2012 Season Off & Running

I just left God's country (Arkansas) to come to another of God's country (Texas).When I arrived, it was raining  cats and dogs all day and all night.
Here it is the next day and the rain has stopped but it is a little cold with some wind.  I got on the lake late, it was about 10 a.m.  I stayed close and caught 5 bass on a mop jig with a big grub trailer, green pumpkin & a 2.5 Strike King crank bait, chartreuse with black back.

Here we go again on the next day with a late start again.  It's cold and windy.

While waiting to put in at the ramp, I met a nice man named Lee Atkinson. Lee asked if I was a guide on Lake Fork.  We had a nice conversation which led to me inviting him to stay and  go fishing with me for some fun fishing even though the weather was bad.  It was around 10 a.m. so we headed to the Glade Arm of Lake Fork.  We only fished to noon.  Lee had to leave & head home.  Oh by the way Lee did catch the only fish we had on.  It weighed 5lbs. 2ozs.

After Lee went home. I drove to put into another part of the Lake.  The Little Caney Arm.  I fished the rest of the day. I caught another 8 fish on baby brush hogs, watermelon candy red w/metal flake, & 2.5 Strike King crank bait, chartreuse, black back. Caught all the fish in the back of little pockets.

I wish Lee could have stayed the last half of the day  with me. He is coming back in March to fish with me again.  Looking forward to fishing with him again.

Changing Patterns....Summer to Fall

Jeff  Sprague caught this 6.6 yesterday on a green pumpkin jig with a green pumpkin twin tail. 

It was a great pleasure having Mark Rouse and Jeff Sprague join me on Lake Fork yesterday.  Mark & Jeff are two upcoming tournament fishermen on the FLW trail.  I want to wish them the best of luck.  Both are great fishermen.

When a lake turns over, the fishing can be pretty tough.  It's critical  to be in the right area of the lake because the  lake doesn't turn over all at once

Mark and Jeff being the great fishermen they are,  were able to catch 14 fish weighing up to this 6 lb. 6 oz. bass.

I want to thank David Vance Guide Service for referring Mark and Jeff to me.  We had a great day! 

Company Outing

June 24th and 25th 2011

Industrial Oils Unlimited honored six of their employees with a guide trip on Lake Fork.  I had the pleasure of having Melvin Streeter and Randy Smith in my boat for the two days. 

Melvin and Randy caught around 27 fish the first day which included 4 fish around 6 pounds with the smallest being 3 pounds. 

The second day was windier and the size fell off but still caught 25 fish ranging from 3 to 5 pounds.

I enjoyed fishing with them and look forward to their return trip!!

June Fishing Can Be Very Productive!

We have had extremely high winds lately.  When calm conditions take over, the better fish are being caught in a couple different ways. One way is to fish creek channels using medium POP R's, Berkley Poppers, and Chug Bugs.  The other way is to fish main lake ridges using carolina rigs, jigs, and spoons.

I caught a 7.7 lb using a carolina rig with Zoom's green pumplin Vibra Craw.  It was slightly windy that day.

 June 21, 2011 our neighbor, Lisa Barrow caught an 8 lb. 3 oz. using a chug bug on a main lake stump flat.  She was fishing from the bank right in front of her RV.

 The next day, June 22, 2011,  my wife Paula caught this 9lb.7oz. on a main lake ridge.

Fishing Early Summer

Weather has been extremely hot this past week.  Winds have been 7 to 10 mph most days.

The fish are post spawn and feeding on mostly shad.  Good top water and small crankbait bites on the windier days.  This has been producing lots of 3-4 lb. bass with an occasional 7-8 lb in the mix.

As we all know, the fish are in all stages, being shallow, mid range and deep water.  Fishing points near creek channels with carolina rigs seem to be catching the larger fish.

NFL Player Comes to Lake Fork

Justin Rogers, an NFL free agent, and Kevin Trimble, his close friend chose me to guide them around Lake Fork for a relaxing day of fishing.  Lake Fork did not let them down with Justin catching  30 quality bass and Kevin catching 25 quality bass with the largest being a 7 pounder!

They caught all their fish in shallow water, in little ditches along flats in the backs of creeks using a variety of baits.  We used rattle traps, small jerk baits, carolina rigs with trick worms and big 12" texas rigged worms and some top water baits.

Looking forward to the return of both friends soon.

I had a blast fishing with these GREAT fishermen!

Fishing With My Neighbor

I was invited to fish with my neighbor Johnny today.  It was nice to sit back and relax..... that is until I had a great bite and my reel came off my rod!!!  That could have been the Biggin.

We were fishing 6 to 8 foot ditches that ran through flats.  We texas rigged green pumpkin/chartreuse tail baby brush hogs and 10 & 12 inch Berkley power worms.  That's what we caught them on all day!

What a GREAT day!!

Pictures Tell the Story

Memorial Weekend, May 29th and 30th 2011

We probably caught at least 30 fish for the two days.  The lst day was calm and sunny, absolutely a beautiful day!  We fished ridges with creek channels close by.  We used mop jigs with Yamamoto green pumpkin crawdad with chartreuse pinchers.  We also used Zoom green pumpkin vibra craw with chartreuse pinchers on a carolina rig.

The 2nd day was windy and overcast so I chose to look for protected areas.  Started off using the spot remover head with a Zoom trick worm with chartreuse tail.  We ended up going to the road bed using the carolina rig and trick worm.

We caught all sizes up to a 10 pounds.  It was a great weekend with the wife!

20 Fish---Half Day

May 28, 2011

Don Walters and son Floyd hired me for a half day so they could practice for the upcoming Skeeter tournament.  We fished a shallow road bed with carolina rigs and a spot remover head with Berkley blue fleck 7" worms.

We ended up with about 20 fish.

If you have limited  time to practice,  hiring a guide to show you around can be an advantage.

Friends From Home

May 27, 2011

Charles Thompson and his son Stephen visited last week.

We caught some fish throwing carolina rigs on drops from 8 to 15 foot.  We caught about 5 fish this way.
We threw blue fleck worms on texas rigs at the edge of tree lines in shallow water.  We caught about 5 or 6 more fish and they were better fish.

We had about 30 mph winds so it was pretty tough.

Great Top Water Action

I took father & son, John & Matthew Bowman out the 26th of May on Lake Fork.

We spent most of the day catching our fish on top water baits, Strike King square lipped shallow running crankbaits, & the mop jig with crawdad trailers on shallow drops from 3 to 14 feet.

John & Matthew caught 28 of the 30 fish boated that day.

We had a great GREAT DAY despite 30 mph winds.  I'm looking forward to their return visit soon!!!

On Off Days

The days I'm not guiding I'm always searching for new patterns.  Tuesday I took my wife after a 3 day cold front.

I  knew the bass were running with the white bass in 18 ft. of water.  It was sunny, mild with no wind and we found the fish where the deepest water touched the ridge.  The fish were sitting in 24 to 27 foot of water.

We used a combination:  carolina rig with zoom green pumkin vibra craw with chartruese pinchers;  a Cotton Cordell 3/4 oz. silver spoon;  1/2 oz spot remover green pumpkin mop jig with a Yamamoto 4" green pumpkin crawdad with chartruese pinchers;  and also same trailer with orange pinchers.

We dropped these baits from 16 ft to 27 ft off  ledges to the middle of the creek channel.  Several 4,  5 & 6's came on the drop itself and the 10.2 came off the bottom in the middle of the creek channel.

The importance of the way we fished was because we had 3 days of severe winds, overcast days and very cold conditions.  The fish had been on flats, tops of ridges, etc. in depths of 5 to 9 foot.  This day was bright, sunny and no wind  so I was looking for concentrations of fish rather than single fish in deeper water off the treelines.  We had a great day!

Off Time

Off Time

Nice 8lb. 6oz, Largemouth

I caught this great largemouth out in front of my RV while fishing with friend and neighbor, Johnny.  This was caught early evening on Lake Fork.....

Johnny Headrick 10 lbs. 5 oz.

Our RV  neighbor went out one evening in front of the park and caught this lunker.  He was casting a texas rig baby brushhog.  Way to go Johnny!

First Trip to Lake Fork

This is the first trip of many trips to come for these friends.  They had a great time!

Russ Schefer, Chris Cyr, and Dan Hetrick  caught 21 fish with the largest being 4lbs. 1oz. caught by Chris.  They enjoyed this trip so much they want to make this an annual event.

Vitro Company Outing

April 29, 2011 Last day for the Vitro company outing.

In the morning I had Lee Farlander and Richard Holtzclaw and we caught 7 fish while fishing road beds and stump fields. 

In the afternoon I had Lee Whalon and David Schwartz and we caught 3 fish with the largest being 4 pounds.  Rough fishing due to the weather conditions.  Extremely windy and overcast.

Half Day with Vitro Employees

April 28, 2011 Afternoon

Dan Mansir and Andre Cumming caught 5 fish and Dan caught a 5lb. 9oz largemouth.  We changed our fishing to deeper water, fishing ledges.  We caught them on spot removers and carolina rigs.

One Half Day with Vitro Employees

April 28, 2011

The next morning Andre Cumming and David Schwartz went with me and the weather was still bad.  It was very windy and overcast.  The fished road beds and stump flats and ended up catching 9 fish that  morning with the largest being 3lbs. 8oz.

Vitro-Company Outing April 27, 2011

Terrible weather conditions this day and we only fished a half day.   It was extremely windy and overcast.  Catching fish was difficult but we managed to put 12 in the boat.  The largest being a 6 pounder caught by Jeff Robinson.

Fun Family Tournament

This was a family fun tournament with dad and son versus cousin and son-in-law.  Tournament rules was who catches the 1st fish and the longest fish.  Father and son team won with the 1st fish and one that was 20 inches long (probably a 4 1/2 pounder.

Father and Son Get Together

April 15th

VERY, VERY strong 50 mph winds gusting to 60 mph.   Bob and his son Bobby managed to catch about 14 fish.  This is a picture of Bobby with his 4 lb. largemouth.  Unfortunately Bob released his 4 pounder before I was able to snap his picture.

Neighbors Having Fun

Our neighbors went out just for fun in front of the RV park where we're staying.  Johnny caught his fish on a green pumpkin centipede carolina rig.

Allen caught an 8.8 on a split shot watermelon fluke.  They caught 11 fish that day.  It was a very nice sunny day.

Family Quality Time

Jodi & Gary (aka Whitecloud), Burness Stoner (aka Nubbin) and Kenny (aka Root) came in hopes of seeing Zach and Justin....They were a couple days early, no Zach.  A couple of days after Jodi's group went home, Zach and Justin came here again! 

The severe winds and cold weather

 didn't stop these two from catching numerous fish one of which was a 10 pound 1 ounce lunker  that Zach caught on a spinnerbait.  Unfortunately I have no pictures of Justin.  When e get them, I will post it to the blog in order to complete  this article.  We are so looking forward to more good times here on Lake Fork!!!