Good article. Thanks for posting.

I�m glad to see this thread on the forum. It would be a shame for the younger anglers to not get the valuable information Mr Hope was able to get through his studies and observations.
I don�t remember when I first read his stuff, but man did I start catching way more big fish after reading his book carefully about five times!

I read crazy story about fish in a featureless round swimming pool, if they were caught on west side of lake they'd move to west side of swimming pool. Then they dropped a dime in the pool, remember featureless pool bottom, and the fish would stack up vertically above the dime...not sure if that's structure or cover.

I've seen the pool experiment. Any piece of cover put into the pool no matter where the bass would congregate around it.

Just want to say thank you for posting the link to your article. It is well written and informative.

I had looked for a copy of Mr. Hope's book in the past unsuccessfully. Thanks to the link to his website in your article I now have one on order!

I also want to say thank you for posting the link...mine is on the way.

I ordered one too, hope I learn something.

There�s a name I haven�t heard in years, Dennis Canada... He had by far the best night trips on lake fork in the late 80�s. Back then he ran an older nitro

Used to love reading his articles in Honey Hole...

There�s always some fish shallow.

I still have the video "The Lost Bass" somewhere at my house that was put out by John Hope. It was great info and I must have watched it a million times through the years. Sure helps you to understand some things about the bass that may seem different to a lot of people.
We at Century Bass Club also had Mr. Hope at a club meeting once and had a question and answer session with him that was awesome to learn about funnel points and big bass. I may have it wrong but one thing that stands out in my mind that he said during the meeting was " It doesn't matter what color of bait you use, just as long as it is Black Neon!"
If you can somehow go online or find that video it is well worth watching.

I've personally sat down with John and got to spend a few hours with him pouring over maps. I'd call him one of my fishing heros. Super nice guy and incredibly knowledgeable about big bass behavior. I might go so far as to so he's the best big bass expert still alive these days.

When I met with John I brought along 5 or 6 different lake maps. I brought one from a obscure lake in Texas I was just sure John had never fished. I wanted to see how he broke down a lake and located funnels. Joke was one me, as soon as I showed John the lake map he goes, "Oh yea, fished that lake many times, caught a big old 10.9lber my first time out there right at the end of this funnel."

I've tried to share what I've learned from him in my books, but there's nothing like getting it straight from the man himself. Last I knew he was out in West Texas near Amistad. He was still guiding, but he didn't call it guiding. More of an on the water coach. His health wasn't too great last time I saw him. Hope he's doing well!

"I've tried to share what I've learned from him in my books, but there's nothing like getting it straight from the man himself. Last I knew he was out in West Texas near Amistad. He was still guiding, but he didn't call it guiding. More of an on the water coach. His health wasn't too great last time I saw him. Hope he's doing well"

He lives in Brackettville, Tx just East of Del Rio, Still fishing and hunting.

I caught a big bass in Wolf Creek some years ago with a yellow tag near the tail. Could this have been one of your or Dennis Canada's tagged fish?

The father in law and I were out fishing martin creek and got to talking about how fish migrate or move the different times of the year... Has anyone done a study on how they move on "hot/cold water" lakes... Do they suspend on the colder side, do they move to the discharge side of the lake... because at Martin this passed weekend the water had a significant difference in temp (not depth finder readings, going off hand feel) and it brought up the subject of where they hang out at different times of the year.
which I know summer time they will majority be on the cold water side.