Scott Baker, Dean French and Joe Busick in front of the keepers
Scott Baker
The first week of August was brutally hot, but the diehard members of the Robson Ranch Fishing Club went to Lake Ray Roberts for some fishing time. The wind started to blow about 20 mph at 9:00 a.m. in the morning, but the fishermen just adjusted for the rising swells of the lake and went about catching crappie. Public access to the lake had been closed since May of this year, but the guides had now been released to set honey holes and to fish the lake. So Scott Baker, Dean French and Joe Busick guided by Cliff Spindle of Spindle Guide services on Lake Ray Roberts went crappie fishing. It took us several hours to adjust to the conditions and the technical aspects of catching crappie. During this heat the fish were deep, so Cliff had to find them for us first; then once we found the bait fish we had to tease a fish on the line. Once we got a feel for how the fish were biting we started reeling them in. I knew we needed to adapt to the feel of the fish on the line because while Scott caught the first fish, Cliff started reeling them in and the rest of us just sat there like a bump on a log. After about an hour and three honey holes later we finally figured out the feel of the fish biting the line. At this time we started reeling them in. The final catch of the day was 19 crappie keepers with two large catfish. However, we started out with over 150 minnows, and we used all of them. Most of the fish we caught were less than 10 inches in length. The rules say crappie have to be 10 inches or longer to keep, so the little ones were thrown back in. Who knows if we caught the same fish twice. I would bet not, but we sure caught a lot of little ones. I know there are some big schools of crappie on the lake, especially since the public cannot fish on the lake without a guide. This means hardly any fishing traffic on the lake to work and remove large numbers of fish. The maximum number of crappie you can keep is 25 per person. So on a three-man crew this is 75 fish if you limit out. It felt really good to get back out on the lake and drop a line and tell a tall tale. Other than it being really hot it was a gorgeous day in North Texas, the fish were biting, the tales were getting bigger. Our only wish was that the fish tails were a little longer.
The Robson Ranch Fishing Club meets at the Grill at 5:30 p.m. on the second Wednesday of the month. Come have a cold ale while we tell tall tales of fishing lore here at the Ranch. For more information send an email to [email protected].