I have fished with DTA MANY times, and to be truthful, i have seen him at times when it was so fast and furious between us as far as catching 'em, i honestly think he misses a few!!!!!!!

Seriously!!!!!

Some of his counts that he has posted on here when I was with him were actually undercounts, no fault of his, the bite was just that good on the spots he puts us on.

Same can be said for Ernest and Guy on the crappie threads, they are both so good(though i haven't actually fished with Guy yet, wonder why that is?) when those guys tell ya they hit a mother lode of crappie and post "X" as the number landed, TAKE IT TO THE BANK!

Same goes for Billy Seaman and JV. they are not anglers, they are catchers!

Book a trip with em and then tell me I'm wrong!

Rudy

Thanks for your kind words BigDad and lovfldx. It is a simple matter to catch 100+ fish when they are turned on. The most I ever caught was well over 400 and I was with BigDad on RR. lovfldx was with us last fall when we caught 400+ also. LL is at it's best right now and it does not get any better.

You can believe anything you want. Look at the photo closely. The cooler is almost full. How many whites are there?

100 fish in a few hours is not uncommon. I have had trips before where for 2 1/2 hours catch 2 then find a big group holding on structure and catch 100 in the next hour. If you find them stacked on structure and the conditions are right they wont leave. But then there are days I would beg for 20 fish

Guess I'll add my 2 cents.
I've fished with Don and bigdad both and it is rare that we don't catch over a hundred. We went to one lake a couple of months ago and caught over 150 off of the first spot we fished and we had never fished that lake before. We finally left that spot after about an hour and a half. That day we ended up with over 380 fish and didn't even fish all day. The last time out on Lewisville we caught over 300 and that was not even a full day. Tony doesn't even want to go with me anymore unless he's pretty sure we're going to catch at least a hundred. In fact if I can't get us on them quickly he'll go to sleep on top of the live well - some fishin buddy he is! That being said - there are days when I don't do worth a squat but for the most part the good days far out weigh the bad days.

I don't know if you are just kidding around or if you are really questioning Don's claim. If you don't think it's possible then you ought to go fishing with him, or bigdad or me or any number of other guys on the forum and see for yourself.


On a side note - I have been fishing with Don and bigdad or any number of other guys when people pull up beside us and can't buy a bite and we're catching one right after another. Those guys (Don and bigdad) make catching a 100 sound easy but it takes a bit more skill than one may think and they have it.
There are 2 factors to being suuccessful.
First, you have to know how to catch that many and quite frankly not everyone knows how.
Secondly you have to be able to find them. That is a bigger factor than knowing how to catch them. DTA and bigdad both know that lake as good as anyone and they know where to look when others can't find them. You have to know HOW to catch them and WHERE to catch them.
Don knows how and where.

All of that being said - there are still days when I've been with him and we don't do worth a darn. When that happens, and it's not very often, he'll tell you the truth - "we didn't do worth a darn". If a man will tell you the truth when he has a bad day I say we should believe him when he says he had a good day.

Good fishing and go catch a hundred - no - 2 hundred!

Guess y'all missed the joking tone and the laughing that I was doing on this side of the keyboard.

As I said, for the way I fish, 30-40 fish in a 3-4 hour period is a lot of fish, and even more moving around than I care to do while out fishing.

I know it's possible, and I would EXPECT a guide on a lake to catch a lot of fish. White Bass are pretty easy to catch in mass, especially since they school together.

I was just jokin about the inflated counts...

But I still maintain, if I catch 5 or 6 keepers in a day I've had a good day, if I catch 30-40 fish in a day I've had an exceptionally busy day and I'm usually cursing the fish to leave me alone.

Now if only I could get into the Hybrids once or twice before the end of the year. I'm getting tired of eating fishsticks from these white bass.....

Man, more expectations... the pressure the pressure

That is funny--I guess some people get excited about catching a bunch of sandbass--I would rather catch a few monster hybrids than 100 sandbass--but to each his own I guess.

Actually I get excited about catching pretty much anything. The day we caught over 380 close to half of those were hybrids but I'm not going to post anything about it because most people wouldn't believe it. So let's keep it between ourselves. O.K. ?

I read this thread and cant help but laugh, and think about the people who have looked at me like I am full of it when talking numbers. When I tell people we caught 385-400 fish this weekend,it makes it unbelievable to folks who may have caught 10 in there life. Also funny after my weekend, when I hear about another boat on the lake same weekend that say they weren't hitting at all and only got 6 and were trolling all over the whole lake. Location, presentation, knowing how to read electronics, and keeping notes of what your doing from year to year unless you can keep it in your head, all those things help. I can remember only getting 20-30 fish and thought we had hung the moon. Time on the water is what changes it. About 5-6 years ago I was totally consumed with fishing, out on the water 3-5 times a week. Learned a ton of spots, and learned the patterns, and played 20 questions with anyone I ran across. I have just learned fishing is just relative to the persons expectation on the trip. Tough conditions and 10-20 fish can be outstanding. I think the best way to get better at fishing is to fish with people that are better more seasoned anglers then yourself. You can learn so much just from watching, and asking questions. With all that said I too would trade 100 sandies for half dozen monster sized hybrids. Papa Peck I believe what you say about the 380 and mostly hybrids, I just havent been on one of those trips, but can see how it can happen.

Do you really take pictures of every sand bass you catch? I mean, that's cool if you do I guess, but don't they all look the same sort of?

I consider 30-40 fish off one hump way off for you, Joe.

I think another thing that's overlooked in terms of racking up big numbers is how fast you can get a sand bass off the hook and get your slab back in the water. No substitute for experience here. I see people wrestling with an 8" sand bass in their boat like they just gaffed a bonita. Trying to step on them, grab 'em with a towel, using needlenose on EVERY fish and the whole time they're blowing way off the fish. I can't remember the last time I netted a fish and that includes hybrids and big cats too. My friends ask me why do we even have this net in here getting in the way of everything if we never use it. I love that nice how-ya-doing handshake that a 6-7 lb hybrid gives you when you lip 'em. THAT gets my blood pumping especially when they're all pizzed off and you snatch them on the first grab. It's cool showing off your hybrid thumb to your fishing buds at work the next day too. Walk by and show 'em the thumbs and they just smile and shake their heads.;)

Take a look at my blog under Galleries...

It sounds a little anal, but it does have an honest and creative beginning. And the past few trips I've forgotten my camera, but yes I try to take a picture of every fish I catch including the embarrassing little ones.

It actually started out as a way to be a part of my son's life even though I lived 800 miles away. When my son was little, since he lived in Iowa and I was in Dallas it was hard to take him fishing like a father should. So he and I started fishing together at different lakes. His mother would take him in Iowa and I would go here in Dallas. We took pictures of our catch and mailed them to each other. Then when we had the pictures we would talk on the phone about the trip.

As he grew and technology got better it turned to picture mail through cell phones. Now it's just habbit/fun. It's also a way for me to document my catch for later review. I also keep a small book on the boat and make notes of where I catch the fish, and it's length. If it's an exceptional sized fish I'll even weigh it.

Do you name each one? I think I was there once when the guys caught a good number of fish and most were hybrids. DTA, big guy and papa peck can flat catch fish, if they give you a number you can believe it.

I fish for bass but sometimes when a bunch of white bass start popping the surface around me, I'll catch a few for fun but after a few the excitement is gone for me................back to the real fishing.

That oughtta stir something up! LOL

Yeah, I'll bet it is a real rush pulling in those 3 and 4 pound large mouth bass. Maybe catch 6 or seven in a good day, the excitement just builds and builds. What else do you do? Watch the paint dry.