Sowbelly

Wishing I could be fishing this beautiful Saturday, but sadly I can not, so I did the next best thing and just polished off the book "Sowbelly." It chronicles the obsessive hunt by mostly west coast anglers for the world record. That left me wondering, outside of the folks at La Perla, are there any guys in Texas who are hardcore chasing the record? State or WR? Does Texas have the equivalent of a Mike Long, Bob Crupi, or Jed Dickerson?

I started reading that book a week or so ago and I'm about 3/4 through it.

I'm not good enough of a structure fisherman to do what those guys do, but if I lived closer to a lake like Fork where I thought a sowbelly or two lived and I could get out on the water 4-5 times a week, I could see myself becoming like some of those people. That part of fishing intrigues me so much more than tournament fishing. I'm not optimistic enough by nature to think the world record would come from Fork, my chase would be 12-14-15# fish. But hell Im still working on a DD so it's all about the thrill of the chase.

I spend more and more time on my home lake fishing deep and really concentrating on one or two bites a trip. I know there are some sowbelly In this lake but the best I had done so far is less than a 7# at Joe Pool.

It can become a passionate obsession.

I hear you. If I had the financial resources I have now as a young single guy I could see myself having got caught up in the hunt. Now I have the resources, but different phantoms that must be chased.

Didnt read the book but the ultimate deep water structure fisherman at one time was Bob Crupi. He would sit for days on a DEEP creek junction fishing a nose hooked crawdad....DAYS! The closest thing I have witnessed in Texas(going to date myself) was when the modern big bass craze took over Texas during the 80's when the Florida strain took off. Monticello broke the 40 something year old state record. People expected Monticello to hold more records. While not the deep/structure fishing of California some became obsessed(by my standards). A certain Ft Worth firefighter would fish all winter long every off duty day and often sit for two days tied off on a certain structure in anticipation of being there when a big bass crossed paths with his big plastic worm. Hint: Garcia's Hump. He caught a lot of big fish but shared later that this self admitted "obsession" cost him a lot. Talking about family and relationships, not just finances. Fine line between passion and obsession and the definition is different for everyone. There have been miserable days of fishing when the weather stunk and the fishing was even worse but I intensely waited from sunup till sundown waiting on "that bite" and caught little or nothing. Came home miserable yet could not wait to go again. Many would call this an obsession, I call it a hobby and a passion. What the "Bob Crupi's of the world" do I call an obsession. All perspective.

I'll never forget seeing pictures of him holding Huge bass in each hand.
Great guy .

Thanks for the post , just completed the purchase , looking forward reading it .

Sowbelly is an awesome book.

Dam I'm old I remember following all those Cali guys exploits in Bassmaster. Still have the first 2 best of bassmaster books that every now and then read those old articals. The AC plug guys when big swim baits were first used. Lots of deep water fishing tech came from those guys.