# report: Lake Texana



## Crusader (Jan 31, 2014)

I was asking about Texana few days ago. Here is report.

Decided to try N end of lake, used public boat ramp on W side of 59 bridge.
Water was completely muddy, visibility was maybe 3 inches. This caught me off-guard -- I have no idea how to fish in such conditions. It's like in TV show about swamp people. Gars were surfacing everywhere on Navidad river. Fished river, went to lake -- too windy (like 20mph) and muddy, wind was pushing all muddy water back into river (which was probably already very muddy from recent rain). Got few hits, but no hookups. Went to bridge, could not stay there -- felt like in aerodynamic tube. **** wind. Went to main lake (S of bridge), moved around -- 4-5ft everywhere. Found Sandy creek channel (sometimes drops to 15ft). Water the same. There is a "forest of stumps" in 6ft of water -- tried fishing it, almost impossible due to wind and waves and branches and no visibility. Observed local checking trotlines -- he got some nice catfish, a bunch. Looks like those stumps are quite handy for this stuff. Some snake tried to catch a ride on my kayak. In the middle of the god **** lake! It was small (~15") and had brown and white stripes going along entire body. I'll call it striped snake  

Went back into river, fished it few miles upstream, observed bunch of alligators -- small ones (~1-2ft) were chasing my bobber and I had some entertainment. They are cute as kittens. Big ones were bigger than me (and I am more than 6ft). I kept my distance, not cute at all. Shad (looks like some kind of minnow) was blowing water all over the place. Went up and down checking suspicious brush. Nothing... Had one or two characteristic bites -- in the middle of the brush, felt like a crappie but no hookup. Seen about 7-10 other boats + 1 kayak, unless they lie they got very little (3 crappie was largest report).

Went back to lake, wind has changed direction and become stronger. Spooked some big carp or buffalo on shallows -- he jumped. Like a little whale, I'd say 8-10lb. Tired and sunburnt went back to boat ramp. To add insult to the injury some dude soaking minnows 3ft from the shore got one crappie and catfish next to the ramp. :headknock

Bottomline:
- got 3 channel cats and 1 white bass throwing jigs with grubs and wedgetails, all in the river... with exception of small cat, I got him on the main lake -- my depth finder is very basic, but he was insisting that there is a lot of activity under me in 11-14ft of water, so I parked there for 30 mins, threw some Gulp catfish bait (that never caught me a single cat) on one rod and worked wedgetail on a jig around me (on another one). All I've got is 8" cat.
- wind was terrible
- water is very muddy -- I do not know how to fish it. In fact, I do not know how other fish (besides cat, buffalo and gar) survive here. I suspect you need to know such water very well in order to fish it successfully. Some local caught 2 crappie in an hour, unloaded kids and went back. You should probably use minnows and know where crappies (and other fish) usually congregate
- I need to learn how to catch catfish -- it is handy in situation like this. Sometimes plastics and hard lures just don't work
- locals are friendly and don't mind chatting a bit

From them I learned:
- main attraction in the lake is catfish (all three types) on jugs and trotlines. Also according to them water is always muddy. North portion of lake is shallow. Southern portion is much deeper and somewhat (not much) clearer. According to one guy he was sometimes catching black bass in small coves over there (I assume mud has some chance to settle down in them)
- lake Texana is not one of the best lakes around. Well, it definitely didn't spoil me today... Next time I'll try southern end in windless weather
- locals gators are generally docile, but you'd better stay away from them in June-July -- mating season, they become very territorial
- occasionally they get good catches of spring crappie (but not too often), white bass now and then and occasional black bass
- there are huge gars in this lake (and tributaries)


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## Catfish1990 (Aug 20, 2013)

Crusader, you observed me fighting the wind to check my trotlines. I had over 25 cats but I was throwing the smaller ones back. I took 18 home for the cleaning table. Best report I got out of the lake for the day was 46 Crappie for two people. I spoke with the GameWarden afterwards to see what he found while he was there.. He said it took the two guys six hours but they got them.. The lakes a tough one to navigate you have to know it.. There's tons of stumps lurking 6 to 8 inches below the surface. I've seen people destroyed lower units and props in a heartbeat because they don't know the lake.. And yes the gar our big too. biggest one we had before was almost 200 pounds. 


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk


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## Dtrojcak (Jun 17, 2012)

You caught more in your first trip than I did in my first 4 in a kayak. 
In my defense, I didn't have a trolling motor though. 

There's a couple of 30' deep sections of Sandies north of the 59 bridge.


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## Crusader (Jan 31, 2014)

Catfish1990 said:


> Crusader, you observed me fighting the wind to check my trotlines. I had over 25 cats but I was throwing the smaller ones back. I took 18 home for the cleaning table.


It was nice chatting to you, sir. I hope I did not break any rules of lake fishing etiquette by getting too close -- I've never seen trotlines in action and first 15 mins of observing from afar could not even understand what you were doing there.  Curiosity got the best of me. I also used this opportunity to talk to someone (who seem to know what he is doing) about fishing this lake.



> Best report I got out of the lake for the day was 46 Crappie for two people. I spoke with the GameWarden afterwards to see what he found while he was there.. He said it took the two guys six hours but they got them...


Did they get them in Navidad or on the main lake?



> The lakes a tough one to navigate you have to know it.. There's tons of stumps lurking 6 to 8 inches below the surface. I've seen people destroyed lower units and props in a heartbeat because they don't know the lake..


Yep, Even on my kayak I stumbled into a few quite unexpected bumps. I'd imagine it'll do a lot of damage to a boat going full speed.



> And yes the gar our big too. biggest one we had before was almost 200 pounds.


What do you do with such monsters? Are they even edible?



Dtrojcak said:


> You caught more in your first trip than I did in my first 4 in a kayak.
> In my defense, I didn't have a trolling motor though.


 I spent almost 12 hours on the water covering large area. Trolling motor on kayak is a absolutely awesome.


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## Rangerbobtx (Aug 17, 2011)

I fished the lake for the 1st time on 3/21. I caught a limit of crappie in less than 2' of water. I was using a 10' pole moving down the bank dipping a red/chart solid body tube jig around any wood.

I went back Sunday and had a limit by 10:15 doing basically the same thing. I caught most of my fish on open banks in 18" or less.

It seems the main spawn is over since most of the fish were either males or mostly spawned out smaller females. I missed a lot of fish that were just moving the bait off of nests. Once I pinched off about 1/2 of the tail my hook up ratio improved a lot.

Don't be put off by the muddy water. During the spawn it is a blessing. The fish will get shallower and are usually more aggressive and less spooky.

Steve


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## BcamFolmar (Mar 31, 2014)

Rangerbobtx said:


> I fished the lake for the 1st time on 3/21. I caught a limit of crappie in less than 2' of water. I was using a 10' pole moving down the bank dipping a red/chart solid body tube jig around any wood.
> 
> I went back Sunday and had a limit by 10:15 doing basically the same thing. I caught most of my fish on open banks in 18" or less.
> 
> ...


This is true, I think they are on their way out. We started getting into them thick in late February through March. Mostly males now.


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## skyhigh (Jul 7, 2014)

in what park of the lake were you fishing in? I never fish there but want to go crappie fishing this spring. Thanks


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