Matt Fly

I never ever netted a bass, tourney or not. I firmly believe that nets are made better now days, fish friendly on the slim coat. I haven't lost a fish at the boat that I was trying to lip, with that being said, its gonna happen. It will take a huge bass for me to net one. And I wish nets would be banned from all tournaments. PS.... I didn't use a net on my budies 9lbs11oz this weekend on Lake Fork. I guess it gonna have to be alot bigger for me to get the net.

Thanks Chris, This is the type of info I'm looking for. know of any good books? Theres so much timber in east TX, and it all looks the same most of the time, just trying to broaden my "above water map reading skills" with out the map!

Mexico is the only place I know bass are being commercially gill netted. As for the Texas border lakes, the only thing that has appeared to hurt them has been the lack of rain for years. Mother nature has given us some relief last year. As for the pressure, Fayettville lake in La Grange Tx is hit hard by Houston, San Antonio, and Austin, it is a 2400 acre power plant lake, I don't think you can put more pressure on bass as it is done on that little lake. We still have 20+ fish days with 4.5 lb average or better. The boats are still lineing up after years of being open. Bass fishing is thriving in Texas.

Okay bassackwards, Like the original post. Can some one help me with the info on how to identify different types of trees standing in the lake. If I knew exactly which ones were birch, I'd be in business that day.

Last week while having lunch at one of the local marinas, one of the guides was having lunch with his clients, another guide stopped by and they compared notes, One guide told the other, "don't waste your time pitching to all the timber, just pitch to birch trees in 15+". The clients eyes got big, and they just nodded their heads up and down with smiles as to attest to this info. This might be useful to some, but what does a birch thats been in water for 20 years look like? For the first time, I had info I couldn't relate to or use.

45-55ft in the So. Cal areas and 45+ on Lake Travis in Tx. Gin clear water.

Not as long as it continues to be a multi-billion dollar industry.

North, Northeast Texas.

Raul and fishing associates, One area I would love to improve greatly in since moving to east Texas is being able to identify types of timber standing in the lakes. I want to know what types of timber grows next to or in the bottom creek channels, or a certain type of tree grows on hills, or in certain types of soil. I can identify alot of living trees, but have a harder time on dead trees. I feel by being able to identify visible standing timber would allow me to see a hump, creek or creek bend, or determine the depth, locate an underwater point, without having to graph it first. Any sources of info would help.

I'm new to the site, Found this forum by accident. I've seen the term "bait monkey" posted and wondered what is was. Please give me more on the bait monkey story. I have followed the TFF (texas fishing forum) in the past. Some info was shared. But area tournaments in North/north east Texas are highly competive, tournament anglers don't share much useful info. Thanks Raul, and to all of you who give my brain something new to diesect and diegest. "Knowlege is a waste if its not shared".

light lines are an advantage. 6-8lb when water is gin clear. try the above mentioned baits with a 12-18" leader and barrel swivel. or use 1/16th-1/8thoz split shots. a fininshing nail inserted into the worm body. or weighted hooks to fish the finesse baits. This is the way we fished the So. Cal. gin clear lakes. watermelon colors, albino, The key is to be patient allowing your bait to get into the target zone. we normally targeted fish in 30-45ft. When targeting the deep hogs, a swim baits has taken it share in shad colors.

10-15mins. What type of lure? What has been your target depth? If worming on bottom and fish are suspended on the graph its time to change. If fish are on bottom and your 1/4oz t-rig 7"worm aren't working, time to change, maybe a slow drop presentation like split shotting, change weight size. Maybe biting off an 1/2" to 1" of the worm, down sizing. Changing in slight color variation, from green pumkin to grn pumkin with 1/8" chart. tail, 1/4" tail and so on. Maybe a c-rig, With all of this said, it takes me 10-15min. to change, specially if i was there yesterday and caught'em and the graph shows them to be there again. If there not in the feeding mode, I'll try for the reaction bite. Thats what is nice about having a partner, one throws watermelon red flake, the other gold flake and so on till a pattern or color is established.

Raul, you are the man. I always wish for wind and monitor it at all week long. I like to know where my wind blown points, humps, and ledges are. Sure does take the guess work out of locating the fish.

The on;y thing left out was the types food source available. If you graph bait fish at 14', take your topo out and look at structure that intersects at 14'. now you can narrow the %water down even more. If that was a tournament lake coming up, I d ask those same questions everyday a week in advance to see what is changing. Wind is real important in the equation. It creates current, muddies the water on points some times, moves plankton, changes the barometer and positions the fish!!!!! If you can't find the fish, let the fish find you, Plant some cover, brush piles, You will create your own secret honey hole until others see you pulling fish from it. Find a point, creek channel, hump, ledge, any of these usually hold fish. Getting xmas trees donated and sunk in the shallows will allow some of the spawn to survive next year, maybe re-populate your lake with your help. you said it didn't have much cover. That can only change with a long drought allowing new growth on the banks or by sinking brush piles. good luck!

You have a great looking place to fish. You already know there are good keepers. One of the guys said go with a 1oz weight. I love matted grass. I use at least 1oz or 1 1/2oz. To be successful, peg your sinker with a tooth pick or get screw locked weights, this will keep the weight from sliding up and down and allow for penatration. I pitch, toss, throw my weight up into the air 10-20ft, this method will allow you to penetrate grass that is thick due to the water level dropping later in the summer that will cause grass to appear unpenetratable. The holes or pocket you can see, use a jig, jig, jig (grass and a jig are made for each other), or 10" worm, drop it down till it hits bottom, lift it up 6-10" shake it three times and let it rest on bottom for a few seconds, dupilcate once more and move on. Watch for the hit to be on the initail fall, watch your line for a slight movement and set that hook. Master the grass and you will catch trophy fish on a consistant basis. Jigs are good year around, but now until spawn is when I really go hog wild with jigs. In Texas we usually have a crawdad hatch in june. The jig/pig is the best duplicate to the crawdad I know. The jig bite gets better as cooler weather arrives, Bass get more protein out of crawfish, thus they feed hard on crawdads to fatten up for winter. PS. Use braided line in thick grass or 25#mono or better. Denny Brauer is the Jig master.

If you check out the pictures on the lower posting on lilypads/hydrilla choking out> You will see what a bass looks like when its in vegitation year around compared to the cruisers out in the open water. The first bass is dark, the second is black, black real black. I would identify those as bass who had lived in the matted grassy for awhile. 1month or longer.

The definition of a lake is: a body of water that is at least 2m deep and holds water year around. Acreage doesn't matter.

I'll have to agree with Texasbass1. If you fish thick hydrilla, you can tell which bass lives in grass year around by color. A dark looking bass can come from deep water and under the grass which goes back to" light penatration", grass bass can even have a little greyish on the upper sides of her bellie. Muddy or cloudy (light penatration) water produce the lighter color.

The bass has given you a clue. something isn't right. After the first few followers, you should make changes. lure color, line size and color, bait size, change retrieval speeds, baits too noisy. Solving those little puzzles in a short time makes for a real good tournament angler. Most guys don't make the changes soon enough or not at all. This is why the 10% rule applies. 10% of the fishermen on the lake will catch 90% of the fish. 90% of the fish are located in 10% of the lake.

I use fine point sharpies, and I use my colored garlic scent markers which works well. I continually mark my trebles with the red which adds scent, and no mess ever!!!!!

I use the palomar 90%. If you don't use some type of loop knot for the zara spook type baits, your not imparting the best action the lure has to offer. It takes less effort to walk-the-dog with loop knots. ie.. the flemish.

You didn't say what type of water you were fishing. pond, lake, river, small 5ac. pond.??? small bodies of water that do not receive pressure often have stunted growth with the potential to never have bass reach sizeable growth. Ya'll keep your buzzbaits in the tackle box. I throw mine when the bass at fork tell me to. Which is spring thru the fall, mornings, evenings, and cloudy low light days. Sometimes in the heat of the day. I strongly agree with backing off from 5-10' to 10-15,18' to search for the bigger ones. Whatever depth, fish deeper.

The biologist at Athens say "cut as much as you can reach without causing any further injury". I have caught a 7lber with 4 other hooks in its mouth not counting mine. 2 were pretty much rusted out, one had began to rust, the other one was fresh, still showed redness around the hook. This fish was very healthy and had plenty to fight about.

In texas, there is a jig bite year round. But mid july-feb is the best. Once the grass has come back (grown) the jig bite gets better. Jig fish can be caught year around, but there are better tools of the trade to use for the other patterns during the year. All will vary from lake to lake. Some lakes like Toledo Bend and Rayburn have good crawfish populations, knowing that in the middle of june there is a crawdad hatch may help throw a mudbug crankbait or pitch the ole jig. One thing for sure, the Jig is a big fish producer if the bite is on.

They each have their own purpose. Seasons and the type cover/structure of lake you fish will dictate what type of offerings to throw. I know a c-rig gets swallowed more than a T-rig and causes more injury to the fish. As for the size of catch. If, If you used them equally, you won't find much of a difference in the catch size.