Lake Conroe Fishing Report - Lake Conditions: Another week of wind has kept a lot of fishermen at home. The Lake level is up to 200.25 as the official level, . The water is clear in most areas. A little stained in the backs of creeks as a result of the rain. Water temperature has dropped back to 62 -65 depending on what part of the Lake you are fishing. Black bass fishing continues to be great, crappie fishing continues to be good with fish holding in 10 -15 feet of water with a few fish in the shallows. Catfish fishing continues to be good. There are some catfish on the bulkheads with shad moving to the shallows. Drift fishing with shad for bait in 10 - 12 feet of water for Blue catfish has been outstanding!!!! Hybrid activity has been scattered with reports of good fish being caught early on the South end of the Lake. Scattered White Bass are being caught in 20-22 feet of water. Be sure and listen to the reports on Sports Radio 610 for weekend updates by Tex Bonin. If you have a fishing story you would like to share with our readers, go to our "Blog" and let us hear all about it in the "comments" section or you can send pictures and the story to Papa John and I will post it for you. There are many 'club tournaments' we never hear about and this is a great place to share your club's results.
Black Bass.
Black Bass fishing continues to be good. Good solid fish are being caught in brush piles in 12 -15 feet of water during the day, with more and more good fish are moving to the heads of creeks on drop off's in 14 - 19 feet of water. Soft plastics and Texas rigged dark colored worms have been the best bait. Bass fishing on Lake Conroe continues to improve and the Lake is becoming one of the best bass fishing lakes in Texas. Mike Parson wins the BBT 2009 Lake Conroe Big Bass Classic. Brian Simms & Steve Lee, took first place in Lake Conroe Team IGNITION BASS TOURNAMENT on March 29th, with 29.45 lbs. Michael Wedgeman and Johnny Keefer took 2nd place with 25.30 lbs. and won "Big Bass" with a fish weighing 10.50 pounds. Yes, Bass Fishing on Lake Conroe is Great. The April Plaza "Thursday Night Tournament" hosted by Billy Mills, Wayne Whitehead and Tex Bonin will kick off the 2009 season with the first tournament to be held on May 7th. The tournament is from 6 p.m. - 9 p.m. The tournament will run through September 10th with the tentative schedule for the "Classic" to be on September 19th. If you have questions just call April Plaza at 936-588-1144 or the "Guide Desk" at 936-588-1118.
Catfish
Catfish fishing just continues to be outstanding. Tex Bonin has been fishing every day and has been finding his fish in baited holes in 15 to 20 feet of water. Carl Bostick, WetHook Guide Service has been drift fishing for catfish in 8 -12 feet of water using shad for bait and getting limits most days. One of Carl's clients is pictured with his nice cat. The kids love drift fishing. CatTales Guide Service has been filling clients ice chests with nice cats drift fishing. Jug Line fishing has been outstanding in 18 to 30 feet of water. Magic Bait Company "Stick!It" continues to produce good fish both shallow and deep. More and more fishermen are finding Stick!It their bait of choice because it stays on the hook when cast in shallow or deep water and the catfish come to it real quick. The thing most like about Stick!It is you can cast the bait and it will stay on the hook. The shad are starting to move to the shallow water and the bulkheads. Several fishermen reported good catches of catfish casting the docks and boat houses in 5 to 7 feet of water. Some have been adding a bit of Menhaden Oil to the bait in the cooler weather. Gander Mountain usually has Menhaden Oil in stock if you want to give it a try or you can find it online in several places. Drift fishing for "Big Catfish" has also been real good this past week.
White Bass and Hybrid/Striped Bass
Hybrid activity has picked up with reports of catches in several areas of the Lake. Caney Creek, Lewis Creek and Little Lake Creek have all had a few hybrids caught. The South end of the Lake has been good early in the morning. Some huge White Bass have been caught this past week trolling Storm Swimming Minnows off points and up in the creeks where pods of shad are located. Spooning Whites and Hybrids on humps and at the mouth of most of the creeks has produced some nice fish. We are getting very close to having the Whites and Hybrids on the bulkheads chasing shad early each morning. Let the fun Begin!!! Once we have shad on the bulkheads, the Whites and Hybrids will begin to hold at the heads of all the creeks and on humps and sandbars on the main Lake. Some of the hybrids were caught with minnows fishing for crappie. Hybrids have also been caught trolling a Pet Spoon behind a deep diving crank bait or Jet Diver to get the spoon down on the edge of flats where there is deep water (22-30 feet). Several fishermen are using a Countdown Rapala with Lead Core line to troll points and pond dams real slow. See more infor on "Blog". The hot tip now is to locate pods of shad on your electronics and see if there aren't larger fish feeding on them You need to locate the fish with your electronics in 20 to 30 feet of water near a hump or big drop off. The birds haven't been much help to date. A few more warm days and the shad should start to hold steady off the points prior to moving to the bulkheads.
Bream & Crappie
Crappie fishing has started to pick up in shallower water (10 - 15 feet) along creek channels. The water temperature in the backs of many of the creeks is 68 plus degrees. Lots of crappie caught this past week in very shallow water. There has also been a tendancy for the fish to move in for a few hours and them move back out. If you a someplace you have been catching crappie in the shallows, be patient. A 1/32 - 1/16 oz. crappie jig with chartreuse grubs have been a very popular bait. Minnows are always the favorite of many fishermen. There is a real good article in the TPWL magazine concerning crappie fishing in Texas. Click here for a good article on "Water Temperature". I am afraid too many of us miss some great crappie fishing waiting for the water temperature to get in the high 60's. Bridge crossings, stump patches on the tram and in the backs of small coves and Marinas have all been producing good fish. The crappie bite has been pretty steady on the 'solunar time, with the "Minor Times" also getting a good bite in the afternoon.
More and more fishermen are using jigs instead of minnows when crappie fishing. Bass Pro Shops has a new Tournament Series® Squirmin'® Squirts - 1-1/2'' - 15 Pack tube jig that has been very popular. It slips on the jig head and has a wonderful fall as one piece with a jig head that is 1/16 - 1/64 oz. It has been necessary to fish a heavier jig head with all of the wind the past few weeks in order to let the jig fall in a nice natural presentation. Visit Bass Pro Shops and check out the many colors that are now available.
There has been a lot of fishermen over the years that pay very close attention to the Solunar Times when fishing. Many swear by them, others think it is just so much hoop la. The fact is, some fish and most wildlife are very sensitive to the moon position in relationship to the earth. We have a page that is dedicated to providing information concerning the periods of activity of fish each day. See Solunar Tables
Bream fishing is also getting better with "monster" bream being caught on crappie jigs. Most of the bream are in the brush with the Crappie. Glow-Worms (Green Nightcrawlers) have been paying off for several of the guides. We now have some really big bream in Lake Conroe. Many fishermen chum with range cubes to attract and hold the bream. You will also catch a real nice bream when jigging for crappie every now and then. The nice slab crappie pictured here was caught by a mother and her daughter on a guided fishing trip with Tex Bonin. Don't forget to check out our "Blog". Let us know if there is something that you would like to discuss with others and we will post it!
