Last two trips to Fairfield.

[PiePuncher]

I wasn't sure where to post this as Red Drum are saltwaterfish but I did not catch these in the salt. I caught these fish at a PowerPlant lake in Fairfield Texas. I have been a little behind on posting my fishing trips but my last two have been very successful. A few of you know that I like to fish fairfield in the winter and the pics will tell you why! The TXPW guy at Fairfield said the redfishing has been slow and it is best in the spring. Well, I have found that winter is the most productive!! I have fished the lake since I was a boy and the winter has always been kind, with November-may being most productive.
I started my day at about 5:30 a.m getting bait(which I only used a few) and then headed to my first hole to give it a shot. My first cast made was with a RatLtrap and I hooked up imediatly but this fish didnt feel like a red. Turns out, I brought in a 7lb blue cat. I took a few more cast to see what would happen and hook up again. This time a 5ft gar!!!!!!! I shake him off at the boat and am happy he is gone. I decide to finally lay the rod down and put a tilapia on(BIG TILAPIA, bigger than my hand) my 8ft loomis and chunk him way out. Soon enough, boom!!! I reel and fish is gone, turns out a big blue had just grabbed him right behind the hook and let go. I did let him run with it for a while too, I opened the free spool and let him run. Oh well, missed fish. To make a long story short, this happened over and over for about an hour and finally, I decided that there was nothing in this hole but a ton of blue cats. I figured the reds would be in with the cold front and they were not. I did catch a few small reds here(at first stop) and did catch a few more cats but that wasnt what I was after. I think the blues were so thick that they chased the reds out!!!!
WEll, hit up my next hole with a drift and this is where the fun began. I am trying to keep this story short. We drifted the red hole, which is on the west side of the lake and litterally caught around 40 reds with the largest being 22lbs. I lost another one(20+lb fish) after I got him to the boat and he decided to take another run. I put a little too much pressure on him while he was running, he came to the top still burning line and did a few head shakes and the lure came out. I was SOOOOO sad. It happens. Too make a long story short, all reds were caught on RatTraps in the 1oz-mag trap size and all were let go but 6. Was a heck of a trip and cant wait to get back out and slaughter the reds again.
Sorry if the report is tough to read but the wife is hurrying me and I have a bunch to do.
Also, for those of you that dont think reds have teeth, I took some pics to show just how sharp their teeth are!!!

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[PiePuncher]

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[PiePuncher]

[PiePuncher]

Most of the cats came on Traps and all the reds came on traps. Fishing for reds was a lot like catching sandbass, you would catch on almost every cast and if you didnt catch one on the third cast, you started wondering where they had gone. Talk about being spoiled! I did have to replace the hooks a few times while out and went through a few traps because the reds were crushing them, breaking the hooks and chipping off the paint.

[Bret]

sounds like some fun fishing.. nice report and nice mess of fish too...

[TeamOso]

cool, those freshwater reds are interesting.

Kevin

[Pope]

You are the king of Fairfield. That avatar proves it. I was looking at your pics and thought the cats looked like big channels to me. I don't see they ever stocked blues in Fairfield. http://www.tpwd.state.tx.us/fishboat...p?WB_code=0073

[Pope]

I did see they stocked nile perch in 83. I sure wish they had taken.

[PiePuncher]

They are blues!!!! We did catch some nice channels too that are in the pics but most of the fish are blues. We have caught quite a few around 20lbs and the channel record for the lake is 14lbs and the blue record is 38 or something like that. Here is a link for you. Also, the blues were caught under the POO if that tells you anything. There is a place where HUNDREDS (litterally) sit and we just toss a tilapia under them and boom. Fish on... Here is the link for you.
By the way, the record blue was just caught 3 years ago.

http://www.tpwd.state.tx.us/fishboat...p?WB_code=0073

[PiePuncher]

Excuse me, the blue record is 26 lbs... We have caught them to around 20 or so. We weighed all those casts and the largest was 12 lbs and most were around 7-10lbs. The bass in the photos weighed in at 4 and a little over 6. Dont know about the little reds, they were just over keepers. That was from two or three weeks ago. This last week, all the reds averaged around 6lbs or so with quite a few large ones in the mix.
Another note, They no longer stock hybrids in the lake. We talked to TXPW on the way out and they will no longer stock the hybrids and have not since 2004. The only fish that doesnt breed in the lake that is stocked is now the redfish. The tilapia breed like crazy and they are not stocked anymore either.