Eagle Mountain Lake Fishing Report May 2012

Let me start with the Eagle Mountain Lake fishing report. The channel catfish bite is on fire and is as good as it gets. We are catching easy limits of channel catfish every trip on Eagle Mountain Lake fishing with punch bait and the secret channel catfish rig. The fishing is about as good as it gets for channel cat and will stay this way for a good while. There is not a lot of size to the fish as most will run 1-3 lbs but the fishing action is fast and furious. This is a great time to get kids out on the water with me because there is no waiting or down time and it is very fast paced fishing. I have a few afternoon and evening spots open for this month but my weekends are full into June. I do have some June weekends open for guided catfish trips on Eagle Mountain Lake. Give me a call at 817-522-3804 or email me at chad@learntocatchcatfish.com if you want to get something setup.

The Eagle Mountain Lake Alligator

I have had about 30 phone calls, text messages and emails in the past 24 hours from people wanting to know about the Eagle Mountain Lake alligator.

There is a photo circulating of a big alligator that was allegedly killed on Eagle Mountain Lake (photo below).

First let me say it has been common knowledge for many years that there are some big gators in Lake Worth and we have seen them out there for years. We have also been seeing them in the river between Eagle Mountain and Lake Worth for years also. Everyone knows that they are there, yes they are big, and yes there are many of them. There are even signs around the Tarrant Regional Water District pond below the Eagle Mountain Lake dam stating there are gators in there.

There have been several pictures circulating this year of big alligators that were allegedly taken on Eagle Mountain Lake. I spend more time on the lake than most people do and up until this year I have never seen an alligators in Eagle Mountain Lake. This year however I have seem two different gators, and both of them I have seen within the last month. I know there were two different alligators because they were substantially different in size.

The first spotting was a gator that was significantly larger than the one in the photo below. I have seen the bigger one three different times in the past thirty days. It really should not come as any surprise.

Now, as far as this alligator goes. No I don’t know who killed it. The rumor going around is that it was killed by the game wardens but I verified that the game wardens did not kill this alligator.

I also do not have any verification that the dead gator shown below came from Eagle Mountain Lake so as far as I know there is no verification that it did indeed come from Eagle Mountain. I was told (from an “official”  source that I cannot name) that the situation was “under investigation” and it is not being discussed at this time.

Eagle Mountain Lake Fishing Report 

This has been an odd spring on Eagle Mountain Lake and what has been happening there has been consistent with what has happened on most of the other lakes in North Texas. The blue catfish bite great for a few days and then the bite slacks off for a few days. In all the years I have been a fishing guide this has never been an issue in the spring and the only thing I can point to is the unseasonably warm winter and how quickly the water warmed up this year. We are still chasing the blue catfish but when they don’t cooperate pretty quickly we are switching to fishing for channel catfish instead of spending all morning chasing fish that don’t want to cooperate.

We are fishing for channel cats with Sure Shot Catfish Punch Bait and Sudden Impact Fiber Bait from Team Catfish  fished in combination with my Secret Channel Catfish Rig.

THE CHANNEL CATFISH BITE IS ABSOLUTELY ON FIRE and should stay this way the rest of the Summer into early October. Most days we have been able to catch huge numbers of channels in no time at all and easy limits for 4-5 people in a half day trip most mornings or afternoons. This fishing is a lot of fun and is something I really enjoy doing.

If you are not close enough to come fish with North Texas Catfish Guide Service and want to learn how I go about locating and catching these fish you can check out the Spring Blue Catfish Techniques program as well as the Summer Channnel Catfish Techniques program.

If you would like to book a trip give me a call at 817-522-3804 or email me chad@learntocatchcatfish.com

Eagle Mountain Lake Water Levels

I have been getting a lot of questions about the Eagle Mountain Lake water levels lately since the drought of 2011 in North Texas. The good news is Eagle Mountain Lake is full (actually slightly over pool) and we seem to keep getting rain so there are no immediate concerns with the water levels. It will start dropping again when it gets hot but the water district has stated they are going to leave the watering restrictions in place this year so that should help.

The first of these “technique” type books was the Summer Channel Catfish Techniques program that was a step by step guide to help people with locating and catching channel catfish in the summer months.

I just released the next installment in this series of programs called Spring Blue Catfish Techniques. This is a step by step guide to locating and catching blue catfish in the months of March, April and May. This is hands down the best time of the year for catching huge numbers of blue catfish and an excellent time of the year for fishing.

The blue catfish techniques program walks you step by step through the process of everything you need to know to be successful catfishing in the spring, all bundled in a nice neat little package that is easy to understand. Any angler regardless of skill level will be able to pick this up and get started catching blue cat in the spring after reading this book and reviewing the online information.

Of course if you don’t come fish with me your missing out on an awesome time and won’t have the pleasure of my company, my striking good looks and charming personality but I recognize everyone cannot get to North Texas to fish with me on Eagle Mountain Lake, Lake Worth or one of the other lakes we fish, but the Spring Catfishing e-book is the next best thing!

You can check it out at http://www.springcatfishing.com or watch the sneak peak videos below!

BY BOB HOOD

Special to the Star-Telegram

Some anglers dream of making a record-setting catch and having their names inked into the Texas Fish Records book.

Twelve-year-old Lane Ferguson of Fort Worth not only has experienced that but has received seven awards for catching a monster blue catfish at Lake Worth just before Christmas, which was certified by the Texas Parks and Wildlife recently.

On Dec. 23, the Eagle Mountain-Saginaw middle school student caught a blue catfish weighing 66.28 pounds on a shad caught in a cast net by his father, professional catfishing guide Chad Ferguson of North Texas Catfishing Guide Service.

The catch beat the former Lake Worth record blue catfish of 55 pounds caught on Dec. 22, 2001, by Larry Farmer. A blue catfish weighing 72 pounds also was caught at Lake Worth in December but it was not certified as a record because two anglers shared their efforts in catching and landing the fish.

“I have had Lane fishing ever since he was big enough to walk,” Chad Ferguson said. “He is definitely an outdoors person, fishing or hunting. He can use any type of rod and reel, from bait casters to spinning and spin casting gear. He caught the big one at Lake Worth in about 22-feet deep water on cut shad and it took him about 10 minutes to get it to the boat. We got it all on video.

“We tried three different ledges, and Lane hooked into the big fish on the third ledge. I wasn’t sure my scales were exact, so we loaded up and went to another place that had certified scales to see if it beat the Lake Worth record, which it did. That was the only fish we caught that day but it was the one we were hoping to catch.”

Ferguson said he knew his son had hooked a possible lake record as soon as he set the hook. “When he began fighting it, I pulled up the anchor and started reeling the other rods in,” Ferguson said. “It was pretty windy and the fish began moving the boat across the water. I finally was able to net the fish and we took it to have it weighed on other scales, then brought it back to Lake Worth and released it.”

Lake Worth is one of the oldest man-made reservoirs in Texas. It was impounded in 1914 on the West Fork of the Trinity River by the city of Fort Worth for water-use purposes. But it has undergone siltation problems over the years that have limited its deepest depths to about 20 feet or lower.

A state fish hatchery used to be nearby on the 3,489-surface-acre reservoir but has since only been occupied by a Texas Parks and Wildlife Department fisheries research facility.

Lake Worth also gained national attention in the 1960s and years afterward when individuals reported sightings of a goat-fish-man-like creature later tabbed as the “Lake Worth Monster.” The lake also has had reported sightings of alligators and other interesting creatures, but for anglers, the big news has been about fish.

The lake has produced several big catches besides blue catfish. Among them are a 12-pound largemouth bass, 10-pound hybrid striped bass, 2.28-pound white bass, 12.40-pound channel catfish and 49.40-pound yellow catfish.

Fish consumption advisories for some species of fish that were established and later modified by Texas health officials remain on Lake Worth.

The recent big blue catfish catches likely are the result of the state’s last stockings of blue catfish in 1990, when 36,465 fingerlings were stocked there. The lake also has a good population of largemouth bass, which likely will flourish with the 2011 stockings of 173,982 fingerling Florida bass.

As for the Fergusons, it’s time to move on to other possible records. “We are going to start targeting Eagle Mountain Lake record for blue catfish,” Chad Ferguson said, “and this is one of the best time of the year to catch big catfish.”

Their target: a 45.56-pound Eagle Mountain Lake record blue catfish caught on April 30, 2011, by Doug Bailey.

Read more here: http://www.star-telegram.com/2012/02/04/3712267/monster-catfish-no-match-for-fort.html

I did not get to fish much the last few days, we cancelled Saturday because of the high winds and and yesterday because the sub freezing cold, high winds and ice on the boat ramp so I spent most of the weekend chasing hogs with my son instead of fishing and working on the Spring Blue Catfish Techniques training program to be released from Learn To Catch Catfish.

It snowed last night pretty heavily here in my part of Fort Worth and we still have about an inch of snow on the ground and it is supposed to be seventy degrees on Wednesday so it appears the erratic weather is going to continue which will continue to make the fishing hit and miss until the weather straightens out. It’s not too uncommon for this time of year.

My March and April schedule is booked heavy, I have a handful of openings left and everything else is full. I still have a bunch of May openings and very few bookings for the late May and early June channel catfish bite. This is excellent channel catfishing and is a blast to fish if you want amazing numbers of channel catfish and fast action.

Lane was in the Star Telegram last week for his record fish caught at Lake Worth, be sure to check it out when you have a minute. Also if you have not done so already be sure to check out our Facebook page.

If you are interested in fishing you can call me at 817-522-3804 or email me chad@learntocatchcatfish.com

I have been on Eagle Mountain Lake and Lake Worth several times this week and it is absolutely amazing how much the lakes have changed in a few short days.

As of right now 10:00 PM on Saturday January 28th 2012 Eagle Mountain is 1.16 feet low and Lake Worth is slightly above pool at 594.07 (pool is 594).

The water is still rolling in and most of the creeks and the Trinity River is still out of it’s banks so I expect the water to continue to rise. I expect that Eagle Mountain will fill the rest of of the way within the next couple of days and another big rain could put it well above pool. This will definitely make things easier as we head into spring and summer fishing for channel catfish and blue catfish.

Lake Worth Fishing Guide Report

The Lake Worth Fishing Guide Report for this week is good. We fished for trophy blue catfish several times since our last fishing report and the bite continues to be good. Lake Worth is getting a lot more pressure than normal due to all the news on the record catfish but we continue to be able to catch good numbers of trophy blue catfish on Lake Worth. The water is slightly normal than usual for this time of year but I expect  it will cool off some with the front that came through today.

I went last night and did some scouting and was able to get to a lot of areas that have not been accessible for quite some time and did a little scouting. I expect the February trophy blue catfish bite to continue to be good.

Eagle Mountain Lake Fishing Guide Report

The Eagle Mountain Lake Fishing Guide Report is fair. The water is muddy and there is not only water pouring into Eagle Mountain Lake but they are also letting water out. We fished this morning and the fish were not where I expected them to be. I think the massive flow of water coming in combined with water being let out, as well as the cold front that came through last night made for some tough fishing. We managed to boat some nice blue catfish on Eagle Mountain Lake but it took a while to find them. The channel catfish were stacked up and the white bass were eating us alive while we were trying to catch blue catfish. I expect the fishing to improve within the next day or so but we will continue to focus the majority of our efforts on catching trophy blue catfish on Worth for now. As we get towards mid to late February I will move my efforts towards fishing on Eagle Mountain Lake.

I went and did some scouting this afternoon and was able to get into some areas I have not been able to access since last April. The good news is I could get into these areas now because the water has come up so much. There is a TON of vegetation that has grown up during the drought and it will change the landscape of the fishing this spring but it will still excellent.

Spring Catfishing

My schedule is filling up for March, April and May trips. This is the best fishing for the year for numbers of blue catfish. If you want your choice of dates you need to get booked now. Give me a call at 817-522-3804 or email me at chad@learntocatchcatfish.com

This is the article that appeared in the Dallas Morning news about my sons Texas state junior angler record blue catfish. The blue catfish was caught on Lake Worth.  For more information on our Lake Worth Fishing Guide services check out the Lake Worth Fishing Guide page.

Lane Ferguson, 12, of Fort Worth, Texas, got an early Christmas present when he caught a 66.28-pound blue catfish from Lake Worth on Dec. 23.

Last week, the young angler scored again when the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department certified his big fish for six records.

Lane has the junior angler state record and the junior state catch-and-release record for blue cats, both junior and all-age lake records for Lake Worth and catch-and-release records for junior and all-age anglers. He also got a big fish award.

Lane, who required less than 10 minutes to land his record fish, has a leg up in the catfish records department. His father is Chad Ferguson, a Dallas-area fishing guide (txcatfishguide.com). Ferguson specializes in big fish and expects his son to set other records in the Dallas area. Here’s a question and answer session with Chad Ferguson about catching catfish:

What are your favorite catfish lakes?

I stay pretty close to home. I primarily fish at Lake Worth, Eagle Mountain and Lewisville this time of year but will occasionally hop around to Grapevine and Ray Roberts.

Lewisville has a lot of big blues. Eagle Mountain has good numbers to 25 or 30 pounds, but we don’t catch really big ones there, yet. I think guys get caught up in the hype and think they need to travel to lakes with reputations for producing monsters.

How long does the big fish season continue?

You can catch big blues all year, but they’re tougher to pattern in warmer months. I usually start focusing on big fish in mid-October, and the bite is usually consistent until mid-March. My favorite time is late January and early February. That’s when we seem to catch the biggest ones.

How do you rig for blues?

The majority of the time, I fish with a slip sinker rig or a Santee rig. The difference between the two is a small foam peg on the leader for a Santee rig, and I make my leaders a little longer than most anglers. You can learn these rigs online at learntocatchcatfish.com.

What’s the most productive bait?

Fresh shad. It must be fresh, no exceptions. A lot of people try to cut corners and fish with frozen bait or grocery store baits, but fresh shad will outfish them all day long.

Do you anchor or drift?

I do both. Different times call for different approaches. It depends on what I’m seeing on my sonar. I use the Humminbird sonar and side imaging to locate big blues and determine my approach from there.

What’s the best single day of fishing you’ve had for big fish?

I’ve had a few that were unreal but they don’t happen often. Years ago at Cedar Creek Lake, my friend and fellow guide Jackie Kennedy and I fished in late January and caught 25 or 30 big ones.

One other time in January, we managed over 30 trophy-sized fish at Lewisville.

You’re a proponent of releasing big catfish. Do you see more anglers releasing the big ones?

I think so. It’s becoming much more accepted. Most hardcore catfish anglers are releasing all the big fish. I’d like to see TPWD expand slot limits and start developing trophy fisheries all over the state.

The catfish is the No. 2 Texas game fish, and the sport is growing rapidly.

(1) Catch and Release Water Body Record
(2) Water Body Record
(3) Catch and Release Water Body Junior Angler
(4) Water Body Record Junior Angler
(5) Catch and Release State Record Junior Angler
(6) State Record Junior Angler Blue Catfish
(7) Big Fish Award

On top of receiving the records this week Lane was also featured in the Dallas Morning news on Sunday January 22nd 2012 for catching the big catfish and there is also a brief Q&A section with me on fishing for trophy blue catfish. Be sure to check it out when you have a minute it is available on the Dallas Morning News website also.

There have been a number of other media reports over the past few weeks including this one from Brazos Outdoors.

Fishing Report

The fishing this past week has been much like it has been the past few weeks, CRAZY. There have been some great days and some bad days and the fishing is just all over the place. This is hands down the craziest winter I have fished since I started guiding ten years ago. The weather patterns are causing the big blues to move around a lot and they are doing some really weird things, and the water temperature is much warmer than it typically is this time of year. I have fished in shorts and t-shirts several times in the past couple of weeks and actually been hot while I am fishing.

It seems like as long as we have some wind and cooler weather the fishing is good and as soon as we get these warm bluebird days the fishing gets tough. We have had some good success on these warmer days but they have definitely been much more difficult to fish.

My spring schedule is starting to fill up quickly so if you plan on fishing late March, April or early May you need to give me a shout and get on the schedule as soon as possible.

Learn To Catch Catfish

In February 2012 I am releasing the next installment in my series of e-books and online training programs, Spring Catfishing. This is an in depth step by step guide on locating and catching blue catfish in the Spring. There is a brief summary of what to expect in the video below. You can learn more on the Spring Catfishing page on Learn To Catch Catfish.

I am trying to get back in the habit of posting fishing reports every 1 to 2 weeks here on the site.

Before I get into the fishing report I wanted to share a recent media piece that was done on me and North Texas Catfish Guide Service by Matt Williams. The piece is titled Cold Water = Big Catfish and the article is on page 42 of the January 2011 issue of Texas Fish and Game Magazine. I will try to remember to post a link next month when the article is available on their website or you can check it out at newsstands now.

You can also check out or media page to view other articles, videos and news coverage on North Texas Catfish Guide Service.

Texas Catfish Guide Fishing Report

I have been fishing Lake Worth the past week and concentrating solely on trophy blue catfish. Fish have been good to 40 lbs with a lot of good fish over 20 lbs but the bite has been a little inconsistent. The unseasonably warm weather we have been having has the bait fish scattered and the blue catfish always follow them. We have had to spend a lot of time hunting and chasing fish as they are not nearly as stacked up as they should be this time of year. The weather has been crazy to say the least being early January and I fished in shorts several times over the past week it was so warm.

We finally had some cooler weather roll through yesterday and it has been raining for the last 24 hours. The weather is supposed to stay cool over the next week so it should help the fishing considerably. The much needed rain is a welcome site also and we are getting some good runoff into the lakes. Hopefully this will help the water levels some at Eagle Mountain Lake and Lake Grapevine over the next couple of days.

I am starting to get a lot of calls about the early spring Brazos River fishing trips from those that have fished with me in previous years. I have not been on the river but I am getting reports that there is golden algae in the river and it has moved up as far as Sanchez Creek. This is only second hand information and I have not verified with Texas Parks and Wildlife or been on the Brazos River myself. I am being told however the fish kills are starting and there are dead fish everywhere. I plan on going out to verify this later in the month and put some calls into the parks and wildlife folks. If the fish kill did occur it is not likely I will do any of the early spring trips on the Brazos this year.

Availability and Spring Catfishing Action

I have a handful of January and February dates still available for trophy catfish. I am already starting to get a lot of bookings for spring shallow water catfish trips. The big fish bite will hold out until early to mid March and then I will turn my focus to box fish with some bigger fish mixed in.

Spring is absolutely the best time for catching excellent numbers of blues and is hands down my favorite time of the year to catch shallow water catfish.

If you are interested in booking give me a call at 817-522-3804 or email me at chad@learntocatchcatfish.com

I committed to taking some time off over the holidays to get him out on the water and catch some blue catfish and he wanted to catch a junior angler record blue catfish on one of the North Texas area lakes.   Over the past week Lake Lewisville and Eagle Mountain Lake had not been producing any good numbers of big catfish so we set off to Lake Worth to catch some big catfish.

On arrival at the lake a friend called and informed me his son had landed a new junior angler lake record blue catfish of 37 lbs about fifteen minutes prior. We headed off for our day of fishing and ended up the day with a 36 lb blue for the biggest fish, just one pound shy of the junior angler record caught earlier that day and had that fish not been caught he would have had a fish in the record books. Pretty disappointed we headed home.

Two days later on December 23, 2011 we snuck out for some quick afternoon catfishing on Lake Worth with plans to catch some trophy blue catfish. We arrived at Lake Worth and set up for some fishing and after a short while hooked into a fish. When the Team Catfish Thunder Cat Catfish Rod doubled over in the water I knew immediately that it was a good fish but I didn’t know how good. A few minutes into the fight the boat turned into the wind and I realized the boat was being drug along by this fish I had a much better idea what kind of fish this was. It takes a pretty good catfish to move the boat into the wind in that kind of wind.

A short while later I netted a monster catfish and put it on my scales, getting a weight of roughly 66 lbs on my digital scales. I immediately realized the fish was at least a junior angler record so I put the fish in the livewell of my Xpress boat and headed to find certified scales. This proved difficult as it was 4:00 in the afternoon on a holiday weekend. We finally found certified scales and had the fish weighed.

Lane’s 66.28 lb blue catfish is being submitted for the following record on Lake Worth.

• Texas Junior Angler Blue Catfish Record
• Lake Worth Junior Angler Blue Catfish Record
• Lake Worth Blue Catfish Record
• Lake Worth Blue Catfish Catch and Release Record

I couldn’t be more proud of Lane and this was the best Christmas present I could have received.

This is the best time of year for catching trophy class catfish on rod and reel. If you would like to book a fishing trip give me a call at 817-522-3804.