Fished Crockett Melody Acres, Grapeland Bennett Lake, and Fairfield Pasture Lake on Wednesday and Thursday July 21^st and July 22^nd with fellow member “Big Fish” Jon Waters. Over the years Jon has caught lots of big fish on club waters, with his two biggest fish being 12.2 lbs from Oakwood Lake Leon and 11 lbs. from a former lake in the club. We fished each lake about 3-4 hours.

Crockett Melody Acres- Lake is full pool, Water stained with visibility about 24”. Fished from 4-8 pm and caught most of our fish on pumpkin seed Yamato Senkos with 1/16 oz weights. We did manage a few on buzz baits late. We caught 14 fish and harvested 8 fish. Spent the night at Crockett. Very comfortable lodging with a great front porch. Drove 25 minutes (15 miles) to Grapeland Bennett lake early Wednesday morning.

Grapeland Bennett Lake-Lake is full pool. Visibility is 31” and the lake has an incredible bloom on the water. The water is teaming with small plants in animals in the water column; giving the shad and bluegill plenty to eat. During our visit 300 3” pure Florida strain fingerlings and 10,000 shad were added to the lake. We also fertilized the lake again with 250 lbs of fertilizer. We fished only 4 hours and only had 3 fish in the boat during the first 1.5 hours. About 8:00 am the bass started chasing shad and we caught an even 50 fish. We harvested and cleaned 24 fish of 15” or smaller. Biggest fish was about 3lbs and only a few drinks. Most fish were 1.5 to 2.5 lbs. We caught virtually all fish suspended in the deeper water and caught on medium diving and deep diving crankbaits. Fish were 6’ to 12’ deep in the middle of the lake. The key was finding the shad. It was almost like sand bass fishing were we caught them every or every other cast for almost 2 hours. Grapeland Bennett lake is doing all the things that all great trophy bass lake do; Fertilizing the water column, adding forage, adding habitat (the landowner sunk several new brush piles this summer) harvesting fish, and adding new genetics to the lake. This maybe the best managed lake in the club.

Fairfield Pasture Lake- This lake is as full as I have ever seen it. It is probably closer to 12-15 acres rather than the stated 10 acres. This lake is an active watering hole for cattle, but it has no effect on the quality of fishing. This lake is no beauty, but the fishing is incredible. If you are more about the “experience” and want a scenic place, you will want to try another lake. However, if you are all about catching quality fish this is the lake for you.   We caught 24 fish in 4 hours. We caught no dinks, and all the fish were 2 lbs or larger. Most were 3 to 3.5 lbs with 2 over 4 lbs. big fish was about 5 lbs. All the fish were well over their relative weights. The “shoulders” of these fish were huge and thick. These fish are off the charts healthy and this is an incredible fishery. Most fish were caught on anything red watermelon red, red shad, etc.. colored soft plastics. It did not matter what bait from Hula grups, Senkos, Hyper sticks, Baby Brush hogs and culprit worms.  We are not harvesting fish on this lake. There are two boats to use on the property, a very comfortable green plastic 2 man Coleman boat with trolling motor and a v-haul jon boat. After speaking to the landowner, we are welcome to use the green plastic boat, but it may not always be on the water. Please remember to bring your own trolling motor and battery in case the green boat is absent.

You may be interested to know that Jon Waters and I caught the exact number of fish at each lake. We had a blast with a slight bit of competiveness between us in fishing these three lakes. No one ever got up on the other by more than 4 fish. What a blast to spend 2 days of fishing and catching the exact same number of fish on each lake. What are the odds?