Tucked away in Lamard County, just 12 miles north of Paris, Texas, is the picturesque lake Pat Mays. Nearly 6,000 acres of reservoir confiscated in 1967, is a wharf for bass guitars, but also creates great limits crappie and sand bass. The lake boasts a record size of 14.10 pounds per month, caught by Mel Whitaker in March 1994. The small exemption is ideal for a weekend weekend and includes extensive, well-maintained campgrounds and boat ramps.
The lake is surrounded by numerous bays and streams, in which there is flooded wood and water grasses. The miles of surrounding cat tails offer copious cover for spawning bass and crappie. At less than 6,000 acres, the lake is large enough to cope with fishing pressure from a number of boats, but not large enough to not break the bank from rising gas prices.
Texoma Bass Club chose Pat Mays as the site of their April two-day tournament last weekend. Many of the participants arrived in the middle of the week and set up their tents and tents in the friendly limits of Thunder Cove Park.
After windy conditions and thunderstorms last Thursday and Friday, most took the time to find areas carrying bass for the tournament on Saturday and Sunday. When the wind was too dangerous for boating, many of the anglers passed the time, scoring the light limits of crappie and sandy bass from the coast in sheltered bays. Chartreuse crappie jig, located about a foot below the sliding plug, was the perfect solution for these traps.
Saturday morning bought below the average temperature and strong north wind. Although the cold front lowered the temperature of the water in the lower sixties, most of the bass remained shallow and moved up when the sun heated the water. The lake was in the middle of the spawning phase, and more bass were moving toward the shore when the April full moon was approaching.
On the first day, Mike Basket from Sadler and Paul Goslin from Gordonville were in the lead with a bass limit of 20.96 pounds. Lake Texoma executives JB Webb and David Kenny were close second with 20.90 pounds of largemouth. The big bass per day was 6.29 pounds of fish, which I caught on a green Eakin pumpkin.
Day two bought in the southerly wind and much warmer air temperatures. Dave Youngblod and I, fortunately, are enough to catch a bass of 23.01 pounds for a two-day victory in the amount of 39.56 pounds. JB Webb and David Kenny finished second with a total of 35 pounds. The big bass of the tournament was also made on Sunday, 7.04 pounds of bass, which I caught on white and chartrays chatter. Most of the fish last weekend was on the stumps in 1 - 3 feet of water. Most bass players were ghosts of Zara, jiggy and talkers.
