San Luis Pass 9/29

I made an early morning trip to Houston on 9/29 to meet up with James Andreatos. The plan was to run the surf and try to find some big tarpon. We ran all the way from San Luis pass to the Galveston jetties without seeing a single tarpon. When we got back to the pass at about 3:00, we headed for a rig offshore and crossed paths with a huge school of rolling giants. There were several 6'+ monsters in the group. Unfortunately, I got a little "tarpon fever" and after a comedy of errors, I missed our best opportunity of the day. From there, we chased tarpon for the rest of the afternoon. We got some good chances, and casted to several really big fish, but couldn't quite get them to eat. Finally right at sunset, we got a double hookup on this big bull redfish and a nice sized Jack Crevalle. The jack had this little remora cruising with it, so I picked it up for a quick picture. It was a fun day on the water & James put me on some nice fish... It was a learning experience... You definitely have to be 100% ready out there at all times, because the big ones don't usually give you a second chance!!

Lake Austin 9/24

I hit Lake Austin this afternoon with big bass on my mind. It was my first time on LA with the new outboard, so I was looking forward to running & gunning to a few of my favorite creeks and laydown trees. I caught several decent keepers and lots of dinks on flukes and wacky rigged senkos. I saw several fish that were giants... I went back to the mouth of one creek three times to fish for some huge bass that were hanging out on the edge of a grass line. I saw at least 3 that would have gone 10+lbs. They were pretty spooky during the day, but I went back just after dark and made long casts to the spot they were hanging out in. I ended up catching several in the 17-18 inch range, and this one that was 22.5". I figure it was about a 7 pounder. This is the biggest bass I've caught in a while, and as excited as I was to catch it, I was also a little disappointed that it wasn't one of the giants that were there. Bass fishing should be heating up now that the weather is cooling!! Big tournaments coming up soon at Choke Canyon and LBJ!!!

High Mountain Trout

Here's some shots that my brother, Keith, sent me yesterday. He had a couple days off of the boat and hiked up into the Spanish Pyrenees mountains. They were headed for a summit when they came across this high mountain lake. The lake was full of these little brown trout & he caught several of them on a little minnow lure. How do you say honeyhole in Spanish?

Matagorda Redfish

The rod building circle was completed when Cade emailed me this pic of a nice redfish he caught on his "Redfish Rod" in Matagorda bay. To see more on this rod, click here:
http://2coolfishing.com/ttmbforum/showthread.php?t=209703&highlight=redfish

Congrats Cade!

Lake Georgetown - club tournament - 9/19

I recently joined the Big Sandy Creek bass club, and fished my second tournament with them on sunday. Lake Georgetown was up quite a bit, and the bite was pretty tough. We started off catching fish early, but after the sun came up, it started to shut down on us. I ended up with 3 keepers. It was a fun day on the water, and a fun lake to fish. There's lots of cover right now with the water so high. Unfortunately, the big fish don't seem to be hanging in the shallow cover. The highlight of the day was when we got back to the weigh in and I saw that Bryan Cotter caught a giant on a Coastal Bend rod!! This 25" 9+lb fish was caught in about 20ft on a finesse worm! Congrats to Bryan on the tournament win and a great fish!!

Ringtailed Cat

I was fishing on Lake Georgetown on saturday afternoon and saw a ringtailed cat! These are pretty rare and actually seeing one is very rare. It was right before dark and it was hanging out on the rocks on the dam... Never know what you're gonna see while out on the water! It was too dark to get a pic of it, but this is what it looked like...

RIP - MAGNUM

This Labor Day weekend was a tough one. On sunday morning, our boxer, Magnum, suddenly passed away. He went peacfully and quickly and didn't appear to be in pain. Magnum was definitely a one in a million type of dog. He had a ton of personality and everyone who knew him fell in love with him. He will forever be remembered as "the George Clooney of dogs". He was very special to us and will be deeply missed. He got a prime burial spot next to Lake LBJ, so it'll be good memories of him when we're out there. Rest in Peace buddy!!!

Lake LBJ - Labor Day weekend

Here's a bass I caught while fishing with Dad on Labor Day. This one wasn't nearly as big as the 5lb'er he caught the day before, but I "conveniently" forgot to bring the camera on that trip. This one was caught on a shad colored popper.