Texas Classic Bass Club May Tournament

I fished the Texas Classic Bass Club May Tournament over the weekend Saturday on Buchanan. There was perfect fishing weather, a little cloud cover and 80 degree temps. Water temps at 70 degrees and water clarity was about 3 inches or less on the upper end. The lake is fishing very well lately. I fished with Jouhn Hackney from the club.

The Tournament:

I woke up late, never heard the sound of the alarm or that I can remember anyway on Saturday morning. I was ready to fish as soon as my eyes popped open at 6:00AM. I ran through he house and called John as soon as my feet hit the floor. Luckily John hung out at our meeting spot. I think I got dressed and was out the door in record time. In all of the tournaments I've fished over the last 8 years I think I've been late twice.

John and I met at Wataburger at 6:20 AM, I was a little disappointed in myself to say the least for sleeping past the time I told John that I'd meet him. We got to the lake at 7:15, 45 minutes late and were about to launch when I reached for the boat keys in the console of my truck and my heart nearly stopped. The keys were not there. I thought that was where I'd left them after my last guide trip on Travis a week before, but turns out I left them in the pocket of my jacket back at home. Called the wife to see if she would be our hero and bring the keys or meet us halfway, but no chance. John said, "lets fish and make the best of it," so that's what we did. We launched an hour late and only had the trolling motor as a means of getting around for the day. We fished from Burnet county park to Morgans creek and back from 7:30ish to 3:30. We caught some 30 bass and four large perch. We ended the day with 4 keepers weighing 5.8 lbs. Not bad for a days worth of fishing with only the trolling motor to get around. We caught most of our fish on cotton candy worms all day on drop shot and shakey heads.

To top our day off, as if it were not bad enough, we ran into a rather uneducated home owner while out on the lake. We are fishing near a boat dock when a lady came charging out of her home screaming, "Excuse me, excuse me! Can I help you? Hello! What are you doing?" That was pretty much all without taking a breath or waiting for a response. I replied that I was fishing. Now her husband, stops his yard work and comes out to the shore and tells me I'm trespassing on his land and I need to leave. I told him I was floating on public water and was not trespassing and that if he wanted to call the police I'd lend him my cellphone to make the call. He ran into the house and came back with a phone and pad of paper, which he wrote my TX numbers down and then proceeded to make a call or pretended to anyway I'm not sure. He said he called in on me for trespassing and the cops would be there in 30 min and advised I should be gone before they arrive. I said, "Lucky for you I gotta go or I'd stay to prove you wrong." If I'd had my boat keys, John and I agreed we would have waited for the police to arrive. We couldn't stay or we would have been late for the tournament weigh-in. We left and never heard from anyone until we got to the weigh-in. We told our story about the jerk home owner and one of the other teams had been harassed by the same home owner except he went a step further and circled their boat on his jet ski until the left the area.

I haven't decided yet, but I may pay this home owner a visit every time I fish the lake from now on in hopes that he does circle my on his yet ski, and next time I'll have more time. I'll call the police myself and stay, so that I can file harassment charges on the home owner. Home owners may own the land and the docks, not the water and they can't stop fisherman from fishing around a dock.

Location of the offending home owner: See Red circles.

Tournament in Review:

We think we caught about 20+ bass or more over the day. Most of the fish were caught on cotton candy trick worms. John and I caught four keepers going 5.8 lbs putting us in 5th place. Congrats to Rick on the big bass of 7.7 lbs edging me out of the big bass of the year.

Special Thanks:

Thanks go out to Kelly and the kids for letting me take a Saturday to do some fishing.

The Kelsea and Zachary take 1st in Fishing Tournament.

On Saturday May 10th the Knights of Columbus held a family picnic and the activities included a fishing tournament to be held on the bank of Old Settlers Pond in Round Rock. We started fishing at 3:30 after lunch. I took Zachary and Kelsea down to the preselected are which included the fishing dock on the pond. Zachary quickly located a school of perch fishing from the dock and called for Kelsea and I to join him to catch fish. Guess I should explain the rules for the tournament, catch the most or the biggest fish in your age bracket. I had baited the kids lines with Berkley crappie nuggets and the perch around that little dock were loving them. Kelsea and Zachary each caught 3 perch a piece before everyone else caught on to the fact we were on a good school and had the right bait. Kelsea's first fish caught was a nice big one, 6 & 1/2 inches long and held out to be the big fish for her age bracket. They caught perch on the Berkley nuggets for a while and then someone showed up with a grilled hot dog and the perch went into a feeding frenzy over the bits of greasy hot dog put on a hook. When the hot dog ran out, we switched back to nuggets and earth worms someone else had provided later. At the end of the tournament at 5:30, Kelsea had caught and released 20 perch. Zachary had caught and released 17 perch. Both received first place trophies for their age brackets.



Congratulations to Kelsea and Zachary on their first tournament wins. I also need to congratulate Isaiah Chandler for 1st place in his bracket with a 6 inch perch and Eric Chandler for first place in his bracket for a nice 3+ lb bass caught with 5 min left in the tournament on a black power worm.


Kelsea and Zachary prefishing at Williamson County Park on Thursday before the event.

Mother's day was a sad day in fishing news - Dottie the only known world record bass passed on to the big lake in the sky.

World-record class Dixon Lake bass "Dottie" dies and ends era for three old friends

Jed Dickerson had just left Dixon Lake exhausted and was about to sit down for lunch when he got the call from Jim Dayberry, one of the Ranger supervisors with the park's lake division.
"You might want to come back down here," Dayberry told Dickerson at around 11:45 a.m. PT on Friday. "We just found Dottie floating on the north side of the lake."
There was a group of Rangers, including Dayberry, waiting for Dickerson on the dock, shaking their heads. Dickerson picked up the 19-pound dead bass and looked for the spot on her gills that had famously earned her the nickname "Dottie."
"Yup, that's her," Dickerson said. "It's over."
What Dickerson held represented almost a decade of commitment, putting him on a journey that labeled him, in certain people's eyes, as both a record holder and a fraud. It began with old friends Mac Weakley and Mike "Buddha" Winn and ended with new friend and former Minnesota Vikings and Arizona Cardinals coach Dennis Green.
This was the third time he'd held Dottie, and for the third time, it didn't accompany the title he wanted so badly — largemouth bass world-record holder. George Washington Perry's record mark of 22 pounds, 4 ounces, set on June 2, 1932, at Montgomery Lake in Georgia, dodged the biggest bullet of its nearly 76-year-old life on Friday, and Dickerson, Dottie's most devoted hunter, will finally get some rest.

"In my opinion, this is one of the greatest days in bass fishing history," said Dickerson, who had spent the week with National Geographic, working on a documentary on bass. "It's the end of an era and Perry's record lives on. I don't think anyone is ever going to break it."
Chasing Dottie
Dickerson, Weakley and Winn all grew up fishing together on Dixon Lake in Escondido, Calif., but they started their career hooking trout. Then one day they all watched as a guy stayed in one area all day, staring at one fish (sight fishing). Eventually he hooked a huge pregnant female and at the same time, hooked three kids on chasing bass.
But it wasn't until the late '90s that they realized their chase for big green bass would turn into a chase for the biggest green bass. A rumor and then a sighting of, at that point, a nameless, massive female bass, ended up defining their lives.

Tim Schick, ESPNOutdoors.com
Jed Dickerson loads Dottie into a bag for the Game and Fish Department. Dottie was put in a freezer to be examined later."We just think it's really bizarre — kind of like it was meant to be," Weakley said. "The three of us grew up in that area, and that's the lake we used to fish out of every day when we were 6- and 7-years-old.
"And it turns out there was a world-class bass swimming in that lake three miles from our houses."
They devoted every minute of their free time to catching Dottie, which they believed would be large enough to score them the most coveted and historic record in bass fishing.
Dickerson was the first to realize the dream in 2003, and he thought the record was officially broken when he picked her off a spawning bed. He said the three friends immediately weighed Dottie at around 23 pounds, but it took the Game and Fish three hours to get to the lake to verify it as a record. By that time, they said, it was stressed and had lost a lot of its weight.
She officially weighed 21 pounds, 11 ounces, which still holds as the fourth largest largemouth bass ever recorded. That's when they noticed the spot on the gill and declared the race for "Dottie" and the record officially on.
They didn't pull her in again until 2006 when they again spotted her on a spawning bed and Weakley went to work. He eventually was able to set the hook, but when he got her to the boat, they noticed she had been foul hooked (not hooked in the mouth). Against his friends' wishes, Weakley decided not to try and make the record official with the Game and Fish.
Before releasing her, they weighed Dottie at 25 pounds, 1 ounce, shattering the record, took some photos. Weakley said he wasn't prepared for the scrutiny that followed.
The three were pounded by the media with requests for interviews and scolded by some conservation agencies and even other anglers about the way they handled Dottie. They were told by many that they had all but buried Dottie and some anglers even reported finding her dead.
"After all the scrutiny we've taken over the fish, people can see the truth now," Weakley said after seeing Dottie for himself on Friday. "Even though the fish was foul hooked, which sucked, I think it was good because it showed what the fish was in her prime.
"If we hadn't caught her in between Jed's catch in 2003 and her death today, people might have thought she topped out at 21 pounds."
Weakley and Winn backed off from the hunt after 2006. Winn eventually took a job that moved him away from Dixon and Weakley felt like the deed was done. But Dickerson wasn't finished. He wanted to see Dottie officially go down in the record books.
"I looked at it like the final chapter in that book had closed, but Jed didn't see it that way," Weakley said. "He wanted to keep pursuing it and get the official record. I think it became a personal thing with him, while for me, I kind of felt like I had been there, done that."
Dickerson said it went beyond just wanting to see his name in the books. Because of the time invested he felt like Dottie was his (along with Weakley's and Winn's), and he didn't want any "one-time angler" to come to Dixon, a public lake, catch Dottie and claim the record. He wanted to make sure it stayed close to home. And, according to Dickerson, they were coming from all over the U.S., and even some from Japan to try and put their name above Perry's in the book.
Meeting Dennis Green
Dickerson didn't have any luck with Dottie in 2007, but he spotted her in Dixon three months ago, with the females in the early stages of the spawn. A few days later he met an unexpected new friend and business partner, Green.

Tim Schick, ESPNOutdoors.com
Jed Dickerson and Mac Wheatley compare Dottie to her mounted self."I heard he was on the dock, but I didn't want to get into his business," Dickerson said. "But when I got back, I found out he was looking for me."
Green, who lives 45 minutes from Dixon in San Diego, said he knew Dickerson's story and thought he'd take his 9-year-old son Zach to check it out for himself. They struck up a quick friendship and Dickerson starting guiding for Green and Zach, both of whom love to fish.
"Talk about the biggest bass is always part legend and part myth," Green said. "Sometimes that giant bass doesn't really exist, but everyone talks about it."
A few days after that, Green and son Zach witnessed something he described as "unbelievably beautiful."
"When we saw her — it was just unbelievable," Green said. "She had two males swimming beside her — I called them her security guards — and she was more confident than any fish I've seen in my life.
"She was doing her thing, man. We think of a big fish as a fish that's lazy, but she was moving with a purpose."
Green was so enamored with the chase for the record and the mystique that followed it, he signed Dickerson on to be represented by his new business, Dennis Green Sports Marketing.
"Jed's a great fisherman and a great guide, and I think fishing is the future," he said.
Dickerson, balancing time with his job banking for a casino and his family, spent about eight hours a day, every day, looking for Dottie this spring, but the next time he saw her was when he held her on Friday.
Life after Dottie
He had all but given up hope of catching Dottie this spring when he got the call from Dayberry, but surprisingly, he said the first feeling he had after hearing Dottie had been found dead was relief.
"Now I won't wake up every morning, worrying that someone else was going to catch her," he said. "It's cost me an arm and a leg, and my family has been very, very understanding through this process.
"I'm just totally exhausted."
Weakley had a similar reaction. Tired of the scrutiny and attention, he was glad that the hunt was over and happy how it ended.
"I think it's great that she didn't end up in an aquarium or on somebody's table or on a mount," he said. "It's good to see that she lived her life out and came back to visit us one last time so people can really see just how big this fish is. And now we get to share her and let other people see her."
Green said he couldn't think of a better ending to Dottie's story. One of the most impressive bass in recorded history spawned one last time and passed away on Mother's Day weekend.
"Dottie was spawning just like a 3-pound fish," he said. "As a big fish, she still was into spawning. When they found her today, she was totally spawned out.
"She did what she had to do, and she did it on Mother's Day weekend. And her legend as the biggest fish ever goes on."
Editor's Note: Dickerson is a guide on Dixon Lake. He can be contacted at lunkers@cox.net.

Source of the story - http://sports.espn.go.com/outdoors/fishing/news/story?page=world_record_bass_dies

My 100th post and I'm a bass-attic!

How do you know when you're addicted to bass fishing?



For me it was today while driving home on the freeway I noticed a large white bass sticker on the rear windsheild of a car a few cars ahead of me. I swear it looked just like a bass silhouette jumping out of circle of ringed ripples on the waters surface. After a little while I caught up to the car in traffic and realized it wasn't a white sticker of a bass, it was a big glob of bird crap.

I'm not sure I could pass an ink blot test if I had to go for a psyc study or something. What does this look like? A bass. And this? A bass. And this... a share lunker.

Don't laugh, true story.

A Few First's for the Bridges crew

Took the kids out fishing yesterday. I didn't bring along a camera, but wish I had now that the trip is over. Zachary caught his first bass from a bed. We found a little male guarding a bed in a foot of water and Zachary wanted to catch it. I tied on a white hair jig and flipped it on the bed for him. He would shake it as I coached him and after about the 6th cast the bass picked up the jig and blew it out of the bed before he could set the hook. The fish got really annoyed by the jig in the bed from there on and Zachary was really anxious about getting the fish because he could see the fish moving in on the bait and blowing it out of the bed. A few casts with the bass just nipping at it and finally it inhaled the bait. Zachary set the hook and played the fish like a pro and he was just as excited as anyone winning a tournament when we got it.

The other first of the trip was little Emily kissing all the fish we released. I don't know why, but she decided any fish caught need a kiss before being released. Guess she's watched to many of the Saturday morning fishing shows with me. Funny stuff, especially knowing how girly she can be. Before all the fishing picked up Emily was telling me she was ready to go home because she was sweating and fishing was yucky. She's such a little princess.

Texas Classic Bass Club April Tournament on Lake LBJ

I fished the Texas Classic Bass Club April Tournament over the weekend Saturday on LBJ. There was perfect fishing weather a little cloud cover and 80 degree temps. Water temps at 70 degrees and water clarity was about 3 inches or less on the upper end. The lake is fishing very well lately. I fished with Steve Bethea from the club.

The Tournament:

I woke up to the sound of the alarm on Saturday morning, but I was ready to fish as soon as my eyes popped open. I had a feeling it was going to be a great day of fishing since the weather was going to be so nice and the Bass Champs tournament the weekend before had good fish brought to the scales.

Steve and I met at the ramp at 6:15 AM and We idled across the cove to the first spot I wanted to fish and set to work, but no body home. So we fished another spot in the marina, but nada there as well. Then we moved over to the far end of the dam to fish the riprap. We worked our way down the bank fishing. Steve caught our first large mouth that was about 13 inches long throwing a shaky head out in 10 feet of water. 10 minutes later I hooked into a small bass that was about the same size on a cotton candy wacky worm rigged up on a dropshot. There were several boats on the dam with us, but as we worked our way down the shore they all left, but one. Don Steussy & John Hackney who were putting on a show in front of us catching small bass every other cast. Lucky for us the other boats left because as we fish past Don and John and then about a 100 yards down I set the hook and boated our first keeper, 7.36 lbs. That fish fought really hard, ran all the way under the boat and out the other side while stripping drag off my reel. When it finally stopped, the fish then jumped out the water trying to throw the hook, but luck was on our side and we got her in the net after a hard fought battle. She didn't go quietly into the net. Good thing big girls like cotton candy. :-)

We fished around there for another hour and no other takers, so we headed up the lake to a few different places, trying to locate fish. That killed a few hours when I finally decided to go up river and hit some of the creeks that should have fish on beds. We found a creek with a few small males guarding beds and picked off a few here and there on senkos rigged Texas style. I managed to put a 14 inch fish in the boat after while and decided to hit another creek after fishing that one out. A short ways into the second creek I flipped into a clump of grass in a foot of water and hooked into a 6 lb fish. We were sitting in 3 ft of water, so it was like catching a red fish, she shot out of the grass and headed up the creek peeling drag off my reel until I was able to turn her. The fight was far from over though, once to the boat the fish jumped, ran under the boat, and I had to stow the trolling motor to keep her from wrapping up on it. We fish out the creek and boat several more short fish and Steve caught one short fish that should have been a keeper if it would have had all of it's tale fin. With just an hour left to fish we decided to head back to the dam, but on the way I decided to stop over in a cove that I knew fish spawned in the back of in years past. We fished our way in and caught a few short fish, but once we got to the back of the cove I flipped my senko to a stump and set the hook on a 4 lb bass. We had 13 minutes left to fish after I put the fish in the live well. We ran on down to the ramp and decided to call it a day with only four keepers, one fish shy of a limit.


Tournament in Review:

We think we caught about 15 bass or more over the day. Most of the fish were caught on senkos and a few on cotton candy trick worms. Steve and I caught four keepers going 18.36 lbs putting us in 1st place. I also took big bass honors with a 7.36 lb bass to anchor our win.

Special Thanks:

Thanks go out to my family for letting me take a Saturday to do some fishing.

Pics from weighin:

Spring is hear - well in the bass fishing world it is anyway.

Took the kids out to Old Settlers park on Saturday morning for a little bass fishing trip. While walking the bank I spotted a rather large white circle under a willow limb extending over the water. When I climbed into the tree I could see down on the bed and sure enough a nice 3 lb bass was sitting on the middle of the circle. I flipped a Kinami twin tail grub on the bed with a 1/4 oz sinker and got her to look at it, but she wouldn't pick up the lure. After a few casts, I then switched to a Big Bite YoMama rigged weightless and cast past the bed about 4 ft. The bass watched it flutter slowly to the bottom and on the first twitch it charged off the bed and sucked it up. After a short fight I had the fish in hand on the bank and my kids were chanting, "Daddy got a big one!" over and over so that everyone in the park knew. We caught a few large crawfish along the bank as well so it appears the mudbugs are on the move. They were dark colored, nearly black with red specs on them. When I say large the two that I caught were good eating size, and my 7 year old said, "Wow, a lobster!" when I pulled the first one out of the water. We had a good time out there.