I talked to a TFF celebrity, Ron GofishNow, while driving to Houston Saturday AM. Ron just became a Texas Elite Angler after 7 years of efforts. That's five different species of trophy class freshwater fish. Congrats to Ron!!! Waahoo!

Yes, that is a great accomplishment. He called me also hoping to meet up at BP and was very excited he finally reached his goal. That takes a lot of persistence to reach that mark. Congratulations Ron!

First, I want to say that my Quest for going after this award was more about making friendships than it was about catching a fish.
Since I don't own a boat and have fished most every week year-round for the last seven years, I want to thank the many, many of you that have taken me fishing on the big lakes. My first "Big Fish" was submitted to TP&W way back on November 7, 2009. When I started there were 8 freshwater Elite Anglers, now there are 41 in Texas.

That is a great accomplishment. What qualifies the fish?

If you go to the Texas Parks and Wildlife site under fishing, there are different records you can submit for. This one is called Elite Angler. It is based on catching five different species of your choice, taking a picture of you with the fish along with the fish on a ruler. Different fish are different minimum lengths. Once started, there is no time limit to submit a fish. For instance a hybrid is 25, a sand bass 15 and a crappie 15 inches. You can catch and release this way, which I like to do.
The picture below shows that how you measure a fish makes a whole lot of difference, even with fish as small as a bream. This hybrid looks to be 27 inches long but with the mouth closed, it was 26 1/2. I tell you, it makes a difference on reaching the minimum standards.

That's Awesome! Congrats!

I'd like to hear a little bit about your catches. That's such a cool accomplishment.

Congratulations

CypertJ,thanks for asking. I encourage more fisher-person's to apply for the many awards available from TP&W. You can get water body records for adults and Junior anglers, State Records, awards for Catch and Release fish and for individual "Big Fish". You have 60 days to file your paperwork from within the date of the catch.
I learned so much about fishing on this journey and it certainly made me a much better fisherman. Once again, I thank all those who took me fishing. I spent most of my childhood and up till I was age 50 primarily fishing for bass. Once I discovered Hybrids, I branched out!
A couple key things, most importantly, go fishing in waters that have the big fish you are trying for and the other is that by far the easiest big fresh water fish for anyone to get is the White Bass. Tawakoni has plenty of Whites over the 15 inch mark. It took me years of hard fishing to get the hybrid (from Tawakoni) and that is my most proud one to have caught.
I made 6 or 7 trips to Lake Lavon targeting blue cats. That's were I caught two over 36 inches. I studied online when the big ones were caught on all the lakes in Texas and the best time is mid-January after a good freeze, so that's when I went. Many a cold day!
My hardest fish was getting either a crappie or a 10 inch bream. I had caught two crappie over 15 inch crappie in my lifetime but had not done the proper paperwork. One day I spent 13 hours fishing for nothing but crappie catching 50 of them in a prime big bass lake just to try for the "big" crappie after a friend of mine caught a 15 1/2 incher while he was with me.
I came to within an 1/8 of an inch on the bream but was not going to "cheat" on any of the fish lengths.
Once again, record your catches and send in the "Angler Recognition Award Application" to Texas Parks and Wildlife.

Wow, those are great pics, Ron. I have a hunch those pics will be in a book? You should be proud. I know I am for you

Thanks Todd! Let's get you going on the award.
I first met Todd many years ago on a charity guide trip with Trent Miller to support the Tawakoni Sportsmen's Association to help pay for and add baby hybrids to the lake. Larrylenahorse was also on that trip. Todd is a key player in the Ray Hubbard Sportsmen's Association.

Congrats ron! I was with you on Capt. Larry's cat fish boat this year, it was good meeting you!

Congratulations Ron! Beautiful pics of the fish you caught.

X2 .... Very cool Ron! Take us fishing

Great job, Ron. Persistence pays.