With absolutely perfect conditions for surface action, 'ol Charley Rollins and I were a little giddy before this morning's trips. I was ecspecially looking forward to daybreak, because yesterday evening I tied on a 10" woodchopper (peacock bass plug) in hopes of nailing some monster hybrids on topwater.

When we arrived at ground zero, there was a light mist in the air, and a steady southern breeze putting a little ripple on the water. With eyes peeled, my group looked out, each of us wanting to be the first to spot our prey. Minutes passed, tensions grew...nothing. Then it happened. Within seconds, there was almost 100yds of surfacing fish within casting distance. I watched my clients hook up with fish, and then I let 'er fly! As soon as the plug hit the water, I had just about enough time to engage the 5500, when WHAM, I stung him. I fought the fish to the boat, and was extactic to see two really nice silver trains hooked on the same plug. Man, what a start!

As, I'm trying to net this fish, I turn around and see both of my clients white-knucklin the handles of their Ugly Sticks as they try to talk their fish into giving up. You can guess how well that went lol... As the minutes passed, we continued our onslaught of the true bass species, and ended up with a solid stack of both sandies and hybrids. Eventually, the feeding frenzy came to an end, and we all allowed our forearms to relax for the first time in a little over an hour.

After a bottle of water, and a brief recap, I ask my guys if they want some more. Dumb question, I know. We head to another promising spot, with the intentions of keeping a few more sandies for the meat box. Upon arrival, we began to cast in a fanning method to target the school. A few minutes go by, with a few nice whites here and there, when I see a sight that I will truly never forget. I'm perched on the bow, and as I look to my right, I see a large wall of silver three to five yards from the boat. In milliseconds my mind registers: shad. Like the hounds of hell, a huge school of sandies and hybrids destroy the baitfish, using my boat almost as a corral wall. White lighting, silver streaks, and an explosion of fish, all mere inches from my feet, left me awestruck to where I didn't even cast for a few seconds as I watched the slaughter take place. My clients and I didn't move a muscle, we couldn't.

Finally, the spell broke and we reacted to what was happening. You know what happened next. For the next 30-45 minutes, we sorted through the sandies and hybirds, putting the sandies on ice, and keeping the silver trains honest until next the next time we meet.

When is was all said and done, we met back up with Chuck and his warriors to see how they fared. In true Rollins' fashion, they were victorious as well.

Did you get any pics?

Sounds like a great day.

Video would be better.

MO

Champion Fish, I don't have any pics to post of the action, due to my lack of digital camera or iPhone, but you can see the final haul on the BigCrappie.com website. We take a picture at the end of every trip with Chuck's camera, and today's catch should be on there sometime in the next day or so.

Mo, video would most certainly be awesome! And that is an awesome looling tarpon by the way, I'm pretty jealous lol.

Pictures might tell more than some folks need to know.

Now thats a fishing story!

Nice job Lane. That had to be fun.

I'm with fast guy on this............sometimes the pics can be deceiving and confuse the casual observer.

Nice job Lane. I watched you this weekend chasing those fish and you never lost contact with your customers or clients ( whatever) and the schooling fish.

Great post Lane! Today was a blast! I told my wife today, "I sure love guiding when it's like it was today!"

Way to go Lane!!! If the rains picks up and the water levels go up I'm hoping to see you guys out there. Nice report.

Can I download that on my Ipad? I would like to reread it this winter to pull me through.

Dennis;
Just a guess but I don't think that's what "fast Guy" had in mind.
I think the location could be identified by the "Common" folk.
J.B.

Do I hear some wishful thinking from 'skeeter baxter'. Huh????????????

If and when you manage to find surfacing fish it is truly something to enjoy. If you have 6 or 8 boats jockeying for position and finally just driving up on top of the fish using their big engine is has a tendency to drive the fish down and scatter them, hybrids are a lot flightier than sand bass that will just sit in one spot and let you pick off a hundred of them.

A lot of folks have commented that I have quit posting, the main reason is crowds of folks that drive fish down.

If you want to catch fish find them, don't expect some one that has run all over the lake trying to find fish and pattern them to tell you where they are.

Very well said!!

WOW....Mutual of Omaha's Wild Kingdom could not have created a better chronicle---well done my good man

Anthony

Dang Lane, I guess we know if something ever happens with being a guide you could go into journalism! haha Great story man! Chuck maybe you should start letting Lane hadnle your written word! haha Great job guys as usual!

I guess that TCU education is paying off. Maybe I'll just stick to fishing.

Great read!! Couldn't have typed it better myself.. Nice job Lane..

He did the exact same thing this morng.

bump

My apologies, I didn't mean to bump this story on the forum. I just read the PM warning from the moderators, and was trying to bump this story in my PMs so it wouldn't be automatically erased this week.

It's a great story!!!