Howdy to all here at TFF! I'm a recent transplant to the Houston, TX area where I'm working my first "grown up" job, lol! Just thought I'd post a little bit of my handy work from the 3 years I spent in Knoxville, TN while I was "working" on my master's degree in geology. If I had worked as hard at school as I did on my boat, you'd all be calling me Dr. Oilpig!

This one came from Ft. Loudon lake in after some heavy spring rains really muddied the water. Like fishing in chocolate milk!


I finally realized I was only 3 hours from Guntersville so I started making a few trips south to learn how to fish heavy vegetation. If you ever wanted to learn how to fish matted grass, Guntersville is like the Harvard of Hydrilla! Many thanks go to Troy Jens for teaching me the art of flipping 1 oz. jigs for tourney fish! I can't say enough about Troy, he's a class act.



If y'all have kids in high school trying to find a good college or university, let 'em pick one like I did. Knoxville, TN has 7 TVA reservoirs within about 30-45 minuted of UT. God only knows there's more than 1 kind of learning to be done...there's book smarts and bass smarts!

Nice chunks, congrats

Welcome to the TFF Oilpig! I used to live in Hunstville and have fished the Big G several times. never met Troy but heard of him through buddies. Did u ever do any rat/frog fishing on the grass there?

Oilpig where in Houston do you live?

txbass1820...did a little rat fishing the day I caught the fish in pics 2 & 3, but it was August and the rat mats weren't in full form yet. We had a few blow up on 'em, but nothing worth writing home about. I've heard when the rat mats are prime, it looks like a VW bug shooting up out of that stuff! What a lake to live on...if you can afford it!

Grant2...living on the NW side of Houston around 1960 & Kuykendahl right now. Working in Greenspoint. Planning to buy a house somewhere in the 1960/249 to Spring to Woodlands to Magnolia to Tomball area. You in the area too? I'm a cheap date if you'd like to go hook a few...in fact I usually pay for half/most of the gas! It don't take me but 15-20 minutes to drive over to Humble...shoot me an email if you're looking for a backseater. I can catch 'em from that seat too, and I love to learn new stuff from other anglers.

Ol'Skeeter...thanks! It was a good time watching 'em swim away after the pic-n-release!

welcome to the metro-mess & to the tff, oilpig!

thanks for sharing the pics with us---looking to more posts from you with pics of all the texas hawgs you're going to catch!

Thanks Bass_Lady_In_Plano! Are you an Appalachian transplant too? And a yupneck to boot? Heck, thought that was my own creation! Tried to explain to some of my coworkers that I wasn't a yupie just 'cause I like expensive toys, more like a "yupneck" 'cause I can afford a trailer home in a really nice part of town now! LMAO! If anyone needs any proof, I'll track down some pictures from my cousin's wedding...groom, best man and groomsmen all in Mossy Oak button down shirts! As David Alan Coe said..."if that ain't country"! It ain't easy to get used to this flat, windy living, but seeing some of the pics from area lakes makes it livable!

Any of y'all willing to show me the ropes here in TX, post to me here or drop me an email (From my profile) and we'll wet a line. Can't wait to learn more about tight Lonestar lines!

By the way, here's the boat I used to own when I caught the chunks...


Motor blew in August 2004 on Guntersville. Fished as a non-boater with my buddy Paul for a year before moving to TX. Learned a few tricks from Paul about shallow cranking and t-rigged worming! Sold the boat with the blown motor in July 2005 to a guy who had an in on a rebuilt powerhead. Just couldn't justify putting $5000 into a 1987 boat that I'd never get my money back out of on a trade for a newer boat. Now I wish I had put the new motor on and still been on the water every weekend! Lesson learned!

By the way, would any of you have guessed that was a 1987 model Ranger byt it's condition? Yeah, I take pretty good care of my boats, just don't make any sense not too! Even a hibernating bear won't go #2 in his own den! :p When I had it posted for sale I had one guy blame me off wetting the boat down before I took the pictures...he came to see it in person, drove home with it behind his truck! So if you're worried about having a non-boater with you that'll tear up your stuff, worry no more!

some nice fish there

nice fish!

Very nice bass, and good quality pictures as well. Good poses and backgrounds.

Thanks to all for checking out my pics! I'm surprised nobody has pointed out that I don't hold my fish out far enough to make 'em look bigger! :p

I try to hold 'em all about the same so I can easily compare photos taken at different times.

I'd also like to point something out in pictures 2 & 3. See that green stuff in the background? That ain't the shoreline, that's just how thick the grass mats get on Guntersville! People drive the boats right through it at 60-70 mph without thinking once about the logs and other junk that gets caught up in that stuff! Crazy!

Welcome to Texas from a Houston boy who graduated from the "original UT" also. Chocolate milk? LOL, you've got that right.

raff777...weren't supposed to bring up the whole UT controvery, how am I supposed to blend in here in TX if we start that nonsense! LOL! I reckon I can't just tell folks I went to college at UT anymore.

Great to see some people that know about Tennessee here!! Lived there my whole life up till 3 years ago! Spent some time in H-town now in the Hill Country! Loved to fish Pickwick, Dale Hollow, Guntersville, and many many private lakes! Good looking fish and great memories. Go back every summer to do some basketball camps and fish those lakes.