Fin and Feather Weekend Trip

Hello all! New to the forum, and VERY new to crappie fishing. Actually, ANY type of freshwater fishing, truth be told. I grew up in the Rockport area, and am pretty comfortable with chasing Reds and Trout, but this seems like a whole different game, with lots to learn. Looking forward to picking y'alls brains!

Recently picked up a 20' bow rider that's been sitting for a while from my brother law, and my wife and I have had a great time putting her back together again. We primarily picked up the boat for some pleasure cruising, skiing, tubing, etc.., but figured that I might be able to use her for some fishing as well.

We live just north of Houston, and we've been using Lake Conroe as a place to test and tune the boat, but it seems to get a bit crowded. And choppy as well. I read on this forum that the Fin and Feather was a nice place to put in and stay for a night, so we're planning on being there saturday and spending the night. We're mainly just scoping the area out for a nice place to take the kids when they come visit for the summer, but we're excited to try out some fishing as well.

A few questions for y'all:

• Any recommendations for areas to fish? Or areas to stay away from?
• I understand that Toledo Bend was voted the #1 bass lake for the last two years. I know even less about bass fishing than I do about crappie fishing! Any tips? lol
• I understand that this is a fishing site, but does anyone have any recommendations for pleasure boating areas on the reservoir? I don't want to bug fisherman, and I'd like to stay away from areas that have some hidden dangers. Stumps, submerged dangers, etc...

Thanks again for having such a great site. Research continues..... :)

Welcome to the site and board! I lived for almost 11 years in Ingleside and grew up in Orange TX so I also know the Red's and Speck's fishing. I pretty much always came up here to Toledo Bend after it opened and left the salt water to others. Actually back then the salt water fishing around Orange kind of stunk anyway, but that changed after the nets were finally taken out in the 80's.

So I was loaded up with Bass gear and when I moved to Ingleside back in about 1980 there was not much in the way of good fresh water fishing down there so I geared up for the saltwater again and loved it so much. Loved fishing the bay system from Corpus Bay all the way to Mesquite Bay and Cedar Bayou. Such a huge area to explore and fish and fish I did! However now your here and yes all is different and you may as well store all your things for saltwater fishing until you go back to do that!

Look forward to seeing how you do and I live only 5 miles down the road from Fin & Feather. Actually before I lived here that is where I put my boat in for many many years. I needed something to take up my time after I quit trading the stock market something like 12 years ago so I took up tying jigs and flies and now even sell materials to other guys that tie! Maybe sometime when your here we can meet up. and if I can help with any questions you can just PM me on here and I will answer as well as I can. I live on Six Mile on Toledo Bend which is the middle of the huge 3 fingers down on the South end. I have always thought Housen is some of the best water on the lake and that is where F&F is. Find some Hydrilla and fish that and you should find crappie in 4' to 10' of water and where ever you catch your fist one make sure to note what depth your boat is in and stay in that depth of water all day. I am not sure how you plan on fishing and that would help as there are a lot of methods.

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@ Skiptomylu,
Thanks for the welcome, and the great information! We have definitely fished some of the same waters! My son just graduated as a PT, and moved back. He fishes probably 3 times a week. Rain or shine. Can't say I'm not just a little jealous. ;) The wife and I should be headed up there Saturday morning, depending on work schedule. :/ Depending on how things work out, I'll reach out, and maybe we can get together some time.

PM sent. I'll go ahead and apologize for the length of the message. lol

Oh, and here's a little video my wife put together on the boat resurrection. She'd been sitting for about 5.5 years. Only has 57 hours on the motor!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cf59VtgPqWo

Well I didn't see this until after I sent a reply to the PM, but wow what a job you did on that boat! Congrats! However all I said still holds and maybe we can get together this weekend. Saturday looks like rain, but you never know if it really will or not around here. I will see what I have to do and get back about this coming weekend! Think in time you will fall in love with this lake and the fishing fresh water. So many good things about it, like first no salt water eating everything one owns, but also the fishing can be very good! Here in the summer it's best to find brush pile or put some in yourself and tie up or anchor over the pile for crappie and catfish plus some others at times. We will need to talk about the other fish at some point.
As soon as possible you need a TM though and make sure you know what you want in the end before doing that also need a great Sonar with at least down scan. I recommend nothing other than Minn Kota though! Just my opinion though! Maybe I can show you my set up this weekend.

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