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Stick!It is a new catfish bait that has just come on the market. Denise and her sister wanted to catch a few catfish and called me to bring a few range cubes and bait over to their house so they could fish off the dock. I had told them the catfish were in shallow water and it would’nt take long to catch a mess. I went over and threw some range cubes out around their dock and helped them get baited up with Stick!It. Click Here for the rest of the story. Click Here To Read About Stick!It

Carol Lorch gets up just before daylight to fish on her pier for hybrids. Several of her neighbors and her husband Frank fish most mornings in the Spring for hybrids right off of their dock. Frank will catch shad in his castnet that are all along the bulkhead and use the shad for bait. Some of the fishermen use Rat-L-Traps or Storm Swim Baits and cast from the shoreline. The hot tip is being out early when the hybrids are feeding on the shad that have moved to the bulkheads to spawn.

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[caption id="attachment_356" align="alignnone" width="298" caption="Magnum Rat-L-Trap A Great Bait For Hybrids Early On Bulkheads At Daylight"][/caption]

Hybrid Bass fishing has taken on a little different twist this year. Most of us are familiar with trolling a deep diving crank bait with a Pet Spoon tied onto the crank bait trailing 21/2 to 3 feet behind the crank bait or using a JetDiver to get the Pet Spoon down. This has been a great way to catch hybrids in the past trolling off main lake points and over humps and pond dams in all parts of the Lake and is still producing some fish this year; but, the early bite with a Rat-L-Trap of a Storm Swim Shad has produced a lot more fish and gotten more limits recently. This may change as soon as the Lake settles down and there is no longer water being released from the Lake.

This year most of the Hybrid Bass are being caught on crank baits and soft plastics early in the morning at daylight feeding on shad along the bulkheads. Bulkheads on main lake points and bulkheads that have the wind blowing the shad toward them have been the best. There have been fish caught early on all parts of the Lake from the dam area all the way North to Hwy 1375 Bridge. The problem is the action only lasts about 30 to 45 minutes and if you aren’t there when the fish are, you miss the excitement.

Most of the guides are catching Hybrids on live shad after the fish move off the bulkheads in deep shaded areas off the main lake and secondary points. They usually catch the Hybrids along with nice Blue and Channel Catfish fishing with the live shad.

If you want some hybrid action, you many have to get up a little earlier that usual.

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The winds have made it challenging the past couple of weeks to drift fish in water 10 -12 feet deep; but, using a wind sock to slow the drift has produced some real nice fish. This fish pictured was caught on a drift trip with Carl Bostick with WetHook Guide Service. Carl says that you need to get up early to catch shad and then try and keep them alive for as long as you can. He baits with a drift weight on the bottom with the hook about three feet off the bottom tied on with a loop that is at least three inches to let the bait float free as you drift. He has been getting in creeks with some shelter from the wind to set up his drift. You don’t catch a “BIG” one on every drift; but, you can fill a box with some nice catfish and a “BIG” one or two on each trip. Cut gizzard shad are also good bait cut up in small pieces or shrimp if you just don’t have any other bait. Carl will put out as many as seven rods on each drift and this can keep you real busy if you run into a school of 3 to 5 pound fish.

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One of the things many fishermen overlook is what the “Birds” are doing. This photo was taken up on the North end of Lake Conroe just after sunrise in mid April, 2009. If you look closely you will see the Great Blue Herrons along with the Great Egrets along the shoreline. There are lots of Cormorants in the water also feeding. These birds are ALL feeding on shad.

This is the time of the year to keep an eye on the birds feeding along the shoreline around the Lake. You will just about always find a Great Blue Herron or Egret walking the shoreline or just waiting patiently for fish one at a time; but, when you see lots of birds as we have in this photo, the shad are there and where there are shad you will always find fish. Catfish work these types of weed beds both during their spawn and to feed on the shad that are in the shallow water early in the morning.

Many of our guides will catch shad prior to leaving the docks for a guide trip and fish these areas with shad under a cork. The cork alllows the fishermen on their boats to throw up in the shallows where the fish are feeding and not get hung up in the grass and weeds. Hybrids and Black Bass will also be in these areas early. Watching the ‘birds’ can make the difference between a fair day on the Lake and a cooler full of fish.

It hasn’t been that long ago that our Lake was choked with hydrilla. The combined effort of The Lake Conroe Association, Texas Park & Wildlife, SJRA and many other organizations and contributors to the “Grass Carp Fund”, that we have little or no grass in the Lake at this time. We do have LOTS of “Grass Carp” and more and more people are catching them when fishing. We are finding that many don’t have a clue as to what kind of fish they have caught and are not aware that they have to be released.

At this time a Triploid Grass Carp Permit is in effect on this lake. If a grass carp is caught, it must be immediately returned to the water unharmed. The purpose of this post is to be sure those fishing the Lake know what a “Grass Carp” looks like and if they catch one, that they should be sure and return it to the Lake.

We have always had a lot of different openions as to how many, at what time, under what circumstances and wheather there should be any grass carp introduced to the Lake at all. As is the case with most efforts, there are two very opposing sides to these questions. If you feel like sounding off and can do it in good taste, fire away and let us know your thoughts.