Kayak Fishing on O.H. Ivie - Smallie, Bobcat and Fun Times

Barry and I got to go to Ivie again Jun 7 and 8^th. We checked in to Elm Creek Village Thursday afternoon about 2:30 put our stuff in our room and started fishing.  This trip did not have the big bass bites like the last 2 trips. We started off fishing a windless Thursday afternoon, but that was short lived and the wind kicked up with a vengeance. We managed 3 fish each on Thursday afternoon. When evening came we got out the lights and keep on fishing. As I was going down a rock ledge I noticed a Bobcat come out beside me and get a drink. It’s amazing how close you can get to wild life in a kayak. They don’t seem to even notice you till you are very close. I chose not to get real close to the Bobcat but watched him till he finished drinking and walk off.

On Friday we skipped breakfast and got a 5:30 am start. The bass were schooling with some nice sized fish mixed in. We could not buy a bite out of the schools. I finally had some luck just drifting with a Flip Tail Lizard. Nothing like our previous trip but, that one will be hard to top.  We took a break about 1:30ish did a quick load of kayaks and ran up to Elm Creek and had burgers fries and Large tea. Have I mentioned that they make a great burger?  We continued to fish till about 10 PM (lights were out) then loaded up and drove home to Ft Worth. Got in sore and tired but we both had a great time.  For the whole trip we managed 25 bass 2 smallies and spied a nice bobcat.  

EPIC Day At O. H. IVIE

[May 10 and 11, 2012

 EPIC Day

Watched the weather early last week and noticed that conditions at Ivie were looking very good toward the end of the week. So my brother in law , Barry and I decide to head out Wednesday nite to Elm Creek village At O. H. Ivie lake for 2 days of kayak  bass fishing.

May 10

Got up early thursday and had a great breakfast at Elm Creek Village (I can't say enough about the lodging at ELM Creek Village. Friendly and informative, good food and comfortable rooms). The morning was a bit over cast. We started catching bass right away up near the bank on soft plastics, crank baits, top water poppers and lipless cranks.

We got driven off the lake 2 times by strong storm cells in the afternoon. It rained hard at Ivie and lots of rain passed to the west of the lake. We only packed up when the radar showed red cells moving our way. We got back out in the evening and I managed a 7 lb bass on soft plastic.

Best Bass of Day 1

May 11

Skipped breakfast and got a quick launch. The morning was foggy and chilly. We concentrated on the top water bite. Not long Barry hooks into a huge bass that pulls his kayak in circles. I paddle over just in time to see him land a huge 27.+" monster. The fish weighed 11.5 lb on a spring scale. This was Barry's personal best.  We thought about making a run back to elm creek to get a official weight. Barry was worried about stressing the fish to much. Being in a kayak means u have make hard choices and we decided it did not matter that we got a more accurate weight and he released the fish and we continued fishing.

Best Bass Day 2

In the next slough over Barry keys up the walkie that he has another on, and it is pulling him around. It was good ways away and immediately paddled over to see him land another huge bass. This one measured 25 +" long and 10 lbs on the spring scale.

We move up a north arm and finally I get into a decent 8 lb fish.

Over the 2 days we caught over 40 fish with 4 fish from 7 to 11.5. We weathered rain and storms. My truck smells mildewie, we are sore and tired, but we had the best time. It just can't get much better than the 2 days we had. What a contrast from 2 weeks ago when we lost all the big bites. Changing to Seagur line and having drag set correctly went a long way to landing the big ones.

Fun Times on Ivie Lake with my Bro.

April 27

My brother Barry, came down from Oklahoma Thursday nite and we headed out to Ivie Friday morning at 3 am. Friday we did not have much success any where. We fished deep, shallow and paddled over 7 miles looking for the fish. Just weren’t biting. The wind was came and went. About 3 pm we pulled up to the Elm Creek Village for a big hamburger and 3 larges glasses if Ice Tea. Then we hit the room up and took a 2 hour nap. Got back out to the lake for the evening bite and managed a few small bass, was nice to finally get hit. The fish showed signs of a top water bite. We left the lake at dark and hit the hay.

April 28,

We got up at 5 am got some breakfast at Elm Creek Village and launched the kayaks 40 minutes before light. We did this because the BLT had a bass tourney starting that day and we wanted to have the kayaks rigged and ready to head out before the crowd started using the boat ramps.

The Saturday bite was on. We caught about 30 fish all day. I can’t emphasize enough how good the morning bite was at Ivie. The top water bite was on. I was using a 2 rod tactic that worked where if I saw a boil I would put a pop-r on it and also hit the spot with soft plastic to soak. If the fish did not hit the top water he would hit the plastic. The wind beat us all day; I use all my wind tools, anchor, brush clippers and stake out pole.  We had a good time, but the day was not without major disappointments. The best fish of the day was  22” 5lb’r but, we both had much larger fish bite. I lost 2 really good fish and Barry lost 1. The big bites were still very shallow next to deep water.  My problem on losing the bigger fish was I failed to notice that my drag was set way too tight on my soft plastic rod. I did not realize this till after the second big fish broke off. Note to self CHECK YOUR DRAG!!!

Kayak Fishing Amon Carter Lake

Tim (txrayner) headed out to Amon Carter Lake yesterday. Normally this lake isn’t too crowed, but today the Flower Mound Bass Club was holding their tournament there. Even though at first we it looked like this small lake would be over run, it actually was not. The members we did meet as we fished during the day were respectful and courteous. Besides the tournament I immediately noticed that the lake had come up 3 feet from last week. The storm system blew through here Tuesday afternoon dumped a lot of water in the lake. Even with the added water the lake was very clear. It always surprises me how this lakes water clarity is not affected by a large amount of rain. All the places that I saw bass setting up beds last week were now 3 feet deeper. We did not see any fish on the bed today. I’m beginning to wonder if they got a chance to spawn on this lake. Being north of DFW they did not see water temps rise till well into late March. Today we saw 69 deg water temps down from last Sat when I saw 72 deg temps. For the most part the fish were in 3 to 10 feet of water next to timber. I only caught fish on soft plastics mostly on the Flip-tail Lizard. I like this bait because it has bulk and casts well without a weight. It sinks slowly and when fish are up shallow I find it to be great bait. I have been using this bait for over 20 years and it has had some name changes. I had a large stash of these baits and was running low on them. I finally found them on line Here at Fliptail Lures.

We only fished for about 7 hours and caught about 8 fish between us. The largest being about 5 lbs @ 20”.

 

Here is a nice pic That Txrayner took. 

Here’s a shot of me in my Jackson Cuda Kayak 

Big fish of the day

Kayak Bass Fishing on O. H. Ivie

O.H. Ivie March 30, 2012

I have wanted to hit up Ivie for quite a long time. The fishing has been slow there from all the reports I have read but has picked up in the last few weeks. I watch the weather reports for wind there since the lake is so open, it could be easy to get into trouble if you don’t pay attention. Friday had a good forecast for wind (less than 5).

I got up at 3 am and headed out. From my house in west Ft. Worth to the ramp at Kennedy park its 3.5 hours. I arrived there before light, paid my ramp fee and launched. This was my first time out to Ivie and didn’t really know what to expect or even where to start. There are only 3 ramps and another up the Colorado River.  For those that don’t know Ivie is about 30ft low at the moment. They need rain bad. That said, there is still plenty of deep water. The lake has very defined creek/river channels. Below is a pic of the areas I fished.

The morning started up pretty well with 2 18” pretty quick. I did not catch any big fish as hard as I tried. To start I moved south from the ramp mostly to see what the areas near the ramp offer. I found the sloughs near the ramp don’t have much cover. This lake is mostly structure oriented. But when I did find some wood (cover) you could usually find a fish on it. Later in the morning I moved north up a feeder creek, in search of spawning fish. The water was warm. It started off in the mid 60’s and by the end of the day I was seeing 78 deg water. I did not see any fish spawning shallow, although I talked to a guy who had caught 30 and his best was a 9lbr that day. He was fishing 2 ft water where there was cover. I learned some about this lake this trip and will be a bit more prepared next time I venture west. I ended up with about 10 fish for the day with the largest in the 18.5” range. Not what I went for but I did learn a bit what the lake is about. When the lake gets more water there will be some nice structure ledges to drop baits off of.

On the way out I stopped off at Elm Creek village for my dinner and get cleaned up a bit before my long drive home. They serve a great hamburger with more frys than I could eat. They are friendly and will tell you where and with the fish are biting one. They also offer up rooms for $45 per nite.

Here’s a short video of my trip.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J7RV0Kdz_kM

Fishing Marine Creek Lake

Got out a for a few hours today at Marine Creek Lake here in Fort Worth. I Caught 4 with biggest being 19” skinny male Large mouth Bass. I have not been on that Lake in a really long time. Caught only males up shallow. They were hitting weightless chartreuse pepper senko's. This fish was hooked very deep so I kept him and cooked him for my daughter and her boyfriend.