July 29, 2003 - Monte's Metroplex Fishing

July 29, 2003
Monte fished Richland Chambers Lake this past weekend, July 25 through July 27, with best friend Roy (Rock) Hudman. Thanks to Roy, it was the best weekend of fishing Monte has ever had! We took a total of 4 trips. Seven whopper Hybrids and 95 sand bass were caught trolling the famed Hell/Pet rig at the 309 flats.

We forgot the camera on our first trip Friday evening when Rock caught two hybrids that each weighed 6 pounds 1 ounce. Monte hooked a 4 pound 8 ounce hybrid just as Rock locked on to his second 6 pounder creating a double and a dilemma as to who should get the net. Good problem to have. Caught and released 30 sandies too. We hit the water Saturday morning at daybreak, camera in hand. It took us 5 or 6 hours to come up with 19 sand bass. At high noon, though, Monte's reel started screaming. Whoohoo!! Fish on!! It was an 8 pound 13 ounce monster. By far the biggest hybrid Monte had ever landed. As soon as the trolling started again Roy hooked into one. He fought and fought what seemed to be a whale for several minutes. Roy would crank him in a bit then the brute would run and all he could do was hold on. Then, sadly, it was gone. When Roy cranked it in we found the #12 pet spoon with a straightened hook. It sure didn't seem like his drag was set too tight either. Well, that delayed lunch for a couple of hours as the trolling continued.

After a break from the heat of the day, we were right back trolling the 309 flats Saturday evening with our friend Chris. He landed a 7 pound 5 ounce Hybrid right off the bat. Yes! We only caught 7 sandies but we brought a few home for dinner. Chris battered them and fried em up for dinner. They were real good. Sunday evening from 6:30PM to 9:00PM was our 4th and last trip of the weekend. We landed 39 sandies and the best fish was also landed on this trip. Monte was trying to snap a picture of the Magelan GPS 300 unit when his reel started screaming again. Experience told us it was no stump. This was a biggun! Several minutes later a 10 pound 14 ounce giant was in the boat, shattering Monte's 8lb 13oz record from the day before. She hit a little bitty #12 gold pet spoon. Monte also hooked up with a 5 pound 8 ounce hybrid about a half hour later.

Here's how we did it. Monte couldn't figure out how to operate his cheapie GPS unit (Magelan GPS 300). Roy finally figured it out the last time I was there on July 12th. He saw a big school of fish on the graph and about the time our baits got to it, wham, fish on! That's when Roy marked it on the GPS unit. Just by chance he continued to troll on the same path. One half mile away the same thing happens so he marks that spot. We have simply been trolling that half mile stretch between those two GPS coordinates. Those coordinates have been written down in three places, including a mayonaise jar on Funk & Wagnel's front porch, just in case the GPS unit craps out on us. The first spot, labeled LM06 on the unit, is right at the southwest corner of that hump out in front of the free 309 ramp. This is the hump that comes up to about ankle deep water and seems very dangerous. Sometimes you can see those white cranes standing on it. The other spot, LM07, is out towards the middle of the lake. His original logic was to hug the side of the hump without getting on top of it. I think the line is more toward the lighthouse than anything.

We don't know why the fish are grouped up at each location but anytime we trolled over them there were big schools of fish. Not just this past weekend but a couple of weeks ago too. We threw back all 7 whoppers, totaling 45 pounds 2 ounces, and most of the 95 sandies to catch again. What a weekend!