We had our group trip at Marshall again last weekend.  We fought some wind and a pretty strong cold front that didn’t help our fishing.  Besides the last hour and a half on Saturday, I would tell you the fishing was slower than normal.  We only caught a few on Leaky and a few on Beaver.  I had two that went four and a half pounds on a chatter bait and swim bait.  We made our way up the far bank of Home Place (traditionally my LEAST favorite lake) and really found where the fish were hiding on Saturday evening.  In the last hour and a half of daylight, we caught 25 out of our boat.  It was constant action because we lost almost as many.  The fish were in the lily pad stems and I mean THICK.  If you are going anytime soon, hit the outer edge of the lily pad stems with weightless or slightly weighted Senkos and you will boat crazy numbers.  When our other two groups headed up there the following morning they each boated around twenty with three and a half pounds being the largest.  My friend Jason is marrying into my family in a few weeks and my goal was to put him on a big fish so we stayed on the other side of the lake.  Right at the buzzer he landed a 6.4 pound beautiful fish.  It made the trip a big success.  The fish are starting to get on beds.  We saw many that were locked on but I didn’t do any bed fishing as my partner wasn’t adept at pitching a lure so it wasn’t much fun to him.  One of our boats swears they hooked into a DD but couldn’t get it landed before the line broke. 

I would encourage each of you to give Home Place another try if you haven’t lately.  The one time Marty and I went, the lake was down almost four feet and wasn’t very appealing.  Now that the lake is at full pool, it is a completely different experience and fishes differently as well.

Those of you that enjoy bed fishing should consider going soon.  The water was warming up to 68 degrees before the cold front came on Saturday evening.

The trip was a success because of the great hosts that make it that way.  They stay within and earshot to be sure that they can’t do something to make your trip more enjoyable.  We are headed back in the Fall to experience more of that great East Texas hospitality.

Tight Lines,
Jackson