FISH CATCHING TRAVEL

Shoedog Puts the Hurt on Them!

(Thanks to the Shoedog for keeping us informed while I am slacking.  Tough job but somebody has to do it.)

I took my business partner, Jim, a fellow refugee from the frozen Northlands, to Fayette Co.to show him some real Texas bass fishing today. We got to the lake at sunrise and there were quite a few boats/trailers at the ramp. The wind was more S/SW than what the weatherman had indicated, but what else is new? It was a little rough going out as it always is when the wind comes across that lake from the S/SW at is really blowing. So we started on the long bank coming out on the left as we seem to do.

I had on the jerk bait d’jour- a purple backed, chartreuse sided, white belly Excalibur that I had been throwing since I lost the same color in a Smithwick Rogue. I had Jim throwing a KVD 2.5 Square bill cranker.

We caught a couple on the first pass, nothing special, but he caught a small one and I had a decent fish. We went out past the first point and headed back in and I had a real one smack the snot out of the jerk bait! It was a nice fish, my best in a while.

Jim caught another on the KVD, but it was not producing like it does sometimes and the wind was really blowing, having switched to the west like it was supposed to. I had him switch to a Rapala shallow running Shad Rap- the one with the square snout on it.  (Editor Note:  We have knocked them stupid on that several times.  Basically jerking it like a jerk bait. rl)  It is an easy bait for some one without quite as much experience to fish in winds and stays up out of the grass and weeds better than the crank bait.

Jim gets in on the act.

We caught them fairly regularly and as the front passed with just a little mist and the wind calmed some, we headed down lake.

I had a BIG bass inhale my jerk bait and break me off right at the boat. I am proud to say I don’t break off many fish- at least not like Mr. Redfishlaw- the hook settingest son of a gun you ever saw!  But this fish hit so hard and with so little line out- oh well. I usually have 15 pound line when throwing jerk baits, but I had strung 10 pound on for the clear water lakes in Arkansas and had not gone back to 15. Guess I better go out to the garage and do that as soon as I get done! I put on a 2 hook KVD jerk bait in blue back/silver belly and they were all over it and I had less treble hooks to deal with!

We keep telling ya, throw that jerkbait on Fayette, it works.

For a while, every fish we caught was on the back hook- they were a bit tentative and I lost 2 on 2 casts on one point. We got around the point and Jim caught 2 in a row- nice ones on the Shad Rap.

It was pretty steady then whole day- 2 or 3 fish here and there. A typical day at Fayette. We knocked off at 1:30 with just over 20 fish and one good one. I have a feeling that Jim will want me to take him back again! It is a good feeling when you reach the point that it doesn’t matter who is catching the fish in the boat- just being out there with friends and taking part in the doing is reward enough.

I was going to throw the umbrella rig some- I know it should work there with the shad forage base, but we were catching fish! I will go back on a day just for experimenting and do that. Fayette is a good place to experiment since we have confidence in the lake and the areas that hold fish and the overall population of bass.

Now it is time to get ready to hit the salt- it is topwater time of the year and I want to hit it hard.

(Nice report and it sure is nice to catch some fish who don’t get a chance to that often.  Thanks for the report.)

Travel Notes (No fishing or catching but travel is in our name.)

This is our last day out and the traffic reminded me what I did not like about living in Fort Worth, which as going over to Dallas for any reason.  Now where we lived allowed us to not have to do a lot of major travel while we were there.  We specifically moved near the Medical Center so the Boss did not have to drive much, and while I was still practicing law my drive was out in the morning and in in the afternoon, traffic was rarely a hassle.

Dallas is a whole other can of worms.  Traffic sucks here and a daily diet would drive me to drink, more.  But we had a great time at the game.  One thing that still drives me nuts is folks and their I Phones.  Why in the Sam Hell would you pay $75 for a ticket to a ball game and then spend the whole time on your phone?  What a waste.  I will always remember the small bar we came across in the jungle on an island in Panama.  No phones, not even the folks who worked there, no internet, no computers, nothing electronic specifically on purpose – just a place where folks actually talked to each other.  I know that is an old time thing and might date me, but we actually used to do that.

At the Old Ball Game!

I watch the Gas Monkey Garage show so while we were here I wanted to stop in and eat at the Bar & Grill.  Let me tell you folks, they have it going on.  The place was packed and people kept pouring in the whole time we were there.  A band was about to play and the deck was full.  The place was bigger than I thought.

Been there, done that, and bought the T-Shirt.

The food could best be described as adequate bar food with nothing particularly spectacular.  The shop inside the restaurant was selling crap as fast as they could ring it up.  And the hats or shirts were all $5 – 10 over priced, and that was stopping no one.  It was a feeding frenzy in the store.  Apparently lots of folks like us were there, tourists who just wanted to see the place.  They are marketing geniuses who are making money faster than they can spend it.  And there was not a hot rod in sight.  Come on dudes, can’t park at least a couple out front?

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So I am back and will try to catch up on a couple of things.  I hoped to get the boat back today, but have not heard from them.  I was hoping to get in some bay fishing this weekend but it looks like that is not happening, dang it.  So what specifically is coming next is up in the air, but I know the Shoedog is ready for come topwater trout so a couple of days of that is coming pretty soon.  So it will be good to be back to the fishing.  Thanks to Shoedog for the contribution this week.  Keep stopping in and thanks for reading mystuff.

Good Luck and Tight Lines