Matt Fly

Glenn, just when you think you surfed all the info on your sight, I found who I was looking for, which was Mr. Hope. TY Matt.

This should give you enough research to get you started. http://bassresource.com/fish_biology/about.html Matt

We have had numerous threads on Trophy Class bass hunting. Shallow or deep, territorial or nomads, feeding habits horizontal or vertical. John Hope tagged and tracked large bass in several Tx lakes. His finding are very key in the mindset of patterning Larger Bass. http://www.bassresource.com/fishing/hope_chronicles.html http://www.bassresource.com/fishing/tracking_trophies.html http://www.texs.com/hope/tracking.htm

This is the guy I'm looking for I think. He has caught and tracked big bass on numerous Tx Lakes. Used telemetry to track the basses every hour of movements. No he isn't the one, but did find what I've been looking for here on the Forum. Imagine that, I've been looking hard everywhere else and didn't think to look in our articles section. BFR is always full of surprises and great info!!!

In-fishermen is okay, perception was always associated to northern fishing. I also found his myths thread and others.

Been reading articles again from Richard Mann. Can't find his background out. I have numerous articles I would like to post. Good food for thought and discussion. Most seem to like the In-fishermen, and he has written for them and others. Any info on Richard, likes or dislikes?

http://www.tpwd.state.tx.us/spdest/visitorcenters/tffc/budsharelunker/archives/lunkerdetails.phtml?fishid=397 Only 3 more to hit magic #400. The picture hasn't been posted yet. 13.2 lbs. I believe the same waters produced 2 last year. I will check on that. Nope, the year before. In 2004, Jan. 29. Richard Mims of Laredo landed the second Budweiser ShareLunker of the 2004 season, a 13.08-pound largemouth bass pulled from Lake Casa Blanca. Mims' fish easily surpassed the current lake record of 9.38 pounds, which was caught in 1989. The big fish was 25 inches long and measured 21.5 inches in girth. Jan. 31. Richard Mims boasted his second Budweiser ShareLunker from Lake Casa Blanca in three days. Mims became the first person in the history of the ShareLunker program to land two fish bigger than 13 pounds so close together. His new lake record fish weighed 14.64 pounds and measured 26 inches long and 22 inches in girth.

To say KVD would win every gold medal is out there, he doesn't win every event he fishes as it is. As a sport in the Olympics? Not gonna happen, it would open a can of worms. If it was allowed, then when does crappie, catfish, carp, and other fresh water fishermen get there chance with their species. Seems more like saltwater would be easier to accomodate olympics venues than fresh water bassing around the Globe. If it was an Olympic sport, combined skills challenges would be the way to go. Boat handling course combining speed and accuracy. Points for accuracy in pitching, flipping, roll casting, and distance casting. Catching fish, weight is total points, twenty pounds is 20points. I know it takes alot of physical efforts to fight 4ft swells for 3 days straight with no timeouts and 9 hours continuous, even without a single cast. It brakes you down. How would you like to be the camera man without a windshield? ever!!! Without any timeouts on holding the camera up all day in rough weather. This guy isn't called and athelete. He sure earns his pay.

If you spend half the year pursuing fish for pleasure or money, both. A log can be anything useful to that days failure or success. Date, time, place, conditions like wind direction and speed, barometer steady, failing, or rising, water clarity, baits used, fish caught, size of catch, catch rates, Lake level, dam gates open, closed, weather above, cloudy, sunny, storms. Basically, any piece of the puzzle that might help you when you come back, or same conditions at another lake you haven't been to that might offer some insight on. I try to remember trolling motor speeds, on my lowest setting, we caught 10 on that run along the shallow bank, while another time yeilded only two bass, but trolling motor was set higher, thus maybe my trolling motor was to loud in the shallows that time. How was your tackle rigged? 8lb test, 15 lb? 1/4 oz rattle trap or 1/2oz? I caught 35 on a 1/4oz trap bite, but only 6 keepers, I caught 16 on 1/2oz, 9 are keepers. Its unlimited the notes you can keep. Boat traffic that day vs pleasure craft. Last time I shut down 100 yds away before entering my target area and had these results as opposed to shutting the boat down at 50 yards the next time. Hope this helps.

JT, What do you call famous? I've googled lots of info on fishing, and your name pops up alot, not to mention here on the forum. Your famous to some of us!!!! Matt

http://mdc.mo.gov/kids/out-in/2001/02/2.htm How a bass swims.

Wind blown launch ramps in the summer offer lots of evidence as to forage. Theres alway growth on the ramps that draws baitfish to the ramps, ramps are smooth and easy to seine or throw cast nets. Watch for the type of birds flying and diving, if they are diving on shad, you will see some shad hanging out of the mouths of the birds, and its not hard to tell if they are shad. Gulls follow whites alot on our lakes, the gulls key in on threadfin shad mainly, but have seen a gizzard shad toted off a few times. Certain birds have feeding habits that feed on bait, some on larger fish. Does your lake have stripers or whites, there is an indication with stripers, that gizzard shad may exists, stripers are some of the game fish that will target a 1lb gizzard shad. Doesn't mean that threadfin or elywes are not stocked. One of the primary reasons stripers were added to Tx waters was to thin out the gizzard shads. Gizzard shad grow very large, and after a year, can be too large for smaller game fish to feed upon, thus gizzard shad became over populated on some bodies of water.

I caugt a fish that went 8lbs. It had three hooks already in its mouth, two with leaders of 12 and 18 inches. One with no line at all, and my hook. Two hooks had no redness, they had the most errosion of the hooks, one appeared to be recent. All were in the top portions of the mouth. Used needle nose and removed all hooks easily. I think it takes longer than a month or so to erode the hooks out. Quality of hook, and size of hook will play major role in determining when the hook will errode. Both existing lines were at least 20lb test.

what other accessories will be battery? lights, livewell?

What is pervasive grass, what does it look like? Why? is it something that takes lakes over quickly? consumes oxygen?

Spoons and split shot small worms, small grubs on lead heads.

Rolo, I did go back and it was George Welcome who mentioned that, sorry, I was close, it was us three who continued that thread along mostly, again, I'm sorry. Matt

I know it was said, maybe not you, and thats okay. Some archives have been deleted because of the disagreements. It was on the studies done and my posts have been deleted in that topic. Sorry, not trying to offend you or anyone else. If you match the hatch in the spring, just what bait is that small? In the summer months, how big has the fry grown? not a gupy anymore. Rolo, think what you want, threadfin shad aren't the main diet in the winter, big bass seek gizzard shad, the bigger shad on our lakes, thus big baits. Thread fins go real deep to survive the winters. Also, if water temps drop to the low 40's, the first shad to die off are the newly hatched and the larger shad is what is prevalent. Threadfins or gizzards, so big baits are still choice for larger bass. Tom Reddington has been posting over a year here, and I didn't go back and read them. Check Tom's integrity out, his posts will attest to what I believe, so will most of other guides if you google search them. It may be bassackwards to you, but works fine for me.

Rock chalk man, your youngsters have been getting it together lately!! Too bad we don't have pictures like this on all lakes to explain patterns like spawn. Picture number 2 shows what looks like could be a channel with all the bends. You could say picture this as a creek channel cutting through the flats, the bends in the channels are where prestaging fish will hold until the temps get right for them to move up on the flats. That ditch, gut, channel may only be 2 ft deep, but its enogh to hold them there until the time is right. #3 looks like an old road bed that I would c-rig if conditions are right, if in a creek arm, another good staging spot for prespawn. Would be good time to have area club build brush piles and tire reefs and ask about stocking floridas with a catch and release policy on bass to build it back up again. Would love to have opportunity to build my own from scratch. Go jayhawks!!! Go Big XII, Marchmadness is not that far off.

Sorry Rolo, my experience shows me different, as should, we fish different lakes, different lake management, I think someone said most Fla lakes are natural and not as deep, where as all but one in TX are man made and deeper. We have different timbers, some wood in common, but different overall. Vegitation is even different, some in common, some not. If I followed the common rules as written, I would never make adjustments, and I know the same rules don't always apply to every lake the same way. I do agree on bass eating bass, male bass live on fry in the spring, but thats not the only time. I had a 8 inch dink on a rattle trap in crystal clear water on lake travis about five feet from the boat, as I started to swing the dink in, a school of large bass attacked the eratic small bass, thus hooking both for a short second only to end up with the 7.5 pounder instead. Tons of large bass after the chrome trap or small bass fighting erratic. I've caught large and small bass out of the same brush on the same day, during the same peroid of time. Rolo, wasn't it you that said pond and aguarim studies don't mean nothing unless they are done on big bodies of water? Yet you bring up a pond example when you put it down in another thread. Which I don't need a study to know most fish eat their own. George, if the forage isn't around, bass eat bass, even when there is enough bait, bass will eat bass. Why does everybody make cranks in baby bass color? I know I match the hatch later in the summer and baby bass is one of my meal tickets.

When one mentions schooling, I think open water bass, suspended and chasing bait. When one mentions an area or spot holding fish, I have caught every size out of a spot. Some spots are prone, or known for holding better quality of fish. Until you've fished a lake for awhile, you just don't know what can come from and area. Could be dinks, could be record. On Fork, in the fall, if your lucky to be in the right spot at the right time, you may see an area the size of a football field with top water schooling chasing shad. Bass going 7 plus pounds, hundreds of them. Ask the guides to describe this scene, your mouth drops, you just stare in amazement, forget to cast at them. Sounds like some one throwing bricks off a bridge. Most people get to close and that shuts them down, but be looking, theyll usually come back up 100-200 yds away. I always have a extra large spook and a rod I can cast a country mile on. My partners sometimes get upset because I won't troll close enough for them to get a good cast on them. I always say, have a topwater you can cast a mile with. The most large bass schooling caught in one run is 5, they all weighed 8-9 lbs. Didn't have time for camera, strike while the iron is hot, catch and release and cast. Richard McCarty, retired Fork guide and BASS pro, had 2 clients catch 16 schoolers in 20 minutes on spooks, not one under ten pounds. Your lake has to have the populations of big bass. If 5, 6, 7, are hard to come by, so are the double digit bass. Fork has the populations of trophy class fish because we have always had a slot, 14-21 inches to start, can only posses one fish over 21 inches a day, now the slot has been raised to 16-24 inches after the LMBV fish kill in 2000. Management has been the key, the restrictive slot, CNR, and the educating of anglers on how to properly handle big fish to ensure their survival.

Got mine at Academy for less than 20.00, it does what its supposed to do. Don't really see them used as much as they should be. Appears to be quality. hasn't torn up. The only thing I don't like is the bright color of yellow, which most of the time, I'm not fishing directly under the boat.

Anytime you have the time to use the trickle charge, which is 2amp, it will prolong the life of the battery. If I'm not going to be out the next few days, I will place a 1x4 under trolling motor bracket and let trolling motor run the battery down in the garage. Completely discharging a battery and re-charging it the next day has worked for me over 20 plus years. Just put trolling motor in the continuous run position on lowest setting and leave it be. I have never replaced a battery before it was supposed to be, on average, 5 yrs life. Thats better than my friends get. They tend to be lazy when getting home, they might not charge there battery for a week, or till the day before going out. That not good for a battery to set, It should be charges after each use.

It must be the taxidermist, I had mounted a 35 lb salmon in chicago up in the Fox lakes area for my wife, That sucker has some wear and tear from all the military moves on the fin edges, but looks like the real deal after 21 years. This mount means alot, I got it mounted in OCT 85. My wife passed away in Nov 85. Yes to replicas, it just wasn't available from that guy or to early before replicas became the way to go.

Coach, records are made to be broken, and I only hope to see the record broken that has stood so long before I die. I don't care if its caught by a crappie fishermen. A legal catch is a legal catch. Still think the best chance of a record comes from cali, Mexico, Fla, Tx in that order. Tx southern bodies of water would have greatest chance in my book just based on winter temps if Mexico and Tx wouldn't suck the water out of it so fast. Falcon on the Mexican side allows gill netting, no telling how many giant bass are caught and eaten due to gill nets. Falcon would be ideal if not for the water usage and gill nets.