Dec. 15 - Cold fronts are starting to move in one after another. This reeks havoc on the green fish especially on the high pressure days. The cure for that is to get away from the high pressure lakes like Fork and head to surrounding lakes such as Monticello, Athens, Pines and Welsh. Of lately, the bass fishing on these ponds has been nothing short of fantastic. Lots of days with numbers ranging from 30 to 60 bass per outing. No super giants but a ton of fun nonetheless. Had a trip a few days ago to Welsh and boated 36 with six over four pounds. Several patterns worked but the drop shot brought home the bacon.

Water temps on Fork are descending as of this writing and are registering around 56 on my temp gauge. Bass are being caught right now on flutter spoons and jigging spoons deep with square bills ruling the roost in the shallow zones. The lure needs to be retrieved very slowly to elicit a strike and this will be the game of choice until the water temps fall into the upper 40's. At that point, I will dig out the big sticks and tie on the A-rig where hawg hunting will then ensue.

I plan to take clients down to Lake Falcon in January and February where the water temps will be more favorable. The spawn takes place much earlier at that venue and ten pounders are a plenty. Give me a call at 409 u782-4269 if you want to jump into the action.

October 31, 2015 - Fall  is upon us and the big green fish are starting to feed up for the winter. All types of patterns are working but the shallow water bite is dealing us a gob of small fish. The spawn this year was excellent and there is a billion six inch bass on Fork right now. You can throw a crankbait in a creek, have one hit it, and ten more will be following it to the boat. Kinda cool actually! After catching about fifty of those, I will head clients back out to the main lake and work the deep fish for a giant, especially during the afternoon. Same locations apply, humps, ridges, structure but now add road beds into the mix. October is a month where bass will congregate on these locations feeding on barfish. The Alabama Rig, 10XD and flutter spoon are the go to baits when you are after the green monster. Shallow brush becomes a target at this time of the year also as crappie and bream gather up to feed on passing shad that are on the move in the fall.

The other lakes are still in play in the fall and one of them dealt two of my clients the dream fishing day of life. They landed 80 bass in one day using the drop shot and seven of them were over seven pounds. The largest tipped the scales at 9.08. I stayed busy all day netting bass and giggled away the entire day. On one trip to Athens, my client caught 55 bass on that Friday and thirty on Saturday. No giants, most all fish between two and four pounds, but a ton of fun. October is a great month for numbers as bass want to get fat for the winter.

September 30, 2015 - As with seasonal patterns, Fork transitioned into it's annual turnover during mid month. This is when the cooler upper layer of water sinks through the water column toward the bottom of the lake. This anomaly stirs up the bottom layer forcing the bass to scatter making bass fishing a little tougher. This also screws up the oxygen content throughout the water column forcing bass to seek refuge in I don't know where! We did fight our way through it and deliver some great days. A lot of bass were shallow during this change over time giving us the opportunity to throw flukes, senkos, swimjigs and chatterbaits. The big ticket was covering water using these patterns and it was hit and miss till you stumbled upon a large school of bass. The mid depth bite was still there but not as good as the prior months.

When all this happens, the super giants go into hiding leaving the best of the best scratching their heads. They can still be caught but it requires a ton more patience. Once the red flags pop up, I take clients over to Lake Monticello and Lake of the Pines and we continue blasting the big girls. It's all about being prepared and I think Monticello is the next Fork. Incredible fisheries with tons of quality bass.

August 31, 2015 - The lake has started it's seasonal changes this month and veered away from the 90+ degree water temps as fall is on the horizon. Normally, oxygen levels deteriorate during August forcing bass to suspend above the thermocline making them more difficult to catch. That was not exactly the case this month as fish still hung out on points, humps and ridges. The only difference was the depth they chose to populate. Most of our biggest bass came from 15-18ft of water and a sizable amount were caught suspended in much deeper water. Lake level is falling forcing fish to back out and take up their residence in the mid depths.

The overgrown shakey head delivered some great bass using the Zoom Magnum Trick worm (redbug) to lure them in. The drop shot still had a presence as well as the C-rig. The major change to catch the suspended fish came from the addition of the magnum fluke. Once the fish are located, you would hurl this bait as far as you could, once it hit the water, the countdown started. At the twenty foot level, you would start twitching the bait slowly, pause for eight seconds, then repeat the twitch. Extremely slow fishing b

ut highly profitable.

We also took some trips over to Lake Tawakoni and smashed the stripers. These fish are super powerful and will smoke the drag on your reel. This is one type of fishing that is a "must do" during August. Better bring your Advil, you'll need it.

July 31, 2015 - The bite hasn't changed one bit over the past thirty days. The bass are still deep and locked into their summer pattern. We are crushing them on deep structure as well as tapering points, pond dams and humps. The drop shot still holds the crown as being the best way to land a giant bass but the Carolina Rig has done it's share of damage to the bass over the past month. We are starting to see water temps move into the 90's which is a good thing. Bass tend to bunch up as water temps rise making them easier to find. This is backed up by a temp sensor that I have which tells me that the water temp at 25ft is about 88 degrees. This is also why we have been catching bass as deep as 42ft. Pockets of cooler water is where these bass are hiding. Technology is great!

We have also spent some time on other local lakes searching for some different patterns. Found great fish at Lake Athens, Lake of the Pines and Lake Monticello. It's gotten to the point that we can fish your strengths whatever that may be. Many anglers have bested their personal best throughout this year and that's what's it's all about. Incredible fun and lasting memories.

June 30, 2015 - The month of June was insane. We smoked the big fish every day on different patterns and was also able to mount numbers each day. The drop shot issued most of the damage as we found wads of huge bass on points and drains. I have normally been a Roboworm guy when using the drop shot but I was stunned to find out through an experiment one day on a guide trip that the Talon Carolina Worm out fished the Roboworm 5 to 1. This same anomaly happened two other times on trips which has caused me to switch permanently. The Talon Worm is coated with Bassappeal (scent attractant) which obviously makes a huge difference. I now use their 10 inch worms with the same coating on Carolina rigs and Texas rigs. Huge difference!

Water temps are warming and bass are done with the spawn and starting to gang up on the deep spots. I expect this to rock on through July. Pond dams have also played a huge roll in bagging these giant bass. This is a great month for numbers and it also delivers it's share of 10 pound hawgs.

August 4th - I have been doing this for a long time and can't ever remember wearing jeans and a sweatshirt for several days during the last days of July and the beginning of August. Insane weather this year has put the fish on Lake Fork into a tail spin. There have been extremely great days and some brutally horrible days. Usually at this time of year, the fish are on a predictable pattern out deep. The show up at the same time most every day to feed etc. Not the case this summer. I now spend all my days determining the timing windows when the bass move up on specific structure to fill their belly. This past week was the first time that the fish consistently shown themselves at a certain time of the day. I was able to take advantage of that with my clients and dug out some whoppers.

Normally, August sees the oxygen level below 20ft starting to deplete and the fish suspend in the upper water column. You have to scan lots of water with your electronics and look for the huge arches hanging in the mid depths. I target these bass with weightless flukes, crankbaits and flutter spoons and tail kickers. To date, this hasn't happened as of yet. We have, although, managed to catch some suspended fish but the main pattern has been the drop shot on a variety of structure. Light line has been the key and we have had no problems landing green monsters upwards to ten pounds on 12lb test. It's strange that we are forced to fight this battle in this fashion when the carolina rig generally dominates this time of year. You should always be able to find feeding fish on main lake points in 20-30ft but this has been sort of a struggle. Lucky for me, I have  locations that have been replenishing on a daily basis. A lot of these spots have been producing ten to twenty fish per day up to ten pounds. Rather cool I must say. Again, the drop shot has been king. We have used a variety of soft plastics depending on the conditions. Dark colors on cloudy days and plum colors on the sunny days. Red seems to be the all around color any time of the year. Zoom trick worms, Roboworms and any type of finesse worm has landed the lion share of the bass.

There are some areas of the lake with hydrilla and this has been a huge let down as of this writing. I believe it is due to the fact that the oxygen levels in open water are OK which keeps the bulk of the bass offshore. I see this changing over the nest month. I have, although, caught some smaller fish on the grass on texas rig worms as well at the drop shot. It seems that moving baits have been out of the question. It won't be long when the swimbait will take top honors as the season starts to change. In the meantime, continue to check main lake humps, road beds, pond dams and points. If there is bait present, fish the spot anyway, even though you may not mark any hooks on the Lowrance electronics. If you can't locate any fish in the deeper parts of the lake, focus your attention to the 10-18ft range, especially around wood. This may be the ticket.