FISHING GUIDE · TEXAS

Sam Rayburn Reservoir Fishing Guide

Sam Rayburn is a top big-bass lake that hosts hundreds of tournaments a year. Guides say it fishes well all 12 months, with a deep bite almost any time. It also has excellent crappie and catfish.

📍 East Texas, on the Angelina River. Dam is in Jasper County about 15 miles north of Jasper. Lake touches Angelina, Nacogdoches, San Augustine, Jasper and Sabine counties. About 2 hours from Houston.

📅 Texas Fishing Calendar — best months, closed seasons, bait & rigs →

Map: spots, ramps and marinas

★ Fishing hot spot · ● Boat ramp · ● Marina · ▭ Protected area (solid red = no fishing, dashed = fishing with rules)

Open the full Texas & Oklahoma Lakes map →

Quick facts

Surface area: 114,500 acres. Largest lake entirely inside Texas.
Impounded in 1965. Run by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.
Maximum depth: about 80 feet.
Lake record largemouth bass: 16.80 lb, caught May 31, 1997 (TPWD records).
Bassmaster ranked it the No. 1 bass lake in the nation in 2018.

What you can catch

largemouth bass
Excellent all year. Hydrilla, timber and offshore structure.
crappie
Excellent all year. Brush piles and timber.
channel and blue catfish
Excellent all year.
flathead catfish
Present; big fish possible.
white bass
Limited numbers, but good in the spring run.
bluegill and redear sunfish
High numbers and good fishing.

Month by month

January	Pre-spawn starts. Big females grouped up. Lipless crankbaits on main-lake drains.
February	Best month for big bass by tournament weights. Lipless crankbaits, Alabama rigs, grass edges.
March	Spawn late March. Bass in pockets, flooded bushes and inside grass edges. White bass run.
April	Spawn ends early April. Post-spawn and early-morning shad spawn.
May	Post-spawn. Some fish stay shallow, others move out toward offshore summer spots.
June	Topwater early. Then offshore: Carolina rigs and deep crankbaits on ledges and humps.
July	Hardest month. Fish suspend in the heat. Fish early, then go deep with electronics.
August	Same summer pattern. Offshore brush and roadbeds, usually 30 ft or less.
September	Still hot. Fall pattern begins with the first cold fronts.
October	Water cools into the 70s. Find big shad schools on your graph. Fast action when you find them.
November	Shad-driven bite. Lipless crankbaits and crankbaits around bait schools.
December	Winter. Water rarely drops below about 48 F. Deep and grass bites both work. Crappie on deep brush.

Tips

You rarely need to fish deeper than 30 feet for bass.
Key cover: hydrilla, timber, brush piles, flats, creeks and roadbeds.
The Carolina rig has won more money here than any other bait. Also try deep crankbaits, Senkos and a 1/2 oz lipless crankbait.
Watch wind from the northwest and southeast; big open water gets rough.
A good depth finder helps. Guides say: if you find them on the graph, they bite.

Rules and license

Texas Parks and Wildlife Department (TPWD) · Official rules page ↗

Black bass: largemouth 14-inch minimum. Daily bag 5 in any combination (statewide rule).
Crappie: 10-inch minimum, 25 per day.
Channel and blue catfish: no minimum, 50 per day, only 5 over 30 inches.
White bass: 10-inch minimum, 25 per day. Striped and hybrid bass: 18-inch minimum, 5 per day.

Rules change. Always check the official page before you fish.

Boat ramps and marinas

The map above shows 4 boat ramps and 0 marinas from OpenStreetMap. Tap any dot for directions.

Marion's Ferry Boat Ramp

Sources

Checked October 2026. BigJoe does not invent facts: every number on this page comes from the sources listed above.