I just wanted to let my fellow anglers on the TFF know that I had a very enjoyable time fishing over the Thanksgiving holidays with my friend and guide Ron Casner of Monster Bass Guide Service.

I began my Thanksgiving Day by arriving at the Dallas Mockingbird Luby's at 11:01 am for their Thanksgiving Day lunch special (doors opened at 11 am). The only problem was that when I walked in the door there were already about 150 people in line ahead of me with the very same idea. After spending 25 minutes in line and making some new friends through casual conversation, I had my plate of turkey, dressing, mashed potatoes, fried okra, dinner roll, as well as a big ol' piece of pecan pie before me. The food was just wonderful and the pecan pie was nothing short of outstanding. As a bachelor, the Luby's Thanksgiving Feast I have to say did hit the spot for me.

As I was leaving Luby's, I called Ron to let him know I was running a bit behind. Yes, I took my time at the Thanksgiving Feast as the dinner table is a place where I do some of my best work.

Ron and I then decided to just fish that afternoon at Lake Fork where my motel room was located. In the 3 1/2 hours leading up to dark last Thursday, we ended up boating 9 bass on Fork (primarily on swim baits near the southern end of the lake).

Little did I know that the next three days Ron had a fun fishing experience in store for me. We spent parts of the next 3 days fishing at the power plant lake - Lake Welsh. It was my first time ever seeing or fishing Welsh, and I want to thank Ron for showing me the lake and for a very fun experience. Over the course of the next 3 days on Welsh, we ended up boating a total of 51 black bass. We fished Friday afternoon and Sunday morning, while Saturday was the only full day that we fished over the course of the Thanksgiving holiday.

Our best fish at Welsh went 4 pounds and I caught it on a topwater plug at about 9:45 am in shallow water off a point. We caught another 10 fish that weighed in the neighborhood of 3 pounds each. We had success catching fish with just about anything we decided to throw. We fished topwater lures and soft jerkbaits in the early morning and late afternoons and that accounted for probably 80% of the fish we caught. We also had success catching bass more toward the middle of the day on baby brush hogs. The fish we caught on brush hogs were generally smaller fish though. I did have two fish break my line on topwaters, and Ron and I both are still wondering how big each of those fish would have ended up weighing if I had been able to land them.

On our topwater bite in shallow water (generally in 2 to 6 feet of water and near or around hydrilla), the fish were consistently exploding ferociously at the surface on our lures. We had some truly massive explosions over the weekend and this led to several high 5s between Ron and me as this got me pretty excited to see the bass just continue to hammer our lures. Late Saturday afternoon, I had a bass slam the heck out of my topwater plug about 8 feet in front of the boat and the explosion was so intense I actually saw Ron jump as it had startled him. It was actually pretty funny and I am still kidding Ron about it now several days later.

Ron tells me that the fishing at Welsh should only get better over the course of the next couple of months. There is plenty of hydrilla on Welsh and if you want to experience some fun fishing with some massive topwater explosions, give Ron a call and let him take you out for a fun day of fishing at Lake Welsh this winter. Ron does not mind rolling up his sleeves and battling the trolling motor in all of the hydrilla so he can put you in position to have a very enjoyable trip. My only word of advice or caution would simply be.....try not to get startled like Ron did when you witness a massive topwater explosion on your lure near the boat!!!

Hope everyone had an enjoyable Thanksgiving holiday.

Until next time,

TopwaterAssassin

I didn't get out there last year. I will have to make sure to take my Dad out there this year. Sounds like you had a fun trip.

Sounds like a good trip...

Been on that lake once, sounds very familiar

Monster bass guide service? 4lbs? sounds like you should've stayed at fork!!

sounds like a great time, nice story.

Seriously?!!?..... ....why even waste your energy, and our time to type in this response?....just sayin'...


Nice write up...btw

Well hello troll welcome to the TFF have a nice day and keep on trolling while we keep on fishing.
Thanks Jake

I am more concerned that he ate thanksgiving dinner in a restaurant! Bro.....if your in East Texas on a holiday .....my family will feed you!

Glad You Had a Great time! It was alot of fun and fish!!