I found out before daylight Sunday morning that Cody Ranch has received a LOT of heavy rain recently. The main road, from the gate all the way to the barn, has had at least one rut almost completely washed out everywhere it goes either up or down a hill. Between the barn and the Twin Lakes, there is a pretty deep washout just past the last cattle guard. Just before reaching North Twin, the creek just west of the dam has badly washed out. Had I not had all-wheel drive (or 4WD), I might not have made it pulling my trailer;  I did bottom out in 3 places.

Just before that last cattle guard, 10 feral hogs crossed the road in front of me, and between the cattle guard and the north lake, 20 more crossed – None of them were adults.

Now to the fishing, which started at South Twin. My last few fishing trips had been wet ones, and since the forecast was for scattered thunderstorms off and on throughout the early morning, it was with some trepidation - under a pretty dark and stormy sky - that I loaded the boat (with my rain suit, this time) at 0600. I was hearing thunder to the south, west, and north for the first 3 hours that I fished, but the storms missed me this time – barely. I started at South Twin, but couldn’t manage any big fish. The water temp was 83.0^° with about 15-18 inches of visibility, and the lake was about 12” high. Except for one just under 4 pounds that hit a T-rigged, 10” pink/black Ol’ Monster worm in 10 feet of water, and one that I lost on a Whopper Plopper, all of the other fish I caught fell for an unweighted, wacky-rigged 5” Senko. I saw absolutely no big fish sign at all. Maybe they were suspended, but all of my efforts to find one failed. I did get several other pick-ups on the big worm from strong fish, but each time, I set the hook into wood. Oh, well. Except for a three real dinks (one 5" long), the 18 bass I did boat were all between 2 and 3.75 pounds. There never was enough of a breeze to even ripple the water.

At 10:00, I decided to pack it up and try North Twin , which was about 2 feet high. I had to back my rear tires into the water to launch near the feeder. I was glad I had thrown my rubber boots into the car. Changing lakes was probably a good decision, for the north lake yielded right at 50 bass between 10:30 a.m. and when I stopped fishing that evening at 8:30. There were three discernable patterns on North Twin:   a chartreuse/white Bull Ribbit pulled through the pads (best luck was in the big lotus pads) with a constrant retrieve; a wacky-rigged Senko or a 10- or 12-inch worm in the thickest timber near the creek channel, or those same plastics fished (like swim baits) with a jerky retrieve over the grass. The topwater bite was really on, for some reason, from when I first started on North Twin until right at 6:30, when it shut down. The skies had mostly cleared and a wind had started around noon, which could have had something to do with it. A couple of dinks picked up a Senko, but all of the other fish boated were between 2 and 3.5 pounds. Once again, no big fish, but pretty fantastic action all day on that little lake. I did lose a couple that had me wrapped before I could set the hook, but I have no idea what size they were. Water temp at the north lake was 85.2 ^° when I took it at 10:40 and 87 ^° around 3:00, and visibility was at least 3 feet.

What worked:  10” Ol’ Monster worm in red shad (pink/dark grey laminate)’ blue flake, and black/blue flake; 12” Yum Mighty Worm in green pumpkin and watermelon/red flake; 5” unweighted, wacky-rigged Senkos in black/blue flake, green pumpkin, and watermelon/red flake; Rattletrap, blackblue jig with 9” pork eel, hollow body frog, chartreuse/white Bull Ribbit, vibrating jig with baby bass Lake Fork shad trailer, soft swim baits (8” and 6” Huddlestons,)

What didn’t:  Buzz bait, Bomber Fat Free Shad deep square bill, any other color Senko or big worm, Yellow Magic

Posted By: Tom Dillon