Bass on fly

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One angler that has tapped into this beautiful lake is guide Steve Stubbe. He’s been fishing T-Bend for around 20 years and has been an Orvis-endorsed fly-fishing guide for the past seven.

Stubbe takes his clients to a stretch of the lake that’s more than 60 miles long. He runs a Gator Tail boat that’s just over 17 feet long.

“With that boat I can go to places most fishermen wouldn’t even think about fishing,” Stubbe said. “I like to fish in the creeks. Sometimes I will be way up a creek, but there are days when I’ll fish the mouth of a creek, as well. The creeks draw a lot of baitfish and game fish.”

Throughout the year, Stubbe and his clients will be catching largemouth bass, crappie, bluegill, catfish, chain pickerel, gar, bowfin, carp, striped and white bass — all on flies.

“We have a good variety of fish,” the guide said. “Most of the time we use 8- to 10-weight fly rods. I make my own flies, and rods. I use mostly 10- to 12-inch flies for bass. My go-to fly on most days is a

Stripers schooling on Texoma: Steve Barnes at txfishingguide.com said stripers are schooling from the surface down to about 30 feet deep. His clients are catching fish on slabs, swim baits and trolling umbrella rigs. He suggests using glow and chartreuse glitter colors. “The key is finding active fish that are schooled up. The schools move fast but don’t be that guy that wakes all the other boats trying to get to the fish.”

Find the right combination on Twin Buttes: Michael Peterson of 4 Reel Fun Guide Service reports landing good limits of channel catfish in the north pool, as the south pool is inaccessible due to low water levels. He said tight-lining prepared baits in 15-18 feet of water is the method producing best for his clients. “There’s definitely a thermocline, so where you can find rocks with heavy brush around it in that depth range you will do better.”

Falcon fishing tough: James Bendele of falconlake.com reports the bass fishing is slow. He said the fish that can be caught are hitting slow-moving plastics fished about 10-20 feet deep. He believes the amount of baitfish in the water is really affecting the bite. “It’s tough, other than white bass. I’ve fished here more than 50 years and never seen the amount of 2-inch tilapia in the water all over the lake.”

The two heaviest wahoo weighed 36 and 32 pounds. The top three dorado weighed 34, 29 and 25 pounds.

One miscalculation in this tourney cost a boat about $50,000. They had the heaviest wahoo — about a 40-pounder — but ran out of fuel roughly six miles from the POC jetties and didn’t make it in to weigh the catch in regulation time.

Leaderboard:

Tournament Champion

Quantified 3700 points

Billfish Release

Quantified 3700 points

Blue Marlin Desperado 703 pounds

Draggin’ Up 576.5 pounds

El Patron 447.5 pounds

Dolphin

True Story 34 pounds

Wahoo Say When 36 pounds

Tuna

Big Torch 67 pounds

Female Angler

Deez Nautz 1250 points

Junior Angler Walk West 750 points

Stealth Goober. It’s kind of like a Dahlberg Diver. Some of the best colors are cockroach, black, green and a combination of yellow and orange. Those are big flies, but when I’m in a creek that has a lot of brush, it’s important to keep the fly up shallow.”

Stubbe said the bigger bass are often about 5-10 feet deep and the bottom is loaded with all sorts of brush.

“That’s why it’s best to fish a fly 1-2 feet deep,” he said.

Stubbe caught his heaviest bass at TBend — 6.5 pounds — on a Stealth Goober. While he will occasionally use poppers, he still prefers to fish flies that quietly snake through the water.

“People who come to fish with me can bring their own gear,” Stubbe said. “But we offer them a chance to use our rods made in our shop. We also give newcomers to the world of fly-fishing a chance to learn how to fish with good equipment. When they leave here, they will know how to fish with a fly rod. We make it a point to do it the right way, and pass that on to our customers.”