What's Biting
I'll periodically post fishing reports that could be of interest to you in planning your trip to Lake Palestine.
Check this page often for updates.
Fishing article, 12 Jan
Updated: Fri Jan 16, 2015
Fishing Article, 12 Jan. We are approaching the white bass spawning season. The whites (sand bass) have begun to school up at the mouths of creeks feeding into lakes and will soon go up those creeks to spawn. The usual trigger is the full moon of February, but water flow and water temperature are also determinants. This year the February full moon will be early, coming about the 4th, so unless there is a significant warming trend then, water flow and temperature will probably make the fish move more toward the middle of the month.
In fact, just like last year, that short warming time in December caused by sunny days and little rain caused some fish to move upstream. I received reports from the Neches River leading into Lake Palestine and the Sabine River at Logansport of whites being caught for awhile before the New Years' series of cold weather began, then the catch reports dropped off.
Fishing for the whites is bank fishing, and here is the tackle I suggest to do it with. For rod and reel, a 6 or 6 1/2 medium action rod and light spinning reel, preferably open face. The closed face, or push-button, reels are easy to use, but often don't work well with light lures during cold weather. For line, the 20 lb test/6 lb diameter will work well on the cold days, without having the "memory", or coil, often caused by cold air and water.
For terminal tackle arrangement, tie a plain barrel swivel at the end of the main line, then attach a 12 to 15 inch mono leader of slightly less strength, something about 5 to 10 lb test less than the main line. This will let you break off just the leader or part of it when you get snagged so that you don't keep shortening your main line.
For lures, 1/8 oz leadheads with 2 to 2 1/2 inch plastic curl tails will work just fine. The leadheads can be round head unpainted, painted, or the Road Runner-type. Have a variety of colors of tails, but include white, chartreuse, and pink as a minimum.
To fish around Lake Palestine, the easiest Neches access point is the Hwy 31 park just east of Chandler, which offers about 1 mile of bank to fish, but gets very crowded at times. Kickapoo Creek on the west of Chandler is also very good, but has much smaller access areas and the Hwy 31 right-of-way parking must be done right to avoid ticketing. There are also a few less popular creeks that can be walked onto from road rights-of-way to fish, such as the FM 314 Flat Creek crossing, the FM 724 bridge, the FM 344 and 346 bridges on the east side, and below the dam.
Because the Sabine River access areas are not as compressed as our local creeks, they offer places to bank fish without the crowding. The white bass from Toledo Bend will go all the way up to the Gladewater crossing for the spawn, and there are several bridges and public access points between Logansport and Gladewater. Just make sure that if you walk up or down stream from these points you stay in the stream bed and don't climb up to or cross private property.
Jim
Newer Fishing Reports
If you're interested, you can see what the conditions on Lake Palestine were like on:
