Unlock the Lake: Ray Roberts
WHEN THE 51ST edition of fishing’s Greatest Show on Water, the Bassmaster Classic, begins, some of the 54 anglers competing will have more questions than answers about how and where they’ll catch bass on Lake Ray Roberts. Some will never have been on the lake before the official practice began, while others will have spent a limited amount of time learning how to run the water, which isn’t easy.
As if that’s not challenging enough, this 29,350-acre impoundment north of Fort Worth can almost be described as two separate lakes because of its configuration. When the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers finished building the dam across the Elm Fork of the Trinity River in 1989, the impounded water not only backed up Elm Fork but also a second drainage to the east, generally known as the Isle du Bois arm, which is much larger. Thus, the lake forms a very distinct north-south V, and that’s where the different personalities of Ray Roberts begin.
There is a lot of standing timber, especially in the Isle du Bois arm, but the Corps never cut boat lanes
