Squarebill in 0-1' of water during shad spawn....

First week in January back in 1998 when my hair had more pepper than salt (funny how that made a complete reversal). Took my 4yo son for a morning of fun fishing and he was already bored out of his mind so I told him to let me get a few more casts and we would head for the house. Sure enough, got a slight bump and set the hook. I knew it was a good fish so I told my son to get the net which he was happy to do because he like netting them. Well this big girl came to the surface and he threw the net at her when she flared her big ole mouth and did a huge head shake. Scared the dickens out of him so with my net about ten foot from the boat I had to reach in the water to lip her.



She weighed 14.8 lbs and was 29 1/4" long and was kinda skinny. I wish I would have caught her during the spawn.

My first fish over 11 lbs was on lake Benbrook, 1989, the lake was in flood stage all the parks were shut down.
We would carry bicycles in our trucks to the gates of Dutch Branch, and pedal inside the park to fish all the new flooded timber.. We'd wade the shallows and have a blast, I pitched a black 10" worm to a bush and it shook, and the line took off..The results are in that chair below.. She was 11.3 lbs after a dry bike ride and on the floor board of my truck.. She was the only bass I've killed to mount, knowing now what opitions we have I prolly wouldn't have kept her.. This picture is right after having her restored by a friend, he did a heck of a job too.. The mount is in one of the guest rooms at the lake house now, I believe she' found a home..


This fish is my PB to date, caught on a dropshot in 6 foot of water on April 1 2008 I believe it was a Sunday. It could have been 2007 hell I don't remember, I do remember we were looking for new water to fish since we had just competed in LF Media bass tournament the day before with a JCO the next Saturday. We pull up on a little finger ridge on the Eastside of the dam and it was ON.. 4 lber-6 lber-4 lber- Boom - 12.1 lbs.. Jaw dropped, thought I had a SAL.. shaking like a dog passing a huge peach seed, I sat there a minute after she went into the livewell and smoked 2 cigarettes at once, trying to calm down..I'll never forget how Mad my Wife was, she was catching 12" fish and I was on the big one's for once.. If you knew our history, it's uaually the other way around.. LOL.
There have been other's on Ray Bob, and of course Fork, and the sweet Stock ponds...

11lbs in about 4' from a shallow dock at Fork in July on a Texas rigged blue fleck worm
10lbs in about 2' of water near some pads at Fork on a hollow body frog in July
10lbs in about 3' of water near a stickup on a squarebill at Richland Chambers in September
10lbs in about 3' of water from a laydown on a black/blue jig from a small lake near Mineola
10lbs on a swimbait flipped onto a bed at Fork in April

Lots of 8-9lb fish over the years but those are the only times over the last few years I can honestly claim a 10lb plus fish.

11.95lb. Lake Joe Pool, Jan, 2016. Water was 48 deg., air was 51 and wind was blowing about 15mph from south. Call her on a white swim jig in 2 ft. of water. I saw her roll on the bait about 10 ft. from the boat and thought she was about 8 or 9 lbs. She never came to the surface, ran to open water and the rest of the fight was her under the boat dogging. I did not get a good look at her until I had my hand on her bottom lip and was pulling her out of the water. That is when the OMG's started. I put her in the live well with the oxygenator running to revive her and let me stop shaking enough to get out my scales.

Took some pictures and released her. The whole fight didn't probably last 30 seconds, but it felt like 30 minutes.

11 lbs on an Ookii Jig

9.55 on a Square Bill

2 just over 9 on a frog

9.5 on a squarebill

Biggest in a pond under a tree I had to cast about 20 yards to get to.
Fish was 9 pounds and took a struggle to get in.
It kept diving into submerged grass.
It came off right at my feet.
Just took my foot and flipped him back in the water.
9 pounds was assumption.Had nothing to weigh it with,but
by girth and length about my biggest.

Divorced and moved into an appartment in that had a pond out my back door. Was sitting alone with nothing to do on a early March morning so grab the jig rod and hit the pond. First three cast I had a 5 then a 6 and then a 7. I said screw this I am going to Roberts the big girls are biting. Got there around 2:00 and headed to a inside grass line in Indian. I quickly had 6 two to three pound fish in the boat with the troll motor dragging the bottom on the bank and big motor in the grass to keep the wind from blowing me too fast. Made a cast to some isolated clumps of milfoil on a small point and felt the thump as the fluke fell to the bottom. She never really jumped and I got her in without a net in what seemed record time. 14.1 on my scale. 13.9 on TPWD scale a few hours later.







Last one is my son at around 8. I will never laugh so hard again as I did watching him lay on the front deck trying to reel in that 10plus pound hybrid. Next one is on initial hook up before he went down. Lol

Lake Record????? Explain

10 lbs 14 oz - Lake Leon - 1/2 oz Homemade Flipping Jig - 8 feet - Dock - November
10 lbs 08 oz - Oak Creek - Sapphire Blue Sweet Beaver - 2 feet - Bush - August
10 lbs 05 oz - Novice - Lizard - 2 Feet - Bed - March
10 lbs 01 oz - OH Ivie - Storm Wiggle Wart - 12 feet - Rocks - January
10 lbs 00 oz - Nasworthy - Sapphire Blue Sweet Beaver - 5 feet - Dock - January

Caught while fishing for Crappie using an ultra light with six pound test line. Fish was 26" in length and weighed 12.11 pounds. Current Guadalupe River LMB Record and Catch&Release record!

... By accident ...

Storm Wild Eye - post spawn

I call dis chit braggin!