Matt Fly

Obviously, Manny was not thinking at all. I'm tired of steriods and baseball. How about a new rule, cheat and your banned for life. I think the rest would take care of themselves.

You don't see them fished alot in Texas lakes either. Thats not saying there isn't fish in them or around them or bullrushes are not found in Texas. They are. Its just not the dominant shoreline vegitation in Texas. Another thing in Tx, we are now a very heavily populated state. Our lakes and resorvoirs are being pumped hard every day to support demands. Alot of times, when a lake gets below pool, those areas are no longer in the water for months, maybe years in some areas in TX. Remember, part of Tx was in a drought for over 10 years, and lakes 20-65 feet low, thus that vegitation didn't survive.

Would like to see results of this study. TP&W has said, "shocking double digit bass is a rareity". In all the years, I believe only one bass in the teens has been shocked to the surface. Saying two over 18 lbs would be hard to believe. Reason being, inorder to get a fish of that size would require more shock, and that could be lethal as per TP&W to smaller fish. There was a study with publlshed results from Sam Rayburn. That study would confirm that these big fish tagged and studied did in fact live offshore in deeper waters during the day and parallel the shore feeding at night and retreated to the depth before morning.

I'll add that Texoma is fed by the Red River. Has great smallmouth numbers as well. RW maybe able to tell you alot of good info on lakes that are just dammed rivers when they are muddied up due to massive run off.

Congrats, I wanted to wheel the 16 on a exacta box. But didn't make it to Lone Star due to weather. 1 dollar exacta paid 1037.

Actually, its only been 4 games that went to OT, but none the less, one of the best series I've seen in along time.

I was watching local station that had reporter there on the phone minutes after it happened..

Collaspsed about 3:30 ct

Footage now coming, Players scrambling to find other players, 50-80 injuried at this time.

Rookies, select veterans, all coaches were under the bubble along with news media at practice as storms passed through Valley Ranch this afternoon. No footage, just breaking news. Actually what TV cameras where there where under the bubble.

In our lakes, Mid june sets up a thermocline, Shad will seek the comfort zone, and so will most other fish. One of the easiest methods to determine shad presence is birds diving or the presence of Commorants feeding and popping up ever so often. Simply make a few passes in those areas. You'll see the balls of shad or schools. Mark their depth. Summer for us brings south winds and very few changes as high pressure dominate for about 3 months. That steady wind out of the same direction has stacked the plankton on wind blown point, under water humps, pond dams, treelines, maybe bridges or dams and northern banks. Now, take your topo map out, shad where at 18 ft, Find wind blown Structures that intersect at that depth and work them. Also, there are some road beds that parallel the new bridges, bait like other fish still use structure to set up on. A quick pass down the old road bed will usually give me the depth pretty quick for shad. Bridge pilings have algae growth on them, and boats going under plus winds/waves, help knock the algaes loose that bait fish feed on. Bridges offer shade and bait fish 24 hours a day. I can promise you this. If you found that fish move up to feed on a point in the summer at 12 pm, good chances are, you'll be able to set your watch on that pattern there for many many days cause the weather is stable and not changing like it does in the fall and winter months. You just need to keep fishing that point at other time to determine what shcools is up feeding. I have one long point/ridge on Fork, fish it around 11ish and you catch fish up to 3lbs on. Fish that same spot at 2pm and your lieable to catch nothing but 5+ at that time. Why does topwater generally last longer with cloud cover? Darkness continues to make the shad feel safe in the shallow water. I think it easier to learn the forage than to chase the green fish. Knowing both doubles your odds though.

I just remember having a canepole at an early age. My job was to catch some perch for Dad's Trotlines and the passion has grown from there. I was fortunate enough to have a father that explained the food chain in the outdoors and the importance of each living thing. Back in the days, I thought fishing and hunting was to help with the food bill. It was. I was pluggin (as he called it) next to my Dad when I was fixing to be a second grader. Growing up and camping, I thought I was being punished at times, my Dad always made us pack out more trash than was ours, and of course, I was one of them that had to pick it up. Dad always explained that each and everyone pulls his own weight and does what he can. I was lucky to have parents and family who all enjoyed being in the outdoors.

Every tournament, you see guys who whack em, and guys that don't. As a lot of the above replies covered the science part. The weather and such. Thats why on large lakes, you may have active fish in a lot of areas. At different times of the day. Forage helps determine those active times. I have mentioned that determining where the shad are in Texas lakes will determine those bites, and what groups of bass are feeding. Post spawn and summer will give you a steady dinner bell if you know what the shad do in those months. In Tx, shad seek the cover of grass late in the evenings, thus a better topwater bite, or shallow. In the morning as the sun peeks out, shad leave the grass, thus the morning shallow bite beofre the sun gets up, and then they head for deeper water. Shad will migrate from the shallows along the same routes that bass use. Maybe treeline, creek channel, ditch. Bass know the travels everyday of shad and no where to ambush them. Thus you have bass waiting mid morning off points waiting for the daily shad travels to the deep. Mid day, you have wind blown points that offer bass ambush points, deep humps, etc. Wind positions plankton, and plankton positions the shad. Not all bass reside shallow. Learn what thy baitfish do and you'll hear more dinner bells.

Its on the calendar.

Any milk, 1% 2% whole or skim. Even goats milk.

By chance, is your kill switch UN-attached or not working? Buddy had problem the other day, turned the key and everything powered up nicely except the motor wouldn't turn over at all. Turned out to be out of nuetral. I laughed, told him better than needing parts. He said he wouldn't be so quick to call next time before he checks the simple stuff out.

This is how I learned to decipher what was under the boat when I got my first graph many moons ago. I went to areas I knew exactly what was on the bottom for sure. Go to a swim beach area for medium hard bottom. Not familar with a Cuda, but first off, check where the intensity is set while in manual mode, ping speed and such. play with them while you are in one spot. Look how thick the black line is on bottom Find area with known soft mudd. notice how the bottom is portrayed, thick or thin? Keep playing with Auto and Manual modes to see the difference. Also, while trolling, I get next to or under the bridge while paralleling them. Note the speed of the boat as you pass a bridge piling, how many feet have you passed before it shows up on the graph. You can adjust the speed of the graph as well. This will teach you how far an object is from the boat you just saw on the graph. ie..... you passed a brush pile that appeared to have fish on it and you want to check it out. You'll know exactly where to cast behind the boat. Lots of people with transducer on transon assume what they saw is right there, when it really depends on chart speed and boat speed. It could 5 ft or 10ft behind the boat. I went to known rock piles, like the dam or rip rap from bridges, found known types of vegitation. By learning how they are displayed on your graph, you be reading bottom real soon. By learning bottom hardness, which is displayed by thickness on most graphs, you be able to see changes in bottom composition and such. The only time I have seen bass like muddy bottoms is in the winter, they seek shallow muddy bottoms sometimes cause it asorbs heat better than anything else in the winter as they like hard bottoms for spawning and such. Graph anything you know for sure. Learn what they look like and you'll have it down in no time. Nothing wrong with using Auto for awhile.

Rednecks are stupid enough to duck hunt in the winter up north. We know they fly south for the winter. lol Lets call them what they are, yankee rednecks.

Fish was on there lunch break. lol I'm sure there are alot of suspended post spawn fish on T Bend. I like to look at suspended fish as in-active fish for the most part. Sometimes you have to get them started. I still like ripping spoons for suspended fish. Once you get one going, the rest will follow suit some times. How far off the bottom where they suspended? What size of cranks did you throw? Sometimes size matters. Bluedbird skies and very little wind normally pulls fish closer to cover, And just cause the graph shows fish don't make them bass.

I like to glance at them in the spring for the first big wave of spawners that normally comes in when the temps are ball park for spawning. You have to remember, these charts are written years in advance, and don't take into effect of the passing fronts we recieve during those months. When its a cloudy all day. So for the most part, its during the spring for the spawn. I'm going when the opportuniity arises, even when it says POOR on the charts. Goes back to Rule #1, A Bad day of fishing is better than a good day at work. Anytime!!!!

The goal is to put fish in the boat. Do that and I don't think you'll care what anyone thinks. For some added confidence, Mark Menendez just won anBASS Elite event fishing out of a 17 ft G3 aluminum boat. By the way, Ike used a jon boat he modified into a bass boat to work his way up the Federation ladder. It can and has been done. Good luck

My roots come from family. My mom was a die hard basser. Made dozens of trips to Mexico in the 70's. If there was a bait monkey back then, he had my mama by the throat. My mother and father are the two most important people in my life when it comes to the passion for being outdoors. One of my favorite pros, whom I have never met would be Clay Dyer.

Heres some food for thought. When i fish lakes with red clay banks, I have seen crawdads that are reddish in color. When I have seen crawls in the grass, they appear to green or lighter in oolor. Think about life in the wild. When a fawn is born in Texas, it has spots to help hide it amoungst the spring flowers and other blooms. I see lizzards that change in color to blend in with trees. Alot of mother natures creatures that are small blend into their surroundings, so I don't think he's way of base with his opinion.

There is an Ex Cali guy who works for a Triton Dealership or did. His name is Joe Mazzurco, he used to own Western Plastics out there when i was in the Navy in San Dog in the 80's and 90's. I believe he works at North Texas Marine. He now owns Double ZZ custom baits out here as well.

Who has the boat and where in Dallas? is there a sight I could look at the ad on. If I did this for ya. I'd take the camera and post any pictures you requested. I'd climb under the boat as well looking at gel coat and such. Also would take the boat to another shop for second opinion if liked. Matt