50 of The best anglers in the world on lake fork for 3 practice days and 3 tournament fishing days Results 3 10+lb bass
Legends Tournament with guessing 800+ fishermen for 3 days of fishing results 2 over 10lbs

THIS IS NO BASHING OF LAKE FORK WHATSOEVER or anyone fishing the legends Tournament.

Just goes to show how hard it is to catch a 10+ lb bass and just how good the pros are and its still tough for most of them and to those of you who have accomplished catching a 10lb+ bass my hat is off to you and congrats!

May your next bass caught be your personal Best!!!

+10, good post. pretty accurate scales too by TTBC and Legends.

They don't get that big for no reason. Fish that size are a lot smarter then we think. I can only dream that I'll be at the right spot, at the right time, throwing the right bait to finally catch a DD. Nice post and good food for thought on the results of these past two tournaments.

Great post and soooo true!

They gotta be in casting distance first to have a chance at one! 26,000 + acres on Lake Fork, what are your odds if your only making a 1,000 cast junk fishing, 500 finesse fishing?

I'm like Bassin2win. I think those bigger fish are smarter. Before I say the following statement let me say I'm no expert on big fish, I haven't caught any DDs but I was thinking about what I'm about to say and it made since.

I think one of the ways those big fish are smarter is the way they eat. They don't want to put out much effort to feed and most likely want to do it as little as possible. So as far as lure choice I would think that a big slow moving bait would work best. With this being said though alot of lakes don't have enough forage to fit this description to support the entire fishes diet. They would need to eat shad and blue gill too. So next would be the type of cover. They would want an ambush point good enough to where they could feed on a fish and then move back to the ambush point in just a foot or so of movement. Also I think the big fish out compete smaller fish for the best cover. For example if you are fishing a dock and there is a spot you just can't reach with the bait. It's a larger post and obviously the best cover around the dock. That's where I would expect a bigger fish to be. Now all this I have said does not explain the bigger fish caught deep on a fast moving crank bait. Harder to figure that out. I do know that when I'm catching one fish after another when they are schooling or stacked on a point they are never monsters. I think it's because this bigger fish are smarter than to use their energy like that. Don't know if any of that makes sense, but it's a theory off the top of my head.

We have got so good at finding bass & catching in past years.
Now they live and feed where we allow them to.
Don't scratch that boat !!!!

Great post and it sure puts things in perspective. Those DDs are a big accomplishment, for anyone.

On that note, how about the guides on Fork who have had multiple DDs in one day this year? Mark Pack and David Ozio come to mind. I can't find those posts, but didn't both of those guides have had 50 lb days with multiple DDs?

That is simply amazing.

It took me 33 years to catch a DD. I started bass fishing passionately when I was 20. I gave up for the DD until I started making my way to Falcon, caught 3 in one year's time. Thanks ole' mutha Falcon......

yes, there are guides that are just always posting 10+ pound fish year around and multiples a day now and then.

Good point you have there

Here's a good article on big bass...and I'm talking BIG bass...several giants have been caught out of Castaic in CA. http://www.outdoorlife.com/node/45008

I caught my first 10 in submerged pipes in 15 foot of water, my second 11.1 in a laid down tree in 20 foot of water on slow moving baits, definitely something to say about cover and ambush points...then my buddy caught a 10.9 ripping a crank through a brush pile in 14 foot of water, my next cast I caught a 9.6 the same spot...deep cover seems to be the constant unless you're picking them off beds. Sometimes you also just need to get lucky

I agree as well. I have spent 20 yrs searching for the elusive DD fish. Went to Falcon 4 times trying to get one. Finally said, deal with the Lake Austin boat traffic and learn the lake and don't let the wake boarders get to you. When I approached the lake with a different attitude. It changed my way of thinking.

04/28/13 - First DD fish at 11.08 oz pounds (this was the 2 fish 1 cast = 19 lbs, second was 7.08 oz) 2 Fish 1 Cast
12/15/13 - Second DD fish at 10.08 oz
02/09/14 - Third DD fish at 10.10 oz
02/15/14 - Fourth DD fish at 10.66

The last one was during a Media Tourney and all four were caught on Lake Austin.

While I love to go to Falcon just to get away, I now spend all the money that I would have on a Falcon trip and spend it going multiple times on Lake Austin.

There is nothing like catching a DD fish. For those that have not, you will know what I am talking about when you catch one.

Good Luck and tight lines.

I think a lot of anglers just aren't fishing the type of water those fish live in! It takes different techniques for different times of the year, especially at certain depths for those times of the year.

I have always said, "big crankbaits catch big fish," all but 1 of my 9 DD's have come from a DD22. Three of those came from bumping a DD22 off the bottom in 7 ft of water, NO KIDDING!