How to fish Lake Palestine's 25,560 acres: the HWY 155 bridge split, dock-flipping jigs, clear-water jerkbaits and excellent spotted bass.
Lake Palestine is 25,560 acres of Upper Neches River Authority water in the Piney Woods, and the single most useful thing you can know about it is that the HWY 155 bridge cuts it in half, personality and all.
Above the bridge you get flooded timber, hydrilla and grass, and the bulk of the largemouth fishery. Below the bridge you get brush piles, ledges, rock and the best spotted bass population on any major East Texas reservoir. Two different lakes, two different tackle boxes, one launch decision.
Pick a side before you leave the ramp. Anglers who spend the day running back and forth across the bridge usually burn more gas than they catch fish, because the patterns on either end don't share much.
This is the clearest of the major East Texas reservoirs. Expect 3 to 6 feet of visibility in winter and 2 to 4 feet through the summer. That sounds like a small detail until you compare it to the stained water on Rayburn or Toledo Bend, where a suspending jerkbait spends most of its life out of sight of the fish.
On Palestine the jerkbait actually works. A Strike King KVD 1.5 in Ghost Minnow or Sexy Shad, worked over rocky transitions below the bridge in 6 to 10 feet with a long pause, is a legitimate pre-spawn pattern here in a region where it usually isn't. Same goes for a Megabass Vision 110 in Ghost Wakasagi along the Neches River channel transitions in 4 to 10 feet.
The clarity cuts the other way too. Finesse presentations earn their keep, and a heavy, loud approach in the clearest water down by the dam will spook fish that would never have noticed you on a muddier lake.
From February into March, with water temperatures climbing through 54 to 63 degrees, the fish stage in 6 to 12 feet. Two baits carry the period.
The first is a 1/2 oz Strike King Red Eye Shad in Chrome/Blue, ripped over submerged brush in 8 to 12 feet. Rip it free of the limbs and let it fall; that snap out of the cover is what draws the strike. The second is the jerkbait, worked slower and with longer pauses than you think you need. Cold, clear water fish will follow a jerkbait a long way before committing.
If wind kills the jerkbait bite, a 3/8 oz white/chartreuse double willow spinnerbait through flooded timber transitions in 5 to 10 feet covers the same staging fish. A KVD 1.5 squarebill in Sexy Shad on the rip-rap and rocky banks is the shallow version of the same idea.
March and April, 63 to 70 degrees, and the lake divides itself again. Largemouth push into the upper arms: Saline Bay, Kickapoo Creek, the Neches upper arm and Flat Creek. They spawn near timber in 1 to 4 feet. Because the water is only moderately stained, you can genuinely sight fish some of these beds, which is not something you can count on most places in East Texas.
The 5 inch Senko on a wacky rig is the bait. Green Pumpkin, black-flake or Watermelon Red, dropped near timber and on sandy gravel cove beds in 1 to 4 feet. It falls slow, it looks like nothing and everything, and it doesn't need to be worked. A 3/8 oz Denny Brauer jig with a Rage Craw in Green Pumpkin flipped to timber and dock posts in 2 to 6 feet gets the fish that won't leave cover.
Meanwhile the spotted bass are on harder substrate below the bridge in 3 to 6 feet. Fish those with a 1/4 oz shakyhead and a 6 inch Roboworm in Aaron's Magic or Oxblood Chartreuse, or a Zoom Finesse Worm on a shakyhead or drop shot in 4 to 10 feet in the clearer coves.
If you only learn one Palestine pattern, learn the dock flip. From April all the way into September, local reports put docks first, and the 1/2 oz Denny Brauer Structure Jig with a Green Pumpkin Rage Craw is the tool. Flip it to dock posts in 3 to 8 feet, let it hit bottom, and hop it once or twice before you pick up and flip the next post.
The logic is simple. As the water climbs from the upper 60s into the high 80s, shade becomes the most valuable real estate on a lake with this much clarity. Dock posts give bass shade, ambush cover and vertical structure in one piece of cover, and Palestine has rows of them.
In April and May, get on the water early and watch the dock planks for a shad spawn. A 5 inch white Zoom Super Fluke worked across the surface next to the planks is a short, violent window that closes when the sun gets up. A 3/8 oz white/chartreuse swim jig on creek channel points is the follow-up when the surface action dies.
Once summer settles in, the second layer is the deep brush below the bridge. Fish group up on brush piles in 20 to 30 feet. A 10 inch Zoom Trick Worm in Plum/Chartreuse or Green Pumpkin, Texas rigged, Carolina rigged or on a football head, is the way to pick them apart. Spotted bass hold on rock transitions in 12 to 20 feet, and that's drop shot water: a 5 inch Roboworm in Aaron's Magic, or a 4 inch straight tail on a 3/8 oz drop shot around dock pilings and deep points. A Strike King 5XD in Chartreuse Shad on the Neches channel ledges in 10 to 18 feet covers water faster if you're hunting rather than picking.
September through November, with temperatures sliding from the mid 70s down to the mid 50s, the primary depth range is 4 to 16 feet. Docks hang on as the main structure through early fall, so the Brauer jig stays tied on. But the bigger opportunity is the shad migration.
Northeast winds push shad onto windward banks. Follow them. A 1/2 oz Red Eye Shad in Chrome/Blue on main lake points with visible bait activity is the highest percentage bait of the season, and the clearer water here makes reaction baits more productive than they'd be on a muddier reservoir. A Rat-L-Trap in Chrome/Blue burned down dock rows and rip-rap in 1 to 5 feet does the same job in shallower water.
At dusk, switch to a 3/8 oz white/chartreuse spinnerbait around flooded timber points. And don't ignore the rock below the bridge: fall is when the spotted bass fishing is at its best, and TPWD rates both largemouth and spotted bass here as excellent.
December through February the lake gets cold, 44 to 54 degrees, and the fish get predictable. They pull into deep brush piles from 25 to 40 feet below the HWY 155 bridge and group up tight.
A 1/2 oz Green Pumpkin football jig dragged slow across brush tops in 20 to 30 feet is the number one winter bait. Slow means slower than you want to fish it. If you find a school suspended over a deep channel swing in 25 to 35 feet, a 1/2 oz silver blade bait fished vertically will get bit, as will a chrome jigging spoon in 15 to 28 feet in the deep Neches channel. The deepest water on Palestine is 58 feet, so you have plenty of room to work down.
Spotted bass in the clearest winter water respond to a Carolina rigged 4 inch Zoom Baby Brush Hog in Green Pumpkin on rocky points in 20 to 30 feet. If the deep bite is off, a black and blue flipping jig on cold water docks in 8 to 15 feet is a reasonable fallback. White bass and hybrids are also active through winter in the dam-to-bridge corridor.
It separates two different fisheries. Above the bridge you get flooded timber, grass and hydrilla with largemouth as the main target. Below the bridge it's brush piles, ledges and rock, and that's where the spotted bass fishing is best.
Water clarity. Palestine runs 3 to 6 feet of visibility in winter and 2 to 4 feet in summer, making it the clearest major East Texas reservoir. Stained lakes like Rayburn and Toledo Bend don't give a suspending jerkbait enough visibility to work. Here a KVD 1.5 with long pauses on rocky transitions in 6 to 10 feet is a legitimate pre-spawn pattern.
Below the HWY 155 bridge on rock and hard bottom. TPWD rates the spotted bass here as excellent, which is unusually high quality for a Texas flatland lake. Fall on rock structure and summer on deep rocky transitions in 12 to 20 feet are the best windows.
Flipping a 1/2 oz Denny Brauer Structure Jig in Green Pumpkin with a Rage Craw to dock posts in 3 to 8 feet. It's the dominant pattern from post-spawn in April through early fall, because shade is at a premium in clearer water.
13.8 pounds.
Maximum depth is 58 feet. The deep water is at the lower end near the dam, and winter fish stack on brush piles from 25 to 40 feet below the bridge.
Sometimes. The moderately clear water allows some sight fishing during the March and April spawn, particularly in the upper arms where largemouth bed near timber in 1 to 4 feet. That's not something you can count on across most of East Texas.
Standard TPWD statewide rules apply: a five-fish daily bag with a 14 inch minimum length. The lake is managed by the Upper Neches River Authority.