Fishing GuideSam Rayburn Lake/Toledo Bend ReservoirBobby LeBert has been a Sam Rayburn fishing guide for over 20 years. His knowledge and experience guarantee that you will have a rewarding and enjoyable fishing trip. |
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Fishing TournamentsA Proven Tournament Winner!Bobby LeBert is a proven tournament fisherman. His many awards for Sam Rayburn Lake tournaments attest to his ability as a skilled fishing guide. |
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From Bass Fishing World, January, 2006“Mega-Crappie” Rayburn’s Winter SecretBy Ed Snyder/OutdoorsA chilly morning frost with icy surface fog and crispy blue skies does not seem to be the best moment in time to be crappie fishing! But, according to one of Sam Rayburn’s top crappie guides, it’s not only the best time for hooking some of those “mega-crappie” that most people only dream about, but also a time to enjoy one of Rayburn’s wintry secrets.“From now through April, advised fishing guide Bobby LeBert, the crappie fishing here on Lake Sam Rayburn will be exceptional “IF” you know where to look and how to fish them.” Looking for a minnow bucket and not seeing one, I ask, what are we going to use for catching them? “Jigs, my man, he knowingly grins!” I’m fishing today with Bobby LeBert (pronounced Lee-burt in TX and La-Bare in LA), who is the male half of the B&N Guide Service that he, and his wife, Nobie Jo, operate on Lake Sam Rayburn. It’s a rather crisp “blue-bird” January morning with frost covered shorelines and icy surface fog misting over Rayburn waters. Opting to wait for the warmth of a rising sun before heading out, Bobby spends a few minutes explaining what we will be doing today. “I have about 38, or so, tree-tops and brush piles situated around the south-lake area for fishing crappie, Bobby informed, which are set at different depths, on different structure, for different reasons. These brush-piles are for attracting fish such as bass and crappie, but also draw in catfish, bream, and at times, hybrid striper. But the featured entree’ for us today are the crappie. We’ll be brush hopping some of my deepwater brush-tops to try and catch some of those mega-crappie that most people only dream about catching.” Finally, with a rising sun warming the air and burning off the fog, we throttle out to experience some of what Bobby LeBert enjoys doing. And before I can even fully zip up my jacket against a burgeoning chill, he is already idling down his Skeeter bass-rig over a main-lake point. Probing the bottom with his Lowrance electronics, Bobby soon locates one of his brush-piles and tosses out a buoy marker. Coming about and idling 20 yards to the other side of the brush-pile, he tosses out a second buoy, then shuts his engine down. Dropping his trolling motor and grabbing an ultra-lite Shimano rod and reel in one smooth movement, Bobby drops his 32nd oz jig down to the brushy bottom 25 foot below us, and immediately hooks our first crappie of the morning, a chunky 14 inch black crappie. Seconds after following his instructions I follow suit with 14 inch crappie of my own. After probing the bottom for another 10 minutes with our Stanley plastic Wedge-tails, catching a few more “keeper-crappie“, Bobby decides to move on to another spot. There are actually three species of crappie in Rayburn to catch, the white crappie, black crappie, and the Mohawk. Whites are mostly silvery in color with barred markings; blacks are also silvery but have speckled markings. The Mohawk, so named due to its unusual “marks a lot” black stripe running down the top of its head to its dorsal fin, giving it that Mohawk Indian look, is actually a sub-species of the black crappie. After “brush-hopping” to three more of his brush-tops, we finally connect to what Bobby has promised. A brush-top situated on a long point in 32 feet of water, with drop-offs on each side sloping down to deeper water, showed fish holding on the bottom in 32 feet of water. “These fish look like much bigger crappie, Bobby advised, and they’re flat on the bottom, so just slowly drift your jig through the brush snags along the bottom, he advised, and we should be able to catch them. And the bites do occur, but not really like a bite, per-say, but more like just a soft pull with your rod loading up, feeling much like snagging on brush. But these weren’t snags at all as our mornings search quickly upgrades from catching 12 to14 inch crappie to that of 18 to 19 inch mega-crappie. Slow and soft hook-sets are advised here as ‘heavier’ crappie requires ‘finesse’ handling or they’ll just tear off the tiny 32nd oz jig hooks. Landing nets are recommended for boating these huge fish or your excitement can quickly turn to frustration by losing such a huge fish. I’ll be crappie fishing until the bass start up in March, Bobby explained, until late April when the crappie begin migrating to and from their deep water haunts for their spawning phase. During their spring run you’ll get numbers of crappie, but during this time of year your chances are best for catching that trophy “platter-sized” crappie. “I’ve caught them up to 3 lbs or better, He informed, but mostly will release the bigger ones back for conservational reasons. Even though we have a limited creel of 25 crappie per day, with a 10 inch minimum size limit, the crappie are susceptible to over fishing and need to be protected whenever possible. So I only take what I need and return those that I feel need to be returned.” “If you want numbers of crappie this time of year, Bobby advised, then you need to go north to the Hwy 103 bridge area on the Angelina River, or along the Hwy-83 bridge area of Ayish Bayou. The Crappie are stacking up in these areas now feeding on shad and waiting for the spawning run to begin this spring. But if you would like a chance at catching some trophy crappie your best bet will be in the south-lake area brush tops, where some really BIG crappie are holding in deeper waters. It was a real adrenalin rush being able to see the flash of a big fish being reeled up from the Rayburn’s depths, and that rush intensifies two-fold when a platter-sized crappie with a saucer sized mouth suddenly ‘pops’ to the surface. We managed to catch four of these wintry treasures in just a few minutes. Releasing all of them back after photos to help in conserving their genetics, Bobby keeps a few of our “normal-sized” crappie to fry up with some country taters and home-style slaw that night……….. And I was invited! For more information on Big Sam Crappie and where and how to catch them, contact Bobby LeBert at 409-781-9933 - or - 409-781-0229. |
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Bobby LeBert FishingCopyright © 2006 [Bobby LeBert].All rights reserved.Revised: 06/22/06.Site Map |
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