Fishing For Big Reds on Lake Fairfield
My friends and I usually try to make a couple of the local hunting and fishing shows throughout the year. Dale, being the elder statesmen of the group had chatted with Troy Spruce of Guaranteed Guide Service at one of the fishing shows in Dallas. I would imagine it was quite a long conversation, as Dale always seems to have lots of questions to ask and lots of information to feed back to folks about hunting and fishing.
The primary topic between Dale and Troy was a guided fishing trip. There were two options they were looking at, either fish for hybrids on Richland Chambers Lake or chase after Inland Red Drum (Red Fish) on Fairfield Lake. After having quizzed Troy for about a half hour, Dale had all the information he needed. One of the things he liked about Guaranteed Guide Service was that they had a “no fish, no charge” guarantee. So he related all this to me in a phone conversation one day, and I thought it sounded like a great idea. He contacted our other buddy Pat, who agreed, and so Dale booked the fishing trip for us.
I had been on a few guided fishing trips, namely for stripers. But this trip would be a little different as we had selected to go after Red Fish on Fairfield Lake in Fairfield, Texas. Fairfield is a small lake, at 1460 acres. It is located in East Texas in Freestone County. It is also a power plant lake, with TXU Big Brown keeping the water warm throughout the year. There is a variety of fish living in the lake. Not only does the lake hold the Black Bass and Red Fish, it is also known to hold lots of Catfish and Blue Tilapia.
The Texas Parks and Wildlife had tried to introduce Nile Perch, but to no avail. Commercial fisherman stocked the lake with Blue Tilapia, and they have entrenched themselves in the lake. Also, the State Record for freshwater Red Fish (36.83 lbs) was caught in Lake Fairfield. Tilapias are plentiful and it is legal to use a cast net to catch them. We would primarily be fishing for Red Fish, but would finish up going after some Tilapia with the cast net.
As we prepared for the trip, we decided to take some snacks such as venison summer sausage, beef jerky and drinks. We took along two small coolers as well. We headed out early on a Saturday morning, as we had to meet our guide at the State Park by 7 a.m. We all live approximately 2 hours from the lake, so it was a very early morning for us. We had been keeping a track on the weather as well, since it was predicted that a cold front would be blowing through during the morning.
I ended up not opting for rain gear as the Weather Channel was only predicting a 20% chance of scattered showers. Sometimes I just never seem to learn. Learn what you might ask? Well, that 20% turned out to be 100%. Fortunately the coat I had on was somewhat water resistant. It showered on us off and on for about three hours. It ended up being a clear windy day that afternoon, but we first had to make it through the rainy part. Winds were quite high later in the afternoon, but we managed to keep on churning. In fact, we were one of four groups that had met with Guaranteed Guide Service that morning. We learned that one group turned back as they were not prepared for the weather.
Troy met us at the State Park entrance as planned. We would be fishing out of a 24’ custom built stripper fishing boat. Usually you have the opportunity to do both trolling and fishing with bait such as perch. But based on his fishing experience from past trips in the week, Troy decided we would focus on trolling as the Red Fish were not hitting the fresh bait and also well as not wanting to fight the high wind. We would be fishing with Berkley Lightening rods, Ambassador reels with bait clickers, deep-diving crank baits and Berkley 20lb Big Game line. The boat had lots of room and the seating was primarily three nice folding chairs.
There was really no grass in the lake this early in year, and not much to snag on the bottom. The lake was very low, almost to the point of not being able to launch boats at the ramps. But we managed to get the boat in the water and off we chugged to the first spot to start our trolling. We hadn’t been trolling long when the front moved through. Spotty rain showers and wind followed us for the next three hours. We spotted deer near an outdoor volleyball court, but no bald eagles which are known to frequent the area during this time of year.
We were able to hook a nice Channel Catfish as well as a couple of Red Fish in the first three hours, but overall it was pretty slow. I was happy when the sun finally came out and we started to dry out. The wind picked up more, and we fought it the rest of the day. Troy mentioned that it was some of the worst wind he had encountered while on the lake. Just my luck! Fortunately, the lake is small and is somewhat lower than the surrounding landscape, so the waves never got much over two to three feet high, which the boat we were in could quite easily handle.
We only ended up loosing two lures, which isn’t bad considering we drug the bottom a lot with the deep divers. We finally hit a few more Red Fish, and some nice ones at that. We didn’t weigh any of them, and the largest one would have probably went around 10 – 12 pounds. We trolled around until about 2 p.m., as Troy was kind enough to keep us on the water since the bite didn’t really start until around 11 a.m. Guaranteed Guide Service only books half day trips just for this reason. We never felt rushed, and we truly enjoyed the company of old TPost.
To end the day, we motored over to the hot water outlet of the power plant in about 6 feet of water. Troy commenced to launching his cast net over the water and letting it sink down. On the first netting, we ended up with about a 2-3 pound Tilapia. Over the next thirty minutes, we eventually ended up with about twenty five total Tilapia. They were all about the same size as first one, and made some really nice fillets. When we finally made it back to the dock, Troy and the other guides that were there made short work of filleting all the fish. We ended up with several bags of nice fillets. That night I grilled the two large Catfish fillets on the grill, which my daughter loved.
If you are in Texas and looking for a good fishing adventure, I would definitely recommend contacting Guaranteed Guide Service. They are professional, courteous and most of all, knowledgeable on the fish and lakes that they frequent. It was a tough day of fishing, yet we ended up with some nice Red Fish and lots of Tilapia. Guaranteed Guide Service can be found online at www.nofishnocharge. Come on down and enjoy a little slice of Texas!
The primary topic between Dale and Troy was a guided fishing trip. There were two options they were looking at, either fish for hybrids on Richland Chambers Lake or chase after Inland Red Drum (Red Fish) on Fairfield Lake. After having quizzed Troy for about a half hour, Dale had all the information he needed. One of the things he liked about Guaranteed Guide Service was that they had a “no fish, no charge” guarantee. So he related all this to me in a phone conversation one day, and I thought it sounded like a great idea. He contacted our other buddy Pat, who agreed, and so Dale booked the fishing trip for us.
I had been on a few guided fishing trips, namely for stripers. But this trip would be a little different as we had selected to go after Red Fish on Fairfield Lake in Fairfield, Texas. Fairfield is a small lake, at 1460 acres. It is located in East Texas in Freestone County. It is also a power plant lake, with TXU Big Brown keeping the water warm throughout the year. There is a variety of fish living in the lake. Not only does the lake hold the Black Bass and Red Fish, it is also known to hold lots of Catfish and Blue Tilapia.
The Texas Parks and Wildlife had tried to introduce Nile Perch, but to no avail. Commercial fisherman stocked the lake with Blue Tilapia, and they have entrenched themselves in the lake. Also, the State Record for freshwater Red Fish (36.83 lbs) was caught in Lake Fairfield. Tilapias are plentiful and it is legal to use a cast net to catch them. We would primarily be fishing for Red Fish, but would finish up going after some Tilapia with the cast net.
As we prepared for the trip, we decided to take some snacks such as venison summer sausage, beef jerky and drinks. We took along two small coolers as well. We headed out early on a Saturday morning, as we had to meet our guide at the State Park by 7 a.m. We all live approximately 2 hours from the lake, so it was a very early morning for us. We had been keeping a track on the weather as well, since it was predicted that a cold front would be blowing through during the morning.
I ended up not opting for rain gear as the Weather Channel was only predicting a 20% chance of scattered showers. Sometimes I just never seem to learn. Learn what you might ask? Well, that 20% turned out to be 100%. Fortunately the coat I had on was somewhat water resistant. It showered on us off and on for about three hours. It ended up being a clear windy day that afternoon, but we first had to make it through the rainy part. Winds were quite high later in the afternoon, but we managed to keep on churning. In fact, we were one of four groups that had met with Guaranteed Guide Service that morning. We learned that one group turned back as they were not prepared for the weather.
Troy met us at the State Park entrance as planned. We would be fishing out of a 24’ custom built stripper fishing boat. Usually you have the opportunity to do both trolling and fishing with bait such as perch. But based on his fishing experience from past trips in the week, Troy decided we would focus on trolling as the Red Fish were not hitting the fresh bait and also well as not wanting to fight the high wind. We would be fishing with Berkley Lightening rods, Ambassador reels with bait clickers, deep-diving crank baits and Berkley 20lb Big Game line. The boat had lots of room and the seating was primarily three nice folding chairs.
There was really no grass in the lake this early in year, and not much to snag on the bottom. The lake was very low, almost to the point of not being able to launch boats at the ramps. But we managed to get the boat in the water and off we chugged to the first spot to start our trolling. We hadn’t been trolling long when the front moved through. Spotty rain showers and wind followed us for the next three hours. We spotted deer near an outdoor volleyball court, but no bald eagles which are known to frequent the area during this time of year.
We were able to hook a nice Channel Catfish as well as a couple of Red Fish in the first three hours, but overall it was pretty slow. I was happy when the sun finally came out and we started to dry out. The wind picked up more, and we fought it the rest of the day. Troy mentioned that it was some of the worst wind he had encountered while on the lake. Just my luck! Fortunately, the lake is small and is somewhat lower than the surrounding landscape, so the waves never got much over two to three feet high, which the boat we were in could quite easily handle.
We only ended up loosing two lures, which isn’t bad considering we drug the bottom a lot with the deep divers. We finally hit a few more Red Fish, and some nice ones at that. We didn’t weigh any of them, and the largest one would have probably went around 10 – 12 pounds. We trolled around until about 2 p.m., as Troy was kind enough to keep us on the water since the bite didn’t really start until around 11 a.m. Guaranteed Guide Service only books half day trips just for this reason. We never felt rushed, and we truly enjoyed the company of old TPost.
To end the day, we motored over to the hot water outlet of the power plant in about 6 feet of water. Troy commenced to launching his cast net over the water and letting it sink down. On the first netting, we ended up with about a 2-3 pound Tilapia. Over the next thirty minutes, we eventually ended up with about twenty five total Tilapia. They were all about the same size as first one, and made some really nice fillets. When we finally made it back to the dock, Troy and the other guides that were there made short work of filleting all the fish. We ended up with several bags of nice fillets. That night I grilled the two large Catfish fillets on the grill, which my daughter loved.
If you are in Texas and looking for a good fishing adventure, I would definitely recommend contacting Guaranteed Guide Service. They are professional, courteous and most of all, knowledgeable on the fish and lakes that they frequent. It was a tough day of fishing, yet we ended up with some nice Red Fish and lots of Tilapia. Guaranteed Guide Service can be found online at www.nofishnocharge. Come on down and enjoy a little slice of Texas!
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Comments
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great blog as always, looks like a good time.Posted 03-07-2009 at 06:31 AM by Gomer76825
