Matt Fly

STay dry if thats possible, any word on LBH and others, they okay? :-?

Very windy on Friday with thurnderstorms here in NE Texas. Both Sat and Sun look promising, it just depends on if and how much rain falls on Friday if it muddies it up some. I'd get a feel for weather and specially wind and make a smart choice. Choke or Fork could get your rod bent. Good luck and post pics when you nail that phat toad.

By the way, Zona and Elite Lake Fork pro, Kelley Jordan started taping a show yesterday on Choke.

check out the tff fresh water fishing reports on choke w/pics for the 27th, maybe you saw this dad and his son out there. They had one of those days, kid wasn't a teenager I don't think, the son has new PB of 9+, they had 7's, 8's 9's and a host of other football pictures. Nothing explains a picture better than a youngsters face lit up like a xmas tree.

My brackets look like swiss cheese, Kansas and Kentucky was my final.

I really wasn't impressed with the horses that ran yesterday. Woodlands and San Anita will preview some contenders next weekend, then again, your on Bafferts and Lucas stomping grounds as well. I like the ponies, just don't make it out to Lone Star like I used to. One reason is getting a racing program days in advance. I'm 60 miles away and I like Forms a couple days early to study.

Other TX boards are reporting its on like Donkey Kong on Choke.

So what are we rating them for????? Numbers, Size, Stringer size? Lots of reason make lakes special over another. Some sleepers in Texas that are very small in size, but kick out some toads. Lake Austin, which is just a small part of the River that has a dam that has pumped out a few of 13+ fish. Casa Blanca, past years, all of a sudden, has three 14 lbers to its credit. Like Falcon, Amistad and Choke, Richland Chambers is showing a sign from its past in the late 80's when it was kicking out 100's of DD's until striper/hybrids were stocked. Then the major decline in bassin. For the past decade or so, no active stripers have been restocked and guess what, the past 3 years, we are starting to stringers in the upper 20's showing up steady. I know if you didn't have around 25, you wasn't in the running for top 5 most days. Ray Roberts will be in the news this year and a few years to come. Wait till BASS hits that lake, the century mark will be in jeopardy. One time during the year, lake Tyler will kick out as many 30 lb stringers as any little lake in Texas. But I think I heard they are doing grass eradication which will kill that fishin hole as well. Coming soon, Lake Worth will be in the news. Efforts there are already showing great signs.

Swing wide left on your approach, have the wife drop you off at the guides house and pick you up on the way home. You have so much water that you cross coming down, you shouldn't have a problem finding a spot or two.

dfw area is very large, narrow it down some. Lots of lakes in dfw area, afew rivers that feed them as well.

Please, do tell what lakes have banned senkos, thats a few lakes I can take off my list to hit.

Its one of the best era's in sports. Sure was a lot of buzzer beaters in the Conf. Championships. Lets hope those finishes keep on happening. Long live the upset and game winning buzzer beaters.

Riding the JayHawks to the championship again. Won a few pools the last time they did. Lets go big XII

I'll take a guess and say those north eastern rains carried some cooler temps with it. I'd say the rains dropped the water temps and the fish moved to warmer water or just turned off till their metabolisms adjust to the temps again.

Unless tracking devices were attatched to females, there is no way knowing what they do when caught and transported. We can all speculate which isn't telling what really happens. You can't say a bass dies if you don't see bass floating. What some call post mortality in Texas could be a decline in numbers due to Mexico's gill netting on the borders, too many factors that we don't get to see the results from. How many DD bass die in gill nets? Who knows? But its easier to blame tournament fishermen. No one knows how far the female was along in her cycle when she was caught, how she was handled, how many times she's been caught prior, so how much stress that bass has went through prior is unknown factor. Too many factors that are unknowns to accurates guess. I do know that the two tagged SAL's on Toledo Bend in 1997 that was honored by La was caught prior to spawn, and was released some 20+ miles from where they were caught. About one month later, both were caught a second time that year, both were only miles from home. One bass was caught in Six mile and released above the hwy 6 birdge on the LA side. Thats a 20 mile swim to get home for the spawn. Seems to me, that big girls are territorial and will spawn in the same areas if conditions don't change. Nope, these girls weren't caught in a tournament, but did make long boat rides and sure remembered where home was.

Cali boys gotta good point, we saw Dottie hung by a rope with a big hole in her jaw, hung vertical on a scale many times and she survived all those years she was caught and weighed and photo graphed. I do think if you do your part and minimize the amount of time, you will be less likely to stress the fish. I don't see how it hurts to support the belly and take all precautions prior to weighin the fish for a few seconds. Bank fishing and walking makes for limited gear you can carry, you can only do so much to be prepared for that day when you catch your PB. Do what you can when you can, thats what most would like to see when it comes to bass conservation.

Whats the lowest ranked seed to ever win Marchmadness? I think it was the #8 seed Nova I think the George Mason team was the highest seed to make the final four with a 11 or 12th seed. Expanding the field sure makes for more games, but as history shows, no one has ever won the tournament that basically wasn't ranked in the top25 at seasons end. Expanding the field just watered it down and gave TV and College extra games to make money on. Still love the madness, but please, no expansions.

Whites should be running in numerous Lake Travis creeks, up in the Perdnales river that runs into Travis or behind Max Starke Dam up river on the Colorado river arm on Travis. lake Granger would be about 45 miles NE and the whites should be running the San Gabriel rivers 25 miles north of ya, not too mention if ya could get about 100 miles NE on the Colorado Bend State Park for great bank fishing and running whites. Lots of water in short distance of Austin.

Whites should be running in alot of areas around Austin. There have been alot of 13+ fish come from Lake Austin. Lake Travis is a great little lake, should be some beds down lake up the creeks. Four great baits for Travis, chrome rattle trap, bomber Tenn shad, blu back, culprit 7.5 punkinseed, dip the tail in chart sometimes, and a Nichols smoked tube with red flake, Travis can be very clear at times, thus lighter lines are the norm.

No charges at this time have been filed by the Rockwall county DA. Robby Rose would have placed 1st in the hour for 500 bucks. His bass would have weighed 9.41 without the surf weight of 16 ozs, 10.41 would not have won the boat, 10.61 won the boat. I think the BLT staff regrets the way they handled this. I can assure you, the TD's will get together after this and talk about how to get the evidence before alerting a team or individual to an issue that might need legal attention. I think he gets slap on the wrist because the way it was handled by the Tournament organization if he don't beat it. Can anyone prove the fish didn't have the weight there when he caught her? He only admitted to using poor judgement, that can be taken to mean, he thought the fish looked or acted weird, but still weighed the fish in, hence using poor judgement. THere is one docuemented case in the US that already noted a bass had a weight that was in the stomach of a bass that was not placed there by the angler. Its on record, so to a jury who knows nothing of fishing most likely, will they see any reasonable doubt?

Past years, Duke and GT have had close games on both courts, game was ugly today, but typical matchup over the past few seasons. I see about 8 teams that could make a run for the title.

I fished behind Starke Dam for along time catching running whites. The slab on the Llano at Kingsland is another good area to hit the whites. Then there is Colorado Bend Park, pretty good area to get into them and great camping. Never needed to go anywhere else. Those 3 spots are killer when they run.

I think a Tournament Director needs to be smart enough to make changes as needed to address that "special lake". Heres the question I asked my self. Did the limit cause the stress? or is it the "time of the year", mother nature causing the stress? did the angler use everything he could to ensure best conditions in the livewell? Catt, Didn't Paul Elias have to put Nadiene in a well by herself due to bleeding bad from crank bait in the gill on day 4 on Falcon? If the Co boater had been there on Day 4, that wouldn't have been possible? Even with both anglers having 3 fish limits, there wouldn't have been the option of using one well for the sick fish. BASS took lots of critcism, yet when they took corrective measures for doing away with co anglers, they took more grief for fixing the issue. Now using one well as an ICU for a sick fish will always be possible. Trails have changed and are trying to change, its time for anglers to take more responsibility for taking care of their catches. Seems like everyone stepped it up except a few anglers who still fail to take all the preventive measure to ensure proper conditions in the well during stressfull conditions.

Just an old Gunnersmate here.

I didn't mean to appear defensive. I love the outdoors as much as the next guy. I don't feel I have the need to defend Texas Tournament fishing. Its some of the best in the country to begin with. Texas being the key, I eluded to outside state organizations like BASS, but the topic is Texas. I honestly feel that T Directors that run the largest trails in Texas have made great strides in fish care since the an outside organization, BASS opened our eyes on Falcon. I don't see 5 fish in 2 seperate livewells as an issue if you have adequate livewells for team tournaments. You have heard of the TFF, I'm sure you have since your a diehard tournament fishermen in Texas? Sure has been hush hush on Tourney directors and what trails and are kiling fish for awhile. Trust me, 50,000 active members don't let news pass without posting it and pictures. I see way to many guys letting fish go at the end of the day, a day of long fishing, and decided to let all them go at the ramp so they don't have to clean any. Happens 7 days out of the week, 5 fish limit tournaments are mainly 1 day tournament. Its not just tournament fishermen that stress a bass out. We fish 30 feet waters in the summer on warm lakes 7 days a week, not just during tournaments, deep hooking a fish isn't good then, even if she don't go in the live well, just quick release. That alone could easily cause delayed mortality with a livewell ride or without a livewell ride. Trot lines with live bait takes a few, preditors, tourney fishermen, and those looking for supper all contribute to fish mortality. I read what ya said. You stated your opinion, I asked some questions to clearify a few things, you choose to leave those questions unanswered. Your on point is not to hold tournaments in hot months, and that on the bigger TX trails has already been addressed by the biggest trail that goes south, Bass Champs. What licensed trails go south? Why did Honey Hole fold in south Tx? not enough boats for the long miles you have to cover for 3 lakes, Amistad, Falcon and Choke, You don't have alot of good lakes south, its not like theres much choice of where to fish. Did you know, Zapata and Del Rio will make more money from Bass Champs than the BASS Elites coming back? Think about that! What do you think of that theory?