Lake Conroe Crappie - Hooker Harwell's Guide Service

12/02/2025

Morning ya'll. Although I had a couple people ask about the open boat on Sunday nobody pulled the trigger . The opportunity just arose for me to book Sunday for private charter so I took the booking . So the next open boat will likely be next Wednesday very early like 3 am to coincide with a huge solunar spike . LMK if interested . Have a great day.

11/02/2025

Morning ya'll. I hope everyone had a great weekend either fun or productive, whichever made ya happy. The last couple batches of bait I had gotten I had issues with from both suppliers. To make sure it's not a problem on my end I've cleaned tanks and are letting them go dry for some days to kill any bad bacteria and start fresh for the next batch . So this weekend I turned my attention to some things I've needed to get done at the house. Got the rest of the wood split , got the splitter put back away in the barn and out of the weather. . I might have to give some away I don't think it'll all fit in my stack . Got my yard cleaned up and the garden prepped. Bad hip or not I'm having my garden period. Got it all weeded, got my hands on some really nice composted manure for super cheap , around a yard of it , emptied my little composter that I put all my organic kitchen scraps in to augment the soil and got it all tilled in . Got the tiller put away and out of the weather too . So I'm ready to plant as soon as I know the weather will cooperate. Speaking of weather , we're going to have some the next few days . I'm going to make a bait run on Friday. Open boat Sun morning . I've got trips booked next week but will probably do some open boats as well, likely at night or very early morning to coincide with some huge solunar spikes . Let me know if ya want in . Look at what that silly little pup did ! Lol ! Had to snap a pic of that ! . I hope this post finds you well and in good spirits. Thanks again for staying tuned.

09/02/2025

Chris got the parts in he needed and had time today so we spent the day getting the TM rebuilt , wired , new batteries and charger installed and it came together pretty good. Chris was a HUGE help to me when I really needed it on several projects last year . He never asked for anything in return. It was the least I could do to give him that motor and help him get spot lock capability installed on his boat to try return the favor and show my appreciation. I'm really glad we were able to get everything together for him today.

06/02/2025

Morning ya'll. I'm late posting about yesterday morning. I had already climbed out of the boat and had Keith snap a pic to text to me . By the time he did yesterday I had already fell asleep I guess I was pretty tired , it was an early and pretty busy day. There was one crappie in the box just covered up. We've reached the situation we see every year around this time . The crappie are on the move and are in transition. Water temps are at that break over period that they will begin to set up and start staging for their spawning runs. We covered a lot of water yesterday morning fishing, taking a look at some places that were unfishable last year but look pretty good now , checking water temps at various locations and basically taking a lot of samples . The crappie weren't anywhere in any numbers. Just a few here and there across a variety of depths and topography. We actually saw quite a bit of action throughout the morning especially up shallow very early. There were found snotty's, yeller fellers and by the nature of the bites were were were seeing my experience tells me it was itty bitty crappie that were just hard to get a hook in . That's indicative of what one would see at this juncture in the crappie's progression towards the spawn . We lost some fish at the boat and a few on the way up from deeper water . Not all of them were crappie but I'm positive a few were. Im seeing some questions posed on various groups about where the crappie are right now by folks that aren't catching any and seeing some kinda ridiculous answers and some that are about halfway right. Just like they don't all spawn at once , they don't all stage at once so they're scattered all over while they make this transition in their pattern. I'm ready and willing to fish if anyone wants to go . Yeah it's a bit of an uncertain time and pattern and all I will say about that is if the possibilities of an unsuccessful hunt are the biggest concern than the concept of it is alluding one all together and the most rewarding things are often the hardest to earn . There shouldn't be any losing in fishing , just catching or learning . Sometimes both . The difference between a good day and bad is often one's attitude . I hope this post finds you well and in good spirits. Thanks again for staying tuned.

04/02/2025

Last couple days been getting things arranged with docs for the hip replacement , running some errands and getting some things done on the SLABINATOR and around the house. Surgery is scheduled for July 8th. I'm going to be offering open boats every day I'm not booked for private charter till then because I gotta work as much as possible before the surgery that might take me a couple months to recover from. So sat and sun we'll be doing open boats. I'll know after tomorrow what the departure times will be and will announce then . I'm heading out very early tomorrow morning with the Buzzard and my buddy Keith to find out which spike their hitting on . There's some huge spikes this week both very early morning and right after daylight till around lunchtime so we'll find out tomorrow what's up . The pic of the bike is the exact model my dad had when we used to ride together. My buddy Tony might buy this one in the pic on his way down to come visit soon which I think is pretty cool 😎. Catch ya'll later.

03/02/2025

Yesterday evening's open boat . Full boat 5 hr trip . A mix of repeat and new folks. Slow bite again. Covered a lot of water found plenty of fish that just didn't want to cooperate. Fished some of the same and a few different places this time. Lost a few threw one back . Nobody cared to get in the pic . Nice guys and we had a few laughs 😃.

02/02/2025

Morning ya'll. Late posting this from yesterday's trip . Doug got this trip for Cody who's getting married soon. Congratulations bud! Cody's brothers Steven and Jason joined them. Full trip 7a- almost 4 p . Good grief those crappie were stubborn yesterday. We caught a few early and they just had lockjaw the rest of the time . To say it was a tough day would be an understatement. It's hard to say if our timing wasn't right or perhaps so much fishing pressure because of the big tournament just had em spooky but we were on fish all day thst just wouldn't cooperate at all. . I bet we covered 10 square miles and hit many , many spots . We weren't even catching other species for the most part . We did hook 2 big snotty's over the course of the day but didn't get em in the boat . Threw back 1 gherkin. We were inspected by ole GW and he told us he hadn't seen but a few crappie all day either and we had the biggest ones he'd seen. At least it was a gorgeous day out. Almost no wind though which tends to complicate things when trying to spotlock without the boat wandering. This is a group of cool cats who are fun to hang with so naturally we had some laughs. As per our phone conversation that I have with every one of my customers on the private charters, since I made all the calls on this one except for when to quit. They didn't have to chase me down . We had the talk on the way back to the dock. They showed up when I told em to , they followed instructions and I guarantee ya they worked hard yesterday at it but for whatever reason we just didn't have a good yield. I stood by my word and told them if they felt like I owed them one I would absolutely make it happen. Doug told me they're all fisherman who fish fairly often and understand that sometimes you're the hammer and sometimes you're the nail. I appreciate their candor in the matter and look forward to next time . Thanks again guys. We really enjoyed having ya'll aboard 😀. Catch ya'll next time!

29/01/2025

Well hell, I'd have never thought we'd have knocked that out so quickly. We're already back to the house , trailers dropped and chilling ! 😎 I reckon when you're organized things just come together sometimes . 😉 That load went further than I thought it might as well. Actually made 4 reefs . 1 that's over 300 ft , 1 that's a little over 150 ft and two around 80ish feet long . 2 are completely new . 2 were connecting existing piles . Steven, Chuck. Bob, Mr Bob and the Buzzard made one helluva team ! I didn't think wed be able to get 15 or more at a time on the boat but we did it in 4 rounds ! I reckon sometimes you can misjudge and it be a good thing lmao ! 🤣 . At some point we're all going to get together and do a fishing trip . Hopefully we can all get on the same page pretty soon to make that happen. Thanks again guys! Yall are rockstars !

28/01/2025

Fixing to roll out and git r done....

28/01/2025

Morning ya'll. Yeah I'm up early but it's kinda the norm lately with a lot to do and a lot on the mind . Surgeon released me yesterday ! He said I'm healed up enough that I don't need to see him anymore. Hell , it only took 6 months. The argument could be made that he and the team saved my life last July in the shape I was in upon arrival and I thanked him for taking such good care of me . I've got a crew together for tonight to get these reefs built. Should be plenty of people that nobody has to strain themselves. Some of these condos are pretty big and can get a bit cumbersome so having plenty of help is a good thing to be able to load and place them accurately. I have a new controller for the TM and figured out I have a bad sensor in the foot pedal. As it turns out it appears that whatever was going wrong with the other controller has righted itself perhaps it had a little moisture in it . Yesterday I took a couple bags of fillets to the gentlemen who offered the bamboo and he seemed to really appreciate that and I'm glad I could return a favor. I've got a pretty aggressive schedule I'm going to try to keep today albeit moving around bit slow. I'm going to try to get my house chores done early to be able to drop the CRAPPIEMOTO off at the dealership today for scheduled maintenance and I have to go fetch a new throwable flotation device and a life vest or 2 for the SLABINATOR. The ones I have have degraded so it's time . After loading the SLABINATOR later I'll try to stretch out for a few hrs this afternoon before the guys get here this evening. It's going to take 11 round trips to the dock to get everything out I think. The weather looks like it's going to cooperate for us even with a favorable wind direction and speed. We'll see how it goes. I hope this post finds you well and in good spirits. Thanks again for staying tuned.

27/01/2025

Morning ya'll. I didn't do much yesterday except for run some errands with Mrs Ho**er. It was a funky day anyway. Doc appointment this morning, hopefully the final one from the last surgery. Then perhaps take some fillets over to the gentlemen who so graciously offered a large supply of bamboo to finish the reefs if he's available. I. Working on a crew for tomorrow evening to set what I have built out and finish the next 2 reefs. I've got to make a bait run sometime this week for the weekend trips. Supposedly nice this weekend after a pretty funky rainy week. I have 2 spots available for Sunday afternoon still if anyone is interested. Fri morning I've got appointment with the new orthopedic doc to discuss and make arrangements for the hip replacement which won't be until July after the better crappie fishing peters out for the summer. Depending on when and how much rain this week I might try to go poke around in the small boat and check some stuff out . Another project this week will be a thorough deep clean on the SLABILLAC and service some batteries while I'm at it . Just an update. I hope this post finds you well and in good spirits. Thanks again for staying tuned.

25/01/2025

Having finished my chores for the day I think I'll drag Mrs Ho**er around for a bit on the CRAPPIEMOTO.

25/01/2025

Got r done. 51 more ready between what's in the yard and on the trailer. I'll give em a couple days to cure and get em out this week skirting around the rain they're saying we'll get. Should be enough here to complete reefs #2 and #3 . Bob and his dad came over today and helped us knock em out. Thanks guys!

25/01/2025

Moving around little slower than I want to this morning but I'm gonna fill that trailer today if it kills me . If someone happens to find the rouge marching band that trampled me over night please kill all of them 🤣 TIA

24/01/2025

Well I mis judged I reckon . Easy to do sometimes . The bamboo only made 31 . That's OK. Gonna get more in the morning and make more . After we used it all went and hung out had some sandwiches, enjoyed each other and had a great time . I got to meet Bob's dad! Terry and the Buzzard along with the others made this happen quickly. We were a bit aggressive in filling buckets when it came to the bamboo , we may have made another row but it's hard to not fill em up and make em right so they'll last and hold like intended. I've got chores to do so Mrs Ho**er doesn't think I'm a deadbeat so I gotta go for now lol. I've got enough buckets to finish out ty he trailer and at least 50 more to do it again. Ho**er's Reef's are going to happen. Thanks again for staying tuned ya'll. Catch ya later.

24/01/2025

Been busy since early this morning fetching cement and getting everything staged before the guys get here to make this fast and easy for everyone. I don't mind lifting the bags and running the mixer actually I don't mind any of it . I've built around 700 of these singlehandedly and have we'll over a thousand set out but currently all the walking around and toteing just kills the hip . A few guys feeding me materials and we'll make this happen pretty quick without me being crippled for a few days 😆 . We should be done around lunchtime . Making some BLT's for them for lunch today. There's been a couple handfuls of great guys over the last couple years that have helped me make this happen on a larger scale than ever before. I'm going to make a post to mention all of them soon . I believe wholeheartedly in giving credit where it's due and I couldn't have made some much happen so quickly without all these guys . I really appreciate ya'lls help!

24/01/2025

We'll be doing open boat sun the 2nd at 1 pm . 130 per person 30 dollar deposit to reserve a spot . 6 spots available. I supply everything and clean the fish. The catch is separated so you keep the fish you catch. Around 5 hrs on the water . Really good solunar spike that afternoon. I might possibly do more of them Tues-Thurs in the afternoon's as well if anyone is interested. Actually really good spikes all week. Speak up if ya want to join or perhaps share this post in case you might know someone interested. You won't find a better deal anywhere. Especially with a reputable, experienced guide . We're targeting crappie but a mixed bag is likely. Can't catch em from the couch guys! These pics are recent from our last trip out . It was a private charter on a 4 hr trip . I hope this post finds you well and in good spirits. Thanks again for staying tuned.

23/01/2025