Fishing Lake Sam Rayburn From the moment it filled in 1965, the 114,000-acre Lake Sam Rayburn has held a prominent spot in the minds of bass anglers everywhere. Located just outside of Jasper in Deep East Texas, Rayburn became an instant legend. Over the decades, the legend of Lake Sam Rayburn only grew larger, helped in part by the legions of legendary anglers that began their careers there. Since its inception, the BASS tournament trail has been well populated with fishermen who cut their teeth on Big Sam. "I got in a lot of trouble over that lake," laughed Lonnie Stanley, a legendary Texas bass fisherman in his own right, referring to the times he "may" have missed class to fish Sam Rayburn during his high school years. "I watched them build that lake. My wife and used to go on dates and watch them build the dam. I fished it the day the closed the gates and every day I could since then. "Really, I can't believe how well it's held up through the years. It's really amazing. In 47 years, the only real changes have been the number of people fishing it and the type of structure we have. The fishing is still as good as it's ever been." Stanley credits spending his formative years on Sam Rayburn for his eventual success in the bass fishing world, which included 5 appearances in the Bassmaster Classic, ushering in the modern-day jig fishing era, and founding the industry standard for bass jigs, Stanley Lures. According to Stanley, the lessons learned on Rayburn helped him and hordes of other pro bass fishermen through the years. “I really think the reason a lot of pros from East Texas have been so successful is because we've learned to read visible structure and let it tell us where the fish our,” said Stanley. “Lord, if you cast to every stump in Sam Rayburn, you'd never quit casting and may not catch any fish. I don't fish the structure as much as I read it. Then I cast to where I know the fish are. These are the types of things we learned on Rayburn that we could use on any lake in the country." While Stanley stresses reading structure has always been fundamental for successful fishing on Rayburn, he is also quick to point out the type of structure filling the lake has changed through the years. "In the very beginning, there was mostly coontail grass, brush and timber in Sam Rayburn," said Stanley. "What a lot of people don't realize is they didn't clear cut the lake bed before they flooded it. Instead, they crushed the trees. They would run these gigantic tricycle-looking machines through the woods and just crush everything. They just left all that stuff on the bottom when they flooded it. "Today a lot of that brush and other stuff has rotted away. But, now we have huge hydrilla beds, which started showing up in the 1970s, and lily pads, which just started growing in the lake about 10 or 15 years ago. "Up on the north end of the lake, we still have quite a bit of standing timber. Areas like the Black Forest, which everyone has heard about, still look a lot like they used to. We don't catch as many fish out of the Black Forest as we used to, but that's still where I'd go if I was looking for a really big one. In general, I'd say fishing on the main lake may not be as good as it once was, but the creek fishing is incredible." Stanley says age hasn't been the only factor in the lake's alteration. "One of the biggest reasons the lake has changed in recent years has been all the hurricanes going over the top of it," said Stanley. "People think you have to be on the coast to feel the effects of a hurricane. But, let me tell you, when we have a storm like (Hurricane) Rita pass right over Lake Sam Rayburn, that moves around a lot of brush and timber." Bass habitat isn't the only thing that has changed in Sam Rayburn over the years. The bass, too, are different than they were four decades ago. "Probably the thing that has changed fishing on Rayburn more than anything else has been the introduction of Florida-strain bass," Stanley stated. "Everybody knows the Florida-strain fish grow like crazy. I'm sure that's one reason Sam Rayburn has continued to put out so many big bass. "We also have more deep water bass than we ever have. When you think Florida, you think shallow water, shallow lakes. But, according to biologists, the Florida bass will move deeper than our native (Northern) strain bass. It's kind of opposite of what you would think, but it's true. During the early years of Rayburn, we never saw bass on deep structure like we do now." Despite inevitable evolution of the lake's physical features and bass population, Stanley says the essence of Sam Rayburn remains. For him, the fact the lake is "user friendly" outweighs all else. "The great thing about Rayburn is that even a novice can come out here and get fish any way they want to," said Stanley. "You like a topwater, throw a topwater. You like worms, throw a worm. You like jigs, throw jigs. For a lot of the year, we can catch a lot of bass on what I call 'fun baits' - spinnerbaits and frogs. "This is true for just about the entire year. Really only the real cold and real months are tough. Then you've really got to know what you're doing. And, at any time of the year, if you're targeting really big bass, you kind of need to know what you're doing. But, if you're just wanting to come out and catch a lot of solid fish, unless it's really hot or cold you can catch them all kinds of ways." Although conventional wisdom says the vast majority of bass will be deep during periods of temperature extremes, Stanley says some of Rayburn's biggest sows patrol the shallows year around. "From mid-January through mid-April, most of the fish will be shallow. Once the water temperature gets over 80 degrees, they'll start backing off to the deeper water. They'll start coming back shallow as the water starts cooling down again in September. But, believe it or not, some of the biggest fish in the lake stay shallow all year long. There may not be a lot of them up shallow in summer, but the ones you find are usually big ones. "For me, with fall coming up, it's time to start fishing frogs and spinnerbaits. Both are fun baits, but, I love fishing frogs - especially in the fall. If you've never done it - don't. Not unless you can handle seeing some incredibly violent strikes. When they hit that thing, they literally try to kill it. It's not the type of fishing someone with a weak heart should do.”