Conroe is really looking good compared to last weekend. Water is 65 - 67 and it reall has kicked the shad into gear. Fished last two days and the bite has really fired up for cats and hybrids. Yesterday caught 53 cats and 6 keeper hybrids. Today ended with 60 cats and 2 keeper hybrids. Lots of 16- 18in fish caught but Let them be another year. Will get some pictures up soon.

We caught a lot of catfish at Somerville last year based off of your timely reports of the shad spawn. Heading out tomorrow to check on it.

What's your preferred method?
We are heading to Livingston for Easter and doing a kid fish. Catching a ton of catfish would be a great way to keep kids interested.

Right now I am catching fresh Shad in Castnet and using them with slip cork set at around 3-4ft with #3 circle hook. I am fishing bulkheads in 3-5 fow. Buddy is catching a lot of cats on Livingston right now same way I am.

When I was younger I'd hit Calaveras in the evenings after work during late March/April. Wet wade out about waste deep and chunk 1/2 oz. Rattletraps for hybrid stripers. During the shad spawn.

The end result would be lots of hybrids plus non-stop shad bumping up against legs, swimsuit, etc. and shad in the pockets of the swimsuit along with shad eggs all over one's legs.

DUman08 said:

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URight now I am catching fresh Shad in Castnet and using them with slip cork set at around 3-4ft with #3 circle hook. I am fishing bulkheads in 3-5 fow. Buddy is catching a lot of cats on Livingston right now same way I am.

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Thanks man, I'll give it a shot with th the kids.

Few pictures from last weekend.

I think it is going to be a little longer until Somerville starts. The whites are moving back into their regular spots, though.

Fished Somerville a week ago. Whites were still kind of slow but hybrids were hitting decent. Ended up with 18 total between 2 adults and 2 kids. If you are up for a real challenge, try catching a bigger hybrid on a 3 ft spider man rod/real combo with 4 lb test. When it hits the drag sounds like you have a swordfish on the other end.

JP76 said:

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Fished Somerville a week ago. Whites were still kind of slow but hybrids were hitting decent. Ended up with 18 total between 2 adults and 2 kids. If you are up for a real challenge, try catching a bigger hybrid on a 3 ft spider man rod/real combo with 4 lb test. When it hits the drag sounds like you have a swordfish on the other end.

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Caught about a 8-10lb carp on my 4 year old's over Thanksgiving. It was enough of a fight that I hollered for my mom, who was a hundred yards away. She walked down with my brother. He grabbed the net, and we still had a couple of minutes before we got it to the dock. Heck of a fun fight with me pulling the fish, and my son sitting in my lap reeling when I told him to reel, and stopping when I told him to stop!

We filled the cooler with cats today at Somerville and never moved the boat after catching the first one.

We tore them up today also but they closed Lake Conroe right as I was getting off.

Somerville is up about 3 feet since the rain. We put in at daylight, fought the wind most of the morning until it settled, then found the right spot. When we got back to the ramp we could see that the level had risen since we launched.

I am sure those of you around Houston saw that they closed lake Conroe Friday around 10-11ish to motorized boat traffic it did open back up around 1pm Saturday. I was on the water Friday fishing when they asked us to leave the lake but my guys didn't mind since they had cooler full of fish for their Easter fish fry.
I did drive down to look at the water early Saturday morning and despite water in peoples yards and above their piers the shad were still spawning. They were in the about 1-2 ft below the water. One throw from my cast net proved they were still going strong.
Have some trips coming up this week and weekend will post some updates then.