bass angler you encounter on Sam Rayburn.

Here's Cathy with the 16 yellow bass we caught. Now and then we would see someone bring in a larger white bass and people that had been further up than us had fair mixed strings but reported that waders or hip boots would be necessary to reach these areas.   

 

Good eating. I like white bass but they are a stronger flavored fish than I'm used to and there is no way I want to be thawing frozen white bass on the Fourth of July.  

Only thing was that the money I saved from the free fishing park and the fresh caught fish dinner will go toward payment of the speeding ticket I got in some podunk town that seemed to be named Cooney, Tx. The police headquarters was located in a rusty mobile home. 

About 9pm last night I noted a car speed down my little dead-end neighborhood road that's partially asphalt and road base at a high rate of speed. If you count the mailman there might be seven people drive on this road in a day so anything out of the ordinary is pretty noticeable. Right after this vehicle passed another car followed. This was more out of the ordinary so I checked out back and sure enough the last car was law enforcement with lights flashing. I stood on my back deck to see what was going down and suddenly there was laughing from the parties involved, the speeding car left and the police shortly followed.

Now I admit guilt in my traffic stop but it is a bit galling that whatever this situation it was all fun and games to the people involved while I pay a big ticket.       

Go fishing, drive slow, cook what you catch. Have a laugh with the cops and write your own blog post.  

A Sandwich is More Than a Hero...

 One time I won a cooking contest with a sandwich. Suzi Q put it on, the contest, not the sandwich at a party to celebrate the Texas Sesquicentennial. I don't have a recipe for exactly what I did and if I had one I probably would have lost it because I recall getting drunk as Davy Crockett that day. Maybe that was the secret to the success but lots of drunk guys can fry up a pile of white bass fillets, place them on couple of loaves of French bread adding sweet pickles, red onion, mayo and call it a sandwich but the judges sure liked it. If I had to duplicate that concoction today I would not get drunk and I'd use Wow Wee Sauce instead of mayo. The prize for the winner was a cook book of recipes by famous Texans and I do occasionally consult it.  

On a recent trip to Chicago we visited the Goodman Theater to see the play "Clyde's" It's about a kitchen crew at a truck stop creating the perfect sandwich. It's a play that had a Broadway run and watching it we find that "a hero is more than a sandwich."

You can watch the entire play here:  

Maybe sometime, if I haven't already I'll write about the time G.W. made Mexicali White Bass but that's a story that might require a prequal, a sequel and handsome leading men to play all the actors.  

     

The Great Sand Bass Round Up...

We called it the Great Sand Bass Round Up because after all shouldn't we use social media to make life grander than it is? You don't have to answer that question but in the words of one of the fishing guides based out of River Ridge Campground and Guide Service after viewing our catch "that's nine more than you had." 

Matt was the big winner with six fish, Cathy had two and you see the photo of my one. The sandbar at for bank fishing at River Ridge is kind of a feast or famine type spot. They will be there or not. Boat fisherman are reporting 25 fish limits for every person in the boat chasing up and down the river and when I ask the guide if his clients were catching them well he said, "oh yeah." 

Cathy holds up a big sand bass. Using light tackle and roadrunner jigs it's fun fishing. All but two fish we caught were spawning females full of eggs. 

The san bar is a good place to set up a lawn chair and sit was the river flows past. Being this is a privately owned guide operation, campground and boat launch there is what they call a day camper fee which increased from $10 to $15 (I don't think you can blame this on Joe Biden) since our last visit. Ice is still $2 if you need it and while the guides were hanging around this day it's an honor system for payments. Fill out your permit, get ice from the freezer, drop your money through a slot in the office door. There is a fish cleaning station available, bathrooms, cabins for rent and a few trailer hook ups 

I think it's worth it. The only other bank fisherman showed up as we were leaving, there were maybe a dozen boat launchers and we saw only occasional traffic on the river and the area is clean and trash free. The guides reported that there were 47 cars at a nearby public fishing access point.  

The river is low, which is generally good for the sand bass run but with the currents it's an ever changing environment of sand as the Sabine flows to Toledo Bend Reservoir. This is the sand piles that are cleared to keep the boat ramp open. 

If you operate a private boat ramp on the Sabine River I think you should consider investing in a dragline.  

We fried a few fillets but the highlight of the evening meal was fillets on the grill topped with Cajun Power Spaghetti Sauce, a few popcorn shrimp, diced Zummo's sausage, lime, Cajun seasoning and butter. I served mine on a bed of seasoned home fries.  

A guide trip out of River Ridge will run $350 for two people. Of course that's limits of fish. White bass of which I have eaten plenty of is kind of a course fish when compared to catfish or crappie but tasty when well seasoned and grilled or blackened and depending on the body of water may have a consumption advisory I don't really need a freezer full of these things. Nothing screams fish like frozen sand bass you caught in March thawed out for a July 4th fish fry which of course, I have done just trying to make life grander than it is.

 

Checking Out The Sabine, Big Foot, Rare Blonde Albino Sabine Thang and More...

My fishing log shows that for the past several years we have been catch a few white bass on the Sabine River about this time of the year. We picked up Morgan and Parker and took a run over there just to see. 

On the way down the road to the river we saw this sign. I'm not saying it was Big Foot they saw but down along the Sabine is as good a place as any to look and at this unparalleled time in the history of the world when someone that barely got out of high school knows more than a person who has studied their whole life you can bet it probably was Big Foot.  

We did spot this rare blond albino juvenile Sabine Thang whipping the water to a frenzy with a Zebco 202 casting rig. As with so many sightings like this those people down the bank act like they are not seeing anything.  

The guide at River Ridge Jane Gallenbach  reported that a little rise from recent rain the bite, which had been in the river itself as opposed to up a creek when the water is high should pick up in a few days. We have not used a guide, preferring to fish from what they call "the sandbar." It can be hit or miss from the bank if you can't chase down fish in a boat but white bass is kind of a coarse eating fish and depending on the water body may have some consumption advisories. Sabine River white bass eaters are allowed six meals a month. That's more than I want anyway but be aware that with Trinity River and Lake Livingston white bass you are limited to I think one meal a month and none if in child bearing years.   

You do know the difference in a coon ass and a jack ass? It's the Sabine River. Guess which side they are on. 

Note that while sitting to fish the river has risen to Cathy's chair in a couple of hours. This was Cathy's first retirement fishing trip. I love the beautiful white sand beaches. Good place for the kids to play with lots of big mussel shells to find. The big filter feeders are usually a sign of clean water and big catfish. 

Rare blonde albino Sabine Thang was impressed with Pop-Pop's mud hogging abilities in the wet river sand. For some reason the grand kids always ask "what are you doing Pop-Pop?"   

The Zebco 202 rig has been a go to lately. Lots of practice casting in the yard, little bit of river fishing and it's perfect for luring those crafty felines out from under the truck. I think it might be unbreakable. 

If there is no rain we will probably check the Sabine again soon. We might catch fish, see a Big Foot or just kill the day sitting in a lawn chair. It will be ok whatever happens.