I had some requests for reports on my Welsh trip last weeks, so I'll post it here in case anyone else is interested.

I was out there on 11/15, 11/19 and 11/20. Lots of boats out there on the days that I fished because there was a big tournament on there that Saturday. I don't know who sponsored the tourney, but you can do a google search and see if you can find any results for it. Lots of Lake Fork guides out there on the days I fished. Some were hiding from the lack of a consistent bite on Fork and some of the pre-fishing for the Saturday tournament. Probably more Fork guides out there than there were fishing on Fork....lol. Didn't fish the discharge on the 15th, but did on the 19th and the 20. On 19 and 20, the water temp was in the mid 90's so the plant had to have been in operation on those days, as a front had just come through and had really dropped the air temp. Did not even get a bite on the discharge at all. Several boats were working the DC and didn't see any of them get anything either. On the 15th we fished the deeper cuts in the grass lines on the North end and used Devine swim baits in whatever color and a buzzbait and a few tosses on a punch rig down South hitting the deeper grass edge that starts at the damn and goes around to. My partner was Lake Fork guide Ronnie Kelley (one of the best East Texas lake "generalists" around) aka CapN Ron. We first hit the North end grass cuts and we probably boated 15-20 fish with most being in the 2-3 lb class. Ronnie did punch up one 4 lber using a 6th Sense small profile 'nirvana" colored creature bait with a 1oz weight, 3-0 hook. We then ran down South and caught several small ones on a pearl/smoke colored boot tailed swim bait on an Owner flashy swimmer. Ronnie punched up a 5 lber and I punched a 4lber as well.

On 19/20 fished with "The Lake Fork Guide" Mike McFarland (Really nice guy, BTW and very customer service oriented in his guiding and put me on some nice fish). It was kind of a repeat a bit of the 15th trip, only a bit in reverse. Started out on the North end (same spot as above) using a pearl colored Zoom swimbait in about the 4 inch class and an A-Rig. There were probably about 8-9 boats in the same area because there was a ton of "schooling" activity in that area. What the others didn't realize it wasn't just bass. If it had fins, it was doing something near the surface. Lot of carp rolling over mixed in with bass and even some grinnel getting in on the action, but to most, it LOOKED like the worlds largest bass schools busting shad. Ground out a few small ones there early, but so many boats in the area decided to go South. Hit several pockets on the east side and one (with a stone wall on the South shoreline) on the West side of the lake. Ground out a half dozen or so small bass on a white buzzbait, a pearl colored Zoom swim bait and did some C-rigging with a green pumpkin/chartreuse dye dipped tail. I caught one that was so small, the buzzbait was noticeably larger than the bass. Wish I had thought to get a pic of it, as it was pretty funny. After noon, we pretty much had the lake to our selves, so we headed back up to the same spot up on the North end and that was when it got good. Hit some bass schooling in the are and they were big (for Welsh) ones. I caught three 5+ pounders in a row along with numerous 3's and 4's. Even managed to get a near DD...........grinnel.......lol. Hooked it on a chatterbait of all things. For a split second, until I snapped that Welsh doesn't have many/any DD bass in it (biggest I ever heard of coming out of a Welsh was an 8 lb'er in a tournament there a couple of years ago). While the wrong species, it was a fun fight with an added bonus that the grinnel came off right at the boat. That thing was HUGE. By the end of that flurry it was time to pack up and vamos.

On the 20th, we started right where we left off on the North end. Caught a 5lb'er early on and several in the 2-3 lb class. Also, Mike was using an A-rig in the center of the channel/drain and caught a near 4+ lb'er and near 4 lb'er for a "2 fer" on the same cast. That bite died out about 11:00 am and we spent the rest of the day grinding out a half dozen more at various spots around the lake.

If you're interested in pics/video of some of the action, go to Mike McFarland's (aka "The Lake Fork Guide) Facebook page as he posted some pics and video's of our two days out there. Also, Billy Lawson (aka "Your Lake Fork Guide) was out there on the 18th and his video on Welsh was pretty much specific to the punch bite. To see it, just go to his YouTube channel. On the last day on Welsh, I saw James Niggemeyer's truck and trailer as we were loading up to leave, but he was in his tin rig, so didn't recognize it while we were out on the lake.

As an aside, almost every time I go to Welsh there are a couple of guys that are there every time, it seems. I usually just exchange the usual pleasantries and don't engage in "dock talk" with them, but I do overhear it when they are talking to others. According to them, Welsh is quite THE lake. Their latest version was "....over 100+ fish with the largest over 9 lbs". While I have had some really good days on Welsh (and a few really sucky ones too), I've never had one quite like the kind they describe. In fact, I have to go to Mexico to have an occasional day like that. I don't recall ever hearing of a bass that big coming out of Welsh. YMMV.

Awesome post. Nicely done.