REEL Fishing Guide Service

02/23/2025

Winter is over!!! Spring weather is here and the fishing is about to fire off!

Let’s go catching!

512-368-1788 call or text to get on the schedule!

I still have a few prime time Saturdays and Sundays open and lots of week days open until June.

I target hybrid stripers and white bass all year long on Richland Chambers Reservoir only

Half day trips are at least 4hrs long unless I am asked to come in sooner. Once we have our limits we will continue to catch and release until time is up. I only run 1 trip a day 99% of the time so I am never rushed to get to my next trip, you get my full attention.

Starting March 1st
1-3 people $450 add $100 for each additional person up to 6 total. All you need is a valid Texas fishing license and I take care of the rest including cleaning and bagging of your fish.

Boat is a 2024 Blazer Bay 24’ forward center console with all the accessories

If you are coming from north of the lake we will meet at Oak Cv Marina, if you are coming from south of the lake we will meet at my dock.

02/18/2025

2/17/25 Richland Chambers

“Couple of firsts”

Yesterday I was alerted to a very very generous donation to our CAST For Kids event on May 17th where myself, most local guides and a few volunteer boaters donate a morning of fishing for special needs kids. I immediately called to thank the Shampklin’s for their support and offered them a free trip if they could make it today.

Aaron and Sydney got in the boat about 11am and we set out to catch some fish. I searched for a while and didn’t find anything great, so I settled on just ok. I showed my crew ‘how and when’ and we got after it. It was slow, but out of nowhere Aaron rips a hook set and has drag pulling and when it stopped, he did nothing! I am yelling REEL! He then tells me I have never fished or caught a fish before 😂. So we got him reeling and then the fun really started!
His first fish ever was a 21” hybrid striper on light spinning gear! There’s the first, ‘first’.

We moved around a bit and I decided we needed better action so I went after white bass. Sydney and Aaron both caught on to the method here, and we started tossing white bass in the cooler. (27’)
We moved around from 27-31’ most of the trip hunting white bass, and in that depth we landed on a nice school of hybrids - landed a few and lost a few but it was good action fast action!

3pm we hit the dock and I cleaned and bagged their fish and told them they had another free trip coming whenever they wanted. It will need to be soon as spring training starts around April 15, and Aaron needs to be in Pittsburgh for Steelers training camp.

First time I have had an NFL player on the boat - 2nd ‘first’

Just FYI - if things progress as normal we are about 2 weeks away from schooling hybrids! Casting at boils and catching almost every cast.
No guarantee which days it will happen - but they days it does - magical

I have a wide open schedule until mid March
Let’s go catching!
512-368-1788

02/10/2025

2/8/25 Richland Chambers

Short bachelor party trip

This afternoon we were supposed to start at 2pm, but the winds were cranking when I pulled up to the Heli-Hunter dock and I was told - let’s hold off and see if the winds come down.

About 4 I returned to pick them up. It appeared most of my crew was suffering from inner ear infections and their equilibrium seem to be off a bit.😎

We set out in search of rod, bending action. I searched and search for at least 45 minutes until we landed on some good fish - decent action with quality fish.
Fish caught in 22-28’
All fish caughy on Zman Streakz
Water temp 53-54

As the sun was going down I dropped them back at the dock and was told to come by for dinner and refreshments. A few hours later I showed up to the party.

I was treated to some of the best back strap I have ever eaten along with some over indulging in good tequila ….. then we decided it would be a good idea to light a fire in 20mph winds

It was a great day! I had Heli-Hunter make a donation to the CAST For Kids event instead of paying me. Seemed like the best option after the time they showed me😎

Lots of open dates in Feb and spring time fishing starts mid March
Let’s go catching
512-368-1788 call or text to book your trip

02/07/2025

2/7/25 Richland Chambers

Went out to scout for tomorrows trip since I haven’t fished all week.

If fished all over the lake in just a few hours - it was stop, catch a few and leave.
Caught some monster white bass and a few quality hybrid stripers.

Lots of changes have happened - glad I went out to get a game plan. I would have wasted a lot of time tomorrow.

Water temp 52/53 on the main lake basin.

Lots of hungry 12-14” hybrids in 20-25’ not much but shorts in that depth - most keeper fish caught 30-40’ on Zman Streakz

I have lots of available dates for Feb.
March - May (peak fishing of the year) are booking daily.

Spring is coming - let’s go catching
512-368-1788. Call or text

02/04/2025

2/3/25 - near Richland Chambers

So no one wants to fish with me so I am forced to do other things😎

Please book a trip so I am not forced to do all these awesome things!!!!!

Peregrine falcon was successful in its hunt. The Harris hawk tried valiantly, but twice missed a rabbit.

I am open all week! Let’s go catching
512-368-1788
We will be using rod and reel though 😎

02/02/2025

2/1/25 Richland Chambers
Afternoon trip

A few days ago I got a call from my buddy at Heli-Hunter, said he had some VIPs in town that wanted a ‘blast and cast’ and wanted me to take them. I told him I already had a morning trip and he knows I don’t like to do doubles, but asked if I would do it.

At 2:30 I picked up John, Tony, Spencer and Issac at the Heli-Hunter dock and off we went.
This crew was in from Virginia and had spent the morning blasting hogs from a chopper. I made lots of small talk……as every stop I made was horrible …… same places that produced a few hrs ago were a ghost town. About 2 hours into our trip we had made 8 stops and had 7 not giant white bass in the cooler and I was stressing! We caught a bunch of short hybrids but anything of size was eluding us.

I decided to make a long run and look at an area I hadn’t been to in months, and it’s not a winter time fishing area, but I was on the struggle bus and needed to try something different so off we went.

We pulled into this area and the graph lit up!! We sat in the same spot for the next hour and put 4 hybrid stripers and 75ish stud whites in the cooler. As the sun went down an Uber boat pulled up next to me and my crew switched boats. They were done fishing and off to the Harbor Restaurant for dinner.
That’s how VIPs roll I guess 😎

They signed the proper paperwork and the fish will be donated to the Ellis County Wild Game Dinner Benefit.

All fish caught on Zman Streakz
Surface water temp after a bright no wind day was 50 but actual temp is about 47.

Weather looks great next week
I have availability if you want to chase hybrid stripers or white bass

Let’s go catching
512-368-1788 call or text to book your trip

Peak hybrid striper fishing is a little over a month out - weekends are booking up fast for the March-May timeframe.

02/02/2025

2/1/25 Richland Chambers
Morning trip

This morning I had returning guests, father and son team Bobby and Billy. We left my dock a little after 8:30am. I told them I really didn’t know what to expect, but my recent scouting found very little hybrid striper activity and lake has risen 1’ in the last 24hrs.

Lake will be over full pool in a few days, but I doubt there will be gate operations. Regardless- full lake - north winds ……boats going back on the trailer and I will be using Oak Cv Marina mostly 😞

I had gone out yesterday and everything I had been doing quit working, so I decided to target white bass first and then switch to the hybrids. We made a few stops that caught 1-3 keeper fish and then landed on an active school in 28 FOW that yielded 15-20 fish. I was was culling fish, if it wasn’t 13” or bigger we released them. We made a few more stops and at the 2hr mark we needed 5 more big white bass to fill their limits, so we decided to target hybrids.

……so the short hybrids we could catch, anything keeper size, not so much. Found them, but couldn’t get them to bite. So we gave up and in the last few minutes went for those last few white bass.

Due to my culling of smaller fish, they went home with 49 stud sized white bass (1 short of their limit) and Billy caught a keeper hybrid striper to end the trip with less than a minute to spare.

All fish caught on Zman Streakz
Water temp 47

Quality of white bass was incredible today, but the hybrids I couldn’t get to play. Afternoon trip to come. Hopefully I can find some active hybrids.

Weather looks ‘spring like’ next week!
Let’s get out on the water and catch some fish!

Call or text to book your trip
512-368-1788

01/31/2025

Zman Streakz jighead attachment

Here is the best way to rig your Streakz for trouble free fishing

First cutoff a 1/4” or so
Then follow the pictures

01/22/2025

Weather is starting to turn for the better
Tomorrow is open 1/23 - start around noon

Monday and Tuesday look to be good weather days as well

Let’s get out of the house and go catching
512-368-1788 call or text

The picture is from a few weeks ago
They might look familiar 😎

01/15/2025

1/14/25 Richland Chambers

This morning I fished with Rusty who is a part time guide on RC and also one of the guides that donates a morning of fishing for our CAST For Kids along with sourcing the tables and chairs for the event.

We left my dock a little after 10am and set out to find hybrid stripers - the plan was for me to not go where I usually do and find fish in new areas.
Some of the areas today I have never fished in the winter, and some I had.
We found one area I will definitely put on my look here list.

We fished 4 areas today all areas were fished from 35-45 FOW

Area one and two had non aggressive fish - we (meaning I) caught a few keeper hybrid stripers which allowed me to trash talk Rusty for a while, offering to hand him my pole with a drag stripping hybrid on it. He refused😂. He caught fish, but not keepers.

Then we pulled into area 3 - it was pretty much a smoke show here for quite a while. These fish were so aggressive even Rusty was able to catch them. 😂😂
Eventually they left us and we needed to move.

Area 4 - started out with another smoke show but it didn’t last as long as area 3

We boated and released at least 20 keeper hybrid stripers today and a good amount of white bass

Water temp 49
All fish caught on Zman Streakz

Catching hybrids on light gear is a blast!
Let’s go catching
512-368-1788. Call or text to book your trip

Next available dates : I have Jan 15,16,22,23,25,26,27,28,29,30,open

01/12/2025

1/12/25 Richland Chambers

This morning I picked up Bobby and Billy at Oak Cv Marina. This father/son team fished with me 2 weeks ago and said they didn’t need to keep anymore fish, but needed to catch more! I said catch and release is my specialty!
We left the dock about 9:30 - they showed up 30 minutes early so off we went….I would have just been tied to the dock waiting anyways.

Today was a lot like yesterdays trip - first two hours there was only a few keeper hybrids - the last 2hrs there was plenty! Short hybrids and white bass were caught through out the trip but the quality fish came in the later part of our trip.

Our first area we fished 23-56’. Smallest fish were shallow here - fish were not very aggressive. One good size blue cat caught here (on artificial bait)

2nd area we fished 36-46’. Non aggressive fish here as well. Caught some, but I didn’t like what I was seeing on sonar…..so off we went.

3rd area - small fish but more aggressive 31-44’ here
(Wind shift was about complete when we left here)

4th area - 49’ and we didn’t move
Lots of fish here - due to this being a catch and release trip we paused to take pictures of the hybrid stripers …. While they continued to pass under the boat. I would snap a picture and yell get your lure back down - fish there!
We stayed here a good hour before the fish left us.

We looked at 2 other areas and I didn’t see much so I told them we were gonna try a place I haven’t been this season - set up in 39’ and I proceeded to hook into something big almost instantly - line started stripping and Billy was making his way to get the rod ….. and the fish spit the hook 😞
This was by far the biggest … or at least the strongest fish of the day - nothing screamed out drag like this one did…..heartbreaker!

I made the ‘y’all need to catch one more and we are done’ - didn’t take long and we were back at the dock.

I really enjoy fishing with this crew - excitement level on every fish is off the chart! Makes me feel good that I can provide that excitement! They boated and released some quality size hybrid stripers and giant white bass!

Never saw a 50 degree water temp today …..48-49 on the surface today

All fish caught using Zman Streakz

Let’s go catching!
512-368-1788 call or text to book your trip!

Next available dates : I have Jan 15,16,22,23,25,26,27,28,29,30,open

01/12/2025

1/11/25 Richland Chambers

Today I had planned to hang with the wife, but at 10am I got a call asking if I was available today.
I told them be here at noon!

At noon I met Nory and Aaron at my dock - Aaron was the driving force behind this trip and I could tell he was ready to go!

Our first area, second area and third area had plenty of fish, but they didn’t want to play.
Our fourth stop was 42’ and we put the Zman Streakz down.
45 minutes later the hybrid limit was done. White bass aren’t where they should be yet, but should be soon.
We spent the rest of the trip catching one here and there, but never got on them good….soon they will be consistent.

Surface temp 49/50

Let’s go catching!
512-368-1788

Next available dates : I have Jan 13,14,15,16 open. Weather looks really good next week!

01/10/2025

Monday Tuesday Wednesday and Thursday are open and the winds are light.
Dead sticking is the tactic I am using now. We will catch lots of fish!

Let’s go catching!
512-368-1788

01/08/2025

1/8/25 Richland Chambers

For all my people I have been putting off that wanted deadsticking - it’s time!!

Winds layed down a bit, so I decided to go check things out. Cabin fever was setting in. Left the dock around 2pm and just cruised around looking at different areas. I was surprised to see fish still shallow, but I wasn’t after them so I kept looking.

Found them where I expected right on one of my winter time waypoints.
Set up and started pulling them over the side. I don’t keep or measure fish when I fish alone. Looked like a lot of 17-18” fish but there were a few ‘no doubters’ there. Ones you don’t need a ruler to know they are legal fish.
I left these fish biting to look at other areas

Area #2 set up in 47’ and pulled in a limit of ‘no doubters’ and left them biting - not near as many fish here, but all good size fish - all keepers!

Water temp 52
All fish caught on Zman Streakz

Let’s go catching!
512-368-1788
Saturday is available

Next available dates : I have Jan 11,13,14,15,16 open

01/05/2025

Just saw the windrider float suits are on sale for $450 - regular $600

So I ordered one - I am not getting any younger, and I dont wear a PFD so this gives me warmth and safety. I had been planning to buy one, but with the sale - now is the time!

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01/04/2025

1/4/25 Richland Chambers

Rough day all around!

This morning I picked up Joseph and kids at Oak Cv Marina at 10am.
I warned them it was rough out there and I was assured the boys were tough and could handle it. So we set out in search of hybrid stripers and white bass. (I would never put running a trip over safety my boat can handle much worse…but I can’t😂, this was as rough of water as I want to fish in!)

It took a bit but we made it to some smooth water on the lake only to find only small fish there, and they were not aggressive. The winds died off just a bit and we went into the rougher waters - found our first keeper hybrid striper and a few good size white bass. These fish showed very little aggression as well so we kept searching.

Our next stop had good fish, but I couldn’t get the boys timing right and they were having a good time regardless so after trying to get them to set the hook at the right time I grabbed a rod and hooked a few fish and handed the pole off to Boone (youngest) who handled them with ease…….not really ease, but he got them in.

We made our final move into smoother waters as I was beat up from just trying to keep my balance in the waves. Here we put some good quality white bass in the cooler.

We went back to my dock to clean fish (smoothest water on the lake)
When I was done cleaning fish I asked with fingers crossed “Do you want me to drive y’all back to Oak Cv by truck or brave the rough water?”
Well fingers crossed didn’t work and back into the boat we went 😂

Rough waters/ tough fishing / young crew had me doing everything I could to put these guys on fish, but I couldn’t get it done😞
I had been on a roll, but got humbled today. I hated writing this report!
Cold weather coming and that should make the fish go where they should already be, but aren’t. I will go check on that after the cold snap.

Water temp 54/55
All fish caught on Zman Streakz
Fished from 22-40’ today

Let’s go catching!
512-368-1788 call or text to book your trip

Next available dates : I have Jan 7,8,9,10,11,12,13,14,15,16 open