The Lone Star State is home to some of the best catfishing waters in the country but most serious catfish anglers concur that Lake Tawakoni ranks at or near the top of the list when it comes to catching not only large numbers of channel catfish during the summer months but trophy class blues in the winter. I agree wholeheartedly!
I’ve fished Tawakoni since the sixties and watched it grow to a world class blue catfish fishery. Good ole’ T-Wak as the lake is nicknamed, has always been a top destination for catching channel, flathead and blue catfish.
Some of the better blue catfishing occurs in rivers or reservoirs fed by major rivers. The Sabine River above Tawakoni supplied a natural stocking of blues when the lake was impounded back in 1960 but a heavy stocking of blue catfish fingerlings (almost 400,000) by Texas Parks and Wildlife back in the late eighties insured good fishing for decades to come.
Tawakoni’s fertile waters and abundant shad population is the key to the large number of jumbo size blue catfish landed here every winter.
When fishing the right areas with the right baits during ‘trophy season’ which usually begins in late October and lasts well into March, whiskerfish anglers come to Tawakoni expecting to catch blue catfish weighing over 20 pounds and very often much larger.
Guide Larry Thomas has been fishing Tawakoni for six years since he moved here from the Texas Panhandle. Thomas says he loved the great fishing so much that he bought a home, hung up his ‘catfish trips shingle’ and has been having the time of his life with his clients ever since.
I’ve enjoyed several catfish excursions with Thomas not only for big blues during the winter months but the steady action on channel catfish during spring and summer. I’ve always returned home with several big bags of catfish fillets and memories of a great day’s fishing. A mid day trip last week resulted in a box full of ‘eater’ catfish weighing 2-10 pounds as well as one twenty pounder. I only had 3 hours to fish the day of our trip because of a writing deadline and Thomas was pretty sure we’d get the ‘picture fish’ I was looking for.
Thomas, like most serious catfish anglers, prefers to release all the bigger catfish.
“The smaller fish are better eating than trophy class fish and with more and more fishermen targeting trophy fish, it’s important for the fishery to release the big ones," says Thomas. "Today’s sonar makes locating the fish attracting hotspots and the big fish much easier than just a decade ago. We want to insure the awesome fishing that we’re enjoying is around for our children and grandchildren and releasing those big spawners is a good way to accomplish this.”
So far this season, Thomas client’s biggest fish weighed 62 pounds and the majority of trips produced blue catfish weighing in excess of 30 pounds. All these big fish were photographed and quickly released.
Not all catfish during the winter months are caught in deep water. After two or three days of warming southerly winds, it’s common this time of year to fish water as shallows as 3 feet along windy shorelines and boat some of the biggest fish of the year. Thomas says he watches the weather closely and, during warming trends, he begins fishing shallow and moves to deeper water if the bite so dictates.
“When fishing shallow, we anchor and fan cast the area with several rods," explains Thomas. "Until you’ve witnessed it, it’s difficult to imagine the fight a big blue gives when hooked in water 2-3 feet deep. When the fish are deep, drift fishing is the name of the game. Regardless whether we’re fishing deep or shallow, the very best bait is fresh shad, either cut or whole. Fresh rough fish such as drum, buffalo or carp also make good cut bait. I usually fillet these fish and make cut bait from the fillets, making sure not to wash the fillets. It’s the blood and oil in fresh bait that attracts catfish.”
Our trip last week occurred during a period of cooler weather and Thomas had been locating and catching fish from deep water. The rods were set up for drift fishing with “Santee Rigs.” The Santee rig is basically a Carolina rig with float attached a few inches above the hook. The drift weight drags bottom during the drift and the float keeps the hook/bait up off bottom, making it easier for a catfish to pick up the bait.
During periods when the wind is much above 10 mph. as it was during our drip, Thomas uses a drift sock behind the boat to slow drift speed. The sock resembles a small parachute with a hole in the center which can be opened or reduced in size to regulate the volume of water passing through. By increasing the diameter of this opening, which allows the water to pass through the sock faster, drift speed is reduced. Likewise, decreasing the size of the opening increases drift speed.
As we approached one of the guides favorite lower lake submerged humps, we noted several pelicans setting on the surface, a good sign. These birds have an uncanny way of knowing where the baitfish are and blue catfish are sure to be nearby. Thomas eased the boat a couple hundred yards upwind of the structure we would target, dropped the drift sock overboard and we proceeded to rig 8 rods, some with large whole shad and a few with cut bait. Once baited, the rods were placed in rod holders and our first drift of the morning was underway.
“I like to place the baits at varying distances from the boat,” says Thomas. “It’s the back rods that…..”
His instructions abruptly ended as one of the back rods bowed heavily toward the water’s surface. He was about to tell us that it was the back rods that receive most of the hits! Phil Zimmerman, who was fishing with us, pried the rod from its holder. I could tell it wasn’t easy with all the pressure that was being applied to the rod.
After an extreme eight-minute isometric workout supplied by a big, strong fish, Zimmerman fought the catfish to the side of the boat. On Thomas' scales it weighed right at 20 pounds. This was the first trip in 2 weeks that had not produced at least one 30 pounder and I knew Thomas wanted to fish more than the pre determined 3 hours. But I had get back for my writing deadline and we headed back to dock. As the old saying goes, we left them biting! There’s little doubt that a couple more hours fishing would have resulted in a trophy fish that was up to Thomas’ standards. But, as I told him, just how many people go out for a short, mid day fishing trip and boat a twenty pounder. Besides, we had a box full of ‘eaters’ and we already had plans to release them into another lake, Lake Crisco!
Lake Tawakoni guide Larry Thomas can be reached at 940-229-0288 or online at www.tawakoniguide.com.
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