REELTRUTH

The Rear End Kicking!

2010-03-01T15:10:00.000-08:00

We all dream about winning back to back tournaments with 20plus pound bags and beating the field by ten pounds and looking like the stud sticks of all time, and there are times when truth is stranger and harder to believe than fiction. To start the 2010 fishing season a team made fiction look believable and handed out one of the biggest ass whoopins that I can remember seeing in tournament fishing! Gerald Porobil and Daniel Barnes won back to back tournaments on two different lakes with 54lbs of bass and the next closest team had 22lbs in both tournaments. It happened in the MediaBass ( http://mediabass.com/ ) Texas I-35 Division in the first two tournaments of this year. The first tournament was on Stillhouse in January the second tournament was on Belton in February. Not exactly the two lakes that jump to mind when you think 25lb bag! However this new team has em figured out so far.
Now sure we can all remember some big wins in a tournament 10 or more years ago, maybe the one on a slot lake, the one team that fished in the monsoon and won by 15lbs in a field of eight teams or the back to back wins sight fishing, but this is different. This is two different lakes, non-sight fishing and both times the field was over twenty boats and loaded with real sticks on the lakes. As a matter of fact the previous anglers of the year in the division had 11lbs in the second tournament and that was third place! If you know anything about Central Texas fishing then you are aware of the local names like Fielding, Barnes, Babcock and Parrish. These guys do not make a habit out of donating and you do not see any team dominate multiple tournaments with ease. It is also where the team of Landan Ware & Keith Combs fought many a tournament battle. Central Texas fishing is about as tough as it gets to get paid in and very few ever dominate a tourney. Winning back to back is hard enough, but making your competition look bad while doing it is unheard of!
This is not the first back to back wins ever. Many in Florida may know of Jeremy Baltzell and Tom Fitzgerald, they won two tourneys back to back last year on Blackwater. However, both tournaments were won by a combined margin of less than a half of a pound. In West Louisiana Pate & Shaw won 3 out of 5 tournaments on two different lakes but in two of the tournaments the field was only 11 & 16 boats. The total margin of victory in all three tournaments was less than fifteen pounds. And sure Lawhon & Lawhon have torn up Lake Talquin in Florida with back to back wins over 11 & 13 teams. The accomplishment of these and many other multi time winners are very impressive. They are so impressive that what they do is make what Barnes and Porobil did look absolutely astonishing!
Here are just a few of the numbers that are behind this enormous accomplishment.
Media Bass held over 160 tournaments in 2009 and will hold that many again in 2010.
Of the 160 tournament less than fifteen teams had multiple wins in any division. Only three had back to back wins.
In the entire year of 2009 in the CenTex division there were only six bags weighed in all year over 20lbs.
At Stillhouse this year Poboril & Barnes weighed in 29.41lbs. The rest of the entire field had 36lbs.
They won Stillhouse by 18.5 lbs! They beat third place by 23lbs!
At Belton they weighed in 24.56 pounds. they won by just three pounds but beat third place by 13.3lbs!
Meaning that they beat the third place finishers in back to back tournaments by over 36lbs!
They beat the last in the money teams by 40lbs!
There were only SIX limits brought to the scales in both tournaments. Remember they had two of them.
No other team had a limit in both tournaments.
Even more astounding is how different teams finished well on the two lakes EXCEPT Barnes & Poboril.
No other team cashed a check at both tournaments.
The average lbs in boat at the tournaments was under 5lbs. These were tough, tough tournaments for everyone except Barnes & Poboril!

The stats go on and on. Just a couple more.

The second place team at each event had no more than one fish in the other event of the year.
No team weighed in more six fish in both tournaments and no team weighed in multiple fish at both events.
The three teams that were in the money with Barnes & Poboril at the first event had a combined weight of 3lbs at the next event!
Talk about laughing all the way to the bank.
They have now won $3180 after entry fees this year. The next best team has won $490.00 and only four teams have made more than their entry fee in the first two events.
Here is one for you real numbers lovers. In the opening events in ten divisions of Media Bass this year (including Deep East, Big "D", Super Teams, Hwy 31, West, Northeast, and many more) the margin of victory in all ten combined was 18lbs. That is what Barnes & Poboril won by in their first event alone!

I had a chance to talk with Daniel Barnes and I expected that I might run into the usual cocky bass fisherman with a we caught em in the mouth story. However, as is often the case my assumption only made me the ass. Daniel is actually a polite guy that was complimentary of other Central Texas sticks like former resident Keith Combs and his own brother Adrian Barnes. He like many of us is a Mike Iaconelli fan. He and his partner fish out an Alpha 199 Legend and he wanted to thank the sponsors that help with his fishing. They include Marine Outlet (http://www.marineoutlet.com/ ) of Temple Texas, Victory Tackle, Powertackle and Tightline Premium Fishing Tackle.
Surprisingly the team has only been together for one year and these two wins are their first bigger than the Tuesday night jackpot variety. So what is the big secret? Well it may be two fold. Certainly the team knows the lakes. On Stillhouse Daniel said they fished an area that , "only about two or three other teams know about." On Belton they fished an isolated cove with water temperatures about 5 to 7 degrees warmer than almost anywhere on the lake.
Secondly, you gotta have the bites. On Stillhouse Daniels reported that his partner caught back to back five pounders in an area and then Daniel adjusted boat position threw right back in the same spot with a jig and landed their 9lber! With a 9 and a couple 5's on board you are gonna be tough to beat ANYWHERE. Especially if the no other team on the lake that day puts a limit together.
On Belton the team fished jigs and swimbaits all day. However, all day was really unnecessary. Again on back to back casts in the second straight tournament the team caught quality fish. Daniel had a 3 and 4 lber on his first two casts and was culling 3lbers by 7:30 a.m.! What they believe was 19lbs turned out to be near 25 and again a cruising victory to start the season.
Daniel said that he had found the small spot prefishing and thought they could have 14lbs or so. Somedays you get the "or so!"

It was a pleasure to meet Mr. Daniels and I wish him and his partner continued success. If they keep this up they may run out of room in the garage for the really neat Media Bass Trophies.

I would love to hear of a recent feat that comes close to what these two have done. It is hard to believe even as I go over these numbers again. Two lakes that fished so different and so tough. Half of the field has one fish or a zero and no other team could figure out both lakes. Yet one team dominates both and just embarrasses a whole group of fishermen. If there is a better definition of butt whoopin in tournament bass fishing I cannot wait to write about it here!

UPDATE: Had a fellow write me and add that Daniel Barnes won a tourney on Feb.13, 2010 on Belton also. And then a friend sent me a link to ANOTHER Media tourney held last June and in the first tourney they ever fished together on Stillhouse Barnes & Poboril had 28lbs! UNCLE, I give I couldn't make up a new team, three tourney run like this! 83lbs in three tournaments for a brand new team. If I made it up, you readers would laugh at me!

The bottom half is by definition THE BOTTOM HALF

2010-02-23T11:30:00.000-08:00

We all start the year in fishing with the same ideas. Maybe even ideals. We will win every tournament, or at least get paid in every one, or at least break even for the year. How though does one really define success or perhaps failure. Well I have an easy way to determine failure as an overall fisherman.

If you fish a five tournament series (that hits at least three lakes) and you finish more than TWICE in the bottom half of a tournament. You failed! Oh you may make money because you win the other two events but as far as overall fisherman you are a failure for the year. A decent fisherman just doesn't finish in the bottom half of a tournament. Yes it is possible to have boat trouble, really lose every fish in a day or even fall in a lake. However, taking out the extreme possibilities, if you can fish and you chose the tournament trail, you will not finish in the bottom half of any tournament twice.

Look at the finishes of any level, PRO down to local team trail. Good fishermen DO NOT finish in the bottom half of the teams or individuals very often. If you do one of the following is true:

1. You chose the wrong trail.

2. You can't catch fish.

3. You did not practice.

4. You should not go to Vegas!

5. You can only fish your home lake.

6. You like donating.

If you find that you finish in the bottom half of the results three out of five times in a year, please do me a favor and come fish my series next year!! Seriously, consider staying home, you are wasting your time and money. Donate to the Red Cross, not the other fisherman's lure fund.

What about the other boat?

2010-02-15T15:06:00.000-08:00

I have been looking at my and many other "best boat" polls and something came across my mind. How many people believe that the brand of boat they own is the "best" boat made. It seems to me that it would almost be a statement against self interest to say that a boat other than the one you own is the best. In the car world I would think very few people own an M5, Audi R8 or Mercedes SL55 so that it would seem easier to say some other car than the one you owned was the best. It would get almost comical if you thought about the number of people that owned a Veryon, SLR or Murcielago. Surely nobody would argue that the Chevy Camaro or Ford Edge was the best car, period. Maybe it stems from the need to justify the purchase. Personally I think the best boat is a paid for 19 footer with a good efi 150 on it.
Also it seems that all bass boats are out the same mold. They are all vee bottom, fiberglass, two seat, approx. 20ft long, engine on the back, trolling motor on bow, rod locker, livewells, etc etc. Imagine again in the car world if every car compared as the best was a two door, v8, RWD, with a/c, stereo, two seater with approx. the same hp. Most would simply argue that "best" was just personal taste in a similar product. So maybe it is fair to say any of the big names is the best.
Perhaps the best has to be better defined. Is speed, fishablility, storage, looks, or some other criteria what makes a bass boat the best?
I think one thing is clear, nearly all bass boats have incredibly good owner advertising. Maybe that's just what happens when you finance something for ten years.

No Back Up Plan. Well Done FLW

2010-02-15T14:51:00.000-08:00

In an effort to prove why they are near bankrupt and cannot get a thing right the FLW cancelled the Pro event on the Red River last week. In an unbelievable move they had no back-up plan for the event. It is as if they all have other jobs besides running tournaments. It would be hard to believe that they could keep jobs at a manure plant the way they handle their business. They did not want to cancel the event, probably because they had no back-up plan. However, they were forced to when more than 70 competitors went and complained that the conditions were unsafe. Imagine how ridiculous that meeting must have been after the conditions the FLW let everyone fish in at Lake Falcon last month. The winner at the Falcon event did thousands of dollars worth of damage to his boat getting to and from his fish. (Of course he will claim that on his insurance and make all our premiums go up, but I guess that's okay as long as FLW doesn't have to pay for it.)
FLW certainly knew that NE Texas and Northern Louisiana had received record rainfalls over the past months. It would have been very simple to reschedule the event or perhaps even easier to simply hold the event at Lake Caddo, Sam Rayburn, Toledo Bend, or any other lake within two hours of the Red River. FLW indeed did not have a single contingency plan. Meaning that they do not care a bit if professional fisherman get to compete at their lively hood, much less care if fans wanted to see an event or participate in fantasy fishing.
Every person in the position of tournament director at the FLW should resign today and let the fishing industry bring in some competent, aggressive and educated people to begin to rebuild the professional fishing industry. This is not a small decision to simply cancel a tournament, this is an obvious bout of sleeping at the wheel. Fishermen deserves so much more. Imagine if they simply cancelled a Nascar race and did not make up the event. It is a sad day when the tournament directors cannot get a single thing right.

"You can't fish harder than I do..."

2010-02-08T20:45:00.000-08:00

"You gotta just bear down and fish harder." This was the recent advice of a neighbor who "used" to fish tournaments about what to do when the weather got bad. Jimmy disliked the whole thought and knew that the neighbor was just a local pond fisherman now and would never understand how hard tournament fishermen fish today. Tournaments were a lot different in the 60"s & 70"s but now a guy had to be good to win and Jimmy planned on winning.
He had been to the academy store a few miles from his house more times than he would admit. A few lunch rendezvous and even a quick swing in before heading home were probably the norm not the exception. Today he looked at all the Zoom products searching for that perfect lizard color. He thought about the old timer that had told him he used to kill em on purple chartreuse. He remembered a few years back when he caught a bunch on muscadine. But that was spring and on a Carolina rig this was late fall and perhaps he would just go with green pumpkin. He was noticing that the in house brand was sure taking up a lot of shelf space and wondered if they would even be bringing the other stuff back. He thought he might go out to Bass Pro but it was a long drive and he really wanted to beat his wife home and throw his new purchases in the closet before a discussion took place.
The tournament was two Saturday's away but Jimmy likes to be ready early. Leaving Academy he decided that maybe a trip to BPS would be okay if he didn't spend anything else on tackle before the tourney. Arriving at BPS he parked close and marveled at the amount of money spent on the pond and then he went inside. There he ran into him. He looked cocky as ever and Jimmy was in no mood for the latest story of a break off or any other excuse. Phil started with..

Finish second and you'll never make money bass fishing locally.

2010-02-04T14:11:00.000-08:00

There are professional bass anglers. They fish with FLW & BASS and are dedicated to spending 200 days a year on the water and are at least partially funded by some corporation to advertise products or services. This article is not about those fishermen. Frankly touring professional fishermen represent less than 1% of tournament fishermen and have little to do with the sport except push products onto the other 99% of people that compete in local bass tournaments.
Please understand that there are some really good fishermen that just fish within 3 to 4 hours of their house. Some of the best sticks in the country will never be heard of farther than a tank of gas from where they call home. The average tournament bass angler will never win more than 5,000 dollars in any single event or more than 20,000 in a year. If they do it will often be due to a single tournament win.
A tournament bass fisherman must be willing to compete for something other than money. Looking at the numbers it is fool's folly to even think about making money bass fishing.

Take a guy that is going to fish two trails in a given year. The first is a pretty big regional deal with entry fees of $300 per event and the second is a more local trail with entry fees of $150.00 per event. Our fisherman has a good partner and will only have to pay half expenses. Truck and boat payments will be considered just part of being a fisherman and not specifically needed for tournament fishing. (Although I wonder why anyone would need a 21foot bass boat with a 250 and twin HDS graphs to just hobby fish.) Also all fishing gas will be just for fishing, no hotel dollars added and only an additional $500.00 per year in extras to include all tackle, line and accessories that a hobby fisherman would not buy. We all know that $500.00 is awful light for all those lake specific "gotta haves" that we all buy the week before a tourney.

Let's say the regional draws a strong 250+ boats to every event and the local draws 40+ per event. The payout structure in both will be paying back one in six places. (A lot of trails pay even less to up the first place prize and create a lottery mentality in the entrants)

If you finish in the top 50 out of 300 in the regional and top 10 out of 60 in the local trail you get a check.
The expenses for the trails are as follows:

Yearly membership fees: $35.00 & $30.00
Six Regional Entry fees: $900.00
Six Local Entry fees: $450.00
Tournament Extras: $500.00
(These are 1/2 as these are team events.)

Total Tournament Expenses for one year of local tournament fishing: $ 1915.00

Let's say that our fisherman is in the money 8 out of twelve times during the year and finishes as high as third on the regional trail and second on the local trail. Finishes third in angler of the year in the regional and finishes fourth in points in the local. How did he come out financially?
These are actual results from two real trails and two actual fishermen in 2008 & 2009:

Regional:
Event 1 Finish in third out of 278 win $ 1000.00
Event 2 Finish in top 15% and win $300.00.
Event 3 Finish in top 10% and win $300.00
Event 4 Finish in top 20% and are seven spots out of the money.
Event 5 Finish 67th out of over 180 boats and no money.
Event 6 Finish outside the money in the last event.

Total winnings: $1600.00 Points Finish: 3rd out of over 300 teams that competed in the year.
Notes: The winnings are half actual check because it is a team event(the expenses were just half the entry fee also), The team never finished in bottom half of a tourney during the year.

NET; As for the regional events, after entry fees, membership dues and a conservative $250.00 in tournament extras for this trail the grand total is:

Net winnings: $415.00 Dollars.

I was gonna go into as much detail with the local trail but the numbers were very similar.
The team was in top half of field five out of six times. cashed three checks for $400.00 (that is per person actual winning $800) and finished fourth in AOY points.

So for their fine efforts in the local trail each man lost $330.00.00 dollars.

So for their incredibly good fishing that included 8 checks and top 5 finishes in AOY in regional and local tours the team MADE $85.00 dollars per man! And they did better than 99% of the other teams!!!

And of course this is all using the rather ludicrous assumption that tournament fishing brings no extra gas, hotel, tackle, license, breakage cost above $250.00 per trail. As well as the truck and boat payment being left out!
It actually really surprised me at how badly the money played out in tournaments when I did this research. If you didn't outright win a large event you lost money. I could not find a single instance where a fisherman made money just finishing above average. And in no instance did I find a fisherman that made money just beating 75% of the field every time.
I am going to start a small series of blogs that use actual fisherman's results from the last few years in series from Florida to Texas and look at how they did financially versus finish and point standings.

It is my belief that less than 5% of local fisherman make a dime and most do not make a cent without a tournament win.

If you can contribute something different please feel free to comment and tell us who you are, where you fish and how much you made last year.

At this time I have to be honest I think local tournament bass fishing must be about bragging rights, competition and ego because it sure isn't about the money. Which begs the question, why not just have trophy tournaments? Must be more.........................

Random Thoughts and upcoming blogs...

2010-02-03T19:02:00.000-08:00

Just a few things that I was thinking about....

Turn your damn headlights off on the ramp.

Never fish more tournaments in a month than the number of times you buy your wife flowers in a year.

Is O.J. still in jail?

The Monkey Box is a funny name for a fishing area.

Who the heck named it Green Pumpkin?

Can anyone ever outrun Usain Bolt?

How do so many bass grow to 13 inches?

Stop letting trash fly out of your boat.

If you have a reaction to something you read then it's a good read.

It is so scary when a rattletrap fish jumps out of the water.

Why don't practice bass come off the hook?

If flourocarbon is invisible why does it matter what size I use?

Kevin VanDam may make a living from bass fishing if he keeps it up.

The NASCAR race for the chase is now boring.

Forrest Gump is smarter than most people I know.

Enjoy this ride, it's a one way ticket!

A few upcoming blogs....

"Beat 80% of the field every time and you'll go BROKE."

"No you can't make a living fishing."

Interviews upcoming with Jim Tutt, Todd Castledine & Ron Shuffield

"There is no magic bait."

Put your dukes down and fish, Nobody Cut You Off

2010-02-03T18:02:00.000-08:00

When did we all become the victims of water poaching?
Truth is the boat that pulls into your water most likely did not cut you off. We all believe that the other guy is doing something to us. He is not, and it is time that we all take off our rose colored glasses and pink thongs!Getting mad while fishing is dumber than taking stripper glitter home to mama.
If the rules say that you can't fish within 25 yards of another tournament boat and a guy races in on plane and stops 26 yards away from you and proceeds to hammer the grass line you wanted to fish, good for him. He did what he needed to do to catch fish and Linus you better put the blanket down and get to fishing. If you wanna fish for money and claim the glory then deal with the fact that your competition should do everything possible to keep you from getting the check. When you win I bet you will never say, "I think I owe it to that real nice guy in the Skeeter. I think he would have won but he gave me the spot."
If you were wondering 25 yards is about three boat links. Almost all of us can throw a good c-rig that far. So the next time you are fuming mad because that no good s.o.b. cut you off get out your big rod and sail it at the other boat and if you can't hit him, shut up and fish!
Good grief people the United States population has increased by 50% since 1970 and is now over 300,000,000 people. Most large city reservoirs have been around since the 60's & 70's. It doesn't take a lot of riffmatic to figure out things are getting more crowded. If you can't handle getting cut off or get offended when other boats come into your area then move to the Australian outback and leave those of us that can deal with each other alone.
You see the modern world and fisherman have to deal with the fact that he didn't cut you off, he just didn't have anywhere else to be. If you are any good at locating winning fish at least a few things should be true:
1. Other fishermen should wanna fish your area.

2. You have other places to go to.

3. Your good enough to outfish someone in the same area.

4. Your bait and technique is not in the other guy's boat.

So relax big stick. The other boat has every right to be ANYWHERE the rules says he can be. If you don't wanna fish for money then don't. However, if you do then relax and realize you didn't get cut off, you just finished second in the race to the spot. Now get out there and beat that poacher at the Weigh-in line.
And in case you were wondering NO the guy in the Ranger didn't see you catching them and then come into your area.

Why Mr. Rose, Is that a livewell in your rod locker or are the bass just happy in carpet?

2010-02-02T13:58:00.000-08:00

The TPWD is assisting the Dallas D.A. office in what is turning into a real good fish tale. Sure most of you know that Robby Rose took a fishing rod in one hand and a bible in the other and tore through local Dallas Area tournaments like Moses through the Red Sea. However, he was oddly inept outside the local area. Inept meaning he couldn't catch his arse with both hands in bass tournaments outside the metroplex. Now of course we have all learned that at least on one occasion Mr. Robby Rose was cheating! Sadly for him a fish named Karma spit up a one pound weight at a weigh-in on Lake Ray Hubbard last year. Oh say it ain't so Robby! Well at least he appeased the really slow kids by saying that it was a bad judgment. Judgment is a well know criminal code for "you should feel sorry for me cause I had a bad childhood and screw off I ain't admittin crap."
Maybe he just did it once. If any of you believe that ya'll can call our Outdoor Realty group at 1-888-ura-dolt.
Well now it appears that there may be sources that are reporting that Mr. Rose was seen by and perhaps even accompanied by another person to Lake Fork just days before the tournament on Lake Ray Hubbard. He caught some real nice ones and kept them in his possession. Even sadder the person tells of a hidden cooler within the boat of Mr. Robby Rose. I guess Mr. Rose was smart. Whoever thought of hiding bass in the ONLY part of a boat they check. Perhaps a really smart tourney director will figure out how to do a boat check in places that we haven't already told you we were checking. How about a few random web-cams placed in boats for the entire tourney day? Whoa this is starting to sound awful 1990's for us rednecks! We don't wanna get ahead of ourselves!
I sure hope that Mr. Rose doesn't take a plea offer and stands by his good words and fights this case. It will be immeasurable fun to see the evidence come out in open Court. And if I know anything about him he is sure not gonna take a plea deal when it was just a one time little ol act of indiscretion!
We can all only hope that soon Mr. Rose will soon be in a place where using your partner's rod has a whole different meaning.

You can be sure kids that we won't let this story die, and will sure try and be present at any criminal hearing that comes from the matter!

Groundhog hell batman it's freezin!

2010-02-02T13:36:00.001-08:00

The folks in Pennsylvania may need a snot nosed varmint to tell em that winter isn't over but fishermen in Texas could have told em that without rodent side assistance. January 2010 in Texas has finally and without much mercy come to an end.
As crazy as it may sound to those of us that stayed inside the final Saturday of January 2010 saw at least three tournaments throughout the State. BassnBucks headed toward Conroe and Media Bass held separate events on Sam Rayburn and Richland Chambers. The weather was a pleasant 29degrees with a howling NE wind. Conditions that had most fishermen staying home helping mama in the kitchen. However an impressive number of Texas' best fishermen ventured out to take a shot at these tournaments. The events saw Andy Gaia, Russell Cecil, Bill Wilcox, Mike Farmer, Gary Paris, Todd Castledine, Jim Tutt, Dicky Newberry and many other real sticks on the water. With that kind of talent on hand you had to expect that someone would truly come out on top and boy did she!
Mother Nature had her way in almost every instance. The three tournaments had 75 boats total (like I said there were a lot of wives with company last weekend.) And in all three tournaments there were six limits brought to the scales. No that is not six in EACH tournament that is SIX TOTAL limits for three tournaments with some of the best anglers in Texas! If you saw a team with five cull rings out on January 30, 2010 you can bet that they don't make it a habit to "donate" on Saturday's!
Boys when I see Nutria Rats carrying dura flame logs I don't need Punksatony Phil, Dr. Phil or any other Phil to tell this ol' boy winter is gonna last a bit longer! For some it is time to bundle and test your skills , for many it is probably best to just test your skillets.

The Great Seven Year Itch, Lake Fork Style

2010-01-27T10:17:00.000-08:00

The winter periods from '86-'87 through '92-'93 may be the most unbelievable fishing experience the country and certainly Texas has ever seen in terms of giant largemouth bass. In those seven winter periods Lake Fork produced record sized bass in numbers that may never be seen again. So what really came from Fork from winter 1986 through Spring 1993?

Inside the astounding numbers

The SIX (6) largest bass ever caught in Texas.
TEN(10) out of the FIFTEEN (15) Largest bass ever caught in Texas.
A full FIFTEEN (15) out of the TWENTY FIVE (25) largest bass ever caught in Texas.
One Half of the FIFTY (50) Largest Bass of all time in Texas.

To help put these numbers in prospective consider that since 1987 Budweiser, and now Toyota have operated a joint program with Texas Parks & Wildlife called the ShareLunker program. The program operates to harvest and research giant Texas Bass. Any person catching a fish weighing 13lbs or more from Texas waters can have the fish picked up by TPWD and entered into the program.

The research program lists now over 475 fish of at least 13lbs. No surprise is that Lake Fork has more than half of the largest fish in the program. That is half of the fish over 13lbs all caught in one lake! The other lakes in the Top Five all time ShareLunker entries are Alan Henry (25), Sam Rayburn (23), Conroe (16) and Choke Canyon (12).

So how do these lakes stack up against the TWENTY FIVE monsters of greater than 15lbs caught in fork from winter 1986 through spring 1993?

Combined these four lakes have produced only three (3) fish large enough to be in the top 50, EVER!
And as for the current king Lake Falcon, it is yet to produce a fish large enough to crack the top 50.

The seven year period at Lake Fork is something that may never again be duplicated by any Bass fishing lake anywhere. Just the idea that any body of water produced over 25 black bass weighing more than 15.30 pounds in that amount of time is unreal.

Sometimes the Reeltruth is hard to believe!

http://www.tpwd.state.tx.us/fishboat/fish/programs/fishrecords/freshwater/top50_largemouth.phtml

Give ALL the money back, or get out!

2010-01-26T18:52:00.000-08:00

Why in the heck do bass fishermen put up with the outright abuse by Tournament Directors and sponsors of bass fishing tournaments? To every tournament director and promoter out there I say to you, if you can't pay back 95% or better of the money throughout the year then let someone else handle the job. What are you doing for the fishermen when you keep the fisherman's money. Imagine an event that promotes itself and then uses the entry fee money to pay expenses. "Excuse me Mr. Tyson, we are gonna need you to pay an entry fee of 1.5 million and we will be paying you back 80%, would that be okay?" "Yes Mr. Gordon, we were thinking if you wrap your car in these ridiculous colors and wear this clown outfit and get all the other guys to do the same so that the corporations can make money and then if you don't mind if you could all put your entry fee in a pot and we will be giving you back 90%."
Good Grief Charlie Brown how far does this have to go? We can't keep giving the money makers a pass. If you are a promoter you go out and you show corporate and small business sponsors how being a part of your event MAKES them money. They in turn then pay you and you ADD value to the entry fees of your participants. You remember them, the fishermen that buy the boats, trucks, rods, reels, tackle, gas, hotel rooms and pay your ridiculous "membership fees."
Surely we dumb ol hicks could find us a local constable and pay him to hold our money at the ramp and then we could simply payback 99% of entry fees. Heck I bet if we work as hard as a coon with a shiny thing we might even figure out how to make a schedule and get word out on the Internet! Seems like anyone can write stuff on here now!
Let me take a crack at this here promotion.

SATURDAY SATURDAY SATURDAY ( Say it like an old radio spot for a good drag race and it sounds so cool)

Lake Guntersville, $150.00 per team entry fee, $10.00 optional big bass pot. Take off at safe light and weigh -in at three p.m.

I tell ya boys this is tough, I almost forgot p.m.! Imagine the confusion when all us rednecks showed up to weigh in 20 hours later in the dark. Sure glad we have tournament directors!

Now let's see we will OVER first place winner so that people get all dollar bill eyed. Then we will have a points system BUT make the championship open to anyone who fishes all our "events" and really get em good we will make them pay an entry for the championship. But maybe best of all the Point System we will have NO Payout! Why, because we gave it all away at each "event."
(Look for a later blog post on why in the hell we can't get a real money payout for points and really fishing well ALL year not just getting lucky once!)

Now if I have everything right I am done. Unless of course a real promoter should spend forty hours a week looking for corporate and small business sponsors to pay more than 100% of entry fees. Unless someone can tell me why tournament directors and promoters shouldn't work the hours the rest of us do to enjoy this sport. Oh and don't even start in about all the hours at the event, driving there, setting up! That is manual labor that an $8.00 an hour employee could do and if that is all you do for the money, my point is proven! If you want to be a promoter, a difference maker, a leader, well then GET TO WORK.

Tournament fishermen should right now and I mean TODAY demand that any tournament they enter pay back MORE than 90%, pay at least 1 in 6 finishers and have a director on site that can explain their efforts to help the FISHERMEN not just the trail itself!
It is easy to understand that if you are fishing for less than the entry fees that YOU provided, Someone else is laughing all the way to the bank.

And oh yes fishermen, if you think that it is okay to NOT support the companies, people and individuals that put CASH money into fishing then you are part of the reason that you are paying to play with yourself!

WHAT A 100,000 Dollar Pitiful JOKE!

2010-01-26T13:05:00.001-08:00

Are some of you people in Texas kidding me? Seriously nobody saw this one coming? A guy that can't catch a fish to save his life in B.A.S.S. or when cameras are on him is then caught cheating, WHAT A DANG SURPRISE!
He is the all time leading money winner in a Tourney Trail, they should be ashamed if not down right humiliated for being complacent in a CRIME. And if they did run the sorry sack off then why not publish it and sing it from the rafters. Tell us all that ROBBY ROSE was removed from our tournaments because he is a CHEAT! No proof my rear. You apologists can say whatever you want but here is what I know, my grandma taught me the proof is in the pudding..............

HERE IS HOW THIS PUDDING TASTES!

21 B.A.S.S. tournaments and not a single top 5 finish or should I say not a single top 20 finish! And this is the All Time leading money winner for Bass Champs? Apologize all you want, he is a cheater and someone knew it! Someone kicked him out of some tournament or club or just their dang house before and somebody should have done it again! You can't worry that some individual will get a low down scummy attorney and sue you for libel or slander, NO WORRY, the truth is always a defense to those claims!!

Guide or Tournament Fisherman?

2010-01-26T11:56:00.000-08:00

Should a guide be a tournament proven fisherman or just good at his home waters? I have asked many guide clients and it seems that the answer is most people want a Guide that can teach them something about fishing.
If that is the case then wouldn't the guides tournament resume be more important than his latest catch photos on his home lake?
What about a guide that has never won a dime other than his home lake. Can he teach you anything other than where there are a few fish biting on his home water?
I believe that a real fisherman can catch fish in places other than his home waters. Maybe without his brushpiles and definitely under the pressure of fishing for money!

Next time you are thinking about a guide trip I suggest that if you want to learn from a pro then check out his stats and tournament history. It is very easy to do,

Try these links for Angler Look Ups:

http://www.flwoutdoors.com/ap/index.cfm?type=bass

&

http://proxy.espn.go.com/outdoors/bassmaster/media/search

Good Luck with all your fishing!

What do Bill Wilcox, Harold Allen, Dicky Newberry & Todd Castedine have in common?

2010-01-26T10:10:00.000-08:00

What they have in common is they have probably won more money on Sam Rayburn than most fishermen have won in their entire careers. Maybe even more than Robbie Rose stole in his. But for 2010 what they have in common is they are yet to cash a check at Sam Rayburn.
And before you go thinking that they you could do better, forget it. Sam Rayburn is just tough right now! When these guys don't catch em you can be sure that luck is playing as big a factor as skill in the early part of 2010. The results of the early season tournaments say so as well. Bass-N-Bucks is won with four fish. http://www.bassnbucks.com/StandingsJan-16th Bass Champs has no 20lb bag and second place is a four fish bag. http://www.basschamps.com/basschamps/results.cfm?tournament_id=93&type=team&yearSelected=2010 That sure does not say that a fisherman is on quality fish and really catching them. It says that they got some amount of lucky to catch the fish they did.
Sam Rayburn is suffering from exactly what the rest of Texas is suffering from, COLD! The air that covered East Texas two weeks ago was the coldest in near 13 years. The water temp on Wednesday Jan. 6Th was 47 to 49 degrees and stayed that low or lower through Sunday Jan. 16, 2010. The Bass-N-Bucks tournament was one of the coldest water temps starts on record. Fishing was slow and a lot of the best East Texas fisherman struggled to 3 or 4 bites all day.
The Bass Champs tourney did follow a week of warming weather but it was just not enough to bring the females into the grass. The buck males did make it to shallow water and provided many 9lb bags. But the big females remained just out of reach for most fishermen. I spoke with several of the competitors and many had chunked rattletraps all day and almost none had more than 5 or 6 bites.
The cold has just been the winner this spring. Current water temps as of today are ranging between 52 & 55 degrees and another COLD front is headed in this Wednesday, just in time for the Media Bass Super Teams Event.
Mother Nature is having her day, but you can bet that the big names will start to figure this lake out soon and watch for em to be cashing checks in Media and FLW the week following.

LADY LUCK A solo act

2009-07-30T07:07:00.000-07:00

In the world there are times where it takes an amazing number of factors to bring about an event or result. Even just brewing a cup of coffee takes a medium, heat source and solvent. Nothing it seems is capable of being solely responsible for any outcome. But leave it to tournament fisherman to identify a phenomenon.
Each anglers bad luck is the sole cause of their out of the money finish. When weigh-ins begin it becomes a village of men standing about talking about their BAD LUCK. Listen closely and the same maladies effect them all, standards include, "I broke off...", "I lost a...", "trolling motor quit at.." The anglers in the money seem completely unaware that only the bad luck of the other anglers stood in the way of them having to join one of the cliques. The other anglers skill, poor decisions and any other factors be damned! My bad luck is the only reason I did not win like I should have!

Which is better? Winning or Winning?

2009-07-29T10:54:00.001-07:00

Scenario: You have spent all day bass fishing and it is 2:30, weigh-in is only 30 minutes away.
You paid $200 to enter the tournament and another $100 in expenses.

What would prefer?

1. That you have had a great day fishing, caught a record number of fish, so did all your competitors and you FINISH ONE SPOT OUT OF THE MONEY.

2. That you had a tough day fishing caught only three fish and get the last check of the tournament and BREAK EVEN.

3. Have a terrible day fishing but had one big bite late and won big bass and MADE $100 on the day.

4. Had a terrible day fishing, miserable weather, caught two fish but everyone else did terrible and you get second place and YOU WIN $300.

5. You know that you can't answer honestly.

Why would a hobby be done for money? Is it then a hobby?

2009-07-29T10:11:00.000-07:00

You have a job, you work hard. You have a family, you spend time with them. You get to take some time off from family and work and enjoy a hobby. Golf, tennis, running, fishing, going to museums, reading, or a variety of other activities designed to help you relax and enjoy a quality of life. Sometimes a hobbyist might even enjoy competing against others. There is after all a primal need to be the better man. So a good hobby is a good if not necessary part of the healthy adult life.

Where does hobby end and part-time profession come into bass fishing. It seems that the millions of runners and bike riders that do so for hobby only have managed to keep up their interest without a horde of tournaments to compete for money. The local tennis club still rewards competitors with a simple trophy and applause. So why has bass fishing become so much a for money, tournament driven "hobby?"

There are a few possible answers any of which may be completely wrong or possibly completely dependent on the other answers but here they are in no particular order.

1. Bass fishing is simply a reflection of this country's lottery win, reality millionaire, get rich quick and I deserve it mentality. Every bass fisherman watches Television and sees that some professional angler wins 1 million dollars and somewhere inside he believes that he could do that, or maybe he just thinks "man what I could do with that kinda money." Certainly tournament directors and organizers get this mentality to a point. They often have bass tournaments where first prize is $10,000 or more dollars and yet a top ten finish may net less than $1,000 and finishing in the top twenty percent may not even get you a dime! But then all you have to do is give the field the chance to get rich quick. One does have to ask though if the need to compete for an outrageous first prize is the whole answer to tournament bass fishing how does a runner train for miles a week and know that he will never get a dime for his efforts?

2. Bass fishermen are actually more gambler than hobbyist. Perhaps bass fishing is not enough of a hobby to really appeal to many people. Maybe it is the gambling aspect that really drives the sport. Indeed there does seem to be a great divide between a retired gentleman and his grandson heading out for a morning of fishing in their 18 foot bass boat versus the mad rage that is the start of many bass tournaments. Perhaps the enjoyment is driven by trying to win money not just go fishing. The fishing is a hobby that would be nice to take the kids out a day or two a month for but tournament prep can keep a working family man on the water 5, 10 or more days a month.

3. You gotta justify your toys somehow. Maybe when ya pay $600 a month for a truck capable of pulling Mount Rushmore down and another $600 a month on a bass boat that can't fit in your garage you have to say it is for more than your man ego. Bass fisherman may have a hard time admitting that they just want a truck bigger than Bubba's and a bass boat that runs faster than many sub compact cars. So they rationalize it by the fact that they fish for money so they gotta have good equipment. Well or is it that they have to make up for a lack of equipment?

The list could seemingly go on forever. It almost becomes an excuse list not a reason list. Should a true hobby need the added dimension of for money competition? Are bass fisherman just the world's worst part time employed workers?
When was the last time the average tournament fisherman competed for just a trophy?

Why do bass fishermen fish tournaments?

2009-07-29T09:04:00.001-07:00

There are a lot of fish tales that we could start with in Bass Fishing but perhaps the biggest has to be the idea that the hobby tournament fishermen fish for money. The logical interpretation would be that each year the tournament bass angler takes income minus expenses and the resulting number is his profit or the money his tournament fishing business netted him. *1
The TRUTH is that the hobby tournament fisherman is in a general addicted to two things, 1. The hope that he can win money and 2. to compete and hopefully brag later about his accomplishments (a real bonus here if is others blow his horn and allow him to say overly humble and ridiculous things like "I just got lucky", etc).
The idea of winning money is no stranger to the American adventurist. Since the days of Dutch and Spanish traders there has been a risk and reward gambler in many of us. The distinction in many is if they understand the folly of a non accounting business. Each year over 40 million Americans head to Las Vegas Nevada hoping to win money. This has to be one of the most insane ideas in all the world. Often even the players themselves state that they plan to lose money and winning is a bonus. Sounds oddly similar to "I get to go fishing the money is just a bonus doesn't it?" The Vegas convention bureau reports that only 6% of Vegas visitors say that gambling is the primary reason for the trip. However, more than 85% of visitors report some gambling. When a casino has revenues in the billions and profits in the hundreds of millions one thing is for certain, they do not build em and run em on winners. The hope is left in the casino and the player simply does no accounting of his gambling business and reports that he had a great time. This is the state of the modern day bass tournament fisherman, he is incapable of admitting that he is shooting the moon for the big first place pay day and ignoring the fact that 90% of all tournament fishermen lose money in their business.
But losing money isn't the only part it is worth a lot of money to people to be recognized as better than the next guy at something.

I would be happy to have any tournament fisherman give honest thoughts on this subject and would be happy to detail any tournament fisherman that can back up a claim that they made money fishing!

*1 - Hobby tournament fisherman =non professional tournament fisherman. This article is not directed to anyone that claims their sole income as tournament bass fishing. That is a whole other story of the lure pimpin guys and their festive wrapped boats!