So we like the Red River?

I fished it and yes it was "tough" but honestly it shows who can adapt and overcome the situation. 4 fish for 5 lbs cut a check on the Co side. And neither of my boaters had a limit either day heck one didn't catch anything... Some community holes had 20+ boats on em all day and still guys managed to figure it out. If you can't "go down the bank and throw (insert fav bait here) and catch fish" some guys would call that tough and pack it in as they don't want too/can't figure it out.

The Red will be back. If we can stop flooding above 30' each spring and the bass spawn can happen without getting washed out. The grass and pads have come back 50xs what they were 2 years ago and I'm seeing/catching a lot of 6-10" fish that will be keepers soon.

I frogged and flipped pads, willow, and hyacinths and didn't get a single bite in any of it. On day one I only had 2 bites all day from bluegill.

I frogged and flipped pads, willow, and hyacinths and didn't get a single bite in any of it. On day one I only had 2 bites all day from bluegill.

I fished it and yes it was "tough" but honestly it shows who can adapt and overcome the situation. 4 fish for 5 lbs cut a check on the Co side. And neither of my boaters had a limit either day heck one didn't catch anything... Some community holes had 20+ boats on em all day and still guys managed to figure it out. If you can't "go down the bank and throw (insert fav bait here) and catch fish" some guys would call that tough and pack it in as they don't want too/can't figure it out.

The Red will be back. If we can stop flooding above 30' each spring and the bass spawn can happen without getting washed out. The grass and pads have come back 50xs what they were 2 years ago and I'm seeing/catching a lot of 6-10" fish that will be keepers soon.

The pads looked amazing out there but only caught 1 fish out of em even during practice which was weird. My boater on day 1 was confident too as he had whacked them there in practice. I threw a frog, fluke, t-rig, crank, spinnerbait, popper all in em and wasn't til I tried a chatterbait with skirt removed and a swimbait added that I caught the 2 I did. day 2 we ran all over and finally up a creek arm and after 6hrs of trying all sorts of colors and baits went to a spinnerbait and started slow rolling it and caught 2.

I think what surprises me the "most" about fishing as a coangler(and this isn't a "knock" against any of my previous boaters just an observation!!) is that whatever happened in practice is what they expect to happen on tourney day and damned if they are going to change things up. I've literally fished a rock jetty for hours cus they had bites there and nothing is going on now(and come to find out that it was only working with a certain wind/current/cloud cover deal)! I would love to see the wheels start turning and new baits/things get tried as "that" is the real reason for me fishing the events anyways. The desire to "learn" something from these guys that fish at a much higher level than I do. Some days you can tell that they've mailed it in and are just going thru the motions.

No offense, but fishing the Red would sit better with me if I was fishing it out of the back of someone else's boat too!

No joke. On day 2 we went all the way to pool 3. That's several hours you could be fishing, spent traveling. As tough as it was fishing, I bet we could have gone to a good looking area and drug plastics around as slow as you can and get a few bites in that time. Most of the top 12 fished around the ramp area!

It's a complete garbage fishery that even the local trails aren't fishing right now. But whatever chamber of commerce writes BASS the biggest check determines where we go. After all, they don't have to fish it.

Pads are to hero or zero on the red takes some balls to go for it there, while the red is a tough fishery if one will flip slowly for 8 hours limits each day are not to hard, couple week ago for the college event there I was telling everyone that port lake would be where the open would be won ( entire lake was offlimits in flw) and look where Walters whacked them a lot with other top finishers, idk how someone could leave so many release fish to run 4 hours one way or fish main river. Guess they are the "pros tho"'

So the only good place right now is a small area of release fish? That sounds exciting..