Matt Fly

We sure love Fran in Texas also. And if losing once to atm keeps his job, we surely don't mind ya'll keeping Fran. Mack Brown is the only coach who can say they have won 50 games in the last five years!!!! and one more win this year gives him another ten win season.l By the way, just how many BCS bowls has the Aggies been to? What Bowl did the Aggies go to last year when we won the BCS? I believe I would leave Texas alone, cause you and Fran don't have much to talk about. Records speak for themselves. Anyway, I'm tired of hearing how soft the Big XII is nationally, and I root for my Texas boys at all times, even the Texas Aggies because the majority of players are Texans. Gig'em Aggies, Go big XII, We got 3 Big XII teams playing tonight, indeed, go Big XII. Hookem Matt.

May I add a must have item to your first tackle box? A camera is never a bad idea. It don't catch fish, but does capture them on film. Matt.

Inline spinners are great trout lures. Panther Martins, rooster tails, shysters, and mepps will take their share. And will catch anything else that sees it. Matt

The crappie LBH referred to me catching out front of Fishermen Cove last year was 19.5 inches on my check it stick. Was caught on 3/4 oz spinner bait. My initial response was a nice chunck about 3.5 lbs, and I was referring to a bass, but after finally seeing it, I knew it was monster crappie close to 4 lbs. Fork has some big crappie. That crappie was 12 inches sideways on the board, that crappie mouth could have swallowed a can with room to spare on all sides. i think any thing over 3 is a trophy crappie. Weekends on Fork right now, you can walk from boat to boat out in the mail lake deep water near the dam, the crappie are already suspended for the winter and people are too. The bite is on. Matt

Never do it alone!!!! We always target the later summer months, flatheads seem to be in the spawn mode by then, and I have never done any lake noodling. We have always found the holes under banks to be the easiest. Some washes are just 3-5 feet under the bank but can go way back under. If the welcome mat isn't cleaned, nobody is home. If you feel the bottom and it has silt or feels muddy, chances are, theres not a fish in that hole, a hole with a fish will have hardened mud, or the silt will be swept out due to fish fanning around. We will also place large rocks in some of the holes that are to large to block. Rules are simple, a flathead will bite you all the way up on your forearm most of the time, thats about 12 24 inches depending on your arm. A big blue will bite the hardest and only bite your fingers up to your wrist. This guy will take nails off. A channel is about the same as a blue cat. If later in the summer and spawning is taking place, you may encounter more than one fish in a hole. My dad alway clippied a 4lb mono leader to my back belt loop if I had to go down deeper than my height to monitor my position. Some fish will overpower you and current can take you down river and if your support crew isn't on top, you could be in serious trouble. I have never been bitten, have not encounter snakes at the same time. What I have done when I was younger takes more nerve to do as I'm older. Its illegal in Tx. Matt

I love using the lizzards Tx rigged on beds, makes them look like their nose down on some eggs and bass dont like that too much. I use carolina weight to allow the bait to float up before I twitch it down. Good C rig baits. I also like to match a small weight with water conditions (denisity of the water), a floating bait that sinks so slow, it stays in the strike zone longer. 1/16th-1/8th oz works well, the colder the water (more dense), the more weight needed to sink the bait. The drop is so slow. I like to split shot about 18" up the line for big trees along the creek channels. The craws works well for the trees. My first encounter with floating baits was out on the west coast, Riverside Air worms, if it wasn't for the west coast guys, I would have been clueless as to some of the things you could do with these baits. I tried to use them as I did any plastic with a very little success. Thumbs up to Floating 3x's. Matt.

If Iowa's QB is healthy, and last I knew he was, then I'd say unless the horns patched their secondary up, its gonna be long day for the horns. Hope not, but they have the same problem as my Cowboys, no pass rush, and can't defend against the pass. I sure liked what Javon Snead did in his short relief of Colt. I sure wished he wouldn't have decided to transfer to Ole Miss. We shall see if Colt is ready to play on Sat. I hope so. Hook'em Matt

From one horns fan to an Aggie, Gig'em and go big XII!!! Hook'em Matt

I smell a pilot in the making. So we didn't get Charlie Moore. We got Speedy and Roadwarrior instead. I can live with that any day. Good luck and keep us posted on the big day. Congrats, Matt

I read the BASS rules this morning and noticed the same, that the ABA/BASS weekend series allowed nets all the way up until nationals. So how did you do? Sounds like you did very well to advance on to the nationals. Good luck, hope you do well. Matt

I just see it as being funny, when the only ethics worried about is landing a fish. How many fish are landed from stick ups that have gashes in their sides? How many treble hooks tear gill plates and such. How about persuing bass on the beds when they are trying to reproduce? Swallowed hooks! Those are okay! If peoples ethics have such strong convictions, then what about the other ones? Nets have come along way, but theres not one net out there that doesn't take some of the slime coating off. Agreed, that certain nets would be better than the slamming. I will continue to rip some lips, and continue to lip my fish. My ethics are mine and have nothing to do with what BASS does or doesn't do. I sure don't want a fish bouncing off the bottom of the boat, its not very healthy for them, but neither is the rest of the process we put them through. Come on Avid, you know me better than that, I don't sugar coat much of anything. Matt

They do chase bait, just not every day. A bass only needs to eat once a week once the waters dip into the low 50's. The key to finding bass most of the year is staying on the baitfish, and winter time is the easiest time to track shad. Second part of this is, it very normal for bass to be suspended in the winter, and cranks can be the easiest to keep in that zone. Duece72 is dead on also. Matt.

BASS did away with the net not to long ago. Not allowing the net in the boat does two things for me. One, If I was a co-angler, I didn't decide to fish to be a net man for the pro. And they expected you to help net their fish, which to me, eliminates the principal of the tournament, you and the fish!!! Bass fishing sport or not? I'm not here to debate this, but, taking the nets out of the boat made it more atheletic friendly. I have seen lots of guys who can not manuever around the boat very easily due to being "out of shape". The net was the easy way out for them. If your over weight, hate to bend over, can't get up and down, the the FLW is your place to be. Get the NET!!!!!! That bass that just got slung into the boat, well it was hidden on the back side of a log. When the hook was set with braided line, its head was peeled off the trunk to begin with, has a sharp hook embedded somewhere in the body. So its okay that a fish is snagged in the body, keel hauled over a log, and you guys talk about bass that are slammed. The rest is okay with the sport up until its landed or how its landed. We won't go into a fish being sought after when its bedding and trying to reproduce off spring we claim to have passion about. If your gonna have some ethics, why not have them all!!!! I'm all for lipping bass, no nets in tourneys, it just puts atheletics into the equation. Matt.

I appreciate your honest opinion, its been debated before on the catch rates when using swimbaits and the number of bites one may get. Needemp, It takes a special kind of person to be dedicated to throwing a bait that may yield one bass in a month. Can you imagine a guy who is used to catching 20 bass a day that ties on a swimbait and chunks that puppy for 2 weeks out of a month and gets nothing, yet doesn't wavier or quit his pursuit of lunker largemouths. It takes a special person, and the right mindset to go weeks without a bass, but when you get that bite, the feeling of accomplishment out weighs the non productive days. I also agree with part of the statement about 7-8 lbers in Northern waters. If your state only produced a few of these a year, then that surely is a trophy in your region. 25 years ago in Texas, an 9lb bass was a trophy, but with todays standards, I kinda feel that 12 lbs is the bench mark in TX. A day of bass fishing of any kind is better than a day at work. Matt

TPWD have done enough tests. Their finding do not agree with all that is being posted. Numerous species of fish can transmit the virus. Not just a livewell problem or captivity isssue. What I saw in 1999 on Lake Fork was not due to any tournaments. First off, on Fork, you could not keep a fish that was 14-21 inches, and only one above 21 inches then. The majority of fish killed were in the slot and up. It was not the 14-18 inch fish, the normal tourney stringer size. These bass, that numbered up in the thousands was 7,8,9,10's and up. Some smaller bass, but compared to the toads, we lost around 10,000 bass 7 lbs and up, and that killed this Trophy fishery. It was down played by locals, after all, thats the only living they have. You figure any tourneys on Fork, the majority of livewell fish would at least be 4 fish under 14 inches, and the LMBV attack on Fork had nothing to do with little fish that would have been caught in Tourneys. I do think all anglers should clean their livewells out with bleach or other approved agent after each use to kill any bacteria's. Its not just tournament anglers who use livewells, so all anglers should do their parts. Unless there is some new breaking news, LMBV still leaves biologists to scratch their heads. They have figured how to identify it, and test for it, but haven't figured out how to stop it or where it will re-appear. So far, each lake to have had the one time virus has not seen it show back up Matt.

Ike could retire today and still have accomplished more than 90% of the guys who have come and gone. BassCats may not be popular in the north, but are one of the big 5 boats to have in the south. When it comes to Bass boats, the easiest way to look at how good a boat is made, is by the resale values. Skeeters, Tritons, Rangers, Champion, and BassCats all have great resale, sorry, I failed to mention Nitro. Maybe the new Nitro in 2007 will change that. But not even KVD has boosted Nitro sales. He's pretty well liked too. I will agree, I don't consider whos in what boat when considering boats. My first priority is in the livewell systyem, and if you haven't ever seen livewells on BassCats, and thats not just in past few years either, BassCat has some of the deepiest and spacious livewells being made. The next factor is the hull. BassCats may not be as fast, but you can bet, their keel is one of the strongest out there, the boat feels like a tank in rough water, and that means stability. BassCats will sale because they flat out make great boats. Congrats to BassCat and Ike. Matt.

Only 70 were to qualify from 2006 elites. The other came from other form of qualifing. 2007 Elite field is supposed to be 100. If some of the guys decided not to fish the elites that did qualify, the 38 guys who didn't qualfy are given opportunintes to stay with the ELITE Trail instead of re-qualifing. I'd be willing to bet, that the ones who could ante up the $55,000 in entry fees are the ones who are in. I think that some of the wild card finishers just couldn't afford to committ, so the next in line on the list got a chance to step up if they had the money. Matt.

This time of the year, I like Green Pumkin pepper with the tails dotted with a garlic marker in chartruese. Brushogs are fish catching plastics. Matt.

I kept waiting for that window where the light came on to open up and pull the deer off the roof. And a quick reply, thank you Santa. Matt.

I asked that because I have never thought of a record of such to be in existence. Just surprising. With all honesty, I'm sure my dad has or would be very close to that number. I witnessed my dad on the Devils River growing up catching 100+ bass days on the River every summer in the late 60's. My dad was throwing nothing more than a white shyster. My sister, using a crappie rig, two minnows, fishing the same river, has caught over a 150 bass without moving in a day on numerous occassions. My dad was football coach and High School principal, so he always had the majority of the summer off. I know he always judged a good day with 100 bass and a great day when he hit 150. The Devils river runs into Amistad near Del Rio Tx. Thanks for info, I'm a southern guy who has never heard of this guy until the post. Maybe a trivia question some day, you never know. Matt.

I'll add a few more that comes from both sides of the road. Chrissy Hyde- The Pretenders Jeannie Pruit- "Satin Sheets" Tanya Tucker Pam Tillis and MIss Bonnie Raitt. Matt.

Where would you find records like that to be kept? Is that a Guiness record or what? How would you cerify a record like that? Would you have to video each one, or have a witness (es)? Matt

I think Ike got him a very nice ride. BassCats are manufactured as good as any bass boats IMO. Matt.

When one expands his vocabulary, does that include spelling? lol trimes!!! Matt.

In all fairness to the messenger, in Texas, the TTT, BFL also has not had full fields. Its not just BASS and the ABA having problems. And its not just in 2006. We have so many avenues to fish in Texas, what a wonderfull opportunity to fish any one of these trails. I would like to know the actual numbers over the last 2-3 years to see for ourselves the numbers that are dropping. What you call fact maybe only covering a couple of districts. What actual facts can you bring to the table? Not opinion, but facts as you say. Matt.