Reservation Number : 35753
Property Name : Hat and Star Ranch
Reservation Date : 04/01/2023 All Day -
Total Fish/Sizes : 2 - over 16” and 7 - under 16”
Lures Used : Weedless belly weighted 4” swimmer in shad, jerk bait, and top water dog walker

Lots of activity at the Ranch. We arrived just after 9:30am and loaded up the club boat. We headed out for the some of the pockets first to look for low water and beds. Found a couple and saw plenty of wolf packs moving together. Couldn't trigger a bite but we saw bait schools getting hunted. Looked like a mix of spawning and post spawners moving. I missed a big bite on a top water plopper but my buddy culled 3 in the same pocket using a 4” paddle tail swim bait. I had 3 solid followed on a Chad shad glide bait all the way to the boat but didn't get any commitments. We moved around and saw grass mixed with timber and the same kind of activity but couldn't seem to trigger a bite working the points into the next pockets, I tried chatters, jigs, cranks, paddle tails and a plastic work t-rigged. Wasn't until we were in another pocket around noon that we started getting bites again throwing the paddled tail into grass and slowly swimming it back to the boat. My buddy hooked up with one more cull We headed in for lunch around 1:30pm and the wind has shifted so the bank at the launch was much more clear. We dumped our keepers in the small pond and headed back to the launch. After eating we decided to walk to bank and saw 4 if not more MASSIVE fish in beds. I'm pretty sure I saw the largest female I've ever seen in my life just 200 feet from the launch. Couldn't get her to commit but she tasted a couple of my baits, she was smart and the plastic wasn't foolin her. After working the banks and unable to trigger bites we headed back out in the boat at about 4:30pm to finish the day out in the spots we had the most success. I doubled up on a top water walking stick bait and added 2 more keepers to the day. Once back in a pocket we both hooked up with a 2+lber that were 17" and 18”. We headed towards the damn to finish the last hour of sun light with no hits, Was a great day learning the lake and I will definitely be back. Just laying eyes on the number of large fish was enough to convince me this is the spot I'll catch my next PB.