I have a little down time at work, so I thought I would write a little about the judging experience this year at the TTBC at lake Fork.

Let me start by stating the obvious. Lake Fork is the absolute best lake going. 110 pounds is unheard of in a three day tournament. I told several of the pros at the last TTBC at Conroe in October that someone would catch 100 pounds here in three days and they laughed. And if that lake wasn't a month behind because of the weather, several others would have broken 100 pounds. That being said, lets get down to the experience.

This was my 5th year as a judge, and every year has been outstanding. This year I judged on Sunday so I did not judge Friday and worked in the scoring trailer. That was one of the busiest days I have had in a long time. I was working one of the radios taking the calls from the judges on the water calling in the bass, and for 10 hours, it was almost non stop radio traffic. I got tired of hearing about 4 and 5 pounders being caught. Then the big fish started coming in, most notably Keith Combs catching 3 overs. The one that didn't make it across the stage was the 11 pounder that Stetson Blaylock caught and released in his excitement to catch the next one. By the end of the day, everyone in that scoring trailer was mentally exhausted.

Saturday I got to go out with Gerald Swindle. Go ahead and be jealous. We were paired due to our similar outgoing personalities just to see what would happen, and it did not disappoint. Gerald is just as friendly and cool as he comes across on stage, and we hit it off immediately. The audio from that day could be marketed and would have no problem selling. However, you wouldn't be able to use much of it on NBC. 9 hours of trash talk between two guys who specialize in it made for a great time. Gerald wasn't too much on the bass, but he caught 60 sand bass if he caught one. He managed just over 20 pounds on a variety oftactics including deep cranking, throwing a swimbait and one good one ripping a 1 oz black and blue jig. The experience here was in the time spent with him though, and I had a blast. At the end of the day, Gerald was nice enough to sign a crankbait he had used that day and give it to me to give to a young fan of his. Awesome guy.

Sunday I drew Mark Rose, who started the final day in 8th place and gave me an all day lesson in reading a graph and fishing in deep water. Mark was one of the only pros who caught way more bass than sand bass. When I asked how he was avoiding the plague of sand bass that the other anglers were wading through to catch their limits, Mark called me up to his deck. He then trolled around his point until he found the spot that was holding the sand bass and showed me how he knew they were sandies. He then trolled back to the spot where he was busy catching 31 pounds that day and showed me what told him they were bass. In fact, he is so good with his electronics he could tell that the camera boat 30 yards away had his graph on, and knew immediately when he turned it off. You may be good with your electronics, but you are not on this guys level. Mark caught every fish he weighed in on swimbaits, switching between a basstrix and a shadalicious. Where Mark really stood out to me was with two hours left. He and Keith Combs had shared this particular spot all week and Keith pulled up needing good fish. I believe at this time he was not leading the tournament. Mark knew he could not win, and was hoping to move up three spots (he moved up two). Mark told Keith just to fish and win the tournament and he would fish around him. Keith was grateful and went to work with his crankbait catching fish, but not the quality that Mark had been catching on the swimbait. Mark called Keith over, and threw him a couple of pre rigged baits that he was catching them on and Keith closed it out on that spot between the swimbaits and his crankbait. Getting to watch him hook and land several big fish from close by was just an added bonus. Keith Combs can flat out fish and is a deserving 3 time champion. And Mark Rose is one of the best guys on the water and just a genuine good person and an outstanding fisherman.

All in all, the TTBC was once again the best weekend of the year and I can't wait to be back out there next year.

Good write up!

Thank you..Good read...

great report.

Thanks for taking the time to write this.

That was a great experience for you and now we got a small taste of it too!

Thanks for sharing.

good read..thanks for taking the time to write this

Very good write up. I was one of the camera boats on Sunday near Mark Rose. What did my graph look like on his graph? lol.

Interference, I imagine.

That was awesome, thanks

Thanks for sharing your experience - great read and two great pairings for you.

Wow! That is a great write up! Thanks for taking the time.

Awesome reporting of your experience!

Solid reading material.