Reservation Number : 43165
Property Name : Hickory Creek Ranch Lakes
Reservation Date : 04/16/2025 All Day -
Total Fish/Sizes : 51 with 37 harvested; most 12"; 4 @ 3.5#-4.5#
Lures Used : Lipless crank, torpedo, squarebill, SP, tube, chatterbait, swimbait

Bob Scheidemann and I couldn’t duplicate the quality outings recently reported for Hickory Creek Ranch.  We got the numbers but not much size.  The ratio of harvested bass to returned bass at 37:14 was unusual.  Things started out fast in the lake extension past the bridge.  I quickly landed 14 bass on a topwater torpedo (all harvested) while Bob landed 8 using lipless cranks, chatterbaits, and a swimbait.  Crossing the road to the big lake, neither of us could buy a bite anywhere on the shoreline that we walked (about 1/3 of the lake), or from the pier, or from the back lake.  Once in the boat, we started a 6-hour slog with lots of casting but limited catching.  We tried everywhere in the lake and caught a little over a fish an hour each with the largest couple at 3.5#. All the fish were near shorelines in shallow water. Shakey head and Texas-rigged worms, crankbaits, and tubes all produced a few bass. What was noticable was a total lack of any visible chase activity, no blowups or swirls anywhere all day.  After exiting the boat, we tried again from the pier and Bob caught a 4# on a lipless crankbait.  We stopped at the bridge again on the way out and I picked up 8 more using a shallow-running squarebill.  Most were harvested but one was 3#. Bob only caught 3 or 4 but he landed a 20” 4.5# beauty to end the day.  Total was 51 bass, 37 harvested, 4 @ 3.5-4.5#. The lake is full and the water is very stained (looks like organics) with < 12” visibility and there is some light green slime starting around the edges and locally on the bottom.  The back lake was noticably clearer. We only saw one of the beautiful eagles on this trip.

We had great fun catching the glut of harvest-size bass and were rewarded with a couple nice ones for sticking around.  This was another fun trip to a beautiful property.