Lake Ray Hubbard Fishing Guide
Bass anglers flock to Lake Ray Hubbard, one of the largest lakes in North Texas.
Impounded in 1968, Lake Ray Hubbard covers around 22,000 acres of water and is controlled by the city of Dallas. The lake is shaped like a lobster claw, with lots of open water areas and few significant coves, so it’s best fished from a boat instead of from shore.
Whether you prefer to do your casting from a pontoon boat, a center console, or anything in between, since this is a serious angling hotspot, use our Lake Ray Hubbard Fishing Guide to make the best out of your Dallas fishing trip.
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Where to Fish: Best Lake Ray Hubbard fishing spots
Lake Ray Hubbard is relatively shallow (the deepest spots are just 40 feet deep) so it has areas of weed beds. While fishing, these can be challenging—don’t forget your weedless hooks—you may get lucky, particularly with largemouth bass.
There’s also a good amount of standing timber in the lake’s northern half, a serious fish-attracting form of structure.
Pro tip: A fishing hotspot you must check out is the bridge pilings. These provide a deepwater structure that often holds fish, particularly crappie, during the cooler months when these fish tend to suspend deep. Docks and ripraps provide more opportunities along the shoreline.
What to Fish for in Lake Ray Hubbard: Top species list
Lake Hubbard anglers mostly focus on the bass species, with largemouth and white bass topping the charts. But there are plenty of other fish to go after as well. The top species for fishing in Lake Ray Hubbard include:
- Blue catfish
- Channel catfish
- Crappie
- Hybrid striped bass
- Largemouth bass
- Sunfish
- White bass
When to go fishing Lake Ray Hubbard
This is Texas—even though it does get chilly during the winter, it never gets too cold to fish. Lucky for us, this is a year-round fishery. That said, there are a few highlights to call out. One of the most significant is the summertime white bass fishery.
During the warmer months of the year, the white bass congregates in the southern portion of the lake below the Route 30 bridge. If you want to target this species, this is a great time to look around underwater points and drop-offs.
Pro tip: If you’re looking to catch largemouth, you might want to plan a fishing trip in spring, when the largemouth will be moving shallow. Look for them around docks, weed beds, and shallow-standing timber. Be sure to toss topwater at daybreak and sunset for the best action.
Also, pay plenty of attention to the standing timber in the fall, when the crappie schools up and provides steady action.
How to fish in Lake Ray Hubbard
Most anglers fishing Lake Ray Hubbard will be casting and retrieving lures. Topwater is always popular, but once the sun is high in the sky and the topwater bite slacks off, many anglers switch to casting lures like crankbaits, plastic worms, and spinnerbaits. When fishing weed beds, however, weedless lures are a must.
Bait fishing is also here, particularly if you’re targeting catfish. Any sort of cut fish will do the job, and some even use chicken, but real sharpies insist on catching the big ones; nothing beats live sunfish or crappie fish right on the bottom. The other time you’ll often see bait being applied is for crappie fishing when minnows are a top pick.
Because Lake Ray Hubbard is located right on the east side of Dallas, this is an incredibly popular place to wet a line. The fishing can be excellent, and particularly for white bass aficionados casting during summertime, Lake Ray Hubbard is the perfect place to be.
What to read next: How to Choose the Right Pontoon for Fishing
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With over three decades of experience in marine journalism, Lenny Rudow has contributed to dozens of boating and fishing publications and websites ranging from BoatU.S. Magazine to BDOutdoors.com. Rudow is currently the Angler in Chief at Rudow’s FishTalk, he is a past president of Boating Writers International (BWI), a graduate of the Westlawn School of Yacht Design, and has won numerous BWI and OWAA writing awards.
