Keithscatch

I had Lake Fork Taxidermy do my 9.5lber and she looks excellent. Whether or not it is the exact same size, width, length is irrelevant to me. Why do I need the exact fish skin anyway? My memory serves me well and I will never forget that fish. She went back in the lake and lived another day. That plus the catch makes it so much nicer. I am not a hunter so killing a trophy is out of the question. I just don't see doing it. As much respect as I or we have for these fish it is then hard for me to understand why someone would kill this fish of their dreams. I don't even know what they cost anymore but when Lake Fork Taxidermy did mine they charged me $10 per inch. It is almost 10 years old now. I have moved so many times that I have broken a few pieces off of the fins in my moves but other then that it looks good. Go with a replica and you will feel better about yourself.

Nice catching indeed. That lake might be the top bass lake in the country right now???

In years past the only type of lure that has worked for me in these situations is a Silver Slab. Not a spoon but a slab. I am not sure what your Silver Buddie lure is but if it is not a Slab I would suggest trying that. In NOvember they used to be the best for me. Cast it and jig it and pop it like you would a worm. Don't let it hit the bottom if the fish are suspended up off of the bottom just jig it up and down and hang on. Try that if you see it again. One other thing, they might have been Crappie all stacked up like that. Just a thought

Thought this was a thread about Football

Raul, I will be right there with ya in Dec, Jan and February when our northern buddies will be either ice fishing, playing fishing games on Xbox or Playstation or ice skating haha. Isn't it great to live in a tropical climate? Those are cool pictures and one of these days I will have to make the trek down to Mexico to do some fishing.

Why do so many sites not allow Firefox to view these links? > > > > > It forces me to keep IE which I can't stand on my computer. Oh well, sorry for the rant.

Yeah I have used it here too. I guess that phrase is mine since as far as I know I was the first to use it. To be clear a Florida Special is a bass that is 13" or less. They seem to be the most prevelant here and thus the phrase "Florida Special" was born. ;D Other members who post here also post on the FloridaBassForum site. It was funny to see you use it. I have heard folks using that phrase all over the place now. I guess I started something with that haha.

lol, where did you first hear this slogan? Just curious. Because I first used that saying about 1.5 years ago on another forum here in Florida the FBF. I haven't been a part of that forum for a year now and I still hear folks using that term. I am wondering if you heard it there? ;D

Man only 11 and already trying to go out on dates. Do your parents know about this? Why not ask your Dad or Mom about this first. I am sure they would like to know what you are getting into.

I got this in an email and I don't care if the guy who is listed at the bottom wrote it or not. I liked what it said and thought you all would too. The embers glowed softly, and in their dim light, I gazed round the room and I cherished the sight. My wife was asleep, her head on my chest, My daughter beside me, angelic in rest. Outside the snow fell, a blanket of white, Transforming the yard to a winter delight. The sparkling lights in the tree I believe, Completed the magic that was Christmas Eve. My eyelids were heavy, my breathing was deep, Secure and surrounded by love I would sleep. In perfect contentment, or so it would seem, So I slumbered, perhaps I started to dream. The sound wasn't loud, and it wasn't too near, But I opened my eyes when it tickled my ear. Perhaps just a cough, I didn't quite know, Then the sure sound of footsteps outside in the snow. My soul gave a tremble, I struggled to hear, And I crept to the door just to see who was near. Standing out in the cold and the dark of the ! night, A lone figure stood, his face weary and tight. A soldier, I puzzled, some twenty years old, Perhaps a Marine, huddled here in the cold. Alone in the dark, he looked up and smiled, Standing watch over me, and my wife and my child. "What are you doing?" I asked without fear, "Come in this moment, it's freezing out here! Put down your pack, brush the snow from your sleeve, You should be at home on a cold Christmas Eve!" For barely a moment I saw his eyes shift, Away from the cold and the snow blown in drifts.. To the window that danced with a warm fire's light Then he sighed and he said "Its really all right, I'm out here by choice. I'm here every night." "It's my duty to stand at the front of the line, That separates you from the darkest of times. No one had to ask or beg or implore me, I'm proud to stand here like my fathers before me. My Gramps died at 'Pearl on a day in December," Then h! e sighed, "That's a Christmas 'Gram always remembers." My dad stoo d his watch in the jungles of 'Nam', And now it is my turn and so, here I am. I've not seen my own son in more than a while, But my wife sends me pictures, he's sure got her smile. Then he bent and he carefully pulled from his bag, The red, white, and blue... an American flag. I can live through the cold and the being alone, Away from my family, my house and my home. I can stand at my post through the rain and the sleet, I can sleep in a foxhole with little to eat. I can carry the weight of killing another, Or lay down my life with my sister and brother.. Who stand at the front against any and all, To ensure for all time that this flag will not fall." "So go back inside," he said, "harbor no fright, Your family is waiting and I'll be all right." "But isn't there something I can do, at the least, "Give you money," I asked, "or prepare you a feast? It seems all too little for all that you've done, For ! being away from your wife and your son." Then his eye welled a tear that held no regret, "Just tell us you love us, and never forget. To fight for our rights back at home while we're gone, To stand your own watch, no matter how long. For when we come home, either standing or dead, To know you remember we fought and we bled. Is payment enough, and with that we will trust, That we mattered to you as you mattered to us." PLEASE, would you do me the kind favor of sending this to as many people as you can? Christmas will be coming soon and some credit is due to our U.S service men and women for our being able to celebrate these festivities. Let s try in this small way to pay a tiny bit of what we owe. Make people stop and think of our heroes, living and dead, who sacrificed themselves for us. LCDR Jeff Giles, SC, USN 30th Naval Construction Regiment OIC, Logistics Cell One Al Taqqadum, Iraq We will never forget!!!!

Cool, what cute puppy. I had a picture of some lightning I took that was used on the news once. It was used on their website pictures.

Amazing what can be done when countless hours are spent perfecting it. Check this out: http://www.whc.net/rjones/USN/USN_team.html

Darn, Brighthouse Networks haha. I don't get the Water Chanel They don't even carry the NFL chanel so it looks like I am going to have to switch to Dish then. Don't want to miss any Thursday night games on the NFL network either. Thanks.

That is cool. That new channel also sounds awesome. I have never heard of it. What cable companies carry the Water Channel?

Question for you guys that get magazines. What do you do with them all? I used to get BM and Bassin and a few others here and there. My problem was and always will be having stacks and stacks of magazines laying around in the way, cluttering up everything. So I do not want any magazine now period. Thank God for the Internet. I can read all I want to read and not have a room full of garbage that I have to throw away some day. Plus, no trees where harmed in the Internet haha. Personally, I think magazines are a dying commodity. Being that I have worked in online publications for numerous years now I can say that printed materials have suffered set backs due to the electronic format. Now print will never go away completely but believe me it has already diminished and will continue to diminish over time. Heck, I hate getting newspapers because I have to throw them away too. That is just too much trouble for me. Give me the Internet anyday. ;D Oh, and the notion of not listing prices is a HUGE MISTAKE that has been going on for a long long time. Again my advertising background tells me if you are going to advertise a product then list it's price. Now if you are promoting your image only which many companies want to do then listing prices would be foolish. Look through these magazines and try to decide what the company is trying to sell you? Their repuation? Their reliability? Their low prices? Their selection and prices? Based on that and that alone should dictate if an ad lists their prices. Mistakes I see are ads that are pushing product and selection but withold prices. That is a shame because those ads are just like direct mail ads that are mailed to your house. How many of those ads that are pushing product list prices? I would venture to say all of them or a huge majority of them. Just what my experience selling advertising has taught me.

Roger: I agree with your choice of Al Lindner. In fact, all of the Lindner's have been a huge blessing to fishing. The In-Fisherman show was my favorite now it is the Lindner's Angling Edge show. I just love how they conduct a show.

Nice fish Steve. Was this from that pond close by you told me about?

One word of caution to all of you mudbug users. After reading all of this Mudbug talk I checked my tacklebox and lookie what I found, a mudbug. So it is in great condition so I am going to give it a shot this weekend. It is the green tiger pattern but more green like the frog pattern with a yellow belly and black stripes. One thing I noticed is the cheesy and I mean cheesy way Arbogast attached the hooks to the body of the bait. All he uses is a small screw eye that screws into a pre drilled hole in the plastic. That spells disaster in my opinion. So I also noticed that both of mine where loose anyway. 1 big momma and goodbye momma. So you that like to use these check your screw in eyes and what I did was put super glue on the thread and in the hole and screwed them back in tight. I feel a heck of allot better knowing it has glue helping hold these little screw eyes in. Also, they don't use split rings to attach the hooks to these screw eyes the hooks are connected right to the screw eye. It would be hard to remove the hooks if one wanted to upgrade their hooks. Anyway, Don, if I don't get any action on this Saturday, I will reserve it for ya. They used to be the deal way back when in Texas but I just never did much with them. Lots of folks love to troll these lures.

Nice ones for sure. I thought it ironic that you went out looking for hawgs on the swimbait (you did catch one on it) but caught the biggest bass on the lowly $3 rattle trap. Just hard to beat those traps. Good going.

More power to the Ted's in the world. But I have tell ya, if you came to my house at 3am in the morning and woke me up, I wouldn't greet you with a smile or grin. lol. ;D

Hey you do own a baitcaster

16lbs (Blue) 4lbs (Smallie) 3.2 (Striper)

This is an outstanding article on Shiner fishing by Hugh Crumpler: http://hughcrumpler.com/content/view/8/34/

30 min drive Matt? You sure lived closer then I did. I used to live in Lewisville so I was driving 80 miles one way to go there. But then again back then gas only cost a little over a dollar a gallon I think. Time sure have changed. Greedy OPEC saw the oil prices going down to low so they cut back on production to start the oil prices going back up. &%@##*$ Anyway, I have never seen March not have bass on beds overthere. In fact allot of bass are finished spawning by end of March normally. But you have to start way up in the West arm at the top of the lake or Glade in the upper east arm. But if they are not on the beds they will be out around the timber close by and still catchable. I prefer that anyway over them sitting on their beds. Andy, man your money is burning a hole in your pants ;D ;D Remember Fork is a slot lake. So if you guys do put a big fish tourney there you will have to abide by the slot. 16"-24" I believe. Anything in that size has to go back. But if you do a paper tournament then anything goes. What if we do a Florida VS you members going to Fork? Seems there will be plenty of us from Florida still here and we can compete against you Texans or Snow bird Texans for the week. We get to fish the Stick Marsh and you guys get to fish Fork. NO money just a bragging right thing. Sound good?

Thanks Ya'll we're off to a good start. Here are some follow up questions 1. What weight spinnerbaits. I'm assumming fairly heavy fished just off the bottom and vvveeerrryyy sssllloowwllyy. I like a 1/4 ounce in January as it is smaller and a 1/2 ounce in February. Johnson spinnerbaits are very effective out there too. So are Terminators 2. colored blades or the standard silver w/clear skys gold w/overcast?White is the best color I have used out there. Solid white. I fish shallow in the grass year round. Lots of fish hang out in shallow grass there. 3. How is the water visibility. I'm assuming it can get pretty muddy with just a little rain.Water color is usually pretty decent. When it rains hard the backs of the creeks will get real muddy. However, if there is allot of hydrilla back there it will help. I know one cove that is always nice and clear that time of year. 4. Is cedar the most common timber or is Fork SE enough that there are a few old pines and oaks. I spent a couple of years as a kid fishing Livingston and family farm ponds around Abilene.I am not sure what is the most common. But Cedar is not. WhiteOak and that area of the lake has allot of Cedar Trees but other parts of the lake have no cedar trees. I would guess Oaks would be the most numerous though I am not sure 5.What is the average water temp in Jan?Typically in January it will be in the mid 40's. Once it hits high 40's ie late January early February I will start throwing red rattle traps. That is a hard technique to beat at Fork then. 6. Last for now. What style jig heads and weights do you guys prefer. Most of my box are football heads for here in the west but they tend to hang quite a bit in the wood. I use very little jigs. But I have used Strike King Denny Breuer editions in 1/2 ounce. I always use half ounce. These are not grass head jigs just regular head jigs. Not sure what the official term is for them. The hard and fast rule for Fork is Black and Blue. That is a color scheme that you can't go wrong with. Another good color on the lake is Watermelon Red. Shane, sounds like you are going in January. January is a tough month to fish there. You won't get many bites. But you might get the one bite of your life. January was always my least favorite time to go there. Weather can be harsh then or sometimes nice. But spoons and slabs work good in January over road beds. Lots of people use slabs over deep structure like old road beds. such as the old hwy 515 for example. Also some people dead stick slabs real slow. They use 1/4 ounce size ones too. Just barely lifting it off the bottom. Or sometimes jerking it up a couple inches or feet. Depending on how the bite is. Since that is not my favorite way to catch fish I would usually scratch out a few fish hitting points and grass beds on spinnerbaits or rattle traps. Maybe a t-rig worm. If you can go in February you will do better though. Andy, man, I wouldn't get too cocky just yet. Fork has a way of making you rethink yourself. Like any lake it takes a while to get into the flow of what is going on out there. Just showing up even with advise doesn't always guarantee you fish.