Matt Fly

If you look at all the land surrounding the lake, there are numerous types of woods that get left in the bottoms of the lake. I use a mixture of woods to make brush piles. First off, a cinder block from home depot cost about 2 bucks. A sack of sacrete that is 80lbs cost less than 3.00 or close. I use the 1 gallon plaster buckets, one bag makes 7-8 weights. I buy the roll of wire, just like bailing wire for 2.98. I cut coat hangers and make the eyelets to tie off to. Turn them over and tap out, and re-use the bucket another time. Xmas trees are a great start, they are dense and allow smaller bait fish places to hide easy. The hardwoods such as oak don't deteriorate as fast as soft woods do. I love to use cedars, just like Xmas trees, willows, and hardwoods all together. Graphing out key features that fish normally transit is key in placing piles. I also like to take the brush as it is cut, before the leaves dry out, in the summer, those leaves offer lots of shade, and the dried leaves will blow off enroute to the lake unless your already close. If your in an area that has good populations of bass already there, it doesn't take long for them to start holding on the brush. Older lakes that once had timber is now aging and rotting, adding new cover only improves habitats. Giving the smaller fish places to hide only gives them better odds in surviving. Hookem matt.

Normally in the areas starting to turnover, the fish suspend that are deeper, and the shallower fish put their nose up against a tree trunk, bury up in the grass, another words, its a tough bite. Matt.

Saw the thread and was gonna post the same. Matt.

There are a ton of places that won't be overbooked, thousands of camp sites with showers on premises also. Praying for good weather for all those that shows up. Hookem Matt.

Superstition? You can say all you want to about having lucky hat or charm. Fishing is in the mind, if you aren't in the zone and concentrating on the tougher days, your gonna miss some. If you left that lucky hat on the table as you left, your mind isn't gonna be right. Its mental aspect. If wearing a red hat gives you confidence, your more apt to be mentally focused. I love a pint of chocalate milk on the boat for early mornings, it sets heavy on my stomach, thus not getting hungry. Forget that chocalate milk and I'm more apt to be thinking of hunger and miss some bites because my mental aspect is not in the game. Don't care if they are charms, candy bars or drinks, forget something that is normally part of the trip and your game can be off due to mental aspect. Matt.

Most lakes get clearer as winter set in. The denser water doesn't allow for mixing, thus lakes get clearer as winter sets in. You take that same bass that sees 5X farther, put him in muddy water and he doesn't see 1 ft. Clarity has every thing to do with how far a bass can see. A lake will normally have the clearest water of the year in winter. To catch bass, you need to know about bass: A bass's eyesight is excellent, and is absolutely the most important sense it has. Without eyesight, a bass would have a short life span. It is the dominant force used for seeking and selecting food. A fish's retina is made up of cones for color vision and rods for black, white, and shades of gray vision. A bass's eyes can receive up to 5 times more light than a human, and this allows them to distinguish shapes, sizes, movement, and color patterns that the human eye can't, even under varying water clarity and light conditions. They do not have lids, but are able to change the shape of the eyeball to varying conditions of light. They have wide field vision, a full 180 degrees for each eye. Bass's eyes improves with age, and will continue to grow throughout it's life. Bass can see color, extensive experiments have been done on color and bass perception. Yellow and blue are both less distinct than other colors. Bass see red and violet best, and green second best, but they can discriminate between all colors. Remember that water acts like a pair of sun glasses, it filters out some light naturally, thus why we wear them fishing or in general, why outdoors period. Hookem Matt

KVD has truly been an ambassador for BASS and the sport. You couldn't find a better representitive of the sport anywhere else. KVD is humble at best. Matt.

Welcome to the forum. Matt.

Goodbye to the Yankee's. Couldn't buy this championship this year either. Hookem Matt.

Transition and lake turnover has started. Smell gives it away, if you nose isn't sensitive, the brown stain and brown foam bubbles gives it away. Should pickup soon. Shad have started to migrate to the backs of deeper creeks on most east Tx resorvoirs. Cranks would be ideal to target the suspended fish during turnover. Hookem Matt.

I like Bud Light and OP, OTHER PEOPLES that is. If its free, I'll drink it, if i'm in the mood. OP is my brand, other peoples food and beer, can't beat the price of free. Hookem Matt.

The learning curve for avid bass anglers now days has been cut in half with the tool of the forum and computers. Throwing them and learning is a big part, but getting first hand knowledge given to you at the stroke of a key is certainly an option that us casual tournament fishermen didn't have, nor pleasure fishermen have in the early years. Do you think Denny Brauer would be a different kind of angler if he was just coming up on the tour today? When I think of Denny, I think jigs mainly. Lures and baits are basically the same designs. A creature bait is a creature bait, a crank is a crank. What has really changed, is the number of ways to fish a bait and the number of ways to rig it. Hooks, weights, lines, and terminal tackle have come along ways. Very nice thread Chris. Hookem Matt.

All this talk about americans wanting to hurt other americans by boycotting was alittle to early. *** annouces today that BASS said Citgo is a forgone conclusion and is mentioned no more as 2007-08 sponsor. I had faith, and knew they would do the right thing. I still don't and haven't been a customer of Citgo products directly. Matt.

You think Citgo is the only gas station is the US with possible ties to terrorists? OR HAS PUT THE BAD MOUTH ON THE PRESIDENT. I keep it simple, because I haven't seen any press on Chavez's link to blowing up soldiers yet. I know you will provide those links for me as you have claimed to have knowledge of. I think there are convience stores and all kinds of forgiegn run business that funnel or launder money for terrorists in america. 42% of our oils are currently shipped in, 3 places where we get our oil is from Africa, Middle east, and South America. Pick your poison, which one? I see the big picture, I have been to the big picture in the sand on more than one occassion. Which money trail do you want to chase first? You assumed and that is wrong on your part for what I know and print. You can assume you have the big picture in grasp, but others on here who have been members awhile will tell you I don't carry and empty chamber when it comes to printing facts. I love intelligent debates, so please keep it civil and intelligent. I'm a new grand pa and trying to mellow with age, please help me achieve this easy goal. Matt.

Fished Texas, Cali, Ms, Fla and other states that didn't make the cut. All those states offered some very nice bass fishing, each has its own quirks. When I was in Cali, you pay to fish those So cal lakes every day with ramp fee, park fee, and fishing fee, and can only be on the water from sun-up til sun down on the majority of them and some days they are open only to skiing and not fishing. Figure out which days. Great bass fishing overall. Ms, has some big skeeters, lots of hummidity, good stringer bass fishing. Lots of soup to fish out of, but off colored water was good for my jig bite. Fla, I found so many little lakes to fish that offered so many choices on how to fish them. Took me six months of bank beating to figure out times and habits of those bass. Always managed to catch some on most trips, but numbers and quality didn't come until I gained some experience. Good size and numbers if you know what your doing, and I didn't at first. I had the opportunity to fish lots of states and countries due to my lengthy career in the military, and I never travelled with out tackle. I fished Mn, Mo, Ok, Wy, Ill, La, and ark. To vote Tx would be biased because its my home, born and raised. Keith, you know about Texas. First off, I have seen some scenery across the states, truly god's country all over. Cali gets my vote, one because Hodges back then was a replica of lake Fork in that it kicked out as many 9lb or larger as did Lake Fork, in the 80's, they were rated #1 and #2. Cali gets my vote because what I came away with. I had to put bullet weights up and learn to down size and split shot. In a nutshell, from 1980-1994, in Cali, I learned to finesse fish. Didn't like all the fees, didn't like having lakes closed to fishing and open to skiing only on some of the weekends. When times are tough, I can get bit by going lite-line and spit shotting. Cali has some great lakes for numbers and size, and some great lakes for quality and less numbers. Take your pick, numbers or giants?. Texas gets the overall nod because of the numbers of lakes in Texas that offer super bassin. We don't just have 15 lakes that produce teens, we have 50 or more that produce teens on a normal basis. One time state license fee, public ramps on 95% of the lakes, and fishing at night is legal unlike the majority of cali lakes. Texas has lots of lake owners which is boat dock city. Again, the so cal has no lake owners on those lakes, which means no boat docks. The winter up north kept me off some the lakes, I did experience some of the best fishing up north for other species. I learned to fish for Coho and Kings, what a blast. hookem Matt.

Lane, Placing the fish vertical allows the gas to travel upwards naturally. While the needle is inserted, are you going to allow the fish to sink while holding its jaw? Or are you gonna stick the fish and pull the needle and see how the fish does? Hard to tell what the fish is gonna due if your holding the fish as you implied while venting gas to see if it sinks while someone is holding the fish at the same time. Tim is a very good federation representitive. He has been working hard in TX for our missing funds from the state that we have been charged the past two years. I look forward to his video, it should help lots of anglers save lots of fish in the future. matt.

The japanese, who owns 7/11 have had 20 year contract with Citgo, that 20 years contract expired sept 2006. Business end of it got better offers from other suppliers, its business and nothing else. We get oil from Middle East , Africa, and South America, nothing good to say about any of the foriegn suppliers. They all have opinions of Americans and our President. Matt.

The fish is held vertical, that makes the straw and needle vertical in the mouth. simply push the fish under water to watch the straw for gas expelling as it is submerged. It will be bubbles that are seen. Most of the time, this procedure is done at a few weigh-ins now and is becoming a newer method of choice as to laying the fish on their side. Less at first is better, too much expelled gas makes for more stress. You can always stick the fish again if it still has trouble maintaining neutral bouyancy while observing. 18 ga. needle can be inserted all the way without a danger of hitting vitals as long as you stay straight between the 2 crushing stones in the back of the mouth. Standard length of needle is inch and half. Although we use many different types in our hospital, the IM needle is inch and half and works good on bass and the mouth approach. Hookem Matt.

I was on this site for many months and didn't know that it had a youths forum for certain ages. I certainly appreciate what opportunities have come from it. I have personally met people from many other states in person that I call my friends. The biggest thing I have seen Glenn provide, is an outlet for the youths, can't think of another site that caters to the youths that I am a member of that does that. Keeping kids of the streets and giving them a place of their own says enough of the passion he has for "our site". Can't wait till my 3 month grandson learns about the net so he can meet the rest of the UBFR "FAMILY". Thank you Glenn and hats off to the "mod squad", pretty cool bunch of guys. Matt.

I don't pretend to be know it all, but I have never seen that approach from the anal area. The place that they say to stick them seem farther back than any article I have read. I can assure you some one else will be along soon and agree that the method used on that link is close, but farther back than most articles advise. The suggestion of going through the mouth is the method I now use and takes all guess work out from sticking the fish in the wrong spot. I will find BFR link and post. Matt.

Feast or Famine is a mind set. When you decide to throw one, its for a reason. I tie one on knowing that I might go awhile without any strikes, thats not famine, its reality that I expect. I also expect that when I do hook up, its a nice toad or better. I don't think 4-6 inch baits are true swim baits, they are average sized and DD 22 isn't much smaller. When famine is used as a term, I think of the 9 inch or larger baits as the true trophy swimbaits. I can take the storm wild eyes out, 4-6 inches, and have great success in TX on any outing, afterall, its a bait that 2 lbers slam easily. Its the larger baits that earn the feast or famine awards. The mind set is easy, throw something smaller and it appeals to all bass, throw something large and it appeals to a larger class, but not as many. I would not find it surprising to see some one catch 10 bass in a day with 4-6 inch baits. On the same note, I am not surprised when I throw an 11'' castiac shad all day and don't get bit, but the day I do, you can bet its normally worth all the days of throwing it. Hookem Matt.

As with any "sport", you introduce testing and someone has to pay for the testing, so if the promoters are gonna do so, money is coming out of someones pocket. Testing has become cheaper, but the more substances you screen for, the more it costs. 10 years ago before the new blood or young guns showed up and I would have laughed at the guys they would be testing. Rick Clunn was wearing a pony tail most of his early years, but that don't make him a druggie either. Polygraphs are common on my local trails, fact is, I don't fish a local trail that doesn't admininster them. One question that is asked is, "Did you consume or take any illegal drugs during tournament hours?" I have the same stance as I always do, if it detours one person from cheating or any other illegal activities, its working. Matt.

From Lake Fork Guide Tom Reddingtons last post in the Central loction. "Presentation Pattern: For those lunker suspended bass, deep diving crankbaits like a Norman DD 22 in shad patterns fished over points and through treetops works well for actively feeding fish that are suspended about 18' or shallower. For deeper bass, counting down a spoon or swimbait and yo-yoing it through suspended fish can be deadly. " A spoon in the fall when the shad schools are holding in the mouths of coves and creek channels are deadly and put numbers in the boat fast. Spoons are under utilized by most anglers. The colder the water, the easier they are to use, most days requires no movement, just let her set. Thats boring, but a no brainer. Matt.

Is this a knock off of the sweet beavers? Who is making this 420? I wonder were the 420 comes from also? LOL Hookem Matt

Welcome aboard Catt. Winter and jigs are like Xmas and presents. They belong together. Hookem Matt