I had a buddy staying at close by lake, to Welsh, and I had a buddy who's friend has a house sitting right next to the water on Welsh. He asked if I would like to come out and fish and eat some BBQ his buddy was smoking up and stay a day or two. I have always wanted to fish a power plant lake, but not in the heat, lol.

I had heard from a reliable source, that were some bass in this lake. I have only targeted bass 2 times with the fly rod so far, and the second time I fly fished for Black Bass, I won the World Championship at Lake Fork in May 2013. So, I loaded my one man pontoon boats and tied up some bass Near Deer flies and headed that way. Stopped at my buddy's camper and fished at that lake for a bit. Caught a few small bass and gills from the bank, but nothing to talk about really. So, we headed to my other buddies house and they were just putting in the yaks. We loaded up and put the one man pontoons in the water and all headed out into a cove. We had 6 of us all tucked in a cove, just big enough for all six of us. Only two of us were fly fishing. The other guys were using crank baits and plastics. I had paddled over to a lay down in 3-4 ft of water and hooked up on the second cast, using a Near Deer under and indicator. Caught a 14 inch black bass right off the bat. Then a couple casts later nailed a 16 incher. Ended up catching 7 fish on the laydown plus 3 sunfish from 7-8 inches. One of my buddies caught three 17 inch bass on a crankbait on the point of the cove using a 12 ft diver sexy shad. So, we all moved out deeper and I started to cast out and let my Near Deer fly settle on the bottom, then stripping it as fast a minnow would swim. Ended up with 16 bass in 2 hours. Most of them were 15-17 inches.

Half hour later I thought I hit a snag. But the snag pulled away from me. Three mins later and a lot of drag pulling, I had an 18 inch nice Black Bass. Weighed it and it was 3.08 lbs.

After I released the majestic fish, I casted back out in the same place. After two small strips of the fly, I hooked up again and this one was bigger!

She immediately shot up to the surface and jumped almost a foot out of the water. She did about 3 circles around the boat before I could get her back up on the surface, when she popped up - I netted her with a rubber net.

Ended up, she was 19 inches and 3.87 lbs Certified!

So I now own the Lake Welsh Fly Fishing Record Black Bass

What is this Near Deer Fly I caught it on you ask?



Another shot of a Fly Fishing Record catching fly!



The Near Deer catches everything! Bass, Hybrids, gills, catfish, trout, drum, white bass.... and the list goes on and on.

After awhile the white yarn will split up into 3 pieces, and gave it a lot more action. I was hitting it with a lighter to fuse the ends till I saw what the action did without burnt ends. Beautiful.

Its a quick fly to tie and its proven to work. The priceless thing is, tying your own fly and catching a fish on it. Especially a Record fish.





My buddy was mad. He has been fishing this lake for a couple years now, 1-2 times a week, and never has caught one that big on the fly rod. We were all making fun of him cause now, everyday he puts his yak in the water, he has to think of me. It was his fault tempting me to fish his lake! lol. I ended up giving my buddy my fly box of bass flies. I told him there are bigger fish in there indeed. Records are meant to be broken. -But this one might stand for awhile.

Congrats man

I need to order some more of those because the bluegills at one of the tanks we hit love them.

WAY TO GO CAREY. That is awesome. AND ON THE FLY ROD!!! Awesome job

Carey, you are the champ!

That's an awesome story! Way to go! I hope your buddy thinks about you every time he goes fishing at that lake now! That's so funny!

Nice I have never seen a Record Certificate. I was just talking to a guy at work who wanted to fly fish for bass.

I don't know how you did it, Carey. You went to a new water body, caught a lake record black bass within a hour. Amazing! If that was me, I did not even know where to start. Hat's off to you, Carey!

Congrats!!! Now you have to update your TFF signature with record holder and send your buddy a picture of your certificate every few months. It will motivate him to catch the new record. Only problem is he'll do it with one of the flies you gave him, LOL!!

Now there's a nice fish.

It would be weird if he updated his profile with record holder now because he has all those other records too. I've seen a picture of all of his certificates. It's sick how many he has. It's a bunch!

That's awesome!!! I really feel blessed to be able to obtain help from such an expierienced, knowlegable group of people on this forum. The wealth of talent is really extraordinary. And they share their knowledge freely.

IMO that's 99% of what this is about. I take that back; it's 100% about sharing.

I agree. I also coach youth soccer and the websites don't survive with registered members. Its just a bunch of anonymous trolls that care more about cutting you down than helping you. I read the soccer forum for 3 years and only posted 5 times. Nothing like Outdoorsmen!!!

As Carey said: "Records are meant to be broken".

Carey's certified record is a sure challenge to his buddy, or all other fly fishers fishing in Welch. I am wondering how long it's going to take for any fly fisher to break his record? For my own curiosity, I will come back to this thread to check it, and bump it up to see the result. What can I say: curiosity kills the cat. hahaha.

100% agree!

Carey helps me a lot! I always bother him with lots questions, and he always helps me with good advices. I am blessed to have him as a friend.