Fished Ray Roberts this afternoon with my cowdog . First time fishing for big fish there in the winter and we got lucky. Gizzards were thick in 42 ft. Moved up the channel and started marking good fish in 40ft...dropped some big baits on em and after pulling boards for 15 minutes hooked a 24 lbr! 20 minutes later and boom! 45.5 inch 53 lbr! Really thought I had the lake record there for a few minutes! ...ended up catching one more fish that went 38lbs for a 3 fish stringer of 115 lbs. All fish CPRd to fight another day.

Excellent catch there

Great fish !

Dang Man ..You definitely got after'um!!!!

Whoop-woop for Ray Bob! Good job buddy! Nice 2 hrs on a new lake! When did you install a driftmaster rod holder?

Thanks fellas! I installed the driftmasters the day I got the boat Cutis. Been 4 yrs buddy...There is one on each side of the livewell seats just in front of the bee readys and 2 more on the t-bar up front. I took all 6 driftmasters off the rear casting deck and installed 6 flush mount rod holders last winter. Also got rid of the 2 t-bars with driftmasters in the back corners and replaced them with spider king outriggers. I get bait off the back of the boat and my current set up is much more cast net friendly. if I gotta reel up and move the boat, I can leave everything in the flush mounts and not worry about loosing rods when going fast. Love my current set up!

I don’t know if y’all can see it very good but this fish had a massive injury bite to its head. I mean it was indented clearly and heavily where something massive had grabbed ahold of its face and clamped down hard. Second big fish this year with same type of bite marks on its head. Big cats like to fight!

Looks like your little peanut is growing up fast Serj. He’ll be big enough to take on the boat once it warms up! How old is he?

Here are the driftmasters Curtis.

Here is the back deck with all the driftmasters removed, 8 flush mounts installed, and 2 outriggers in 2 of the flush mounts . I pull boards out the back 90% of the time with 6-8 rods and this setup works perfect for that. Removing the driftmasters off the back deck was one of the best decisions I’ve made on rigging my boat. I snagged those driftmasters and tripped on em 1000 times when cast netting.

All the fish I’ve been catching out this was are beat up too! Today was first day I caught fish that didn’t have battle scars. I guess I need to be more observant on the driftmasters! Lol

Nice post and fish. Good job.

Man Buddy he is 1 year and 2 months...Yes sir definitely would like to take him out there this spring..Man I love seeing you and everyone's Posts cause I haven't fished in a bit. Currently working on a couple of cool looking knife cabinets for the man-cave and of course with one hand cause lil Buddy never leaves g pa's side..LOL!!...Thinking about putting this project on my channel..What do ya'll think?

Helluvan outing. good job!!