Jul 10 2021
Dale Stagg
Slot Fish
Reservation Number : 29156
Property Name : Hidden Springs Ranch
Reservation Date : 07/09/2021 PM -
Total Fish/Sizes : 7 / All over 14" and most were between 2lb and 3lb
Lures Used : 1/8 oz weighted Epic Baits Salt&Pepper Worm, Skirted Jig with blades, Swimbait, Squarebill, Weightless Texas Rigged Epic Baits Watermelon/Moondust worm, Skirted Swimjig with Creature Trailer, .
I made an afternoon fishing trip to Hidden Springs Ranch since it is a 3 hour drive to get there and then again back home. I got to Hidden Springs Ranch boatramp and was a great ramp with concrete. I must warn you though to stay on the concrete as much as possible when getting out of your vehicle though as there are multiple fire ant beds to get into expecially after the rains we have had lately. I launched my Hobie PA14 kayak and got started fishing pretty quick.
I started with a 1/8 oz weighted Epic Baits Watermelon/Junebug worm which is my normal go to worm but didn’t get a hit and there is a lot of grass under the water to clog up the worm. I switched to a skirted swim jig with two blades on it and caught a nice bass on the first cast that was right at 15 inches. I fished more using that bait but never got anything else so I switched to several more baits since I have 7 rod and reel setups to switch back and forth to find what it takes to catch fish.
After multiple baits, I went to a Epic Baits Salt and Pepper Worm and caught a few doing that but was a lot of fishing between each catch. I ended up going all through the lake and never found a sweet spot but caught every fish along the bank grasses and although I only caught 7 fish for the day, every one was over 14 inches and most were between 2lbs and 3 lbs.
The water was not near as clear as described, but with the amount of rain Texas has had in the last few weeks, it mudded up the water somewhat.throughout the lake with a dark tea colored tint and visibility was pretty low.
When I finished my trip and left the locked gate, a truck pulled up and was a worker at the ranch and the nice man showed me a photo of an eight pounder he just recently caught in the lake and told me they have some really nice bass in the lake and I can see that is would. The houses overlooking the lake make a beautiful property and the lake is a beautiful outline of nature there. The homes are beautiful. I never saw anyone other than someone cutting a field with the tractor and a large motorhome leaving the property as I was fishing. I would love to go back and try to catch bigger numbers.
According to the Bass Forcast App on my phone, it was supposed to be an “Epic” day with a high score of 9.2 for this day only. So far, out of several trips using the app, it has not been very accurate for actuall fishing conditions forcast.
I will be posting my video review in the next few days, so keep following this review.
Jul 10 2021
Dale Stagg
Slot Fish
Member Since :
2021
Number of Posts :
126
Oh, water was a bit over 86 degrees. I found multiple brush piles and downed timber in the deeper waters with my Garmin Livescope but never really saw anything other than crappie in the deeper waters. All of the fish I did catch was on a slow bite. They were not found to be very agressive and took a good while for them to take the bait and seemed much longer than normal on a worm before I could actually set the hook on any. The fish fight was great and they did have fight in them, but were slow to bite.