Texas Bass Fishing with Clint Bridges

Texas Classic Bass Club August Tournament on Lake LBJ

noreply@blogger.com (Guide Clint Bridges) — Mon, 24 Aug 2009 02:52:00 +0000

I fished the Texas Classic Bass Club August Tournament over the weekend Saturday on LBJ. The weather was typical for August, HOT!!! Water temps at 80 degrees and water clarity was clear to 4 ft. The lake is fishing very well lately. I fished with Bill Gibbson from the club. The tournament hours were 3:00 AM to 10:00 AM.

The Tournament:

Bill and I met at 2:00 AM and we drove out to the lake and idled the boat the first spot I wanted to fish and set to work. It was dark with zero moon light, I started fishing on an underwater light in the marina. We fished around there for another hour and no other takers, so we headed over to the back of the marina and fished the grass. There was quit a bit of top water action, so I tied on a top water frog and started fishing. A few casts later a large explosion resulted in my frogs disappearance, I reeled up to feel for the weight of the fish and when I felt it, I swung hard to set the hook and the link broke. From the weight of what I felt I'm pretty sure it was a big fish and I never even turned it's head. I tied on a new frog and shook it off. A few casts later I put our first keeper in the boat with the frog. 30 minutes later I caught our second keeper on the frog and a little while later I caught a released a 13 inch bass. At that point Bill decided he wanted to borrow a frog from me since he hadn't packed any. We fished them for a while longer and then decided to hit another spot.

I pulled up on a shallow underwater light in front of some boat docks and made a single cast with a crank bait which was slammed as soon as it entered the soft glow of the light under water. After a brief fight, a 3.11 lb large mouth was put into the live well for our third keeper. We made a few more casts, but no takers. We moved on to the next underwater light and on the first cast to it I hooked into another large bass, it jumped and fought to the point that it pulled off at the side of the boat before we could net it. Bill hooked up next with a crank bait and caught our third keeper. A cast later I caught our 4th keeper from the light and on the next cast caught a 13 inch bass from the light. I let the boat float over the light while measuring the short fish and it pretty much killed the bite there, so we moved on down the bank. We fished some grass with no takers on the frogs and then back to an underwater light. I caught our 5th keeper at that point and it was 5:30 AM when we filled our limit. I only say that because several of the teams in the tournament decided to wait and not fish until 6:00 AM because they were convinced the fish were not biting in the early hours of the night.

We left that area and hit a point with some grass on it. On the first pass around the point we had to big blow ups on the frogs, but couldn't get the bass to take the lures. On the second pass Bill had a fish blow his frog about 2 ft into the air when it hit, but again, no luck getting it hooked up. We one or two more missed opportunities and I decided to try another area where I'd caught a 5 lb fish the weekend before.

We arrived and fished all around the area, but I was only able to manage one short fish about 6 inches long. Unfortunately the school of fish that had been there before were long gone. I decided we should move and hit another spot that had produced the weekend before as well. We arrived to fish another point and started throwing Carolina rigs on the point. After a few drifts across the point I hooked up with a short fish. A drift or two later I caught our 6th keeper and culled out a small fish. A few more drifts along and Bill caught our 7th keeper, but no enough to help improve our weight. A little while later I caught another short fish and then we ran out of time.

Tournament in Review:

We think we caught about 10 bass or more over the morning. Most of the fish were caught on crank baits and frogs. Bill and I caught five keepers going 9.5 lbs putting us in 3rd place. A few missed opportunities kept us from second and possibly 1st place, but that's fishing for ya.

We didn't take any pictures from the tournament, below is a picture of the fish I caught the week before.

Special Thanks:

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

Texas Classic Bass Club July Tournament on Belton

noreply@blogger.com (Guide Clint Bridges) — Sat, 11 Jul 2009 21:12:00 +0000

I fished the Texas Classic Bass Club July Tournament Saturday July 11th on Belton. The weather was typical for July, HOT! Water temps in the high 80's and water clarity clear to 4 ft. I fished with Adam DeLeon from the club.

The Tournament:

Since it's been 100 plus on a daily bases, the club voted to fish at night from 12:00AM to 8:00AM. We had clear sky's and a nearly full moon which made for a great night of fishing. We launched at Cedar Ridge park on Belton lake and start fishing the marina. We killed an hour in there and nearly lost a few lures flipping around the boat stalls, but not a single bite. I decided to run down the lake to a main lake hump or sunken island and see if any fish would bite there. We arrived to find lots of bait and white bass hitting the surface, but after an hour of fishing there, no bass. We moved to a creek and fished all the way to the back and I picked up a 12 inch bass on a black spinnerbait. We fished around there for a while, but no other takers. We moved from there to a main lake point and fished around it, making our way into a creek. I caught another short fish on a Texas rigged black brush hog. A short time later Adam set the hook and the fight was on. After a near disaster when the fish wrapped up on a stick, I was able to net his 5 lb small mouth bass! We fish around the area until daylight when I switched to a spinnerbait. After fishing with it for a while, I felt a tug on the line and saw a large bass following my lure to the boat. Unfortunately it doesn't take the lure and spooked away. I switched lures a short time later and hooked into a keeper size bass using a Scrounger. The fish jumps and goes crazy trying to throw the lure. Adam makes a few attempts to net the fish, but misses on the last try and the fish shakes free. Needless to say that hurt just a little bit since we have only an hour and half left in the tournament. We try another spot and I catch one more 12 inch bass on a watermelon brushhog before time runs out on us.

Tournament in Review:

We did not catch a lot of bass which is typical for a night time tournament, but Adam was able to catch a bass of a lifetime when it comes to Texas small mouth bass. It weighed in at 5.04 lbs and was the second largest bass of the tournament. The lake record smallie is 6.42 lbs, so Adam's was a trophy fish. We got 4th place in the tournament with just the one fish.

Congrats to Adam again on his catch! I'm a little jealous since I've caught several 4+ lb smallies from Belton, but haven't gotten one over 5 lbs.

Texas Classic Bass Club May Tournament on Lake Belton

noreply@blogger.com (Guide Clint Bridges) — Mon, 25 May 2009 02:37:00 +0000

I fished the Texas Classic Bass Club May Tournament few weeks ago Saturday on Belton. The weather was typical for May, cloud cover and scattered rain showers forecasted. Water temps near 80 degrees and water clarity clear to 4 ft on the lower end. The lake is fishing very well lately. I fished with Bill Gibson from the club.

The Tournament:

I woke up 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 nice after the storms passed. Bill and I met at 5:30 AM. I started fishing on a point and worked my way into a creek. As we started fishing we notices shad were spawning along the shoreline by the hundreds. I picked up a spinnerbait and started catching white bass to 18 inches on cast after cast. At some point as we worked our way into the creek I suggested Bill put on a popper and see if he could get a bass to hit it since we were seeing the bass bust the schools of shad along the shore. Bill made a few casts with the popper and it disappeared in large explosive splash as a 4 lb bass inhaled the lure. After a short fight I scooped the fish up in the net and we were really excited about our first keeper, so high fives were exchanged then we got back to fishing. I proceeded to catch white bass using a combination of the spinnerbait and a top water popper while Bill alternated between his popper and a grub rigged on a jig head. Bill saw a bass hit a shad out in the middle of the creek and threw the grub at it. Seconds after the lure enter the surface he felt a tug on the line and Bill caught our second keeper. We made our way to the back of the creek and continued catching bass and white bass, but nothing that we could bring to weigh-in. We started making our way out of the creek and Bill caught a nice 3 lb small mouth bass on the popper. A short distance later Bill hooked another large bass with the popper, but it was able to jump and shake the lure free. It looked to be a small mouth bass about 3 lbs. We fished around in the creek for another hour and the bite seemed to slow down. On another trip into the back of the creek Bill threw his popper to the head of the creek where a small mouth bass hit the lure as soon as Bill twitched the line. We fished out of the creek and the shad had all disappeared into the deeper waters of the lake. I decided to try a jig for a while and was able to get a bass to hit the lure. It felt like a large fish, but pulled off after a short fight. I decided at that point that we needed to change locations and hit another creek on the other side of the lake. We fished into the back of the creek and on the way back out Bill caught another small mouth bass to fill our limit. I saw some schooling action off the end of point and threw a weightless senko to the spot. After letting it flutter down a little, the line began to run off to the side, so I set the hook on my first keeper size bass of the day, but it was smaller than the bass we had in the live well. We tried several other places and killed a lot of time. With just an hour and a half left in the tournament we decided to load the boat and trailer to the weigh-in location. We arrived with an hour left in the tournament and decided to launch the boat at Cedar Ridge park. I caught 3 short bass out of the marina on a grub pretty quickly and with just 5 minutes left in the tournament I sent the hook on one last keeper size bass, but it wasn't large enough to help our total weight.

Tournament in Review:

We think we caught about 30 bass or more over the day, didn't keep count of white bass. We caught our fish on a combination of lures, but most of the keepers were caught on the popper Bill used. Bill and I caught five keepers going 12.36 lbs putting us in 3rd place.

Bill and I fishing in the creek. Photo by Kelly Bridges

Special Thanks:

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

Texas Classic Bass Club April Tournament on Lake LBJ

noreply@blogger.com (Guide Clint Bridges) — Wed, 29 Apr 2009 02:31:00 +0000

I fished the Texas Classic Bass Club April Tournament over the weekend Saturday on LBJ. The weather was typical for April, cloud cover and scattered rain showers. Water temps at 70 degrees and water clarity was about 12 inches or less on the upper end and clear to 4 ft on the lower end. The lake is fishing very well lately. I fished with Eric Chandler a new Texas Classic Bass Club member.

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 nice after the storms passed and the weekend before I had caught good fish while fishing with Zachary.

Eric and I met at 5:30 AM and we drove out to the lake and idled the boat the first spot I wanted to fish and set to work. It was dark and rain was pouring down off and on. I started fishing on a point and worked my way into a creek. Lightning flashed in the distance, followed by thunder rolling across the lake. As we made our way in, I missed a few fish flipping to the shore with a baby rattle snake worm. Eric was fishing with a spinner bait. I stopped the boat at a spot where I'd caught a 5 lb fish the weekend before and made about 10 casts when I felt pressure on the lure, I set the hook and boated a nice 2 lb bass which I believe was a male that was guarding a bed. We fished on into the creek and I caught a short bass about 13 inches just a few feet into the creek. Lightning struck and Eric got down in the bottom of the boat, said something a long the lines of, "Man I don't like that!" Eric is over six foot, so he would be the highest point on the boat. :-P Any rate I was catching bass and wanted to cover the creek before considering a break. A short time later I caught another keeper bass flipping the worm to the bank. We made out way to the end of the creek and it stopped raining, so Eric started fishing again. I had a solid fish pull off at the back of the creek, but couldn't get another bite in the area. A few casts later I caught another short bass about 10 inches on the way back out of the creek. Eric put his first fish in in the boat a few casts later flipping a stand up jig to the shore. We fish all the way out and no more bites and it starts raining on us again. We fish into another creek and I set the hook on a big fish, I'm ready to go crazy Mike Ike style when I realize it's not a bass. It turns out to be a 4+ lb drum or gaspergoo. It was fun to catch it but frustrating at the same time. Eric got a good laugh out of it watching me fight the fish. A few more casts into the creek and I catch a white perch on the same lure, actually I caught all of the fish on the exact same worm. :-) Unfortunately the smallest fish usually do the most damage to a plastic worm and it was time to retire this one, but I still had 9 more in the pack where that one came from. Watermelon Grandebass Baby Rattle Snakes, they're great lures. We get into the back of the creek and I catch our 3rd keeper on the worm, just barely 14 inches long. Eric goes on a roll after that flipping a stand up jig and catches 4 or 5 short bass two of them out of the same boat slip on back to back casts while talking on the phone with this uncle. That's multi-tasking bass fishing style. :-)

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. We hit some more creeks that should have fish on beds. A short ways into the third creek I flipped into a clump of grass in a foot of water and hooked into a fish about 13 inches long. Fishing our way back into the creek I catch another short fish out of a boat dock and Eric follows up with another fish out of slip. We get to the back of the creek and Eric flips the jig to the back of the creek and catches a nice 2 lb bass. I flip into the same area and catch a large perch. We fish out of the creek and decide to fish another spot. We stop off at the bridge pilings and I catch three bass one of which was a solid keeper giving us our 5th keeper to fill our limit. We move on and fish more creeks, burning a lot of time, while catching many short bass between Eric and I. With 45 min left in the tournament we head down the lake to a creek near the weigh-in. I take the boat into a creek where I'd catch a 3 lb bass on a bed the weekend before and it's not home, on the way back out I see a new bass bed and a 5 lb bass is sitting on it. Unfortunately Eric and I can't get it to bite before time runs out and we arrive at weigh-in with 15 seconds left on my GPS before the end of the tournament. We were almost DQ'd for being late to weigh-in.

Tournament in Review:

We think we caught about 30 bass or more over the day. Most of the fish were caught on watermelon baby rattle snake and a watermelon stand up jig. Eric and I caught five keepers going 8.12 lbs putting us in 6th place.

We didn't take any pictures from the tournament, below is a picture of a bass Zachary caught.

Special Thanks:

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

Texas Classic Bass Club March Tournament on Lake Falcon

noreply@blogger.com (Guide Clint Bridges) — Thu, 12 Mar 2009 03:52:00 +0000

I fished the Texas Classic Bass Club March Tournament over the weekend on Saturday at Lake Falcon with Steve Bethea. The tournament didn't go as we had hoped, but we had a great time. For the third time this season, there was 30 mph winds the day of the tournament.

Here's how it went down.

I drove down to the dusty, but growing little town of Zapata Texas that sits on the edge of Texas and Mexico. There isn't much there, but oil/gas fields and the lake. In the last two years though, the town has become more of a bass fishing destination as it has opened several new hotels, two new fishing tackle shops, one with a boat dealer. The lake became famous recently for the high numbers of big large mouth bass caught in BASS and FLW tournaments held on the lake. Falcon lake is a little different than most because it's surrounded by retama trees and mesquite that are covered in thorns. Not only are the fish mean, but so are the trees! Let me try and paint a clear picture of how lake looks, the bass are swimming around in 7 to 10 ft of water which was dry land a few months ago. In 10 ft of water the trees are sticking up about two feet out of the water and the shallower you go the higher the trees stick up. It looks more like you are fishing in a jungle than a lake with all the green trees filled with yellow flowers and loud colorful birds fluttering from tree to tree. Other guys in the club, reported seeing snakes, but we never saw any.

Weather was very cloudy, temps in the lower 90's, and wind blowing 30+ mph all night and day, both days. Water temps ranged from 68 to 71 degrees depending on where you were in relation to the wind and the water dept. We arrived at Tiger Island boat ramp at 5:30 AM, but instead of launching right away, we had a little trouble getting the boat off the trailer. One of the boat buckles wouldn't release. We spent an hour trying to get the buckle to release or at least get enough slack to unhook the boat. When faced with not fishing or cutting the strap, I had to cut the strap, but we were finally on the water. The wind was blowing pretty hard, but I really wanted to fish down the lake near the dam, so I headed out to the main lake. We stopped at the island to judge the wind and waves, and also did a little fishing. No, bites and I decided it was going to get rough on the main lake, so we headed back into the Big Tigers creek. I had to drive the boat through a few hundred yards of the stuff you see in the photo above only with lots of wind blowing. Once I got the boat in the very back and into about 6 ft of water I dropped the trolling motor and started blazing a new trail through the stuff. My goal was to find 2 ft of water where bass may be spawning. After a few casts I felt a hit next to the boat and looked down in time to be startled by the sight of a large gar following behind the lure. Two casts later I made a short cast between a few tree tops and as I retrieve the lure a few feet from the boat a 5+ lb bass charges out of the brush and inhales the lure. "Get the net! Get the net!" That is all I could say as the fish made a run back into the brush. I fought it back out and it made a few more runs, but Steve netted the fish as soon as it got close to the boat. Caught it on a white chatterbait, just like the fishing reports said I would. It pays to do your home work before going out to the lake. From there we navigated our way through a maze of thorny brush fishing, but four hours later we had absolutely nothing to show for our efforts. I'd gotten us into unfished areas of the lake, gotten the boat completely stuck and free again. While driving home, Steve admitted that at one point he was concerned we might not get the boat back out of there, especially when we were stuck. I'd found only one small bass on a bed and it wasn't willing to bite. I took a break to chug a Diet Dr Pepper and eat a Snickers.

The break gave me a chance to think about that first fish and what we were doing wrong. Time to move back out to deeper water. I made run out of the brush and up the lake to a small creek that feeds into Big Tigers. Once we got in the creek, we found the brush to not be quit as thick but standing in deeper water 12 ft and shallower. About 30 yards into the brush, we found a pipeline or old road bed running across the creek. I decided we'd fish it to the shore and try to locate bedding fish again since we were closer to the main lake. We fished all the way in an nada, only a large carp in the shallow water. On the way back out I started throwing the chatterbait again and set the hook. "Fish! It's a good one, going 3 or 4 lbs probably. Get the net!" After one good run, the bass rolled over and slid into the net. Steve said, "Man, that fish is 6 lbs easy. You caught it in 10 ft of water." At this point we've got about 2 hours left to fish and only two keepers going about 11 lbs. A little while later I set the hook and land a 3 lb fish on the chatterbait. I stop fishing and dig out another chatterbait and give it to Steve to fish with. A few minutes later and I hear all heck break loose on the back deck and Steve has a nice 3 lb fish on the line. With 3o minutes left in the tournament I see a bass chasing shad within casting distance and throw the chatterbait to it. It bites and I land our fifth and final catch of the day.

This is the picture of the 6.59 lb bass from day one.

Day 1 results, we're in 1st for the classic tournament with just over 19 lbs and 2nd place over all. One of the non-qualifier teams brought in 21+ lbs. The 6.59 bass I caught turned out to be the biggest bass of the tournament.

Day 2:

We launch the boat on Sunday morning and head out to a dear stand I'd hear some of the guys talking about that sounded like the spot I'd caught fish before. Well we found the blind, but I'm fairly certain it wasn't the same one. We didn't catch anything in the area so we headed back to the creek we had finished the tournament in the day before. Not long after we begin fishing Steve sets the hook and lands a nice 3 lb bass on the white chatterbait. That fish cost us a little because clouds rolled in and the wind let up which seemed to change the mood of the fish. We spent the next 4 hours fishing chatterbaits with no bites and found ourselves in the same spot all over again. Very little time left and we needed to figure out the fish in order to stay in the game. We decided to move out to the outside edge of the brush in deeper water. Not long after we started fishing here, Steve sets the hook on a 5 lb bass flipping a 6 inch watermelon lizard. After putting that fish in the livewell, new hope is born, the goal to catch 3 more bass sets in. We fish the edge for a while longer with no success and I decide to make a move to the wind blown side of the lake since the winds have let up. I take the boat into a new creek and find another road bed to fish. Steve and I had decided the sun and wind were necessary to get the fish interested in biting a chatterbait, so he flipped a lizard and I put on a 10 inch zoom worm, pumpkin/ with purple and gold flakes. We fish down the road bed with two hours left in the tournament. A little way down the road and I set the hook on a nice 3 lb bass. Now there's only an hour and half left and we still need two fish to have any shot at winning this tournament. Ten minutes later I drag the worm from the brush into the road and bam, fish on! Turns out to be a little swimmer just over 14 inches, but he ate it and fought hard. We continue fishing the road till it comes to an inter section with another road. We only have an hour left so we decide to fish our way back toward the main lake, so we're not late getting back. At this point the clouds have broken up a little and the wind is blowing again, so I tell Steve I'm going out chatterbait style. 5 minutes later, Steve is standing on the back deck of the boat and begins to prey out loud. "Lord please, give us just one more 5 lb bass!" I finish my lure retreave and on the next cast with the chatterbait our prayers are answered and a 5 lb bass crushes the lure. It goes crazy fighting and jumps next to the boat, but stays on. We get the fish in the live well and still have 10 minutes to fish. We do our best to try for one more, but come up empty, time to head in for weigh-in, but we have a limit so we're excited. After the fish are weighed, we find out we have over 15 lbs of fish and take first place! We are the Texas Classic Bass Club 2009 Classic Champions!

Tournament in Review:

We caught 7 bass on white chatterbaits in 6 to 10 ft of water in small creeks or drains. The other fish were caught on the edge of brush on soft plastics. We weighed 10 fish for 34+ lbs.

I have to explain this photo. In our club the pose I'm doing is called, "The Larry." Push your fish way out, smile big, and tilt your head - that's "The Larry."

If you want to see more big fish pics and various club members performing "The Larry" - click here - http://www.tcbc.net/page24.html *scroll down. :-)

Texas Classic Bass Club February Tournament

noreply@blogger.com (Guide Clint Bridges) — Wed, 25 Feb 2009 04:42:00 +0000

I fished the Texas Classic Bass Club February Tournament over the weekend on Saturday at Lake LBJ. The tournament didn't go as we had hoped, but we had a great time. I watched the wind reports all week and was ready for the worst.

Here's how it went down.

At 5:45 AM I met up with my partner for the tournament Jason St. Peter on the way to the lake. Weather was very cloudy, temps in the upper 40's, and wind blowing 30+ mph over the day. We launched and headed out to Thunder Birds or Morgans creek to start our trip. We started fishing and within about five casts I hooked into what would have been our first keeper, after a short fight the fish jumped completely out of the water and shook free of my spinner bait. We moved back into the creek where I flipped a jig to a lay down and was trying to pop the lure free of a limb when a nice bass exploded on the lure ripping the jig trailer off, but missing the hook. We spent a while there trying different lures on the tree hoping the fish would return and bite again, no such luck. I saw a splash in the middle of the creek and threw a senko to the area, let it flutter down a bit and the line stopped moving, so I set the hook on a 10 inch bass. We started fishing our way out and Jason set the hook on our first keeper of the day, a nice 15 inch bass. About this time the front hit and the wind jumped from a slight breeze to 30 mph with dust and drizzle mixed in. It was nasty!!!

We went back out and tried fishing a big point that someone had marked. That didn't work out so we move back out where I lost the fish early and tucked the boat behind a fish house out of the wind to rest a bit. While tucked up behind the fish house Jason caught our second keeper of the morning on a crank bait, a good 16 to 17 inch bass. We moved out onto a point and fish along the protected shore for a few hours with Jason catching a short fish and nothing else biting. We went back to the point with the marker and Jason caught our third keeper, a Guadalupe bass on the same crank bait he'd caught the other fish on. We then proceeded to kill a lot of time fishing windy banks, protected banks, bluffs, flats, and nothing seemed to work. We even tried jigging in deep water over schools of bait. I decided at that point it was time to fish in Silver creek, even though I knew the boat ride was not going to be fun.

We hit the main lake going about 45 mph, bashing two and three ft rollers white capping, and I had the boat running dead into the north wind. Instead of getting beat to death, I decide the waves were close enough together that we could just skip over them going faster, which worked really well at 60 mph. The down side to that was, it pretty much scared the life out of Jason who didn't appreciate my tactic for handling the rough water. I fished a lot of tournaments and ran in much worse conditions, but forgot to take into account Jason's perspective when I made the run. Looking back I know exactly how Jason felt, because I've been there many times fishing tournaments as the co-angler in BFL, TTT, and FLW tournaments. From his perspective and my previous experiences, we were flying across the lake with very little of the boat actually touching the water, which seems to be on the very edge of out of control and all you can do that point is hang on for fear of fly out out. Most men in these conditions find religion if they didn't already have it. "Lord, please get us there safely..." or something along those lines ends up running through our minds. At any rate, Jason let me know he would like to take the ride back and brave the pounding vs skipping the waves. :-P Lucky for us, the winds died down to about 15 mph and the waves were not as bad on the way back.

Back to the fishing, once inside Silver creek we set to work fishing down the bank. I decided to switch up and tie on the kicker fish bait, a 3/4 oz red craw rat-l-trap. We fished the marina, rocky banks, log jams, and some points with no luck. In the last hour of the tournament, we fished along a stump covered point, where I hooked our fourth keeper, on the trap a nice 17 to 18 inch bass. We decided to work the point a few more times and Jason put our final keeper in the boat a 14 inch bass that filled our limit. He caught another little 10 inch bass and in the final minutes, I lost a good fish. That's part of rat-l-trap fishing, you can't get every fish you hook with those things in the boat.

Tournament in Review:

Frontal conditions with high winds all day made for a long fishing trip, but we managed to put good sack of keepers in the boat. We took 4th place with 9+ lbs. First place had a successful trip in all the wind and were able to catch 14 lb of bass, with a 5lb kicker.

Fishing with Zachary on Lake Austin.

noreply@blogger.com (Guide Clint Bridges) — Mon, 02 Feb 2009 03:04:00 +0000

Zachary and I got out today and did a little fishing this morning for about 3 hours and picked up a few fish. One of them nearly pulled him out of the boat! First picture is Zachary holding a 4 lb bass we caught flipping a brown jig in some boat stalls on the lower end of the lake. The second picture is Zachary hooking the big one out front of Chuy's Hula Hut on Lake Austin.

Look at the smile on his face. It's priceless.

This one nearly pulled Zachary out of the boat. He has it hooked, and the wind blew the boat back while I was taking the photo. So when the line became tight, he wouldn't let go of the rod and couldn't think fast enough to press the release button.

Texas Classic Bass Club January Tournament on Lake Travis

noreply@blogger.com (Guide Clint Bridges) — Sun, 25 Jan 2009 19:42:00 +0000

I fished the Texas Classic Bass Club January Tournament over the weekend on Saturday at Lake Travis. Well the tournament didn't go as we had hoped, but we still had a great time. I didn't get to prefish which didn't help since I didn't have a real feel for what the fish were going to be biting and where they were staged.

Here's how it went down.

At 6:00 AM I met up with my partner for the tournament Regan Vaca at Mansfield Dam Park on the lake. Weather was very cloudy, temps in the upper 30's, and wind blowing 20+ mph. We launched and headed out to Cypress creek to start our trip, only we had a few near misses on the way. The lake is very low, there are islands and points where there would normally be water. I tried running in the dark by GPS map and it was a little scary looking back. I ran up in very skinny water twice before making it to Cypress creek. Last time I go running up the lake in the dark like that again, just not worth the risk. We started fishing and the first point we visited didn't have any active fish on it. We moved into the marina where I caught a white bass and two short large mouth bass, but the wind was blowing to hard to fish in there effectively. We went back out and tried some bluffs, but came up empty. We moved out onto a point and I picked up two bass on a drop shot that were about 13 inches long. We fished around the point and Regan caught our first keeper Guadalupe bass on a water melon jig. I caught five more bass that were 10 to 13 inches long in this spot on a c-rig with a 4 inch watermelon senko. We moved out and fished some more bluffs and points with very little success. I decided to leave Cypress and head up to Devil's cove. Once we got in there I switched to a cotton candy colored jig I'd made that I thought would be good for Travis fishing. After about five casts I caught our second keeper Guadalupe bass of the day on the jig. Several casts later I caught another keeper Guadalupe bass, so turns out the jig I made was pretty good. :-) Regan caught a two more short bass in the mean time while fishing docks and I caught our 4th keeper Guadalupe bass of the day. Unfortunately, I'd lost one of the jigs earlier and later lost the second jig I'd made. I tied on another jig, but wasn't able to get a bite the rest of the day. We hit a few main lake points with no success and that was it for the day. Fortunately, the ride back to the ramp was a lot less eventful since the winds hand lessened down to about 10 mph and we could see where we were going.

Tournament in Review:

Post frontal conditions are the worst fishing conditions, but we managed to put four keepers in the boat, which I consider a success regardless of the out come. The official results haven't been posted yet, we were probably in the middle of a 9 boat field with 3.3 lbs. First place had a successful trip throwing gold rat-l-traps early in all the wind and were able to catch two 4 lb bass.

Jackpot Tournament on Fayette County Lake

noreply@blogger.com (Guide Clint Bridges) — Tue, 23 Dec 2008 03:20:00 +0000

Texas Classic Bass Club put on a small jack pot tournament on Fayette County Lake on Dec 20th from 6:45 AM to 3:15 PM. We had some pretty strong winds early on that were blowing a good 15+ mph sustained, and air temps in the mid 60's. Fayette is a power plant lake that has a hot water discharge from the power plant that keeps the lake warm in the winter so the water was 66 degrees around most of the lake, but it was 75 degrees in the discharge area. We fished down the dam rip rap throwing cranks and dragging worms with no success. We then hit a point near the dam and Regan caught our first fish of the day out of about 15 feet of water that weighed about two pounds. We drifted over the point a few more times and decided to run over to the hot water discharge area. We got there and joined the crowd and I caught a 3+ lb fish on a spinner bait fishing the rocks on the left side. Then a few minutes later I broke off a 2 lb fish that hit a small crank bait. The fish rubbed the 10 lb florocarbon line on the rocks after the hook set and broke it almost instantly, but it jumped several times trying to shake the lure free so we got a good luck at him. I got tired of fighting the current and the crowd and decided to try some new water so we ran around to the cold water intake area. I switched lures to a Mann's Little George and started catching fish almost instantly. My first hook set and short fight would have been the big fish of the day, but it pulled free after a good fight. Two casts later I set the hook on a big bass and landed a bass over 4 lbs, didn't weight it, but it measured 19 inches in length. The picture above is my big bass of the day. I proceeded to catch another 3 lb fish and short keeper several casts later. At that point I offered one to Regan and he started catching bass also. We caught another 15 bass that were probably 2 to 3 lbs each. With a little time left in the day we decided to fish over by the boat ramps and Regan suggested we flip some trees he'd fished before. We hit a couple of trees and Regan set the hook on a nice 4.8 lb, 19 inch bass pictured right. We ended the day with three keepers and took 2nd place in the tournament. We had a great day on the lake and I can see why people like to get there and fish on this little slot lake.

The one that didn't get away yields long-lost ring

noreply@blogger.com (Guide Clint Bridges) — Tue, 16 Dec 2008 03:27:00 +0000

Every once in a while I read a fishing related article and I feel like I need to share it with everyone I know. Below is a story that falls into this catagory.

****************************************************************************
BUNA, Texas – The one that didn't get away held an unlikely surprise for a Texas man. The blue-stoned class ring of Joe Richardson, engraved with his name, turned up inside an 8-pound bass 21 years after he lost it while fishing on Lake Sam Rayburn.
"My first reaction was — you gotta be kidding," he said Wednesday.
The fisherman who discovered the tarnished ring inside his catch contacted Richardson on Nov. 28 in Buna, about 100 miles northeast of Houston, after tracking him down with help from the Internet.
His fisherman hero asked to remain anonymous.
Richardson, 41, said he lost the ring about two weeks after his 1987 graduation from Universal Technical Institute in Houston. His mom had bought it for about $200 and wasn't pleased when it went missing.
As a mechanic, Richardson said he doesn't wear jewelry so he tucked the undamaged ring away.
"I have not cleaned it," he said. "I told my wife I don't want to clean it."

Food for thought -

Lake Sam Rayburn is the largest lake in Texas, it's surface area covers 114,500 acres and is 80 feet deep in places. That is a lot of room for a bass to hide!

Original story - http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20081204/ap_on_fe_st/odd_ring_in_fish

Texas Classic Bass Club December 2008 Tournament

noreply@blogger.com (Guide Clint Bridges) — Mon, 08 Dec 2008 04:44:00 +0000

I fished the Texas Classic Bass Club December Tournament over the weekend on Saturday at Lake LBJ. There was near perfect fishing weather a little cloud cover and 60 degree temps. Water temps in the 60s and water clarity was about 18 inches or less on the upper end. The lake is fishing very well lately. I fished with my lovely wife, Kelly Bridges.

The Tournament:

I woke up at 6:00 AM and let Kelly sleep in while I launched the boat and started fishing at 7:00 AM when the tournament started. I fished the rip rap on the dam for a while and only had one bite when Kelly called me to let me know she was ready to go fishing around 8:00 AM. I picked her up and we idled across the lake to the first spot I wanted to fish and set to work. After fishing around some docks Kelly felt a tap on the line and proceeded to start reeling in her first fish, only she forgot to set the hook and it pulled off after a little fight. It didn't take long and I missed a fish on a spinner bait. On the next cast to the same spot I caught our first 15 inch keeper. We worked our way down the bank fishing around boat docks. We fished the area a little longer and I caught a short bass about 13 inches. We made a long run up the lake to a new area and started fishing docks. A few docks and I hooked into a large bass that wrapped up on something in the water and broke off. We fished a while with no other bites and we decided to run up the lake and try some other areas. We moved on from there and hit all the bridge pilings over the next few hours and I caught another 15 inch bass.

With time running out for us, we headed to a spot back down the lake and hit one of my favorite main lake points, I think Kelly made one cast and set the hook on a 15 inch bass to give us three keepers in the box. High fives were due since that was Kelly's first tournament keeper, ever. A few casts later I caught a 10 inch bass, which got a, "That's a little one," comment from Kelly, which made me laugh. The 15 inch fish she caught a few minutes before was her first tournament bass, but she's already talking smack like some of the pros. :-)

A few minutes later Kelly caught another short fish around 12 inches. We had worked the point pretty well and decided to run down the lake to hit one more spot. Kelly caught two more short fish on this point and time was up. We loaded up and ran down to Cottonwood Marina to weigh in the fish with 15 minutes to spare, so we fished out the tournament fishing near the ramps. It didn't work out for us, must have been bad luck.

Tournament in Review:

I'm not sure I accurately accounted for all our bass, but we probably caught 10 over the day. We threw a lot of different stuff that caught fish. Kelly and I caught three keepers going 5 lbs were 8th out of 10 teams. I think 5 teams weighed in a 4+ lb bass and everyone reported good fishing. It could be argued that our bad luck was due to the banana Kelly brought on the boat. Kelly learned, bananas on boats are bad luck! And before you ask, yes I've read this article - Banana Myth. It's ok sweetie, we'll catch'm next time. :-)

Congratulations!

This post wouldn't be complete without telling Mike Amescua congratulations for pulling off the 3rd place finish in the tournament which earned him one more point in Angler of the Year standings than the leader. Congratulations Mike on earning the 2008 Angler of the Year title.

Mike holding two 8 lb bass from Choke Canyon, October tournament.

A friend catches a 12 lb bass on Choke Canyon lake.

noreply@blogger.com (Guide Clint Bridges) — Fri, 07 Nov 2008 03:58:00 +0000

For the Texas Classic Bass Club October tournament, the club voted to repeat last years success and fish on Choke Canyon. Once again the club showed how awesome a lake Choke Canyon is to fish on. All teams caught fish and most produced a bass over 5 lbs in the two days of fishing, but one special fish stood out above all. It was caught by a friend of mine from the club, Bill Ellis.

The story behind the fish:

Bill and Mike caught two 8+ lb fish the day before fishing a tank dam on the upper end of the lake on the first day of the tournament and returned first thing in the morning on day two of the tournament. Around 6:15 AM in the dark, Bill cast out a watermelon/red jig and set the hook on a bass of a life time. She made several runs and came to the surface for a good head shake trying two throw the jig, but it was locked into the corner of the mouth perfectly. All Bill and Mike could do was wait for the fish to give up and put her in the livewell, which seems like forever under the conditions. To their credit, they took extra care over the day to keep the fish comfortable as possible and it was in perfect health swimming away after her photo shoot at the scales. Congratulations Bill on your new personal best and congratulations to Mike and Bill for the win with a two day total, 9 fish that weighed over 40 lbs.

By the way, Mike is backup guide for Big Texas Fish. If you want to fish with Mike, give me a call and I can set you up with a trip. Choke Canyon lake is 3 hours south of Austin by the way, so there will be extra expenses for booking a trip down there.

Water Spout on Lake Buchanan

noreply@blogger.com (Guide Clint Bridges) — Wed, 29 Oct 2008 03:39:00 +0000

It's been a while since I've posted, been through some trying times lately. We all have our crosses to bear in life. At times I feel like I should have a tatoo that says, "I'm with Stupid." followed by an arrow that turns back on itself. I'm finally getting back in the grove and inspired to write again. For my return post, I thought I'd share some very cool pictures. A friend of mine sent me these pictures of a storm that generated a water spout, they are truly scary and beautiful all at the same time if you ask me. They should serve as a reminder that our God is an awesome God, truly. When a storm blows in and you're on the lake, be ready to head to the shore!

Rednecks are creative people... :-)

noreply@blogger.com (Guide Clint Bridges) — Mon, 02 Jun 2008 17:22:00 +0000

I'm sure a Google search will turn up all kinds of "redneck" photos that make you laugh. These are a few fishing related ones that I've been sent that make me laugh. Enjoy!

Red Neck Measuring Tap!

Red Necks fishing from porch when the river came up!

Red Neck Yacht! It sleeps 6, 8 if you include the floor space and has outdoor plumbing! Second floor includes diving platform, beer trough, fish cleaning station and outdoor AC.

Red Neck Bass Boat complete with trolling motor!

Laguna Madre - South Padre Island

noreply@blogger.com (Guide Clint Bridges) — Wed, 28 May 2008 14:03:00 +0000

I took a trip down to South Padre Island for the weekend with my family and a bunch of friends. Eric Chandler booked us a guide trip on the Laguna Madre. Two boats, 6 people with two expienced fisherman (myself and my buddy) with 3 of my buddies relatives that rarely fish and one close friend. We kept 19 keeper specs, and a 25 inch redfish.

I lit up the trout with Berkley jerk shad on a jig head. Color didn't seem to matter, but some colors worked better than others. White with a pink stripe on the back got the most action, but we ran out and had to fish other colors. I personally caught 30 plus fish using jerk shad, mostly spec trout. My catch included 4 pinfish(perch), 3 skip jacks (18", 22", 24"), one snook that jumped off at the net, the guide estimated to be 24 to 26" and 10 keeper spec trout with the largest being 21 1/2". Fun trip... for me anyway. Some of the other guys on the trip didn't fair as well since they stuck to fishing live shrimp on a popping cork. The rest of the guys caught an average of 5 trout apiece that were mostly under size and had the big one that got away story to take home. The redfish hit a white/blue back Berkley jerk shad on a 1/4 oz jig head. The big trout I caught definately put up the same fight you'd get from a big bass only without the jumping. The skip jack are like mini tarpon, they make runs and then jump while wiggle like crazy, fun stuff.

The Fishing Crew

The Fish

Eric with a nice redfish!

Me with a nice trout!

Texas Classic Bass Club May Tournament

noreply@blogger.com (Guide Clint Bridges) — Sun, 18 May 2008 02:57:00 +0000

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.

noreply@blogger.com (Guide Clint Bridges) — Tue, 13 May 2008 13:37:00 +0000

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.

noreply@blogger.com (Guide Clint Bridges) — Tue, 13 May 2008 04:28:00 +0000

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!

noreply@blogger.com (Guide Clint Bridges) — Wed, 07 May 2008 01:39:00 +0000

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

noreply@blogger.com (Guide Clint Bridges) — Sun, 27 Apr 2008 19:12:00 +0000

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

noreply@blogger.com (Guide Clint Bridges) — Mon, 14 Apr 2008 03:13:00 +0000

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.

noreply@blogger.com (Guide Clint Bridges) — Sun, 02 Mar 2008 14:57:00 +0000

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.

Texas Classic Bass Club February Tournament

noreply@blogger.com (Guide Clint Bridges) — Thu, 28 Feb 2008 04:30:00 +0000

I fished the Texas Classic Bass Club February Tournament over the weekend Saturday on Stillhouse Hollow. There was near perfect fishing weather if it wasn't for the 20+ mph winds blowing down the lake and a cold front blew in the day before dropping the air temp into the 30's over night! Water temps in the lower 50s and water clarity was about 1 foot or less. The lake is at normal pool, but clearly still recovering from last years flooding. I fished with a new guy checking out the club Greg Moon.

The Tournament:

Greg and I met at 6:00 AM at Union Grove park . We launched and we ran out to my first spot on the main lake out by the island. We started fishing on the road leading across the back of the island where I'd caught some bass on Monday that were all over 2 lbs on a white spinnerbait. We fished there for a few hours and had several peck at the spinnerbait, but not grab it. Water temps on Monday were 58 degrees and Saturday they were 56. Those two degrees and the added wind must have turned the fish off the spinnerbait bite. I slowed down throughing a swim bait, but couldn't get any takers. Greg thew a spinnerbait and a rat-l-trap, but no takers. About lunch time I decided that was enough of that and the wind was starting to get stronger, so ran down to the dam and picked up a fish nearly 14 inches long on a drop shot. Then I moved us out to a hump that was exposed to the wind to see if we could get a big post spawn fish, but nobody home or at least they didn't want to bite a spinnerbait or rat-l-trap anyway. I decided at that point it was time to slow down and drag a c-rig on points, first stop and I picked up a 15 inch bass right away on the same drop shot. We let the wind blow us across that point several times over the next hour and not a single bite. Decided to hit another spot and ran up the lake to the Dana Peak area where Greg was able to pick up his first keeper, 15 inches, dead sticking a spinnerbait while picking a back lash. At that point, we'd take luck over skill. :-) We fished the area for a few hours and again, no other takers. We moved up the lake to a few protected pockets to fish and nothing bit there, so with 30 minutes left we ran back down near the ramp and I picked up another 14 inch keeper dead sticking a brush hog the same Greg and caught his, so luck smiled on us twice in one day. Man it was tough fishing for a really nice day except for all that cold wind blowing.

Tournament in Review:

We caught 4 bass over the day. The fish were caught on luck. Greg and I caught our three largest going 4.82 lbs putting us in 6th place. Congrats to Mike Amescua & Don Steussy, who won with 13 lbs and big bass.

Fishing Tournaments by Guide and Bass Tournament Angler Clint Bridges

noreply@blogger.com (Guide Clint Bridges) — Wed, 06 Feb 2008 04:56:00 +0000

I get asked this question a lot and usually answer it pretty much the same way, but was recently inspired to write up my own article when I read an article on another website on this topic that I didn't agree with entirely. I'm going to take the foundation provided and improve upon it, enjoy.

How do I get started fishing bass tournaments?

If you're reading this article, chances are you're just beginning to fish tournaments, or are curious about fishing tournaments because it looks like a lot of fun on TV. You are probably a bit unsure about what to do, what to bring, what to wear, et cetera. Here's a guide to help you get started, feel confident, and give you the needed confidence needed to get started.

Pick your tournament level: Entry, Moderate, Advanced, HardCore

Finding a tournament appropriate to your interests and experience level. Most of us have already found a few guys we are comfortable fishing with, but for those who have not, here's a quick rundown. This step is far more important than most may think. If your first few tournament experiences are with a group of "hardcore" anglers and you are looking to just learn a bit and get on water once a month, chances are, you'll be turned off before you give tournaments a chance. On the flip side of the coin, there are what I call "entry level" tournaments where it's more about sipping a few coldies and bragging about the fish caught in the tournament, these people are very laid back - for those of us who are more competitive and really want to learn a lot, these anglers do not compose the group you'll want to join long term, but they do offer a great starting point. Case in point - AustinBassFishing.com has come together to put on a loosely run, show up an fish or "jackpot" tournament called the HHJ Tournament. The rules are posted on the site, tournament dates and results are posted to the Tournament section of the Forum. Everyone has a great time, well except HHJ, he seems to always get the short end of the fish, err stick. Read the forums and that may make you laugh. :o) Make no mistake about the "Entry level" title, these guys can fish and will gladly take your entry fee to support their fishing! The problem with this tournament style is if you're wanting to get into more competitive fishing, they only fish one or two lakes over and over again.

The best advice I can give you is to email the club presidents or tournament managers and simply ask what their philosophy embodies. A simple Web search will turn up many clubs in your area ranging from local dealership tournaments, to BASS Federation, to American Bass Anglers draw trail, to the Wal-Mart BFL and EverStart Pro-Am events. If you are looking for an occasional tournament and are after more fun than competition, I'd stick with local tournaments run by people in your area like Texas Classic Bass Club, which I'd call a "Moderate level" tournament. TCBC runs on a point system, pays out cash at each event, and recognizes an Angler of the Year and Big Bass of the Year. Top competitors compete in a Classic tournament at the end of the team. Tournaments are very structured, well organized and run by monthly meeting with officers. The club is not affiliated with any major tournament circuit which cuts down on the level of competitiveness within the club and the tournaments are organized to foster sharing fishing knowledge. (http://www.tcbc.net/) The club fishes most of the lakes in the area that are less than a two hour drive from North Austin, but does travel to lakes outside the area for it's two day touranments.

ATX BassMasters (BASS) and Lone Star Bass Club (FLW) tournaments are more of the Moderate to Advanced level of bass tournament. They're affiliated with major tournament circuits with some or all of the members hoping to work their way through the ranks and win a national title some day. They are at times border line "hardcore" level or very competitive. This is not the place to learn about fishing tournaments. It can be done, but I'm sure you'll learn a few lessons the hard way cutting your teeth here. They are tightly run clubs with local and national memberships and rules to consider. Tournament payouts are generally pooled to fund the top 6 sent to the state level tournaments. They are generally very tight lipped about successful fishing patterns and very serious about fishing all the time.

"Advanced level" would be the Wal-Mart BFL tournaments, which are Pro-Am meaning you will only compete against other "amateurs" (non-boaters). These are great learning events once you are on the boat, but the hustle and bustle of a large tournament can be a turn-off of these events; there will be a large 100+ boat field capping out at 200 boats, meaning a possible 400 total anglers. As a first tournament, it can be a bit overwhelming. Additionally, these events require a lot of travel and advanced planning to be successful (see http://www.flwoutdoors.com/ for locations). Upper levels of the FLW and BASS Federation events have the most variance between moderate and a hardcore composition of anglers - http://www.bassmasters.com./ Fishing as an amature with these guy you'll just a likely to draw a real Bass fishing Pro or some knuckle head that lives down the street that happened to have this weekend off. I also recogmend avoiding any events that occur during the spawn as you're twice as likely to be "front ended" in these events. Being "front ended" means the "Pro" is on fish, likely the a single big fish that he'll position the boat so that he has the only good cast or chance at catching it. There is also the problem of the fish being staged on a point pre-spawn and the "Pro" will put the boat in a position making it nearly impossible for the amature to reach the point the fish are located on.

What Fishing Equipment Should I Bring?

The most important advice I can give you regarding equipment, is that you must always remember you are fishing out of another individual's boat. Chances are their boat cost them thousands of dollars and they DO NOT want to see it messy, cluttered, and treated poorly by someone they hardly know and people they know well for that matter. With that in mind, you still have a job to do, namely catch bass. In terms of rods, I'd recommend no more than five. The number of rods is highly conditional: if you use only spinning gear, I'd only bring 3-4 rods. If you prefer to use casting outfits, 5 is plenty. Most boaters will allow you to use the rear pole ties; these ties typically hold about rods with no problem. You do not want to be running across the lake without your rods tied down, or laying loose - you will lose your equipment, damage the boat (hooks wind up in the seats), or worse yet, injure yourself with unsecured equipment. I also once jumped a wake and my non-boater flew up in the air, came down on one of this loose rods and snapped it in half.

In terms of rod types, personally I try to use 4 utility rods and 1 flipping/pitching stick. Keep in mind factors such as high wind, dense cover, water clarity, and methods such as finesse fishing, or frogging. Ultimately these factors will pick your rods for you.

7 ft MH Casting, Fast Tip - 14-20 lbs. mono for casting spinnerbaits, and larger crankbaits.
7 ft MH Casting, Extra Fast Tip 10-15 lbs. floro line for spinnerbaits, crankbaits, general worming/plastics.
7 ft to 7 ft 5 in Medium action, Casting, Extra Fast Tip 17-20 lbs. mono/braid for Top water, casting into pads, mats & weeds, shallow running crankbaits, Carolina Rigs (with 12 lbs. fluorocarbon leader)
7 ft Heavy action Casting, Fast Tip 20-25 lbs. mono or braid Flipping, pitching applications.

I recommend American Rodsmiths rods, such as any of the Ultra H3's, simply because of the engineering, fabrication and performance of such rods is unparalleled. In terms of reels, I prefer Abu Garcia, solid durable reels and overall performance is awesome.

In terms of tackle, again adapt to the type of lake or river you are fishing. Personally, I tend to check Web postings, reports, weather forecasts including wind direction/speed prior to a tournament. If you post a question on a message board regarding what lures to use and explain that you're new to the tournament scene, someone will help you out. A better idea is to call a local bait shop or guide. Do not be the guy to bring 2 gigantic tackle boxes onto a boat and pick and choose all day long, it's unproductive fishing. I highly recommend a simple soft-sided tackle system that can fit 3-4 tackle trays. Make sure one tackle tray can handle several spinnerbait/buzzbaits as these lures often create the most headache in storing. Bring the lures you have the most confidence throwing! Most of the guys on the FLW tours will share lures and sometimes even rods with the non-boaters. Again, research into water clarity and conditions will dictate color schemes and lure selection. Plastics are invaluable and are small enough to fit into the side pockets of soft-sided storage systems - find out what locals recommend and you can never go wrong with watermelon/red! Keep in mind that you are fishing with a partner, and you need to fish something similar in presentation speed, but different than what they choose to throw (unless of course, they are lighting it up). As a side note, a culling system can be a helpful tool, but generally a curse for the first few tournaments you bring it too as you won't need it. I use the simple systems that have the colored floats attached. Also, lure covers will save you worlds of time from having to unhook all your rods after a long run. I personally don't use them. The boater will have a measuring bar, and maybe a culling balance, so there's no need to tote those along.

What Clothing Should I Bring?

You are thinking "why in the world is he writing about this? I'm no idiot!" There is nothing worse than being too cold to tie a lure on! The air temperature at 50 degrees per the weather forecast will feel at least 10 degrees cooler on the water and the if it's colder then subtract 10 and a few more degrees. Once that boat hits the water at 65mph, and the chop is flying and you are getting wet, you'll thank me for this section. At 55 degrees and below, several layers are recommended, particularly if you are going to run a ways. If there's chop, you'll get wet. I always bring water resistant bibs and a windproof/waterproof jacket if the temperature is hovering around the 50s or colder. You'll want the jacket to have a secure hood to keep your head warm. If the water is not choppy, you can leave these items in your truck. Once you begin fishing, you can always shed layers (ask your boater where you can place your bibs and jacket if there's not a passenger side console to place them under). Do NOT sit on them and think they'll stay, first wave you jump they'll fly out and you'll never know until it's tooo late! There is nothing worse than being too cold to tie a lure on! Yes, that's written above, but it needed to be said again. During the warmer months, I prefer to wear pants that have removable bottoms, essentially converting from pants to shorts, GAP/Old Navy make some great cargo pants with big pockets with zip away legs. There are more expensive types made by fishing related companies. These are usually UV proof and dry quickly after a wet run. Go with what fits in the budget. In terms of eye-protection, and fishing vision, definitely bring two pair of polarized sunglasses; keep backup in your tackle bag. One set could blow off or get broken; you'll feel blind at the end of day of fishing without eye protection. Also, I find that a pair of skiing goggles makes a run in high chop or rain much easier on the eyes. Fishheadz are the trendy alternative, but a cheap motorcycle helmet from Wal-Mart for $40 is the best. Water or ice hitting your face at 65mph is not fun. Lastly, always remember to bring your own lifejacket! Do not depend on your partner to provide you with this, especially if you're a big boned feller. You should arrive as a self-sufficient angler minus a boat.

Insider Tips and Etiquette

Remember to offer to help your partner launch and pull the boat in any way you can. They'll understand if you can't back a trailer down a ramp, but offer to hold the boat to the dock while they park the truck. True, they could easily tie it off, but this way you are showing you want to help out. Offer to pull the truck off the ramp once they've loaded the boat. Always offer to help wipe down the boat, and clean out the interior. Remember to offer your partner money for gas and ramp fees. $20 is considered average, but adjust this pending on how much you run, ramp costs, etc. If fishing in a local tournament that is a team event, you should plan to pay half or all of the gas/launch expenses. Never fish in front of your partner unless they give you explicit permission to do so, this is more of an unwritten rule that most follow. There's no quicker way to be in an uncomfortable situation if you throw infront of a "Pro" and stick a fish! Instead, keep a close eye on where your partner has thrown and try to hit different spots. Throw a lure that is presented at a similar speed, or a faster speed than what your partner is throwing. The boat will move according to the type of lure they are fishing. You need to make sure you are not trying to fish a slow worm presentation when your partner is burning crankbaits. You'll want to throw something that acts differently than what your partner has just shown the fish. If he doesn't get the reaction strike off the crankbait you probably won't either, so show the fish chatterbait or a spinnerbait. When all else fails, throw a carolina rig into the deepest water around the boat. Pre-rig anything you can. Don't show up without lures on your rods. If you're not sure what use, go with your 5 favorite lures or avoid this by asking your partner what to use at the pre-tournament meeting. If you forget to ask, at least have something on to get started. Often times, first light is the most productive part of the day. Don't waste this precious time tying on lures. If you need to change lures, try to do so while you are idling between locations and idling is also a good time to devour/chug something to keep your energy up. Know where all your tackle is stored, and even write on the boxes if necessary. Simply stated, be over prepared. Once you've hooked your lure to your pole, wrap the line from your lure to the tip around the pole once or twice - this will help keep your rods from becoming intertwined. Lastly listen for cues from your partner, when he's ready to move you should be ready. If he has to wait for you to buckle your life jacket, any time you move, it's likely you're not to make his Christmas card list.

VERY IMPORTANT - Read the tournament rules closely to the point you've memorized them all.

If you have any questions regarding tournament tactics, or other issues, please email me at clint_bridges@yahoo.com or reply to this post in the comments section.

PS: Thanks to Bassresource.com for inspiring me write my own modified version on this topic. http://www.bassresource.com/fishing/guide_to_tournament_fishing.html

PPS: Thanks for the feedback from the ABF crew.

Williamson County Park 2-3-08

noreply@blogger.com (Guide Clint Bridges) — Tue, 05 Feb 2008 00:35:00 +0000

Just thought I'd post a little story about a warm Sunday afternoon fishing with the kids. Kelsea, Zachary and I walked down to the park with rods in hand for a few hours of fishing. We arrived to find that we were the only people fishing. I threw a weightless 6 inch worm redbug color. Kelsea threw a 1/8 oz strike king spinner bait and Zachary threw a white 1/8 oz Fox inline spinner. I caught two 10 inch bass on the worm and Zachary managed one 4 inch bass on the spinner between rock throws and stick fights with Kelsea. We had a great time before heading back to the house to watch the Super Bowl. The point of this post was to commerate Zachary's first bass catch that was completely unassisted. Unforatuately I didn't take a camera with us.