http://www.bassonthefly.org/

who all is coming??? let's get it on!!!!

see you all there

Next year for sure!

I want to go this year, but between work and baby, I have no time.

I'll be there in about 4 hours! Interested to see how many kayakers we have.

I'm pretty sure the kayaks outnumbered the power boats. From what I saw (I was still running the casting comp during results)and heard, kayak anglers turned in the best catches, too.

The t-storm that blew through before dawn seems to have shaken up the shallow water pattern for awhile, which is pretty typical. That forced anglers to be patient and alter their patterns somewhat.

When I drove across the last Hwy 17 bridge on my way to the marina, I saw a boat with fly fishermen anchored up on a shallow grassy point and a bunch of cows wading out into the water around them. Pretty funny. Key on the birds, not the cows. It really was a very good looking piece of water, but those cows are a very "friendly." Reminded me of a bunch of horses that wouldn't leave me be once while duck hunting on a pothole just off the Rio Grande.

"Hey Wilbur, whatcha doin?"

There were a lot more boat entries, than kayak entries in the tournament. Our friend The Wise Reverend Jerry Hamon cleaned everyone's clocks yesterday in the kayak division!

Where can we view the results?

Here's one of the boards showing results. There were 9 entries on a second board.
Entries in black are boaters/teams and entries in blue are non-boaters/individuals.

OK. I never saw the boards and didn't participate in registration. I was running the casting comps, which kept me away from the tent and was still going on when the boards were presented. I seemed to talk to a lot more folks fishing from kayaks than power boats, and that was what I based that observation on.

Ted said he would disseminate official results in a few days. Jerry made a very good showing, winning the "non-boater" division and big bluegill pot. I know a bunch of kayak guys who wanted to come fish if they could find someone with a power boat, but were unsuccessful and didn't make the trip.

The East arm of Lake Fork in particular is chock full of smaller coves and feeder creeks and such with tons of kayak access points that vary from actual ramps to bridges with access and so forth. The bigger boats generally don't mess with the skinny water on Fork, and there are many spots with 40 to 200 acres of Lily Pads and grass beds in flooded timber back in these areas - the "Bass Factory" areas of Lake Fork (ie. breeding grounds). Folks shouldn't be intimidated by the "big water" nature of the lake if they want to fish it, thinking that you need a big boat.

I guided duck hunts on that lake for years from a 16' jon boat with a 25 hp motor with no problems, sometimes with as many as 3 hunters in the boat for pre-dawn transits. You just avoid the big open areas and major boat ramps. It would take years to cover all the good kayak fishing water. Lake Fork Marina itself is a good example (the tourney location). Within 750 meters of the ramp lies about 300 acres of highly protected water full of trees and grass beds. Probably doesn't get more than 12' deep outside the boat lane. NOBODY in power boats fishes it. They zoom out to other spots and back in from other spots. Another similar area is Fisherman's Cove. It's right by a bridge and has a great ramp just of FM17. There are probably 500 acres of thick timber and pads within a 1 mile paddle and down to right up next to the ramp. On Saturday, there were maybe 1/2 dozen bass boats and 3 kayakers visible from the bridge in all directions there at noon (with multiple tournaments going on) and 2 boats and 1 kayak in there when I left at 4pm. Great area for shallow water bass! It's also full of big bream. That arm of the lake probably has a dozen or more areas just like that...some that get less pressure.

As Jerry proved quite well, you don't need a "big boat" to do well and be safe on Lake Fork.

how big was Jerry's fish?

Christian here they are.







Everybody was asking about the flies so here they are, too.

I fished the tournament for the first time this year, my partner Dave and I coming in third in teams. What a blast! I haven't fished a lake in thirty years so it took me a little to adjust to there not being any current. It was downright strange to cast a fly and it stay in the same spot until I moved it :-). I'll be back next year, Dave may also - but he had to drive 17 hours from Colorado, so that's not guaranteed. I only had to drive three hours. Sweet Sweet Day!

Yup turned out good. http://texasflycaster.com/bass-on-the-fly-world-championships-final-results/

Dang! Somebody needs a website ... Reverend!

And here's the Rev studying for Saturday's sermon (which made believers out of us all!).