First off I don't think that's legal to hire a guide before such a big tournament like that. Second of all these pros don't need guides. They would out fish most guides on fork any day.

They're not soposed to get info from others but several are rumored to frequently. I. Think most guides on fork would beat them. They still put clients on fish with those pros on the water.

Just reinforces the fact that I suck at fishing.

The first TTBC was a team event....and the top guides at the time shined. Not to mention Kelly Jordon who was a Lake Fork guide not long before the inception of the TTBC. Lance Vick and team won it all if memory serves me correctly.

Shawn, it was the first two that were team events. Big Show, Chris Daves, Frank Ippilotti and James Niggemeyer won the first one with 224 lbs+ in 2007. I think KJ's team finished 2nd. The first three names had never been to Lake Fork and James was still a developing pro. Terry asked KJ for help, just one creek and KJ said go to Big Mustang. That's all Kelly told him. Terry found a school of fish in the back of BM that carried them to victory. I think all but 2 of their fish came from that spot. Most of the Fork guides including James and KJ had NEVER fished that spot. So say what you will, but point one of these 'machines' like Big Show in a direction and he will dissect it and find all the sweet spots in a couple days of graphing, SI and a little fishing.

KJ, Lance, David Walker and Dave Smith won the next one.

I'll relay another story about the first TTBC at Conroe. I have a close friend who is one of the best tournament anglers on the lake. He has tons of brushpiles and other waypoints for PVC, ledges, rock piles, drains, etc. He was interested to see how much of 'his' stuff the pros would find. By the second day of practice, there were/had been pros on every one of his spots and the tournament was won off several of his milk runs. I think Brian Snowden won that one.

Interesting thing is the lack of overs. I think we would love to be able to count our slot fish. It doesn't happen a lot, but there are days where you can get on 8 slot fish or so in a day with a few unders sprinkled in. Doing it three days in a row, that's a different story. But fishing a tourney at fork makes you fish different. You target unders, and then go for an over, or focus solely on overs. Different rules, different approach.

i was just looking at the final weights for the ttbc and the top ten guys weighed in over 780 pounds of greenery for the three days. that can't be right! i see posts all the time here of guys fishing for ten hours and only getting two bites, or "fork kicked my butt again, or iconelli only gets five fish in three days of prefishing etc. etc. what's wrong with us?? granted these ten guys are pros, but they show up and fish in god awful conditions and boat almost 800 pounds of bass!! say what?
i hate to tell you guys but it's not lady fork that's the problem...it's us. may as well admit it, we suck at fishing!
i'll never blame the lake again for a bad day. i wonder if the crappie are biting?
hello everybody. i'm bcd and i'm a terrible fisherman. i hope that gets my recovery off to a good start.
way to put on a show guys!