My dad just left for work this morning so I will have an open seat if some one wants to go watch Sunday

They are still eating the fluke for me. Shallow & I see them eat it!

Shaneus I would be interested in the ride if you don't have it filled.  Let me know, Thanks

The weather is great & I got Honey-dos!

Catt, and others too, I keep reading and folks that I know are telling me that I need to join a club. They say I will learn a lot and get a lot out of it. Whats yalls opinion of this. To be perfectly honest I stink at finding fish, though I can usually catch them if I know where to go. Do yall know of any local clubs that I might should look at. Im not really interested in fishing for big money, though I wouldnt mind a reasonable entry fee or club dues or whatever.

 

I have a solid safe boat, though shes not pretty or fast. So I could be a boater, but I think I might learn more as a non boater. Would prefer the club focus on rayburn and Toledo, and I goess it could be anywhere between Beaumont and Lake Charles, Im pretty centrally located in Bridge City.

 

Any advice would be appreciated.

 

G

As far as learning, you can probably learn more off this thread than you could from a bass club because of the knowledgeable individuals who post on here.  That being said, the camaraderie in the right bass club can be very rewarding.  I have been in 3 different bass clubs, one at a time, since 1975 and have had allot of fun and learned allot. Some clubs fish individual weights, some team tournaments. This would probably be a large factor in your decision on which club to join. I have been in both and enjoy the team concept the most.

 

I am presently in the Cleveland Bass Club, and they fish the team concept.  We recommend the lakes we want to fish at the first meeting and the club votes on them. In years past, we have fished Raburn and Toledo Bend as many as three times each.  This year however, we decided we want to fish a different lake each month. So, Raburn , T. Bend, Conroe, Livingston, Fork, Lake Houston, Lake Palestine, Richard Chambers and Cedar Creek came into the mix.  Next year will probably be different.

 

We fish our first tournament in Feb and end in Oct.  Entry fees are $80.00 @ team which include big bass.  We fish from safe light on Sat. until 3:00pm, and Sun till 1:00pm.  The pay outs are not big they pay 1 place for each 5 teams and big bass for both days.  They usually have 1 day tournaments if the lake is within 50 miles from Cleveland. They also have an annual fee of $40.00  year. 

 

Just my 2 cents  -  every club will be different.

TxGator, I know a great club...Bass Fishing Resource!

While I can only go at the spur of the moment there are others here who could & should.

Lets take this thread to the next level!

Big Boys Kicking Bass!

Rojas just took over 1 st, that dude only has 4 wins, 2 on the Big Pond!

Dean's down around Mill Creek, aint boated a fish

Todd Faircloth is in Housen', currently 3 rd

Jonathon Vandam is around Yocum, 2 nd

Randall Tharp is near Lowe's Creek, 1 st

seems the biggest bag came out of housen, on the last day

Seems like a lot of bass still moving up on beds. I was just in buck creek looking for bed bass on Friday and only saw small males and not many of those. Then powroski goes in there today and catches the winning kicker! He caught several out of there.

Every thing I read, heard, & seen they were catching mostly males off nest.

I heard there was over 1,000 boats on the lake!

Just got back, been up there since Thursday. There was well over 1000 boats yesterday with the bass n bucks, elites, fisher of men, and us (the best 6). There were about 450 people in our tournament,met alone. I fished lowes everyday and Tharp was in there all day. I caught a 4 and two 3s right by him lol. All his fish were off beds, he was flipping the bank grass line. I started in lowes everyday and worked my way up to the bridge and then back down to the dam. Hit a lot of water in those 4 days. I even was mentioned by rick clunn at the live weigh in. I was on the sucker bridge in Carrice Friday morning and he asked if he could fish it with me. I was prefishing so I just gave it to him. He said he caught a 7, 6, and a 4 off of it Thursday. I watched him for 5 minutes and saw him catch a 7 on a crank bait. He thanked me and even mentioned me on stage! Anyway, in the best 6 you can weigh 12 fish a day. Thursday we had 56lbs! Would have broke the record which is 48lbs for one day. I had one over 8 Thursday. Friday I went really deep all day and just caught small fish. Saturday we weighed in 41.7lbs and today we had 39.2lbs. The fished moved out on us and I didn't get on em till 1130 and I had to be on the trailer by 1. They moved from 12-15ft out to 20-25. I caught two 6s, and a 5 real quick but had to leave. We ended up in 2nd with 80.9lbs. Just missed winning it by 1lb. The bad thing is we dropped a 4.5 that would have won it forus. I figured we caught 25-30 fish a day. It was a good weekend!

Just got home, I rode with fred roumbanis, kevin hawk, mike mcclelland, and skeet reese......I had a blast, learned so much about sight fishing, skeet is crazy good at sight fishing

another siteatic- man, that's an awesome stringer! I can't catch that much weight in a year! Course that ain't saying much on my part, I am far from a fisherman but y'all did a fine job. Congratulations! That has to be the ultimate satisfaction to finish high like that! And I have really benefited from your past advice and tips, it is extremely valuable to guys like me and very much appreciated when you share your knowledge! It has made my trips much more enjoyable to find fish where you had planned on them being. Thanks much to you and the others on this forum!

Shaneus, I have always wondered.....do those guys get stressed as much as I would to stay on top? Or is it just another day in the office? Of course Skeet did an awesome job and has his share of wins but I would think they are under immense pressure to stay on top! Do they talk to you guys much or just total concentration on the fishing?

another siteatic, for some reason, this forum edits your username when i put it in my posts and I guess I don't catch it until after it posts. Sorry! The earlier post was supposed to be for you but it came out "another siteatic"!

Great job Bass_Fantic!

That spot in Carrice was Jack (fishfordollars) Yates favorite.

Clunn's a trip for sure but a class act none the less

Many, hang in there! We'll get you there!

Were the bedding fish males?

Where was Faircloth @ in Housen'?

Catt,

The reports I've heard from several guys are females and males are being caught on beds. There are a lot of fish on beds south and new beds still being made that weren't there the day before.

The times I saw faircloth in housen, he was either on the humps west of the crossover lane or on the north bank on points just west of hurricane. Morganthaler also did very well on points around the mouth of big branch yesterday.

I got honey do's today but planning on exploring these bedded fish and much probing to do in housen the rest of the week!

We talked all day, he even got down to his under wear to fix his power pole lol! He is established, he has lots of other business ventures, he is fishing kind of for the advertisement, and still doing awesome.....he has invested his winnings well, and doesn't stress about fishing....he told me he ran out of fish for Sunday since he was sight fishing mostly, and we were just going pre fishing Sunday. He still managed to catch 16# just putting his trolling motor down and fishing, he's a cool guy....

Most fish off of beds were males, but there were a few females mixed in.  There are still females moving up because most of the big fish I caught were still prespawn females on deep points adjacent to spawning flats.  They still had eggs. 

Bass_FanatIc,

Did one type of bait or presentation seem to work better on those deeper fish? I don't care too much for sight fishing and really ready to practice on offshore structure more. I've been using Carolina rig with pretty good success on deeper points. Did you use crank baits any or mainly plastics?

Both. Try em all on a point you know as fish on it to find out what they want. I always have a crig, football jig, 6xd, and a big spinnerbait tied on when fishing deep. Alternate between them all!

Did anyone see Casey Ashly?

I think I saw he on spring hill area.

WHat a learning weekend.

iam glad I cancelled for the best 6.

I fished sprinhill a little Friday and Saturday and saw Casey run by me both days, but never saw him fishing.  I was amazed at the lack of Elite guys fishing deep.  From Thursday - Sunday we caught 16 fish over 5lbs out deep while all the pros were beating the banks.