We rented a boat Tuesday after a big front and a bunch of rain. We should of saved our money. The combination of big winds, small boat and two guys who had never been on the lake without a guide didn't let us do much fishing. After lunch the winds layed a little and we found a couple of spots that got us out of the wind. We only managed one fat 2lber. On top of that i had to spend 2 hours on the phone after lunch selling a house so I didn't fish much.

Wednesday was a little different story. After a cold slow morning we took lunch early with only two fish in the boat. A 2lber by my buddy and the guide caught a fat one that was just short of 7lbs. In calmer waters, after lunch, with yet another approaching front we got on a real nice crankbait bite. The guide managed another 4 or 5 fish all but one pretty decent, my buddy added another small fish and I got 8. Not any monsters, but I did get one pretty good one. I didn't get to weigh her because she had the whole crankbait deep in her mouth sideways. She didn't get it in her gullet but one of the trebles did get into one of her gills a little where they met the bottom of the mouth. So we dunked the fish in the water while we got the camera ready and released after a quick picture. Everyone guessed the fish would of gone in the low 5's. Also caught the fattest fish I had ever caught. She only went 3lbs 6oz, but had a huge belly and qarter sized black spots all the way through her body and tail. Very cool looking fish.

All fish were caught on a chartruse square billed crankbait. If you weren't knocking into trees you weren't catching fish. Not a horrible day and not a great day, but all in all I think it was my most enjoyable day on the water.

On a side note I really want to thank Matt Fly for taking a lot of his time to gather info and suggest locations for the trip.

Heres my biggest.

Good report, nice fish, and as much as I hate to say it the perfect trip does not always produce that DD but you made the most out of it.  Also great job doing everything you could to care for the gill hooked fish.  

Thanks for putting up your trip!  Sounds like you made some lemonaide!

Nice Fork fatty!  I am sure she will be OK!

GirRdone

Happy Releasing,

H.G.

Thanks guys.  I sure hope she is ok.  After I dunked her while the guide was getting the camera ready she had stopped bleeding when I first pulled her out of the water.  After the pic the guide said shes bleeding again.  I just put her back right off.  The guide looked at me kind of suprised and said you don't want to weigh her.  I told him not if shes bleeding.  He was suprised, but thought it was pretty cool.  He offered to take us out the next morning on a half day trip for free, but we both had to get back to work.  Normally that would be a bad choice, but we ended up getting 4" of snow today.

Not bad at all considering the circumstances

Great fish man. Congrats.

One of our advertisers (Sure Life) makes some stuff called Catch and Release. Among many other things it stops the bleeding of gill hooked fish. Just put it in the livewell and treat the water and five minutes later take the fish out and release it. It stops the bleeding almost instantly.

nice fish!

Nice tip fluke.  I don't have a live well but I usually have a cooler.  I didn't know that sure Life also stopped gill bleeding.  for that alone I will throw some in the boat for that rare, bleeding fish.  I can empty the cooler and treat the fish, at least stopping the bleeding.  thanks for the info.

Great report MattM and way to help out Mr Fly

Great fish man. Congrats.

One of our advertisers (Sure Life) makes some stuff called Catch and Release. Among many other things it stops the bleeding of gill hooked fish. Just put it in the livewell and treat the water and five minutes later take the fish out and release it. It stops the bleeding almost instantly.

Thanks for that tip. Do you know if the rejuvenate stuff work too.

Nice fish, I can't believe I grew up about a 1 1/2 to 2 hours away from there and never heard anything about it. Man, I wish I was back in Texas.

Thanks for that tip. Do you know if the rejuvenate stuff work too.

Yes it does. The problem I have with Rejuvinade is that it causes fish to puke in the livewell. Not what I want in a tourney. Please Release Me doesn't cause this as far as I have seen.

NICE FISH MATT M! YOU DA MAN!

Great fish!

Nice trip and post Matt.  It still amazes me how Fork has away of making me disappointed with 2 to 5 lbers, where I would be thrilled at any other venue  

One of our advertisers (Sure Life) makes some stuff called Catch and Release. Among many other things it stops the bleeding of gill hooked fish. Just put it in the livewell and treat the water and five minutes later take the fish out and release it. It stops the bleeding almost instantly

From what I understand you need to be careful to not put a slot fish in the live well as if you are stopped and checked you may have a hard time convincing the authourities you were working on survival.

GO BIG RED

Thanks for that tip. Do you know if the rejuvenate stuff work too.

Yes it does. The problem I have with Rejuvinade is that it causes fish to puke in the livewell. Not what I want in a tourney. Please Release Me doesn't cause this as far as I have seen.

NICE FISH MATT M! YOU DA MAN!

Thanx

Nice fish!!  Congrats.

that looks bigger than the low 5's

looks like a seven

nice fish, keep at em

3 weeks till my first trip to Fork  8-)

that looks bigger than the low 5's

looks like a seven

nice fish, keep at em

Thanks dumbdog.  I lucked out and got a good picture.  Especially since we took it so fast.  I just knew that it was going to look like a three lber since I didn't get a weight.  However, I really believe the fish was a 5.3 or 5.6 something like that. It would of gone in the high fours before it would of gone 6 much less 7.

Thanks dumbdog.  I lucked out and got a good picture.  Especially since we took it so fast.  I just knew that it was going to look like a three lber since I didn't get a weight.  However, I really believe the fish was a 5.3 or 5.6 something like that. It would of gone in the high fours before it would of gone 6 much less 7.

Matt the fish in my avitar came from Fork in Jan.  I thought it was going to struggle to make 6#s and it weight 7.5 and looked like 9 in the pic.  When their belly is full of eggs you never know.

GO BIG RED

Sorry the weather didn't cooperate fully.   Glad you got to catch some..

Nice looking toad.  

Matt

Thanks for that tip. Do you know if the rejuvenate stuff work too.

I know of some extensive research that hasn't been made public yet, so lets just say that Rejuvenade makes alot of claims that aren't true. I wouldn't use that stuff on any fish.

A few that I can talk about are.

The guys that invented Rejuvenade used to be Chicken Farmers.

The bottle says Patent Pending........ It's been "Pending" for what, 8 or 9 years now.

I have seen fish die as a direct result of using Rejuvenade.

As to not hijack this thread I am going to start a new one.

http://www.bassresource.com/bass_fishing_forums/YaBB.pl?num=1205107829/0#0

Matt,

   Fork kicked out a sharelunker this weekend.

Looks like the 13+ fish just started showing up this weekend.   2 caught within 24 hrs apart on Amistad,   New lake record at Lake Waco with a 13.87, and another one from Richland Chambers, and Fork's.

Time to hit Fork.

Matt

I'm back on the 2nd.  I hope they hang around until then.

Fork kicked another one out, back to back, this one came on my daughters Birthday yesterday.

13.29, the guy was with his bass club from Missouri.     Live waterdog.