Good and Bad Fishing Trips of 2006

[Table Rock Guide]

Ok guy's lets hear what your best and worst trip of the 2006 season.. I want to hear all of the stories Good and Bad.

GOOD:

It was a very fog filled morning in Late Sept. It was also the first day of the Elite 50 series tournament on Table Rock Lake. My client and I pulled into one of best spots a hump in 35 feet of water way out in the middle of the lake.

About that time we hear the big boy's comming down the lake and KVD and IKE come flying right in on us. KVD stops about 50 yards away from us and starts fishing knowing that I'm right on the spot. IKE comes right in and sets down pulls up to my boat and ask us very nice by the way if he can fish right next to us. I turn and ask my client if he minds (Of course he is the one paying for the trip)and with a very big smile he say's YES.

We were fishing drop shot rigs in these brush piles on this hump I had found a few weeks back. They were loaded with bass nice bass big fat smallies and spots.

As I was talking to the camera guy in the back of IKE's boat, I turn and look at IKE he is pointing to my client in the back of the boat. He was hooked up with a fish, not just a fish but a toad, it was a 5.43 meanmouth (Meanmouth cross breed between a small mouth and a spotted bass) after about a 5 min fight we get it in the boat. IKE just stood there looking at the fish and smiles at my client and keeps on fishing, and of course my client was jumping up and down it was the biggest smallmouth fish he had ever caught, it really made his day and mine. Then not more than 10 mins go by and he does it again but this time it was a big spot alittle over 4 pounds!! In 2 hours time he caught 5 fish with a weight over 20 pounds for all 5 fish..

We went to the weight in that afternoon and come to find out 15 pounds was leading the day, IKE came up to the scales and even talked about the guide boat right next to him to everyone what a day they had. It was a day I'll never forget!! By the way the client has already booked another day for next year!!


BAD:

It was early June. I was putting my boat in the water that morning at 5:30am, when I climbed into my boat after dropping it in the water, I slipped after hitting a wet spot on the front deck and in I go head first. Cell Phone, wallet, sunglasses everything was soaked. So I get myself together gab some clothes and change and off I go to pickup my clients.

My clients were a husband and wife team, we started out fishing swimming grubs and I was teaching the wife how to fish the grub, after about two hours goes by I looked in the back of my boat and the husband had his back to me alot. He was drinking straight vodka out of a little flask he had.

Not more than 1 hour later I was talking to his wife and we hear a splash from the back of the boat, well he was alittle drunk and in he goes, rod and all.

Now I have fell in myself, my client falls in and he looses a brand new rod and reel in over 40 feet of water. I'm think oh great this is the day from hell, I just had my first client join the Table Rock swim club, lost a rod that cost more than the trip will pay, my cell phone is dead that is going to cost me, It was not a really good day on the water. We finished out the day and I went home telling my wife of the great day on the water, she looks at me and starts laughing out loud, of course I did not think it was so funny at that point. After alittle while it became funny to me. It just goes to show you some days are good and some days are bad!!!

Good Fishing

[charger4404spd]

Capt. Don that first story was great. The last one was hilarious, good thing is no one was injured.

I dont have any stories better than those, but I will say I got to fish Lake Norman back in October. The bunch over at bassboatcentral had a rally there. We had a great time, but the weather didnt want to cooperate.
Prefished a little Thursday with not much luck, we fished ALL day Friday in the pouring rain, launched at daybreak Saturday for the tourney, wind was blowing 30-40 with gusts that seemed like 80mph. Was really a hard day but we managed a 7th place finish.

Going to another rally at Guntersville in May, that should be a good one.

[bassman20042]

I only have a good story to tell. I finally got to go bass fishing at Lake El Salto,in Mexico. A friend and I made a trip down in june. The 5 days we there,we had caught over 70 bass,with me catching my largest bass of my life. The bass was over 14 lbs,and took forever to land her.Then my friend caught his biggest bass,of his life,on the last day,on the last cast.It went over 16 lbs.Commonly to say,we booked a trip for next year,at the same time. Bassman

[johnnie crain outdoors]

My best trip this year was taking my Grandson (10) on his first bass tournament.
We didn't win, but did place third and the boy weighed in his first legal keeper which really tickled us both. Fishing the Mississippi river is not easy for anyone, but the Grandson did a fine job of not snagging (too often) and dragging fish out of very heavy cover.

My worst trip was a tournament at Lake Geode. My first two casts I landed identical three pound bass then went the next 8 hours without even a strike. I was totally frustrated. I tried everything and even made up a few new techniques. Eight pounds won the tournament. Two casts-two fish-10,000 casts -0- fish?????

[RNE]

Best;

Early June, no tourney, no pressure, just ‘fishin’.

A friend and I managed to put the boat in a small local lake. (About 40 acres, give or take.) This is not an easy thing to do, no paved ramp, just dirt, best you have 4WD and some skill.

Now I’d known for years this lake had some prime bass in it. About 15 years ago it was heavily stocked with Florida strain bass, which hybridized with the northerns to produce some rather hefty fish from time to time. But I'd not fished it but a couple of times due to the difficulties in access. and it's very steep sided, with very clear water. There is virtually no shallow structure to speak of.

We’d fished for nearly an hour without a single bump when David switched to a 10" red shad Berkly Power Worm he snaffled out of my tackle bag.

That gentlemen, was the ticket to one of the most impressive days on the water I’ve had in nearly 50 years of chasing these green fish. His first was a solid seven, second a good five, third over six. All in ten casts, all in less than 100 feet of structure.

I am not the sharpest tool in the box, but I know when to get with the program. I hadn’t considered using a bait that big in such small waters.

Between the two of us we caught twenty fish over five, including one hulking beast that went nine + by my cheap scales. (Not on my line, dadgummit!) Among those pigs were a lot of smaller fish who went for the big worm. Odd thing, at about four that afternoon they shut off, and I mean q-u-i-t. After four, we didn’t catch a single bass. Though David did manage to put a 20+ flathead in the boat about five.

Bad;
Whet the fates decided I should see the dark side in all its horrible glory, they threw absolutely the worst.

We put in on Grand at Red 11, now we had been listening to the weather muttering to itself in the distantce for an hour. But ... we had one day to prefish, and we were going upriver.

I mean, just how bad could it get? Small water, some shelter from wind, and not that far to the ramp. No problem?

Right?

I’ll spare you the gory details, but suffice it to say it took us three hours to go the four miles back to the ramp. All the way on the trolling motor, while it rained so hard you couldn’t see the other end of the boat, and the wind blew about a forty miles an hour.

My favorite rod and reel were on the bottom of the lake in thirty feet of water, right next to a full tackle bag.

It cost Stuart 3 grand to replace his lower unit.

And we missed the tournament.

[mofish]

Best trip of the year had nothing to do with bass fishing. I was crappie fishing trying out the bullet bobbers that I had recieved. A limit of 25 crappie later and a full belly that night after I fried them all up and fed the neighbor hood. Man it was great just one slab crappie after another. Better yet I caught them on jigs that I tied myself.

2nd best was catching that 4lb small mouth at the championship this year. It was also one of the worst because those two fish were all that I caught. lol.

First tournament of the year had to top the worst list of all time. Even though I placed 4th. It was 27 degrees and sleeting with a 25mph wind. The guides on my rod would freeze after every cast and I would have to dip the rod in the water to get the ice out of them. Worst of all I forgot my hand warmers at the house and my hands were hurting so bad It took a while for the feeling to come back when I got in the truck. Thank God we dont have many tournaments like that here in Texas!!!

[Fish-N-Fool]

Well my best trip is a little hard to pick out as I had a great year. The worse is an ez one, but I'll start with that I think was the best.
I found a new little gem of a fishing hole that I had never fished before. Its real close to the house too only about 6 miles away, but I had never heard of or seen anyone fish it before. I looked at it once and decided it was to shallow and weedy to hold any fish. Well a friend turned me on to it this year and it quickly became 1 of my favorite spots. It is a slew off the main river here and is about a mile long and a half mile wide. As you can see its a beautiful lake.
Well all the fish are on the far end of this nice little hole where it is deeper and not quite as weedy. It has no boat restrictions on it so I put my small bass boat with a 45hp on it and motored to the far end. That I found their was a whole differant story from the end you put in at. It has a bunch of floating islands with grass, reeds and brush on them. Some even had beaver huts on top of them. I started pitchin a 6" green shad Sink-N-Fool next to the floating mats and got a nice LM on the first pitch.

I made another cast and hooked a dink. Then cast into the branches from one of the beaver huts and hooked into a real nice toad. She went real close to 5 lbs.




I left this area and got into some really nice fish on the other bank that ranged from 1 1/2 lbs. to 4 lbs. Like this one.



It was getting later in the day by not so I started throwing a a black and blue buzzbait made by Tantrum lures and I hook this nice 1 on the first cast.



Got a few more on the buzzer and switched to a new lure called a Mouse-N-Fool. I had great luck with it this year in the evenings.

Here are a few mouse fish, this ones got my fishin buddy in it. He just lives ta lick fish. He dont hurt them though,



This is a real toad on the mouse!!



My seat is about 22" across. So this girl was 22.5" and about 5 lbs

Here is a few more I got on either the buzz bait or the mouse bait.




This one wouldn't holds still for the pix but trust me he was released unharmed.



This wasn't all the fish as I got a lot of dinks too but you dont want to see them lol All in all, Not a bad days catch. Sorry about the pix being all differant sizes. I was fishing by myself ( just me and the dog) so no pixs of me. But ya dont wanna look at me anyways.

The worse trip I had this year nearly cost me my life.
I took my little 12ft alum. boat up to a small lake (Blue Lake) that does not have a good boat launch so gettin my bass boat in there is not ez. So I has the small boat in the back of my truck so i could just throw it in the water. I was after some big bass and Northerns that are in this lake. It was in August but it was a cold and rainy day. I had my coveralls on to keep from freezing to death. Well the fishing was terrible and I had not had 1 hit all day. I was about to pack it in for the day and was on my way back to the takeout spot. I found a spot that was outa the wind behind some tall trees and thought I'd try it in the pads that were on this end of the lake. I'm not sure what happened but even though I was seated I lost my balance and put my hand on the side of the boat to catch myself. In a heart beat I was in the water way over my head and had forgot my lifejacket in my big boat. I had heavy coveralls on and boots. Well the only thing that saved me is I did have my little boat cushionthat I was sitting on. It held me up enough to get me over to the only dock on the whole lake that was only about 25 ft from where I hit the water. I thought I would never make it but finally did. Never been so happy to be alive and still cant believe how lucky I was to have not drowned. With out the boat seat or the close dock I would have never made it. I sold that boat soon after as I know it was prown to tip and I dont want to end up in that situation again. I now wear my L.J. anytime the boat is moving or the water is ruff or cold.

[carl]

Capt. Don, how did KVD, and Ike know about your spot? I've been thinking about this ever since I read your post. Carl

[bassin butch]

Trip of the year was once again spring in sturgeon bay wi. Got to bring in smallie after smallie. Only exceeded by a just for fun grandson outing: I dock skipped from the front and after I hooked the bass: handed the rod to my 8 year old grandson. Gotta tell you he had a smile from ear to ear upon bringing in a 3.5 LB LG mouth.

Bassin Butch

[swlchris]

The best and the worst came on the same trip. Spent 4 days on Lake Sam Rayburn this past spring getting ready for a tournament. The first 2 days found bass to 8lbs in the shallows and buckbush. Didnt matter where I went found fish. Most were in the 4 to 8lbs range. couldnt wait until the tournament started. Woke up and had a norther blowing and had 25 to 30 mph winds from the north. Could not reach my best holes and all the fish moved off and couldnt relocate them. Only had 5lbs of fish, the 2nd day more of the same except wind coming out of the south west. same results. Was having to much fun catching fish the first 2 days and made the mistake and didnt find a back up pattern.