Lake Travis Jackpot Fishoff 08/28

Lake Travis has been tough all summer. But as we started off at 6am, there was a bit of a chill in the air. This told me that the bite should be on it's way up. Sure enough we had a good day on the water and caught plenty of fish. One technique that worked all day was an El Grande Lures Sapo frog. I would throw it over submerged trees and along deep vertical banks. I did miss one slam on the frog from about a 3.5lber that would have definitely helped. I caught several keepers using the frog, some on a jig in 20+ feet of water and we caught several more on GrandeBass rattlesnakes and megatail rattlesnakes. One of the most enjoyable parts of the day though was when we found this shallow little ledge and I proceeded to catch 7-8 Guadalupe bass on consecutive casts with a crankbait. Fun stuff! We finished in 3rd place for almost $500!

O.H. Ivie 5/14

Fishing was good as it has been for a while now. We started off throwing El Grande Hatch-Match Sticks and shallow cranks catching several in the 2-4 pound range on different structures such as channel swings and roadbeds with wood and grass. We then moved on to ledges with deep water nearby and found some nice ones up to 4 lbs including a 2 lb small mouth and a nice 3.5 lb small mouth using the El Grande baits and flukes. We found a nice tree right on the ledge in 8-10 foot and had a big one on that came off after a bit of a fight and then caught a small one off the same tree. As we were moving down the bank, my client Tim turned back and threw back at the tree and hooked into another big one, maybe the same one that came off just before, and the fight was on. He was using a light spinning combo so it was a mighty fight. After calming him down when the fish was stripping the drag out, he was patient and let her wear herself out and I netted the big hawg. It was a fish of a lifetime for sure at 11.75 lbs. That pretty much made the day. We caught some more up to 3 lbs and called it a day.

If you are looking for that fish of a lifetime, there is no better time to go than to O.H. Ivie right now. Book today.

Choke Canyon 4/6-8

Fished Choke April 4-6 with a small front moving through. Fishing was good and numbers were anywhere from 2-4 dozen per day. Biggest bass in the 3 days was a nice 9-11 with most fish still being small. The big girls should be up and all about really soon.

Lake Falcon 3/8 - 3/9

Spent Monday and Tuesday with a client to go have some fun on Lake Falcon once again. What a difference a week makes. The bite was much better than the previous week and some bigger fish moved in again. On the first day, we started out on the lower end of the lake where the fish are mostly still in the spawning stage. The first area we started in, we had really good luck using senkos and flukes in watermelon red and a Mr. Blitz spinnerbait in green shad. Here our biggest fish was a nice 7 pounder. We also caught a few 5's and some 2-4's. We hit several other spots and then found another pretty good spot that produced most of the rest of our fish including a nice 10 pounder. We mostly used flukes on a Mr. Blitz toad toter hook. If you aren't using these yet, you are missing out. We caught most of these fish by flipping the fluke right in the middle of trees and they would hit it on the fall in the upper part of the tree. The fish seem to be warming themselves in the tops of trees.

The following day, I decided to go fish another similar area further up the lake like that of our best spot of the previous day. We started out catching fish quickly once again and found a few good ones up to the 5 pound range. We caught them mostly on flukes once again with some on a senko and some on the new Mr. Blitz Willowblitz spinnerbait in firecracker color. A few also came on a squarelip crankbait. After catching several here, we decided to go back to the 10lb spot from the previous day. We went to the same area and twice was broke off on giant bass in the trees. They just didn't want to come out of the thick trees that we flipped. Maybe next time.

All in all a very fun trip with around 36 lbs best 5 on the first day and high 20's best 5 on the second day.

If you'd like to order some Mr. Blitz fishing tackle, go to their site at mrblitzbaits.com.

Lake Travis - 11/11

Hit Lake Travis for 3 hours mid-morning for a little fun fishing. The bite was on. Caught several in the 2lb range with a nice Travis kicker fish of 6lbs. All together caught around 15 with quite a few shorts but they're fun. Best lures were any hard baits, including crank baits and jerk baits and even had a few blowup on a torpedo. One flew out of the water about a foot. Fun stuff. Soft plastics including a fluke, senko and jig didn't seem to work too well today but I'm sure ther's a good jig bite out there somewhere. ;-)

The lake has come up quite a bit in the last few weeks and there's some nice vegetation in the water. Didn't find a lot of fish in it but give the lake a few more feet to raise and they should be in it.

Today was beautiful out and we should have more days like this so if you want to get out and go catch some bass, there's no better time than the present. Give me a hollar and let's go. Remember, I've got a special going at Lake Travis right now so book today.

Cedar Creek Basschamps Championship 10/11-12

The 2009 BassChamps Championship finally arrived this past weekend and after a 2 day battle with a few hundred other boats, my partner and I ended up in 5th place overall.

During the 2 day official practice, we basically just went around and marked several spots that looked the best. These places would have rocks on the edge with deep water real close to the bank which is something actually hard to find on this lake. Some times you'd pull up and start fishing crankbaits and spinnerbaits and get slammed by hybrids. These 7-8lb hybrids were fun but you had to be patient and go through a few before they would leave the area for the largemouth to come in and feed. Patience paid off when you sat on these areas for long stretches of time.

One area we were fishing, I was catching fish on crankbaits and Mr. Blitz spinnerbaits and my partner was pitching a fluke on a Mr. Blitz Toad Toter hook into the edge of the roughest water and pulled out bass. These fish were right on the edge in 1-2 foot of water. Crazy.

What really helped our 2nd day stringer though was in practice I found this little corner that had a few rocks and caught a 5lber in nothing water in the far corner on a topwater. We actually started there on Saturday hoping it was there again but I only caught a small keeper just out from it on a crankbait. Sunday though we went back after getting a few solid keepers from across the lake at our top spot and I started out using the topwater again. After several throws to the very corner with no takers, I worked the bait out a little further and the big girl rolled on it again. One more twitch and I saw her make a circle and come back and slam it. It sure felt good to have her in the boat. ;-) Justin then made another cast in there with the fluke and had another on about 3-4lbs but it came off just before getting in the net. Bummer.

After a few more casts, we headed across the creek to work a few areas and headed back to our hot spot hoping it replenished. Plan worked and we filled out the limit with another 3-4lber and some keepers on the fluke. I actually had another on about 3-4lbs but it threw my crankbait and then Justin had on what seemed to be a giant but broke off the Mr. Blitz spinnerbait he was using under a dock.

After searching for one more big fish, it wasn't meant to be so we headed in. After weighing in 14.28 with 10.42 from day one, to our surprise, we were actually leading the tournament for 30 minutes. After all said and done, our 24.70 was good enough for 5th place, just .1 lbs out of 4th and 5.16lbs out of the win. Turned out to be a great tournament. ;-)

I'd definitely like to thank my sponsors for the key parts to this 5th place finish. Mr. Blitz for his awesome products including the Toad Toter hooks which are great for flukes and his spinnerbaits and Crawclicker jigs, Coastal Bend Rods for his awesome custom work on some outstanding rod blanks, Berkeley for their superior fluorocarbon line, Cobra by Anaconda Boats for their smooth riding and great bass fishing boats and El Grande Lures for their awesome baits for big bass.

Special thanks go out to Mr. Don Kline of Gun Barrel City for putting us up for this tournament. Kudos to you Don!

For the final standings, you can point your browsers to: BassChamps. Be on the watch for the championship on TV.

Bastrop 09/02

Hit Lake Bastrop this Wednesday for a 3 boat guide trip. Fishing started off a little slow by the dam so I headed off to some nice grasslines that seemed to have some action around 'em. Working a crankbait, fluke and a wacky rigged senko we started catching a few with a nice one by my client at 19 inches off the senko. After a while working this area, some schooling bass started up off the edge of the grass so I changed out the lures to baby torpedoes. It paid off bringing our total to 25 bass before 11am. After another one of the boats pulled up, we decided to head across the lake to where the 3rd boat was to get some sunblock. When we showed up, the guys told us about some nice action with 2-4 pound fish schooling. After applying the sunscreen, we saw some of the schooling activity starting up and got into them with the other boat. The bass were in the 2-4lb class and they were fun. For the rest of the day we chased the schooling bass around and at one point another of the boats and us all had fish on and landed them at the same time. Wow! 6 fish on and landed at the same time from the same group of bass. The biggest of the day was 22 inches with most in the 17-21 inch range. Awesome day on the water. Our boat caught around 45, another boat had around 18-20 and the other one had 14-16 bass. It was tough to leave them biting at 2:30. ;-)

Lake Falcon 07-27, 28

Hit Falcon for a 2 day guide trip. Started off Monday throwing spinnerbaits and square lip cranks with good luck catching several up to 6lb bass. Switched to flukes and worms to get into some more decent ones. But it wasn't until we switched to medium crankbaits when it paid off big time. In one stretch of bank in about 45 minutes, we caught a few 4lbs, 3 5lbs, 2 6lbs, 3 7lbs, 1 8lbs, and then 1 over 9lbs. The bass just kept getting bigger and bigger. The key was to scoop out the tops of deep trees with the crankbait. After hitting a few branches, the rod would just load up. Awesome day with almost 40lbs best 5. The biggest key to getting these fish on and out of the trees was using a custom rod by Coastal Bend Rods. If you haven't tried one of these, they are awesome. If you want to look at one or try it out, let me know.

Day 2, we decided to start off down by the State Park because of the high winds. We started at a nice area where the water came up shallow quickly under some thick trees. The bass were blowing up and flying out of the water everywhere after shad here. We started throwing spinnerbaits with no luck oddly so we started flipping flukes and throwing a frog and that was the ticket. We caught several up to 5lbs in this area and had a lot of fun here while the action lasted which wasn't too long. We then headed to an area on the dam and cranked out a few on square lips and caught some on a fluke. We tried an area in Mexico for a bit but it was too rough and headed to the Tigers. We only managed a few here though so we decided to head in and go back to the area from Monday after lunch. The fish moved out for the most part though but we managed a few using the same technique up to maybe 5lbs. Our best 5 this day was around 22lbs, not quite the weight from the day before.

All in all, there wasn't a lot of numbers but the quality of fish was fantastic. I'd say we caught upwards of maybe around 45 fish in 2 days though so not bad.

If you'd like to go hit Falcon sometime, I take bookings for multiple days only there. On this trip, we also hit Choke Canyon on the way down for a bonus 2 hours of fishing. We caught just over a dozen up to 5lbs with one about 12lbs breaking off at the boat. Somebody had a snap swivel on. 8-O

Choke Canyon 07-14, 07-16-2009

Hit Choke Tuesday and Thursday. Tuesday had some nice wind going and Thursday started out with a little wind but died down to a mirror surface. Tuesday was the better day by far with 3 around the 6lb range with the largest at 6.25lbs. We had several in the 5lb range as well with the best 5 going around 28-29lbs. Thursday, the biggest was over 5lbs catching 2 over 5, and a bunch in the 2-4lb range. Best 5 on Thursday was around 20lbs. Both days we caught 28-30 fish each day. The best baits seem to be flukes, senkos, crankbaits, frogs and spinnerbaits. The spinnerbaits we were using are made by Mr. Blitz and they are awesome. Check out his site here, Mr. Blitz. You can soon order online there or shoot me an email.

Choke Canyon 07-07-2009

Hit Choke on Tuesday and drove through some pretty thick rain pretty much all the way from San Antonio down. Wow, wish we had some of that in the Cedar Park area. grin We had a light rain for the first few hours of the day but it was really nice since it wasn't 100 degree weather. The bite was also a little weird maybe because of the full moon. Water temp stayed around 85 most of the day until that sun came out full. Then it moved up to 91. Wind remained calm to light.

We did pretty good, but one of the slower number days in the last 4 months. We still managed 20 with 2 7lbs, 1 6lb, 1 5lb, 2 4lbs and the rest 2-3lbs. Best 5 was about 28-29lbs so definitely a pretty good day. We did lose or break off at least 4 pretty big ones. One of my clients had one on about 8lbs that wrapped around a tree and was trying to jump a few times until it broke off. That was in about 3 feet of water. Best baits were flukes, crankbaits and spinnerbaits. Mr Blitz spinnerbaits in mouse color, some call it green shad, worked the best for the bigger bites. We worked shallow areas in the 2-12 foot range even though there are some deeper fish in the 18-25 foot range or more. I didn't get any takers throwing a deep diver though I didn't throw it but a few times.

Fun times on the water. Gotta love Choke.

Choke Canyon 06-30-09

Hit up Choke Canyon on the last day of June with a client. Water temps ranged from 84-91 with air temps not too bad in the 90's but with the little bit of breeze made for a nice day weather wise. Fishing was a little tougher than it has been but we still managed 30 bass. The largest went over 7lbs with all the rest between 2-5lbs. Several baits played a roll in the bites including 10" worms, flukes, crankbaits and a Stanley Ribbit frog. Best 5 was around 24-25lbs. Pretty much hit most of the main lake targeting grass or chunk rock. Fish are still shallow with some monsters lurking. We spotted 2 over 10 pounds just hanging out in the grass and one of those could have swallowed a 12lber. It was huge. lol We also saw about a 3 foot long big catfish burrowing in a hole in 2 foot of water. Couldn't get it to bite a power worm though. 8) This is still a great time to get out on the water not only to fish but observe the giant gators (and lots of babies everywhere), turkey, hogs, deer and all kinds of other wildlife.

Book today and let's go fishing. ;-)

Choke Canyon 06-03-09

Hit the great lake of Choke Canyon on Wednesday, June 3, 2009 and it was a great day to hit it. Started off working a point with wacky rigged senkos, 10" worms, flukes and a trap. First cast with the senko and fish on and a few casts later, my other client hooked into a nice one. She weighed 7-5. Great fish. A few minutes later, someone caught a giant fishing from the bank just down from us and it was well over 10 pounds, maybe into the 13-14 range. Huge. Anyway, we caught several more fish in this area before heading on to another spot. We worked several areas with a few fish before taking a long run to another spot I've been catching a few good ones at and it paid off as well. My client that caught the 7-05 earlier hooked into another one at 7-10. He was really excited now with 2 over 7. My other client had caught the most but no big ones but that was soon to change. I changed his gear up and the first cast, he hooked into a big one. After a pretty good fight, he landed her and she shattered his previous PB of 4 pounds weighing 9-04. Sweet fish. We caught several others here up to 5lbs before moving on. After hitting a few more areas and still catching good numbers and plastics mainly, decided to try getting on a frog bite to end the day. We found an area full of thick hydrilla and the bite was on. We didn't catch a whole lot but enough to get my client on several and the addiction kicked in for him. LOL Along this same stretch, we hooked into several good fish working plastics on the outside edge of the grass. To end the day, we all hooked into a fish on the last cast. Fun stuff. All in all, we caught over 40 fish, maybe 4 dozen with the best 5 close to 35lbs. Excellent day on the water. After dropping my clients off at the ramp, I headed out for a bit and caught about 12 more before the storms pushed me off the lake.

Stillhouse Hollow 05-16-2009

Went to Stillhouse Hollow for a half day trip and the fishing started out good. Showed up to the lake around 6:15 to find a nice calm breezy lake with some cloud cover. The forecast called for clear skies with 8mph wind with a front that was to come through after noon. That would not be the case though as we soon found out. We started working a tree line that normally produced fish using jigs, dropshots and flukes with a few hits but no takers. Decided to move to a rock cliff and it was a good move. We got hit on crankbaits, jigs and flukes. Most fish were small but then a good one decided to hit. This was a strong fish and stripped out quite a bit of drag only coming to the surface once on the other side of the boat and then went back to stripping line. Fun stuff. We finally landed her and she went 8.5lbs. Great fish. We finished working the ledge with a few more takers and headed to another tree line with a 12 foot ledge. We quickly hooked into a few and then suddenly the wind and rain kicked up. It got nasty quick. We got in around 9:30.

After my clients left, somebody else in a boat proceeded to sink it on the point beside the ramp. I talked to 2 others at the ramp and we all helped this poor guy get his boat on the trailer. We barely floated this boat out with just the front tip sticking up and the motor. Close to completely going under but we were finally able to get it out of the lake. Dangerous. One of the guys Butch had to swim out around the back of the boat to keep it going on right. Nuts!

Choke Canyon 05-07-09

Choke continues to produce well. We didn't land any giants today and the biggest one we saw was a nice one around 7lbs that jumped and spit the hook. We did have 5 around 5lbs though and a bunch in the 2-4lb range. In total we had over 40 fish and best 5 was right around 25lbs. Solid day on the water. We threw a variety of baits including cranks, traps, spinnerbaits, worms and flukes. The grass seems to be dying off in places where it was thick a few weeks ago which is strange because there was new growth there. The lake is still falling as well. Just find the grass and work it over good and you'll catch 'em. Book now and let's go.

Choke Canyon 04-19-09

Choke is still smokin'! ;-) Caught 50 today with best 5 around 28lbs. Mostly in the 2-4 pound range but had 5-6 around 5lbs and 1 at 8.5lbs. She actually still had a few eggs but as you can see, almost done by way of her belly not poppin' out. She may have went 10 otherwise being 25 inches long. Fun day on the water. We worked most of the main lake in 5-15 fow using crankbaits, traps and several kinds of plastics. Pick a direction, we went and found fish on every spot but one. Good stuff! I think that the little dry front that came through midday killed the bigger fish bite but kept the smaller ones hitting.

Book today for your chance at some big girls.

Choke Canyon - Week of 04-06 thru 04-10

Choke was fishing very well this week. Our best numbers day was Thursday with over 45 and lowest numbers day was Friday with around 20. Our big fish including 2 over 10lbs, a 9, 2 8lbs, a few 7s, 6s, 5s and lots of 2-4lb bass. My clients on Monday through Thursday both caught their personal bests at 10 lbs and 10.03 lbs. One of those guys was an 11 year old boy, Trevor, and he was one happy kid. His father landed his 10.03 with 45 minutes left of a 4 day adventure. Great stuff! Baits included the usual lizards, flukes, worms, shallow to medium crank baits, traps and spinner baits. Most fish came in less than 12 feet of water with the 9 and about a dozen smaller fish coming at 15-18 feet. Tuesday and Thursday we had well over 30 pounds best 5 and the other 3 days in the 20's. We also landed a 12lb and a 10lb gaspergoo. The 11yo caught the 10lb gaspergoo on Wednesday, the day after he caught his 10lb bass so he of course thought he had another. We should have turned it in for the junior record though. Doh! lol Another great week on the water.

Choke Canyon 04-03-09

Choke fished pretty good with good numbers and a few healthy bass as well. We landed 3 bass between 5-6lbs on crankbaits and lots more on traps, lizards and flukes. Best 5 would have gone around 24-25lbs.

Choke Canyon 04-01-09

Best fishing ever! We caught 3 giants over 16lbs. All lake records. Wow, what a day. Oh wait, April fools. lol

No, really, it was a pretty good day though. We caught quite a few on traps and lizards on some of my numbers water to start out before the bite started slowing up. We then just went fishing. Started getting on a flipping bite in some flooded timber and cruising through some alligators. They were out in numbers today. They're always fun to watch. My client has never flipped trees or caught anything on plastics so I changed all that quickly with him catching several on lizards aside from the ones he caught on traps. Fun stuff! We had a great time catching lots of fish. He wanted to head in just after 2 so I went cruising and looking all the way around the lake. Found some more great areas with activity and will hit those tomorrow. Choke is definitely having the numbers game right now and we caught 30+ bass up to 5.5lbs.

Good fishing!

Lake Travis - 3-31-09

Fished a half day on Travis. Started out a little slow but found the fish at the second stop. Caught several using dropshots and creature baits in 8-25 feet working cliff walls. Saw several big cruisers on the walls but they weren't willing to bite. We moved to wind blown shallower areas where we caught several on crankbaits in 4-7 foot on ledges and we caught them flipping docks with flukes. On the first cast on a dock in 15 foot we found a 4.25lb bass. Nice Travis bass for sure. We then found a 6lber and it had a whole wolfpack follow her out. My 12yo client was reeling it in when it decided it had enough and jumped and spit the hook. We tried for a while at this spot but the school must have moved so we moved on and found some others to finish the day. We caught about a dozen and a half. After dropping the clients off I went back out for a while and was able to find some more nice ones including the one that got away. It was sure enough 6lbs when I put her on the scale. She was near where we found her the first time but just moved to a deeper area. She had others with her still and I caught a few of those too. After it was all said and done, there were 2 6lbers, 2 over 4 and several in the 2-3lb range. Travis was fishing great today.

Choke Canyon 03-27-2009

Fished 7:30-2 Day started off really nice with flat water. That wasn't to last though as the wind picked up stronger and stronger with it being about 25 at the end. Fishing was great finding fish stacked up in the grass around 6-8 foot. Couldn't land any big ones but caught a bunch in the 2-3lb range with a few around 4. I said land earlier because we did have a few on with some possible giants, but they pulled off traps before getting them to the boat. It's exciting watching your reel stripping out line though. The best 5 would have been around 16-18lbs. Lizards, traps and cranks were best.

I took some more clients out in the afternoon to try to get on some big hawgs and was partly successful. We caught 2 over 5lbs and some other healthy bass and had one absolute giant on that my client was fighting and found it's way off somehow. I've never seen a bass pull around a ~270lb man before. 8-O Makes a great fish story though. We had a little over 20lbs best 5.