Story by Nate Skinner, Lone Star Outdoor News
Copyright 2020 Lone Star Outdoor News . All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
Freshwater anglers who like to pursue a plethora of species should make plans to get out on the water on Possum Kingdom Lake or Lake Bridgeport. Both bodies of water are providing plenty of action from crappie, catfish, white bass and hybrid stripers. Artificial and natural baits are both producing strikes.
Guide Kolby Kuhn said crappie have been his main target on Lake Bridgeport in Wise and Jack counties.
“The crappie bite on Bridgeport has been pretty steady,” he said. “They are stacked up over brush piles and rock piles in 18 to 43 feet of water. The fish have been moving around a lot and covering a lot of ground throughout the water column.”
Live minnows have been drawing the most strikes from crappie.
“The action on jigs has just not been consistent lately,” Kuhn explained.
Kuhn’s customers have been catching 30-75 crappie each day, with a few fish pushing to 15 inches in length.
Kuhn also has been spending some time on Possum Kingdom Lake where he’s been catching catfish, crappie and white bass.
“For catfish, I’ve been targeting main lake points,” he said. “Most have been concentrating in 18 to 30 feet of water and the best bite has been on punch bait. There has been a good mix of both blue and channel cats. Some fish have been weighing up to 5 pounds, but the majority of them are just good solid keepers.”
The crappie on PK have been staging along timber, and the sand bass have been school- ing out in open water.
“Every day is different, and targeting a variety of species has helped us stay on the fish, day in and day out,” Kuhn said.
Lake Bridgeport guide Keith Bunch has been chasing sand bass and hybrid stripers.
“The hybrids have been mixed in with the sandies, and they seem to just be rolling through in packs,” he said. “We don’t have as many hybrids in Bridgeport as we did in the past; however, the ones that we do have are big.”
Most of the hybrid stripers that he’s catching are in the 8- and 9-pound class.
“The tricky thing is that the hybrids have only been hanging out under the boat for three or four minutes at a time,” he elaborated. “They’re really moving around a lot.”
Bunch said sand bass up to 15 inches have been on the move as well, and they are only sticking around a few minutes longer than the hybrids once they’ve been located.
“I fished 14 different areas the other day,” Bunch said. “Right now you just have to cover water to catch hybrids and sandies on Bridgeport.”
Bunch’s customers have been catching most of the fish on slabs.
“Some fish are on the flats, some are suspended, and some are staging over humps,” he said. “The pattern varies each day.”
Possum Kingdom guide Brent Butler said there has been some consistent action from striped bass on live bait, but that most of the fish are pretty small.
“We are catching some sand bass mixed in while targeting stripers, and on certain days, the sandies are pretty aggressive,” Butler said. “Most of my customers just want to come catch stripers. They like battling these strong fish.”
Butler said the white bass on PK have been schooling sporadically.
“They’ll school up on top in open water for two or three days, and then disappear for a couple of days,” he explained.
