bighed

I fished out of a Triton aluminum boat for a while. Loved the boat, big deck, tons of storage, easy to tow, easy on gas. Cashed a few checks out of it. In the end I couldn't stand the way the wind pushed it around. It was very hard to hold on structure in open water with even a little wind.

Standing on the back deck of the Southerner fishing deep water rigs out of Port Fourchon, La for tuna, saw a flying fish coming at me from about 25 yards away that hit me square in my chest and fell to my feet. I picked him up, lip hooked him and returned him to the gulf where he was quickly eaten by my first yellowfin.

Sorry, the short answer in no. I mean NO. Probably will be pretty d**n cold and pretty d**n windy. You are almost all the way there, so why not jump a smoker to Larado and have a day with a guide on Falcon? Ticket and guide will probably cost ya $500 but you will never have a more real shot at a double digit in your life. Have anybody in the family that would split the trip with you to bring cost down?

Owner 5/0 offset and peg a 3/8 bullet just off the nose. Flip into the thickest brush you can find. I like white for this. The baits don't hold up that well but get more hits than beavers, hogs, etc for some reason. Just wish they weren't so spendy.

New Tour 82 from TW. I'm pumped to get that old loud tm off the boat!

Wow, I could hit the Stroker rally at Nickajack and then an hour away be with the BR crew on Guntersville. Awesome!!! I'll make this one if at all possible!!!

BTW Big O, you made quite an impression on Chad at that BR dinner at the Hartwell Classic! He still talks about your conversation with him and he's still pouring baits and making molds like crazy!

Hey Kelly, good to see you are still around! Yeah, Chad's getting big, he's a senior next year and turning into a great fisherman. He actually kicked my butt pretty much every day on this trip. Sucks when your kid kicks you to the back seat of your own boat, lol! I guess that's what we hope for though! 5Bass how's things on the East coast? Still whackin um in the tourneys?

Goose, I'll give you a shout next time I run over to Carter or Bridgeport and u can join me. They are not to far from WF and have a good bite. It's an easy day trip. Usually catch um flipping jigs in the fallen timber and rocks. Bert

Hey Mike, yes we did meet on Fork a few years back. Good to see you are still around. I hope to return to Falcon the week of Thanksgiving. Probably the Saturday until the Wed. before turkey day if that would fit into your plans.

I don't get over here very often anymore but wanted to post up about an awesome Falcon Lake trip my son and I just returned from. To keep this short and sweet I'll just say we had our best luck on square bills, DD22's, traps, and chatterbaits from 6"-20' of water. Huge numbers of 1-7 pounders are coming shallow and are really are hard to leave to look for bigger fish. It took a couple days of flipping brush and not doing well to figure out the better bite was the crankbaits. Early morning there was a killer top water bite that lasted about an hour. Averaged about 100 fish a day after putting down the soft plastics. A few highlights of the trip were the 9.2 and 8.4 my son caught blowing away his PB. Made the trip totally worth the effort right there. Also huge bluegill and cats were bonus fish. Talking to the guys at Oso Blanco in the evenings was awesome too. Thanks guys for sharing info! A few things learned that might help the next guy would be: the heat will sneak up on you. With the wind blowing it doesn't feel like 104 out there but the dry air is taking the water out of you quick! We drank about a case of bottled wafer a day! Wear SPF50. Take more terminal tackle than you think you need, you'll loose a lot. I disagree about line size and that heavy line is needed. Our biggest fish were caught on 12lb mono out of brush while we broke off smaller fish on braid and heavy fluoro. Seems to be the luck of the draw as to whether the fish tangles you up bad or not. I feel certain that the better fish in this lake are aware of the line and also seem very sensitive to lure color. Chromes and whites and golds in cranks were the winners while various bluegill patterns and such were bit less. Oso Blanco just barely makes my minimum for a fishing trip, roaches were huge, room was dirty, and on and on. Didn't have a bad meal anywhere and the chicken fry with cheese at the steakhouse was awesome. Also like Aqua and Maria's for breakfast. Repack your wheel bearing before the drive. Found one failing on mine that would have left me on the side of the road. Take your gas card! I burned 5 tanks in the Duramax driving Dallas to Zapata round trip and the 60 mile trip to the state park every day not to mention gas in the boat. Oh, and take an extra hat, cell phone, and Mustang recharge should you fall in the lake,lol!!! Thanks for reading, here's a few pics: Dawn on Falcon, top water going OFF!!! Uploaded with ImageShack.us Me with a 7 Uploaded with ImageShack.us Chad with a 26.5" 9.2. Would have been huge(er) if it wasn't skinny! Uploaded with ImageShack.us Chad with his 8.25 Uploaded with ImageShack.us Got a few on swimbaits Uploaded with ImageShack.us Big A bluegill will take a trap! Uploaded with ImageShack.us

A fisherman should be careful not to assume that bass in deep water in the winter are near or at the bottom.

Yeah, hammered jigs 1/4-3/4 oz. Use a snap swivel. In 50 degree water they work great, no problem with too fast a fall all the way into the lower 40's. As an alternative, a drop shot fished vertically is good too. The fish don't seem to mind a boat over them when they are feeding.

drift or tm the boat across it and look at your graph. If there is no bait move on. If there is, fish it with a jigging spoon. Simple as that.

Great, we'll meet up then! It will be nice to meet new folks as well as see the BR crew again. Gene, can't wait to catch up with you! I love to have Chad around other tourny anglers, it really feeds his passion and gets him fired up ;-). See everybody soon. Bert

My 15 yo son and I will be there Fri-Sun I expect. If you'd like to meet up for a meal sometime over the weekend I'd be game. We're not local, actually from TX. Usually fish Fork, Texoma, Ray Roberts, and other shallow, cover filled lakes. Would love to talk bassin with someone who probably does it a lot different than we do. How old is you kid?

Tryin to shake the funk of a nasty divorce. Proud to be back!

Chad and I will be there all weekend. Can't wait, it's his 16th birthday!

It's my son's bday and were going again as we have the last few years. Trying to figure out where to stay close to the convention center. Any ideas?

For me it was my first yellowfin tuna. I was on a private charter out of Port Fourchon, LA and the only rookie on the boat. I was struggling, only catching a few small blackfin. Everything was going wrong, tangled lines, backlashes, etc. By 4am most had limited out and were laying down to rest. Out of the darkness I see a flying fish headed straight at me. It hits me right in the middle of the chest and falls to my feet like a gift from above. For those that don't know flyers are tuna crack, almost a sure deal. Picked him up and pinned him on and started the drift. Within 30 seconds I was hooked up to something that almost seemed mechanical. The pull on the 20 pounds of drag was was blistering and constant for probably 200 yards or more. Finally the fish turned and the battle was on. After half an hour of give and take my first yft was beating it's tail on the deck of the boat. The whole experience is etched in my mind forever.

Dang it, was in third at one point during the classic and checked again today and I dropped to 12th. Needless to say, I'm making big changes. As The Don would say, "YOUR FIRED".

The more I see and hear Ike the more I like him. I really like the way he treats his young fans and the energy he brings to the sport!

Btech, I don't think it works that way. BPS is probably Shimano's largest customer. IMO, BPS is trying to do a Sam Wall to them using their size to leverage lower prices which puts them at an advantage over their competitors.

My first thought was "who's that studly bass wrangler? Sure is a good lookin man!" Then I realized who it was :o :o JK, Gene. I think it's cool to see the BR name out there and will generate much more interest. Hope the space didn't cost too much.

This has nothing to do with kids. What youth program needs thousands of marginal old reels? This is about BPS's sales and Shimano's pricing structure. Daiwa and Quantum come out the winners in the fight.