Hey everyone:

Three of us and my dog took an afternoon guided trip on Lake Tawakoni today with Andrew Taylor.
We had a great time. He put us into a school of *massive* stripers and hybrids. We limited out
in about 30 minutes but did not stop catching. We just released the extras for other people to
catch. Everyone had a great time. Andrew was amazing. We will definitely go back!

Nice pescado pics!

Trip report- this was a lucky trip for us. I had tried to book with Andrew but he was booked until August. Neil had posted looking for a trip and like Andrew, I had contacted Neil and recommended that he reach out to Johnny Forrest (Two Guns). Neil reached out to him but Johnny said that hybrids are slow right now (awesome guide to tell you that) so Neil convinced Andrew to run an afternoon trip. When Neil told me he had a trip booked for just him and his dog and invited me to tag along, I happily agreed. We also pulled in Charles as well to have three in the boat.

After my trip with Johnny, I upgraded my rods to 7ft MH Ugly Stick GX2 combos since I prefer spinners so when I showed up, I had 4 poles and my striper kit. I know live shad has been the ticket recently but I cannot always catch them so wanted to try some soft plastic jig options and my pencil poppers...

First stop flooded timber where I caught my first tree. We tried there for a bit then headed for some ledges and humps. We scanned several humps and ledges with really nothing on the graph and moved on before we found one with a promising school. We dropped down and Charles hooked up right away with a... yellow bass

I got a hit and fought the fish to the boat, magnum sandbass, about a two pounder and the biggest one I have ever caught. Next few casts we were getting nibbles on the shad but no hookups so decided that they must be yellows and moved on. Next couple of scans did not reveal anything so we move on. Finally saw another promising spot and dropped down again. I hooked up again with... another sandbass. When we put the second sandbass in the cooler, we realized something. The first sandbass was not a sandbass but actually a huge yellow bass. We weighed it with Andrew's scale and did some quick records searching. Although the state record is over 3lbs, the lake record is 1.97 with my fish recording 2.0. I will head out this morning to get it weighed to see if its the new lake record.

No fish here so we moved to a deep water spot and tried for a bit... nothing home... gotta love striper fishing.

We then saw a few birds in the distance and took off. This time we hit the mother load. The graph looked like a Christmas tree. As soon as Andrew stopped, I grabbed my jig and made a long cast. Bam fish on... came off... fish on again... came off... on again came off... I kept forgetting to set the hook (circle hooks make you forget).

Next cast, fish on, hook set, striper #1 in the boat, next cast, striper #2... The fish were everywhere and many times all three of us were hooked up. I hooked up close to the boat and put too much pressure on a fish and it broke my 20lb mono so I switched to live bait and caught a few on shad for a while. As Neil mentioned, we limited out pretty quickly. I had number 15 hooked and in the boat but Charles was fighting a monster so we started letting the smaller ones go before we even had our limit. I tried my popper for several minutes but the fish were feeding at about 20 FOW so they would not come up on top to hit it.

After about 30 min of insane fishing they just disappeared, no birds and nothing on the graph. We heard that another boat was catching them in deep water so headed out there but by the time we arrived, they had turned off as well. We tried there a little then headed back to the school zone. It was still pretty dead when we arrived then we started to see some blow ups and move toward them. We were in the general location when suddenly they started blowing up like crazy. My favorite time of day! Popper time! My first cast a fish swiped at it but the boat was still moving and I had too much slack and missed it. My third cast, BAM, fish on, a nice hybrid caught on a popper and released. We threw mostly swim baits and poppers and probably caught another 10 fish including three on the popper before leaving them biting to go clean fish and look for a scale.

I cant thank Andrew enough for an amazing trip. Thanks to all the folks that responded to my post and recommended Tawakoni. I will keep you posted on the yellow bass saga...

Both Andrew and I had recommended Lewisville but I did not know tawakoni had huge yellow bass

That's a monster yellow!! Congratulations and great job Andrew !!

Eric it was a fun trip let me know if that bass certified is out. You tell the story so much more detail than I could of. But when the pole bends to the water and the drag rips off it's a fun day.

Thanks for coming out guys, and Neil for pulling my leg to go
Awesome trip, and nice meeting some TFFer's since yall gave the report ill add a few more pics

Looks like Andrew is getting that new boat broke in just fine,..
He's a good young man living the dream,..jim

I agree. He really wants to do a good job for his clients.
That will keep him in business.

He is great would recommend him for sure.

Yellow was 2.05 so may be a new record. Sending in application today!

Thanks for the kind words gentlemen! That's my number one goal! Make sure i'm the best possible guide to every person I take out, and to make a life long friendship doing the one thing we all love

Awesome thread.

if you love what you do you never have to work a day in your life...Andrew you are off to a great start. We will be back for sure! Great work getting us on fish!

I am not 100% convinced about this. You got a lake record and Charles got a MASSIVE striper.
I did not get either of those....

OK, just kidding. Andrew did an amazing job.