THE BASS COLLEGE

I was fortunate to have "discovered" Hubbard Creek Lake's great bass fishery in 1968. At that time, only a small number of avid bass anglers in Fort Worth had fished the lake. Those fishermen and a few others from Abilene and Wichita Falls provided the only so-called "fishing pressure" on its bass fishery.

I had just begun writing outdoors articles for the Fort Worth Star-Telegram and was invited by a friend to go with him to Hubbard Creek to fish a lake he assured me "no one knows about." We were up and on the road at 5 a.m. the next morning.

In that summer of 1968, Hubbard Creek's level had risen high enough to flood acres of dead mesquites and willows in flats and along the edges of creek channels. Like many West Texas anglers, my friend had become proficient at fishing shallow water simply because their main fishing areas were stock tanks, small city-owned lakes and shallow reservoirs. Also, they called their style of fishing "doodlesocking," a term that modern-day bass anglers now call flippin' and pitchin'.

I am convinced that no one who was not at Hubbard Creek Lake in those early years from about 1968 to 1974 can realize just how great the action was. Catching a bass was a matter of elimination. Every bush you pitched a plastic worm into that did not produce a bass just put you one bush closer to one that did.

Occasionally, a bush next to the one you pitched a plastic worm into would shake as a bass left it to go for your worm in the bush next to it. The bass averaged between 3 and 4 pounds due to the high number of that age-class bass during the lake's initial stockings, with some in the early 1970s weighing 5 to 6 pounds.

Like many lakes, Hubbard Creek "peaked out" seven to eight years after it was impounded. Newer lakes came on the horizon and average anglers as well as the major West Texas bass club tournaments from Odessa-Midland, Wichita Falls and Fort Worth soon went elsewhere. By the 1990s, drought conditions resulted in a lake level of almost 18 feet below its conservation pool elevation. Its two major boat ramps were left high and dry but city officials and concerned anglers worked to have a new ramp built near the dam to accommodate those wanting to use the lake.

Then came the heavy rainwaters of late spring and early summer in 2007 that brought Hubbard Creek's level back to the full mark. Naturally, it has dropped some since then, but remains like a virtual "new lake" with lots of flooded vegetation and other new-growth habitat supporting both forage fish and game fish alike. Now, the word has gotten out about Hubbard Creek's comeback and many veteran anglers who fished Hubbard Creek in its heyday are re-discovering this West Texas jewel, either on their own or through talk generated from an increased number of bass tournaments held there in recent years.

April is a great time to catch big bass anywhere in Texas, and especially on a lake like Hubbard Creek. If you launch at the U.S. 180 bridge west of Breckenridge, you are close to some of the lake's best spawning areas. The boat docks in the first two coves just south of the bridge are good starting points. There are stickups, logs and weeds between many of them that can provide bass with good spawning cover.

Brushy Creek, farther to the south and on the same side of the lake, as well as long, winding Sandy Creek on the opposite side of that large arm of the lake, are two of my favorite bass-fishing spots. Just remember to fish slowly and cover all stumps, laydowns and brushpiles as thoroughly as possible with a plastic worm or jig, and to fish soft-plastic jerkbaits or spinnerbaits along the more open areas.

Other April hotspots include Hubbard Creek itself in the Peeler Park area, Lost Creek, Game Warden's Slough on the west side near the dam, and the old Enco Slough not far from Tanglewood Point. Texas-rigged plastic worms are my favorites, but double-bladed spinnerbaits, especially those with a Colorado/Willow-leaf combination in chartreuse and white work well over shallow laydowns and standing brush.

Around the boat docks and for the "in-between" areas between the docks, I prefer soft-plastic jerkbaits or semi-surface lures like those made by Sebile or Rapala -- or anything similar to those lures.

Hubbard Creek is just one of the many lakes that I have on my April list for bass. And right there close to the top is Possum Kingdom, a lake that many bass anglers virtually wrote off their list soon after the 2001 golden algae fish kill that wiped out a large number of game fish and baitfish.

Truth is, that major golden algae kill and few other very minor golden algae fish kills in subsequent years did not kill all of the fish in Possum Kingdom. In fact, it got rid of a lot of unwanted fish including large gizzard shad, carp, buffalo and gar. Sure, many game fish including striped bass, largemouth bass and crappie were lost, but many game fish survived and thrived with an abundance of threadfin shad, ghost minnows, fathead minnows and other food sources that were relieved due to lessened pressure from striped bass and other dominant predators.

The combination of a growing forage fish population with heavy stockings of Florida-strain largemouth bass fingerlings by the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department since 2001 has resulted in a great comeback story for a great lake. Reports from anglers also show other species, including crappie, sand bass and striped bass, are being caught in large numbers once again.

Possum Kingdom isn't just one of my favorite lakes; it is my "hometown" lake because I live less than 100 yards from its shoreline. I fish it as often as possible and talk with locals to see how they are scoring on the various species -- and especially the largemouth bass.

Expect to find the bass spawning throughout the entire month of April, with the heaviest activity during the early days of the month on the upper reaches from about Willow Beach to Rock Creek. Stands of cattails, willows and logs along the shoreline, as well as the islands above Willow Beach, are excellent places to find spawning bass, as are the creeks and sloughs on both sides of Sky Camp and PK Lodge.

Venturing farther up the lake, try the boat docks at the mouth of Rock Creek, as well as the small pockets and sand and rock bars in the big creek itself.

The clear waters on the lower end of Possum Kingdom usually provide the best action during the latter part of April. Areas like Scenic Point, Governor's Slough, Neely's Slough and Bluff Creek all are good bets, especially when fished with Wacky Worms, soft-plastic jerkbaits and crankbaits.

TEXAS BASS FISHING TIPS VIDEOS

Hubbard Lake isfed by two major drainages, Hubbard Creek and Sandy Creek, andwhen the lake is at pool level these two long creeks provide alot of productive and wind-sheltered fishing water.