Keithscatch

I was thinking the other day about this and thought this would be an interesting thread. So what would you say is your most impressive streak in bass fishing? Could be number of fish caught in a row? number of days in a row? size of fish caught per year? whatever you think. Here is mine: I have managed to catch a 7lb bass or bigger every year since 1996. Last year I almost blew it. North Florida was tough for me as I moved here late 2004. Well, back in December I caught and boated an 8lb bass to keep this string going. That was close haha. What is your best streak?

Thanks Matt. Also, my only chance at a ShareLunker came from this creek in December way back in 1996. I still think about that one that got away.

Nice editing RW. Russ, TF responded based on RW's post which has been edited. Had you seen his unedited post you might understand.

I just feel sorry for Shane who all he did was ask for some advise. Sorry Shane. I hope you see this before it is deleted.

Kent, First of all, I am not giving you this info. If you want other info I will be happy to help YOU. However this info was for Dry Heat. Maybe he can utilize this info somehow?

Shane, Too bad you can't delay the trip another month or so. Lots of BR folks will be down there then. However, February is an outstanding time to catch good bass. But spoons? They are used heavily in January out over deep humps. February the weather has started to warm up and the fish are beginning to stack up on points and creeks and in mouths of creeks waiting for their annual dance to begin. My favorite cove over there is White Oak. Birch is a close second. Luckily they are right next to each other When you head into White Oak there is actually 3 fingers to it. So it makes 3 nice points not counting the one on the north side of the cove on the main lake. As you are looking into the back of the creek the point between the middle longest arm and the arm on the right is real good. Fish this point with a white double willow bladed spinnerbait. Work this bank down about 100 yards then turn around and work it back out and around into the arm on the right. Work that bank on the left. It is a deeper bank on that side. Work it all the way to the back. Man there are so many things to key in on over there. This arm has tons of cedar trees that hold fish. They are predominantly on the opposite side of the arm. Hit those too. That first arm on the left and that big point is a good point to work. Use your jig in the middle of this arm on the left in about 6-7 feet of water hitting the tree stumps in the middle. Bass sometimes are on those stumps. The main creek in the middle runs all the way through this middle arm and has trees lining the edge in 20' of water. Those trees can hold some fish at this time too. When the creek gets close to cedar trees make sure you throw at those. Cedar trees hold allot of bass over there. That 1 creek can have you fishing in there all day. The last time I fished there in February was 2004 before I moved to Florida. I caught a 7lber on a spinnerbait on that first point I told you about and a 6lber on a jig on the stumps on the left arm as you are heading in. Red Rattle traps are also awesome then and they work best around hydrilla edges and you can find plenty of that on the main lake point to the north there and the secondary point dividing the left arm from the middle arm of White Oak. Basically fish the far left or north point as you head into the creek with a rattle trap. It is more open here with less stumps and more grass. Fish that all the way till the first big arm on the left. You will come to a smaller little cove that usually has some good fish around it too. Anyway, I hope that gives you an idea on one of the many arms on this lake. I will leave you with this. Points in February will hold more fish then anything else overthere. So hit as many points as you can find. The point on the right side of Glade past the E 515 bridge is an excellent point too. I had my best day ever on that point in FEBRUARY. 3 over 7lbs.

Carlton Sheets has been doing this exact thing for years. ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D

I'm not sure how that would work with you being in another country and all. That might be a barrier that isn't crossable. I doubt that it would be legal to ship live animals (fish) from one country to another like that. But you could contact www.myfwc.com and see what they have to say. They might know of international agencies that already stock their Florida strain bass.

Where you wearing your new mesh camo hat? Prayers for you that the Dr's do a good job and that you recover soon. Take care dude.

Hey BF, don't give up yet. Plan on going anyway and trust God that he will make a way for you to go out with someone on their boat. If you go to other forums in Texas and post up that you will be tyravelling to Fork in March and need a partner somone will come along and help ya by offering to take you. Believe me if you offer them the gas money for the day lots of folks would line up to take you. If I lived there still I would take you out. It is a cool lake and a fun lake to fish. It has lots of grass, lilly pads, trees of course and lots and lots of structure. March is a long way off so keep on holding out that you are going and see what happens as you get closer. Texasfishingforum.com has a partner finder section. Lots of people post there looking for a ride.

Well my nickname goes back a little ways to my personal life when I was dating this one girl. We would call each other nick names and I later began calling her my catch or Keithscatch. The name sort of stuck so I have kept it and I have used it on every forum I have ever been on. *note my name is not KeithScratch. I know it is tempting to say that. I use this as my email address also wherever I go and when I tell people on the phone what it is almost 50% of the people I tell cannot pronounce it correctly. They just somehow see an R in their somewhere ;D If I could spell it Keith's_catch I think it would help but apostrophe's do not work on these sites. Plus I like the version I use. Now you have the rest of the story Whittler, that is outstanding work. You have woodcarving skills. Bud, your wife paints awesome. I liked that avatar of yours when you joined and now knowing that your wife painted it makes it even better to me. I am also an artist and I sculpt, paint, draw whatever. The picture in my avatar is a rendition I painted of the second coming of Christ found in Revelation 19:11-16. It is an oil painting.

BF, just beware of your surroundings. There are Cottonmouths in that area and they roam around at night also. But if it is cold chances are you won't see any of them. But no reason to be walking around on the bank if you will have rented a boat. Just troll out into Williams cove there and fish the bank from the rental boat. One cove over Little Mustang is a good cove to fish at night. Lots of reeds around the bank that hold fish at night.

It is looking more and more unlikely that I will be able to go. Finances have been kinda low for me this year. If something changes from now till then I will certainly jump on here and say so. However, if I can't go or do go, I am all to happy to mark up anyone's map for spots that are golden in March. I know the lake is low right now so that sort of changes things a little. Perhaps Texas will get some good rain between now and then and fill the lake up a little. I would be nervous running the lake if it is 4-5 feet low. Stumps that were never an issue now are. So you guys that are not from that lake or area need to pay extra special attention. Every year I saw upside down boats or sunken boats during the spawn. All of them out of towners. It is an awesome lake that can be a blast or a lake that can turn into your worst nightmare. Be careful. So if I can't attend in person perhaps I can help some of you guys locate some fish out there. Bassfisherman, Yes you will need to buy the freshwater stamp. That was basically an increase in the license fee that Texas did a few years ago. Even residents have to buy those. Depending on how many days you will fish you might want an annual license. When I was there however, the way they handled their annual licenses was every license expired August 31st regardless of when you bought it. Buy it August 30th it expired the 31st. I am not sure if they changed that now. I think they did. If so, you might want to buy the annual non resident license. That way if BR holds this event 1 week earlier next year you wouldn't need to buy another license if you went then too. Just a thought.

Ahh Hmmm. I may or may not be able to go yet either. If so, I will enjoy meeting you and others. I would love to show you guys how to catch bass Texas style...

Have no idea, as I have never had to winterize my boats. Even when I lived in Colorado I would still use my boat every weekend. Just had to drive further

Guys, Think about this for a moment. Unless you have light coming from off the bottom of the lake shining up towards your boat what difference does the color make on the bottom of a boat anyway? White, black,red, yellow, blue, polka dotted, striped, shad colored (good one guys), Godzilla, etc.etc.etc. they all will be dark from the shadow of the sun.

That is correct. Talking, laughing, yelling make no difference. Bouncing, stomping, lids crashing closed, banging into stumps etc. send sound waves under the boat and into a fish's ear. Noise above not so much.

OW, We all have been there a time or two. Thanks for caring about your fish that you catch. Sometimes I wonder about some as they seemingly don't care. Anyway, all we can do is to try and minimize future gut hookings. Typically when worm fishing it has been said and I will repeat it here that you will feel 3 taps when worm fishing. 1) First tap bass picks up worm 2) Second tap bass spits out worm 3) Third tap is my hand smaking the back of your head for not setting the hook on the first tap. ;D ;D Pretty soon you will just about eliminate gut hooking altogether. Maybe not 100% but pretty darn close. I almost never gut hook bass anymore. It is a rare thing for me to have to cut a hook off in a fish anymore. Just set the hook sooner and you will be fine. Sometimes I even fish with barbless hooks which helps the fish even more. Good luck and keep at it.

Only Fish Chris could get away with the phrase "Only 14.2" Holy carp. I would scream if I had a 14.2lb bass

I'm not anal retentive like some of you all. I am the guy with the boat and sometimes when I tell folks to meet me at such and such time I arrive a few minutes late. If they are not there which most often is not the case I will wait for them. But like I said it hardly if ever happens. I had a friend in Texas who was late allot. He was late for a Skeeter owners tournament by 1 hour one time. I waited 10 minutes for him and went fishing that day anyway. I later picked his sorry butt up at the ramp and we had a bad day that day because of it.

I would highly recommend Jeff Kirkwood as a guide on the lake. Going with him will teach you a thing or two about the lake and fishing in general. Here is his website: http://www.fishinwithjeff.com/

Papa, while I do not have one myself I have always heard that those rubber nets are the best for the fish.

Nboucher You should most likely fly into DFW. Love Field is another option. Both are in Dallas approx 80 or so miles from Lake Fork. You will need a non resident fishing license. Other then that you will be good to go.

Man, Russ. A V hull is a horrible option for a small boat. One time I took my 20' Skeeter out in the Gulf near Pensacola. My friend was with me and we followed his friend out. We didn't go far but it was sort of rough. Anyway, we were sitting still as my friend was rigging up his boat. I elbowed my friend and said look at them. They were rocking around like crazy going side to side in the waves. he had a V hull bow rider style boat. Great rough water driving but stupid silly for sitting still. My boat was hardly rocking. It was so dramatic it was crazy seeing the two boats side by side. Point Cart and I are ma,king is your boat is not going to cut through rough water. It is suppose to be sitting still. Making a v-hull in any form will mean making your boat very tippy. There is a reason Jon boats are flat. It is to make them more stable. If making a v-hull that small was possible then believe me others would have done it by now. Plus, adding a deck on top means even more height which is more tippy then sitting down inside of a canoe for example. Imagine making a deck on a canoe. Now try to stand on that sucker. Whoopsy there you go. A tri hull makes more sense if you really want the look sideways at least of a bass boat. Personally I would make it flat till about the front then make that a v-hull. That way you have a good portion of the back that is flat and more stable and the front would be narrow and more v-shaped. Also, another idea for the decking is to make the top deck slide shut. You can have an open compartment in the middle. Just slide the deck like a sliding glass door over the decking in the front. Then slide it back to lock it in place to make a 1 piece looking deck. That would give you dry storage and lots of places to fit tackle etc. Cool idea but loose the V-hull idea. Not a good plan if you ask me.

Good-Aye Mate Welcome to the site. Couldn't resist the cheesy Aussie popular term. I have had friends over the years who were from Australia. I would love to visit there someday. Triton's are nice boats. They take some time getting used to driving. They are not the smoothest ridding boat, nothing like a Skeeter. But I have a MinnKota 72lb Maxxum. Under normal conditions it is a good TM. However, when I first started using it I was fishing a lake with stumps everywhere. In stumpy water I do not reccomend them. I have busted mine from crashing into stumps. The spring deal is a joke and doesn't make the shaft snap out of the socket like it is suppossed to, so when you hit a stump going forward it will force the shaft up against the hull of the boat. One time it literally ripped the base mount right off of my bow as it rolled the shaft up tight to the hull. I like the Gator mount setup that Motorguide uses far better. It will bend and absorb those shocks. However, the minnkota is a quieter motor then a motorguide. At least as far as I can tell. Plus, I like the slow starting ability of the Minnkota. It doesn't lunge forward it ramps up so as to gently move forward. Hope you enjoy the site and post up some pictures of your homeland for us sometime.