2022 – Fishing Reports
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10/20/22 – 10/21/22 Chartered Bay Fishing Trip and 10/21/22 – 10/23/22 Self-chartered Bay Fishing Trip
Four FCS members fished and fellowshipped in Port O’Connor from Thursday, 10/20/22 – Sunday, 10/23/22. The temperatures were great, but the wind began to pick up after Friday (above 20 mph the entire time) making it a more of an unpleasant ride to the jetty on Saturday.
They fished with Marty of ‘Fish of a Lifetime Guide Service’ on a guided trip on Friday morning and caught several reds, blacks, whiting, and a couple of gafftops. The baits used were dead shrimp and Spanish sardines.
They fished out of Daryl Shipper’s boat at the jetties on Friday afternoon and were able to catch a red and black drum, but it was very slow on keepers.
They went to the jetties again on Saturday morning and caught a few bull red’s, and a big ugly (black drum) but fishing was slow with a lot of non-game fish (hardheads, dog fish, and gafftops) caught.
On Saturday evening and Sunday morning they went to the back bay by the old coast guard piling because of the strong wind. They caught many non-game fish such as hardheads, and gafftops.
There were several large fish that broke off as well during their self-chartering adventures. The bait they used were crabs, dead shrimp, cut mullet, and Spanish sardines.
The best catches of the weekend were:
Burl Fulenwider – a 37” bull red, two other bull reds, and a shark that wasn’t brought into the boat
Jim McGee – 37″ and 35” bull red’s and two slot red’s
Daryl – several bull reds not measured, a 27 1/2″ slot red, and a big ugly
Roy Zengerle – a 35” bull red and a slot red
Thanks to Daryl for leading this event and for sharing his boat.
10/10/22 Chartered Hybrid/Largemouth/Striped/White Bass Fishing Trip
Twelve fishermen had a good time with Ray Williamson of Ray’s Striper Fishing Guide Service and John Young, a guide who Ray hired, on Lake Buchanan (contact Randy Rowley if you’re interested in fishing with John and he’ll give you his phone number). The fishermen fished by trolling umbrella rigs. Each fisherman caught around five bass. At least four fishermen caught two bass on one umbrella rig. Hybrids lead the way – unfortunately most of them weren’t keepers. Some largemouths and a few undersized stripers were caught. The rest were whites. There were around 10 keeper bass per boat. The fishermen chased schooling topwater bass for around two hours.
10/2/22 Self-chartered Freshwater Fishing Trip
On Sunday, 10/2/22, Burl Fulenwider, Hunter Rowley, Randy Rowley, and Ryan Rowley fished on Lake Decker. Decker was very slow. Burl caught his first garrrrrrrrrrr on a minnow, the only fish caught. They also tried frogs, prop frogs, Whopper Ploggers, poppers, fluke-style swimbaits, lipless crankbaits, round bill crankbaits, a chatterbait, a spinnerbait, and an umbrella rig. As the lake was low, it was very tough to launch and recover Cam (Randy’s boat).
9/27/22 Chartered Largemouth Bass Fishing Trip
On Tuesday, 9/27/22, Jim McGee, and two members of the Austin Woods and Waters Club fished with guide and FCS member Kevin McConnell on Lake Fayette. It was a very slow day. Kevin caught two bass and Jim caught one. The other two fishermen were skunked.
9/25/22 Chartered Largemouth Bass Fishing Trip
On Sunday, 9/25/22, Jim McGee, Randy Rowley, and Ryan Rowley fished with guide and FCS member Kevin McConnell on Lake Fayette. It was a very slow day, probably due to an almost total lack of wind. Kevin caught the only fish – an approximately 16-inch-long largemouth bass on a Carolina-rigged french fry worm. Jim had a perch on, but it got off at the boat. They encountered several bass chasing minnows by the reeds and chunked every topwater lure they had at them, but they weren’t interesting in their offerings. They also tried round, squarebill, and lipless crankbaits, a spinnerbait, an umbrella rig, swimbaits, and a crawdad.
4/22/22 – 4/24/22 Self-chartered Bay Fishing Trip
Four FCS members fished and fellowshipped in Port O’Connor from Friday, 4/22/22 – Sunday, 4/24/22. Temperatures were pleasant but the wind was above 20 mph the entire time they were in Port O’Connor, which made fishing a challenge. They fished Saluria, Big Bayou, Coast guard flats, and the oil well cuts using shrimp, crab, and cut whiting. They caught whiting, hardhead catfish, a number of large gafftop catfish, some stingrays, and one black drum.
The best catches of the weekend were a ~40 inch stingray by Roy Zengerle and a ~40 inch black drum by Wayne Weilnau. Because of the wind and the lack of success, they did not fish Sunday, instead they scouted the Seadrift area and Charlie’s Bait camp for future trips. They did not see any interesting areas in Seadrift. Charlies looked interesting for a future kayak trip, but the bay there is too skinny for most boats.
The Fishing Center in Port O’Connor now carries crab. Unfortunately they were already dead when they bought them and smelled so bad that they dumped them.
4/2/22 Chartered Largemouth Bass Fishing Trip
On Saturday, 4/2/22, Zack Tumlinson and Chris, a friend of guide and FCS member Kevin McConnell, fished with Kevin on Lake Fayette. They ended up with 19 bass – two of which were 5 pounders! Zack loaded the boat using green crawdad soft plastics.
3/19/22 Chartered Hybrid/Striped/White Bass Fishing Trip
On Saturday, 3/19/22 Flint and Harrison Deshazo fished with guide and FCS member Kevin McConnell on Lake Buchanan. They ended the day with 55 whites, stripers, and hybrids. The weather was awesome!
3/18/22 Chartered Hybrid/Striped/White Bass Fishing Trip
On Friday, 3/18/22 Steve Babin fished with guide and FCS member Kevin McConnell on Lake LBJ. A cold front hit on Thursday night with 25 mph winds, so Kevin moved the trip to Lake LBJ. It was slow, but they caught 12 fish. The highlight of the day was a 15″ crappie Kevin caught. Kevin’s scale showed it to be 2.1 lbs. They thought it might be the lake record, so they took it to Inks Lake State Park and got it weighed on their certified scale – it weighed 1.8 lbs. The lake record is 2.06 lbs. and it was 14″ long.
