Past Trips from '97 - Monte's Metroplex Fishing

Monte's 1997 Fishing Trips

12/22/97 Fished Texoma with my 9 year old son, Ryan and his friend Chris. It was cloudy and windy so we figured we might get into the stripers. Ryan caught the only fish but it was a dandy - a 7 pound striper under the birds. We found the birds swarming but only got the one hit. Anyone have any advice for getting more strikes?

11/08/97 Traveled to Ray Roberts with Seth, my oldest son, and Cory my nephew. We were looking for Black Bass in the back of a cove (with no luck) when we saw the birds going crazy off one of the points at the top of the cove. We caught several large Sand Bass measuring 12 to 15 inches long. We had a great time even though the trolling motor broke again!

10/20/97 Seth, my oldest, and I went to Ray Roberts. We arrived at daybreak and the weather was absolutely perfect. We started at the hydrilla bed west of Wolf Island but didn't get so much as a nibble. There were several other boats there too that never caught anything that we could see. We made our way over to the wooded area west of Wolf Island where I hooked up with a 16 inch Bass. Caught him on a white spinner bait. We then moved to the east side of the Island and worked the shoreline where Seth missed one that came back for his rattle trap 2 times after the initial hit. After that we found ourselves in the back of a cove working motor oil worms in 8' water. Seth landed a beautiful 17 1/2" Bass. The way it was fighting, I thought it was a whopper for sure.

9/27/97 Ryan and I took our 14 year old neighbor friend, Blake, to a very small lake named Marine Creek Lake. It is a small lake but produces well (Ryan has a trophy on the wall from this lake). Ryan was the only one to catch a fish. We arrived at dusk and he dragged a buzz bait across a patch of hydrilla to hook a nice looking 14 inch bass. Next trip is Friday October 3, 1997.

9/6/97 Seth, Ryan, and I went hunting the sandbass who were not cooperating. We caught 1 sandbass and 2 blackbass that were so small we wondered how they got their mouths around the slabs we were throwing. The little rascals would surface and boil the water but would not hit our baits. We gave up on them and tied off to what looked to be a good crappie tree. It wasn't! We tied on buzz baits, Jigs, and deep divers for blackbassing around 6:30 pm then we saw the sandbass come up. We were so excited that we put our chrome slabs back on our poles. But once we did they were gone. We were too disgusted to fish at that point. The fish beat us. So we went on a joy ride around the lake and came home. Better luck next time I guess.

8/24/97 Took 2 of my sons (Seth and Ryan) to Ray Roberts. We arrived at sandbass flats just before the sandbass started schooling. Dad (thats me) started things off with a small blackbass. Then it was mostly Seth who really sacked em. He and Ryan were throwing chrome slabs at them and I was enjoying a clear torpedo. It was really neat to watch em slam that torpedo. We caught several black bass and brought home 23 sandies. There was a giant school of sandbass that stayed up for what seemed like an hour! Our problem was that our trolling motor battery gave out on us (or we would have caught many more). Ryan, who usually out fishes everyone in the boat, had a somewhat slow outing. He was doing everything right but the fish wanted Seth's bait.

8/17-18/97 Spent Sunday & Monday fishing with my fishing buddy Roy (Rock) Hudman on Fairfield Lake & Richland Chambers. Here is his report:

The situation was deemed critical, both Monte and I were in need of a fishing trip and the heat would just have to take a backseat. Having determined the dire nature of our need and finding a suitable time and place we embarked on the trip.

The evening of Sunday, August 17, 1997 at approximately 8:30 pm we left my house for a little drift fishing on Lake Fairfield. The temperature was still in the high 80's and the wind was still blowing from the south. Undaunted we went anyway, drifted for about two hours and were totally blanked. This was not acceptable however so we went to a location on the lake that was lighted and Monte caught a very nice hybrid. We being tired and no longer skunked went home and prepared for the next day.

The morning of Monday, August 18, 1997 broke much like all summer days and by the time we were on Richland Chambers lake it was already hot. We decided to troll for sandies and slab for them if we saw any schooling. We soon found large numbers of smaller sandbass, but were interested in larger sizes. By moving to humps close to the dam we were able to catch several hybrids, we knew they were there just had never caught any on Richland. Once again Monte caught the largest hybrid, going about 4 pound and he measured the beast at 19 inches in length.

The heat soon beat us down and we trekked off home for the airconditioning and to recoup and relive the glories of the day. Soon the summer will give way to fall and the big bass will move back up shallow and then Monte will have to watch me catch the bigguns.

Good fishin yall,

The Rock

8/9/97 Took my three sons on a scout campout last weekend to Grapevine Lake. Tried to catfish Friday night with no luck. Saturday the sandbass would come to the surface for a few seconds but wouldn't bite what we were throwing at them (little georges)

7/17/97 Will (my 11 year old son), Ryan (my 9 year old son), and I fished lake Lewisville again for Sand Bass. We didn't catch as many this time (only 4) but we found them on the humps near the old Lake Dallas Dam. We went swimming again fully expecting to see them schooling on the surface around 8:30 PM but the fish never showed.

7/14/97 My youngest son, Ryan (age 9) and I went looking for the Sandies on Lake Lewisville again Monday evening July 14. We couldnt find any on the humps in front of the Lake Dallas north cut so we looked for them at the west end of the Dam again. The heat was so bad we decided we needed to swim. So we dropped anchor and went for it. Well, no sooner had we climbed in the boat (around 8:30 P.M.) did we see them schooling right in casting range. Managed to catch 30 or so including 15 keepers.

7/1/97 Took my three sons fishing with The Lewisville Fisherman, Captain Randall Hall on Lake Lewisville. Captain Hall and I decided that sandbass was the best way to show Seth, Will and Ryan a good time. Man were we right! Captain Hall put us on BIG sandies that fought hard. We were out for about 4 hours and caught 52 fish. Only had to throw back 3.