bighed

Yes, you will be happy, happy, happy!

Summer time I usually fish in the lower part of the lake South of the 515W bridge and South of the 154 bridge on humps, points, and roadbeds. Any map or chip will give you the exact locations. Use your graph and if you see no bait move to the next. I like DD14's, DD22's, or flutter spoons although I have picked up some 6th Sense deep cranks that have a nice white/yellow bass pattern that I will be trying. The 14's and flutter spoons are for the fish that are activly feeding and up off the bottom. The 22's are for the fish on the bottom under the bait. Expect to catch magnum white bass doing this, please take them home. I fish week days so can't comment on the crowds. Best of luck!

I'm a Falcon rods guy but their deep cranking rod was not doing it for me. Bought the Duckett 7'11" deep cranker and like it a lot.

Your eye doctor can install your prescription lenses in frames you already have. Find what frames you like and buy them on Ebay if you don't have any. I saved a bunch going this route and the lenses are at least as good as the Costa lenses they replaced.

Thanks guys! Wonder if my wife will mind a new girl in my life, lol.

now I get to go visit my first grandchild! Call me a proud grampa!

The girl next door always trumps the Hollywood starlet in my book, ala Ginger and Mary Ann.

This may have already been stated but you really want some give when fishing a crankbait. A mh rod with xf action and line that doesn't give would likely result in ripping hooks out of fish on hookset. That setup is a TX rig, jig, or light flipping outfit.

The water you describe is my fav conditions for throwing a hollow belly swimbait. They are very good about coming thru the weeds easily, cover water quickly, and tend to attract bigger fish IMO. Fish it slow enough that it makes contact with the top of the grass. It would never even occur to me to use a crankbait of any kind.

It's a good time and you won't regret the effort put in to going. Get up early and be at the dock for the launch. Go eat breakfast and then head back to town for the expo. Spend most of the day at the expo taking your time, meeting the guys you watched on TV when you were a kid, finding deals on tackle, and learning about new products that will catch you more fish. Go to weigh in and see what they caught, head to dinner and then hang out at the hotel and find other anglers to BS with before calling it a night. Repeat each day and you will go home with great memories and lots of stuff. Oh, and by the way, thanks for your service! Look me up when you get there and I'll buy your dinner.

SCORE!!!

Trying to understand a bed fish is like trying to understand a woman. The fish's "mood" changes with so many factors. How long on the bed, eggs present?, weather, water temp, fishing pressure, how long since it was last caught, how many times has it been caught off the bed already, etc. A few generalizations I've gleened over many years of doing this around TX lakes are: stay as far away from the bed as you can while still being able to effectively fish it. Smaller baits are better than bigger baits. The more invisible your line is the better. No need to use a white bait or pink bait. Your line will show you where the bait is on the bottom. A fish that will not stay on or return to the bed in a minute or two is not worth the time it takes to catch, go find the next one. The longer you fish for one the less time it should spend away from the bed. If it doesn't move on, if it does stay on the bed begin contacting the fish with the bait. While there are bigger fish caught from beds from time to time, my typical bed fish from lakes with many trophy fish has been 2.5-7 pounds. I feel the odds of catching a giant that is not on a bed is much better than finding and catching one that is on a bed. My personal fav bait is a 4.5" robo fat tail worm, pumpkin with chart tail on a 3/16 spot remover. There, that's it, all I know hundreds and hundreds of bed fish later. Your results may vary.

Best of luck to all attending the Road Trip. Please post reports often as some of us would love to see what we're missing!

So if your not catching much, don't throw your fish back so you will continue to not catch much?

Not a believer in the spook the school theory. I've been on too many schools catching and releasing dozens of bass sometimes over a period of hours. Catts comment about Paul's record catch is dead on. In fact, I think I remember that he was sharing that spot with another angelr who was also releasing many fish.

I regret not coming to faith until pretty late in life. Could have saved myself most of the misery I experienced in the first 50 years. As above, please delete if this is deemed out of bounds

Several months ago I noticed on the bottom of a Cabelas recipt that there was a line added concerning Obamacare. It didn't indicate that there was an additional tax applied but that an amount of your taxes would be used for that purpose. Kind of caught me off guard because it did look like an additional tax until I looked closer. I don't know if this was just our local store, Cabelas wide, or an angry employee with access to the computer?// This was also about the same time my son who works there had his hours cut in half so as to be excluded from the new law.

For just raw, big bass catching, Falcon Lake a few years ago. First trip down there not knowing squat about the lake and had a 9 and an 8 in the boat in two hours and it got better from there. For best memories with dad, Lake Yojoa in Honduras where I was converted from a perch jerker to a bass angler at the age of 12. Most memorable with my son, Chandeleur Islands on the Islander mothership. Caught trout, reds, sharks, and jacks till our arms were sore. Wish I had written a diary to pass to my son of all the increadible experiences I've had on the water!

For cost of living comparison, my new, decked out 2600 sq ft home on an acre in a very nice area on the outskirts of Dallas, 2 miles from a boat ramp was $245k last year. Property taxes are 5k a year, electric averages $175 a month, trash is $15 a month, $60 for each car a year, $50 for a boat every other year, no state income tax. Many, many good lakes within a 90 mile drive including Fork, Texoma, Ray Roberts, Lavon, Hubbard, etc. The gulf is 5 hours away with great snapper and tuna fishing. I love it here but think I might feel the same in the Carolinas or GA. I'd love the hills and trees since we don't have much of either in my area. Would love Florida I think since I'd enjoy the sw stuff so much but not sure I'd fit in with the population to well. I doubt I'll ever leave since all my family is here but I think about it sometimes.

Roboworms

Man, a reply to this could get real long! Basically, welcome to bass heaven! We don't have much public land (shore access) in TX so that boat will be key to your experience here. You happen to be surrounded by great fisheries that crank out trophy fish at a high rate. Fork, Hollbrook, Quitman, Winnsborro, Palestine, Tyler, Pines, etc. TP&W has a free booklet available at most bait shops that spell out the regs. Some are a little out of the ordinary so best to read up.

I've seen mink and otters which is pretty unusual for TX. Saw a bobcat once that was wading belly deep in a cove at Lake Fork. Saw a manatee once down in the keys fishing from a dock for pinfish with Chad when he was about 8.

Love the feb classics. Hope they don't change a thing!

It's been over a year since I've been and the lake has chafed a lot. I will say baby bass pattern baits worked very well for us. Good luck!

Flying out Friday. Hope to see y'all there!