Tuesday, December 30, 2008

Middle Concho 12-30

Nice day!

I got skunked!

Scott caught a 3.6 on a worm fishing the Middle Concho. I had a nice hit early for about 3 seconds before the fish decided that he had enough of that and shook me off. I was using mostly a jig and crayfish trailer while Scott used a Texas-rigged worm. Weather was breezy and sky clear. Water temp was about 48.8 degrees.

We ran into 2 other members of the PABC heading up river; Jesse Lucas and Jim Day. Hope they caught some fish!

Hope to see you on the water!

Sunday, December 28, 2008

Twin Buttes 12-28-08

Flogged the water with paw-in-law on the southeast side of Twin Buttes. Water temp was 48 degrees. This was a great time to break in the new equipment. We mostly used jigs with crawfish trailers, a little worming and rattle traps. I caught 2 with a 1.5 on a rattletrap (like I said, I was testing my new equipment). John caught 1 as we were coming in saving him from the skunk. It was a little windy after 10 and we focused on some rocks. Water was pretty deep, but I had difficulty geting through and around the vegitation structure.

On a side note, if your vehicle's battery shows signs of weakening you need to address it. Having to use a trolling boat battery to jump is not a good thing.

Hope to see you on the water!

Saturday, December 27, 2008

Twin Buttes/Middle Concho 12-26-08

Braved the wind and took my step dad out hoping to find a little shelter on the river. No success. We did find a 1.7 for me and a 3.9 for my step dad. We fished carolina rigged worms. Did I mention it was windy???

Braving the cold tomorrow with paw-in-law. At least it shouldn't be windy!

Hope to see you on the water!

Monday, December 22, 2008

Interview with the TPWD Biologist Team

On Tuesday, 12-16, I had the good fortune to get members of the TPW Biologist Team to sit down and agree to be interviewed for WTJB. I had high hopes and was not disappointed. I have had the good fortune to know Mandy Scott through a neighorhood fishing program that is promoted in some of the SAISD schools. I thought that she would be a great resource for area fishermen to get to know and knows a lot about the local area. Mandy has always been approachable and helpful to my many questions. To my surprise and pleasure, she was able to get 2 other members of her team to agree to an interview; Mukhtar Farooqi, the Fisheries Biologist District Supervisor and John Ingle; Fisheries Technician (and current holder of the Twin Buttes White Crappie Lake Record).

Mukhtar was a surprise; a person “not from around here” with what I discovered to be an English accent. It didn’t take long to see the passion he holds for his job or learn that he was knowledgeable and very curious of the area seeing that he had only been in Angelo for 8 months. His easy personality played well with his energy and I quickly knew that the reader of the interview would gain something.

I immediately recognized in John the “something” that an experienced fisherman has. Like a veteran pilot or such, John has the easy confidence in his knowledge and skill. John knows the area and it was soon apparent that he had been fishing he area for a long time.


I asked the biologist team to identify themselves for the podcast. They introduced themselves as:

John Ingle, Fisheries Technician (JI)
Mandy Scott, Fisheries Biologist (MS)
Mukhtar Farooqi, Fisheries Biologist District Supervisor (MF)

WTJB: (to JI) What is the technician position entail with TPW?

JI: More or less to help assist the biologist in their research projects through out our district.

WTJB: Sounds like you’re a professional fisherman?

(laughing)

JI: No. No. Wanna be. We’re mostly geared towards maintenance and upkeep. We perform general surveys on the fisheries throughout our district.

WTJB: Great! What about the biologist position? What does the position entail?

MS: We’re responsible for monitoring the fisheries in our district. We take a look at them through monitoring surveys. We do special surveys of our fisheries and what we can do to improve them. As far as things we can do, we can do stocking, setting regulations, and habitat improvement. We are the ones who make the decisions on what to do to improve the fishing in our district. Really, I want to add in that we have slightly different roles, but all 4 people … we really work as a team. You know, just slight differences in our job descriptions but we really are a team.

MF: That’s right. Our aim is to make fishing better. We are 4 people in one office trying to manage a district and we have to work together as a team. To get that accomplished, we might have separate assignments to accomplish, but when it comes to looking after the district and trying to manage the fisheries we operate as a tightly fit unit. Each one of us independently can make decisions as the situation arises.

WTJB: On the note of the surrounding fishing conditions, what are your opinions, fact or opinion, on the conditions of the local fishing in the area?

MF: Well, there are 2 ways to look at that. One is from our survey point of view based on the surveys we carry out which will be electro fishing which is mainly for shoreline species and there’s trap-netting for crappie, gill-netting for some of the open water species like catfish, and Creel surveys where we interview anglers. That aspect, where we conduct Creel surveys, and where we fish ourselves we try to mesh the two with our scientific sampling. That, I think is, to get the overall sampling is what we like to do. So, when you ask us that question, we can give you from what we find in our surveys and we can give you an answer on what we can find on our Creel surveys where we interview the anglers and also from our experiences from our fishing. We have differing levels of experience on that. From an angling point of view I would defer to John (a general laughter ensues) and then all of us can chip in from a scientific point of view. Meshing the two together can get the overall picture because if is fine for us to say “From our sampling we found this” but it has to translate to what the anglers are catching.

WTJB: OK. (To JI) Any opinion on how the local fishing is right now? What are you seeing?

JI: Right now, most people are targeting crappie; deep water crappie. Twin Buttes has really come on here lately. The water temperature is dropping down. It was 50 (degrees) last week and today we took water quality samples at 8:00 AM and it was about 48 degrees so those crappie are moving deep on the river ledges and channels. You can probably catch them on about 25 feet or so on Twin Buttes. Nasworthy is probably pretty decent right now. They are moving up to docks, brush-pile docks with access to deep water. Probably right now Twin Buttes, angling wise, is probably our best crappie lake unless you go to Ivie. We have a lot of people who fish at night on Ivie. That's a little rough on me to go out there.

MS: I was out there Sunday for a Creel Survey and I asked the marina workers specifically about crappie fishing and they said that it was pretty slow right now.

WTJB: What is a Creel survey?

MS: It’s when we go out … When we go to Ivie, we have what is called an Access Creel Survey. When we are out there and interviewing the anglers about their fishing trip.




WTJB: OK!

MS: We find out things like how long they have been fishing that day, what they are fishing for, what they caught, released, and how much money they have spend. You know, the economic impact of their fishing day. It’s one more impact of their surveys.

MF: Right. Sometimes our surveys show that perhaps, let's say crappie fishing, should be good based upon what we find but when we interview the anglers we might find that they haven’t been catching as we thought they might and vice versa. They may do well sometimes and it is not showing up on our surveys. What’s interesting on the crappie is what I was going to get John’s opinion on OC Fisher because when we did our survey just last week we set 10 trap nets out there and we were surprised on the high catch rate

MS: There was a great crappie catch rate out there.

MF: Size wise it’s not like there were a lot of small fish. Basically up to 12-13 inches but a nice size range, nice color, and a lot of them. Out of those 10 nets there was maybe 1 that had a low number of fish.

WTJB: Any advice on location?

MS: I remember one of the nets up the river, up the creek was really good.

WTJB: You guys might want to keep that secret.

MS: Noooo. It’s our job to disseminate that information.

MF: It’s not that we are trying to be cagy. It’s that this was one of the better sites.

JI: Just up the Concho River there isn’t nothing but some mud banks and some flooded terrestrial in there; nothing to really attract them but I guess the shad moved up there and they are just following them. All the shad are in the creeks where the water is a little bit warmer up there. Really, there is nothing really to attract them up there. Come spring time it should be tremendous fishing up the shore line back there. On the angling side, I haven’t been out to Fisher in a year or so. That was an eye-opener to all of us on the number of crappie we did collect. Most of them were of legal size so to speak.

MF: So, from our sampling point of view things are looking good. Now we hope to see if the anglers can tap into that.

WTJB: OK. Let’s talk bass. How are they looking in the local area?

JI: Bass fishing, probably Twin Buttes again. We have had a rise in water level since ’04. We have a lot of flooded terrestrial and we did some back to back stockings the last 2 years so the fishing has been tremendous the last 2 years. We are able to maintain our water and everything so fishing should be good our there. Hopefully, we can get some more water into the lake level out there.

MS: Speaking of that, with more anglers going to Twin Buttes we are hoping that Nasworthy, which had been suffering for a few years since Buttes was so low and people were not fishing there, that we think that there was so much pressure on Nasworthy that it was pressing the bass fishery there. Hopefully, with some of the pressure being relieved, we think it is, we are hoping to see the bass at Nasworthy improve. Also, OC Fisher we hadn’t heard anything good about the bass fishing out there. Our electro fishing sampling was better than I expected. We didn’t really catch that many really big fish, but the fish that we caught were really plump and healthy. It was a better sampling than we expected.

MF: There is an incredible amount of bait fish our there, too.

MS: Yes.

WTJB: When we are talking about the Concho feeding into Fisher, is this going to be the best location?

JI: For bass fishing?

WTJB: Yes.

JI: Anything with some kind of structure on there. Really, it is sort of barren out there with a lot of gravel on the bottom. There is some little rock bluffs and such. But anything with like a point of contact like a varience or an edge or something will hold some fish because we did have a lot of, when the lake was at 2 to 3 percent, a lot of terrestrial vegetation grow up on the lake bottom and then we caught so much water. Really, during our electro fishing we could only sample the edge. We couldn’t go back and sample 200 – 300 yards back there to see what was back there. There is so much flooded terrestrial that it is hard to sample. It’s hard to run, say, a spinner bait or a crank bait back there. More or less people are fishing the islands, so to speak. There are some tree lines running the channel that you could fish. Just look for some kind of structure right now.

WTJB: Pretty much the same thing for Twin Buttes or Nasworthy if you’re looking for bass?

JI: Twin Buttes probably, yeah. You could really fish the river channel because it was so low that the terrestrial vegetation grew up on there that you can fish 25” along the river channel and there can be like 10’ of salt cedar along the edge. They are just hanging on that edge. You could fish through there and catch some fish. Nasworthy is going to be a little different with a whole lot more bull rushes, cat tails, and even some coon tails that will make you change your pattern. During Twin Buttes previous summer we had a lot if aquatic vegetation that you could throw top waters over and do pretty good. This past year, we had a bout of blue-green algae that caused us to loose a lot of our vegetation. That hurt some of the fishing out there. Some people are use to fishing the flats with the coon tail and we lost that so the fish had to relocate so to speak. You have to just go out there and find them. Once you find them, you could catch 15-20 of them then you have to go find another spot. Nasworthy should be coming on and Mandy was talking earlier about the pressure on Nasworthy and we were actually doing Creels a few years back. That was really the only lake we had going due to golden algae on Lake Spence, Moss Creek, and Colorado City. A lot of people from Midland and Odessa would come down and they wanted to fish so bad that they would end up harvesting everything they were catching. That took a lot of pressure off Nasworthy when Twin Buttes came on. Hopefully Nasworthy will start coming back, so to speak. I cannot remember how our sampling on Nasworthy went this year.

MS: Nasworthy? I cannot recall either. It must have not been to great.

MF: It wasn’t particularly impressive, but it was OK and there were signs that where we did come across some big fish they were in good condition. In fact, some larger ones managed to evade our electro fishing field. Sometimes they are on the edge of the field and they manage to evade the survey. From what I remember, there were some larger fish that we just couldn’t catch. In fact, Nasworthy is one of the lakes that John predicted would product a Share Lunker under the right conditions. He actually did that in an article that he did for the Standard Times.

JI: During our spring surveys out there we have run across one bass that is over 13 pounds easily. She seems to be out there year after year.

WTJB: What can local fishermen do to help you here at TPWD?

MF: On a day to day basis, just by talking to us about reports on how their fishing went.

WTJB: You’re asking for it. There are people like me that will pester you to death.

MF: No. We don’t mind. It’s got to be a two way process. We are providing a service. We want to know, you know, from the anglers how things are going, if they find things peculiar, or if they have any questions. I think that the exchange of information is one of the best things we can ask for. We want to be approachable down here on 3407 South Chadbourne street. They can get us by phone at 651-5556. We want to make it a two way process as much as possible rather than us giving out survey results and news releases and things like that. We want to improve our service by taking into account what anglers are thinking and how their fishing is going. Hopefully, that way we can get to our goal of making fishing better. Everyone has to take part.

MS: We would like to hear some feedback on how they (anglers) think we are doing. The feedback, like he was saying, is important to us. We want to make sure that we are doing the right thing because the anglers are our customers.

MF: We are interested in water body records, too. The Angler Recognition program, too. Angler’s may not know that they can come to our office since we have certified scales. More often than not, during regular business hours, we can be found here. All of this helps to promote the fishery. When someone looks at a fishery, someone is looking at a different aspect of the fishery. They can come here and see how the fisheries are performing.

MS: One other thing that some of the anglers can do to help us is to abide by the regulations; not just make sure they are not breaking the laws but harvest tome fish now and then. We have found that regulations don’t do any good if nobody is harvesting any fish; especially with the bass. There is a very strong catch and release ethic out there. People are very conservation minded which is great, but it has gotten to the point that in some lakes especially trophy lakes in east Texas people are harvesting no fish making it to where the regulations are doing no good.

WTJB: I would have never anticipated you saying, "Take the fish, please."

(laughter)

MF: Well, in specific cases you have slot limits, maximum length limits, all of which are designed with the harvest in mind or to protect a certain size range. Harvest around it and allow for some trophy fish to be taken. If everyone is into catch and release and, like Mandy said, there’s no harvest in some reservoirs in the USA you could have over 90 – 95% who are doing catch and release on lakes with regulations. Well, those regulations will not work. They are put in place to solve a particular issue and they depend on people cooperating. Although you may thing catch and release is going to be beneficial, there is times where we want people to harvest. If you are only taking a few, that’s going to help.

WTJB: Is overpopulation an issue right now in the surrounding area?

MS: Well, we did have an issue at OH Ivie a few years back. We were starting to see a growth problem with the large mouth bass. We suspected that the prey base was not adequate to support the large mouth bass. We needed to see a harvest of the smaller, legal sized large mouth bass.

WTJB: (to the audience) You heard it, guys!

(laughter)

WTJB: One of the questions I ask is who in your opinion are the 3 best local fishermen?

JI: One, off hand, would be Wendell Ramsey. He’s a tremendous bass fisherman and the outdoor writer for the Standard Times.

WTJB: His name comes up a lot!

MS: I know. Right?

JI: He’s one of the better bass fishermen. Another one would be Jim Brown. He’s a big-time bass fisherman, but he’s also involved in youth events trying to get kids involved in the fishing. He’s with the federation and he’ll actually put on a class like “Bass 101” to introduce families into fishing. Another one would be Sam Kill. He’s a local guy that builds crappie jigs. I see him out on Twin Buttes all the time and he’s just hammering fish left and right all the time. That would probably be my 3 around here.

WTJB: 2 of those names have actually popped up before.

MS: Most of those I know I kind of know through John. One other guy, the guy I always see standing up and winning tournaments is Paul Montelongo. My husband fishes the Concho Bass Club Open every year. I always go and watch the weigh-ins and it seems like Paul’s always standing up there winning something. He fishes a lot of the open tournaments and wins a lot of the times.

MF: I’ve been here 8 months so I haven’t had time to assess so I’ll go with what they said.

WTJB: You bring up something that’s interesting; the local fishing clubs. Are they working with you at all?

JI: Yeah, somewhat. We usually have a presidents meeting once a year with the bass club presidents where we go over our data and any questions they may have. If we ask them they are usually more than willing to help us out, but they have their youth events going on and we have ours. Really, there’s a lot of conflict between our work schedules and their work schedules and tournaments and stuff like that. I do feel like we can call on the bass clubs anytime and they would help us out.

WTJB: What bass clubs do we have in the area?

JI: The Bass Federation of San Angelo, The Angelo Bass Club, The Concho Bass Club, ..

MS: The Bass’n Bunch

JI: The way the economy has been this past year with the price of gas and low lake levels with the fishing being really tough a few years back we lost (bass clubs). I use to be in the city bass club. We just went under, more or less. We probably lost some fishermen due to that. Hopefully, they will be coming back with the lakes coming back so to speak.


WTJB: Alright. Last question and I have to ask this one; what do you estimate to be the biggest fish in the local lakes and where are they?

JI: Catfish Charlie!

WTJB: (laughter) Bass, John! We’re talking bass!

JI: I’d say Nasworthy. During our spring electro fishing she looked fifteen pounds. I’ve actually caught 2 tens put of Twin Buttes. OH Ivie is going to be tough to beat. We’ve had several share lunkers coming out of there.

MS: We’ve heard the results of open tournaments the past 2 years have had several over twelve pounds. Really close to share lunker the past 2 years.

MF: From our point of view when we go sampling we don’t actually catch many of the big ones. Our gear is not conducive to catching the big ones. That’s why we rely on the anglers to tell us where the big ones are. Having said that, like John would say, we do come across a large one like the one at Nasworthy. In those instances we can point that one out but in most instances it is the rod and reel anglers that can tell us where the fish are.

WTJB: Great! Are there any plugs you want to put is like the Neighborhood Fishing Program?

MS: Yeah! The Neighborhood fishing Program is a state-wide program. We have a spot in San Angelo on the Concho River between Irving and Oakes Street where the Celebration Bridge, River Stage, and all that area is and that gets stocked with fish every 2 weeks with fish that are already good size to catch and eat. We have catfish going in from April to November and then rainbow trout the other months. It’s a fantastic program. All sorts of people are enjoying that program with their families hopefully introducing their kids to fishing. We just hope that program expands in popularity.

MF: While this is not a program, this could become one is the “The Your Biologist or Biology Staff Member Fishing” program. A lot of times we don’t get to go out and fish. We do a lot of survey work, but sometimes we don’t get the chance to go fish that often. A lot of things can be accomplished with something like this where we go out with a local angler and we don’t have to catch a lot of fish or anything, we just talk to them and learn about their favorite lake and what they like about it. We want to see their favorite techniques. They do not have to show us their honey holes or anything. I think that way we can increase the communication. There was an article written in American Fisheries Society magazine some years ago which said that fisheries resource managers and biologists should go out fishing more and getting to know our lakes from the point of view of our anglers. If we can do this with another angler, one thing that happens is that we increase communication and secondly we can feed off that. For example, we have an article in the Standard Times Sunday of every month and as long as the angler doesn’t mind we could write about a fishing trip somewhere along the lines of what Wendell does. That would do a lot for the 2 parties to understand each other and promote fishing in general.

We wrapped things up from here. I really had a great time getting to know the people who make up the TPWD Biologist team in San Angelo. I went into the interview hoping to go to the people with all the answers and learned that they are seeking the same answers that most of us are. Although their methodology is different from most fishermen, you cannot discount their knowledge and sincerity in making fishing better for all of us. One thing that really impressed my was their collective passion for the fish and environment they live; the same environment that you and I enjoy every time we cast a line or twitch a bait. Without people like them on the front line, our fisheries would never improve and as the old saying goes, “What is true of Biology is true of life, if it is not growing and changing it is probably already dead.”

Thank you for taking the time to read this interview and if so inclines, take a listen to the podcast of the interview. On it is some things not included on the interview and worth a listen. Also, please feel free to comment. I’d love to know what you think of the interview and the observations of the biologist team.

Oh yeah, I hope to see you on the water!


You can reach Mukhtar Farooki at 651-5556 and at E-mail: mukhtar.farooqi@tpwd.state.tx.us

Sunday, December 21, 2008

OC Fisher 12-20-08

Ughh!!!!


Went to OC Fisher yesterday morning. Weather was pretty good with water temp running about 47-49 degrees. Scott and I threw a crank bait and worm for the most part. On the south side of the islands the water was running about 7-9 feet deep. We caught nada. We went up the river a little but the water was never deeper than about 5 feet with the 7 feet mark being at the mouth.

I know winter fishing is hard, but geez!!!!!

Oh well, there is always next time!

Hope to see you on the water!

Friday, December 19, 2008

Twin Buttes 12-18

Scott and I went bank fishing yesterday and caught buktus! We went to a location with deep water just off the shore, but had a strong wind blowing straight into our faces. We were using worms in about 10' of water, but had a hard time feeling the bottom except for the trees the wind dragged the worms into.

After about an hour of this, we went to the old boat ramp and fished along the rocks. Facing north, we had little wind to contend with. I had a hit in my favorite spot, but neither one of us had a hit after that. Saw a fellow fisherman fishing for crappie off the dock, but he didn't get a hit the whole time we were there. Scott and I were both using worms in about 6-10 foor of water with Scott trying to fish the 10+' water in the channel going out into the lake. He changed the color of the worms while I was using the 6" black with blue-fleck tiki worm.

Hope to see you on the water!

Sunday, December 14, 2008

Interview with John Grant - "John Everyman"

I've known John for over 17 years. I credit him for having introduced me to serious bass fishing when I was a young man dating his daughter and talked me into buying my Lampro Kayak. In John, I see every fisherman I have ever known. He's knowledgeable about the bass that he pursues and has even entertained the thought of fishing at the pro level much like any other fisherman I have ever known. Of course, reality and obligation have hindered this dream, but at his base is the love of fishing that every bass angler can identify with.


Although it has been many years since John and I have done a "stomp and drag" down a river in our kayaks or competed both with and against each other in a small, local bass tourney, I still consider him a remarkable resource for any fisherman wanting to know the area. In the course of his life there is little left of the local rivers and lakes that he hasn't experienced first hand even if it has been many years back. Now, as he approaches a new phase of his life, he gets to introduce a new generation to the sport as his grandson nears that age where the child can be turned onto the love of fishing. In this, I am excited for him. With every plastic fishing rod he gives his grandson, you can see John's excitement grow and you can hear it in his voice. I look forward to seeing John finally being able to take his grandson out fishing thus passing the torch as was passed to him.


I asked John if he wouldn't mind doing this interview. Since he has never been shy about his fishing abilities, it was an easy sell. To me, he is a living example of the old saying, "It ain't bragging if it's true," even if it bugs you a bit at times. I caught up to John on a cold, windy Monday evening as a cold front was moving into town.


WTJB: Hey John, thanks for taking the time to meet with me today.

JG: No Problem.

WTJB: If you don’t mind, let’s start with your name and hometown.

JG: John Grant and I’m from Baytown, Texas.

WTJB: How long have you been fishing?

JG: I’ve been fishing all my life.

WTJB: Bass fishing?

JG: About 35 years.

WTJB: Are you or have you ever been a member of any bass clubs?

JG: Nope

WTJB: What is your favorite local lake?

JG: Twin Buttes. Back before the drought, before we lost all the water and it was near max capacity, there were a lot of big fish in there more so than any other local lakes.

WTJB: Do you have a favorite techniques?

JG: A good bass fisherman doesn’t limit himself to anything, really. It’s a matter of having confidence in whatever bait you’re using. I do not limit myself to anything. I will use certain baits to try to locate fish or find out where the fish are then change baits occasionally, but I actually really and truly do not have a favorite.

WTJB: Do you have 3 favorite lurers?

JG: Yeah, I do. In the crank bait category, I like the baby bass Bomber Model “A”. In the top water baits, I prefer cigar-type baits or a chugger-type. I do throw a buzz bait. In worm category, I just keep it simple. I do not necessarily like to go with great big worms. I like 6-inch. Color doesn’t make a whole lot of difference. If you fish it correctly, you will catch fish. I do not care what color it is.

WTJB: Do you have any advice for local fishermen?

JG: Don’t limit yourself. A lot of beginning bass fishermen, the reason they become bass fishermen, is because at one point or another they caught one. So then it sparks their interest. There is something about bass fishing that gets in your blood and it’s not necessarily a big fish as it is a fish. Use the baits you select with confidence and the reason why I say that is that a lot of guys go out and catch fish on a crank bait. Well, that is the only bait they have confidence in. They will throw a crank bait until their arm falls off. They will pick up a worm because they heard someone talk about it a couple of times and not have success on it then they pick back up the crank bait; whereas, to be a true bass fisherman, you got to use all of the weapons available to you to catch your fish. My advice to someone is “Don’t limit yourself.” Once you catch a fish on a certain type of bait, use something else until you figure out how you did it and once you do that, go to something else until you round out your arsenal and you have confidence in every bait you pick up. I’ve caught bass on top water in the dead of the winter which everybody says not to do. Well, I disagree because I have been successful.

WTJB: What is your opinion of the condition of the local fishing?

JG: I still have a lot of confidence even though the lake levels are down right now. I know the Texas Parks and Wildlife are doing everything they can to restock the lakes and I know that they have restocked a couple of years ago and they continue to add catfish and other game fish to the lake to try to increase population. OC Fisher, I know it use to be a real good all-round lake that you could catch a big bass in it, crappie, catfish. Right now I think it is more of a catfish lake than a bass lake or crappie lake simply because of the water level. Nasworthy is more of a recreational lake. There are some big fish in there. Spence is local, but is mostly catfish. We also have Lake Ivie. There are big fish out there, but the lake level is low. When the lake is up, it is a good fishery. There is potential for some very large bass.

WTJB: Do you have a favorite TRUE fishing story?

JG: Well, I have several favorite stories. The bass fisherman remembers every fish that he has caught. Believe it or not, I can remember fish I caught the very first time I started bass fishing. I have 3 wall mounts and I remember every detail about how I caught each and every one of those fish. I have even went so far as to journal some of my catches. But my biggest fish is just a little bit shy of 12 pounds and I have it mounted. I caught it under some unusual circumstances. I remember catching that fish in absolute detail. The story is that me and a friend of mine, a guy I use to work for, had entered into the KGKL $10,000 Bass Tournament. We fished that weekend in a place on Twin Buttes over by the old railroad tracks. We caught some fish, but nothing really to speak about. Nothing that would have won an hourly prize or even get close to winning the tournament. The fish that won was just over 10-pounds. Well, as it goes, the tournament was over and the next week I went to Twin Buttes in the exact same spot my friend and I had been fishing during the tournament. I threw a 6” punkin seed Carolina-rigged worm out in the exact same area I was fishing 1 week earlier. I sat down in the boat after casting out as far as I could and grabbed my thermos and poured myself a cup of coffee. I looked up and saw my line moving sideways. So, I sat my coffee down, picked up my rod, took up the slack all the way to the water and set the hook. When I set the hook, the fish ran towards me. I had no idea what it was to begin with or how big it was. The fish ran to me and I’m taking up line as fast as I can and I can’t catch up to the fish to really feel the fish. When I would feel a little bit of the fish, I would set the hook again to make sure I had a good hook set. The fish ran straight to the boat just as hard as it could and went underneath the bow. Now, I had the anchor out, the trolling motor was down, and the fish ran underneath the bow of the boat between the anchor and trolling motor. I pushed the button on my reel to go slack line and I figured that at that point the fish was gone; once I gave it slack line, it would throw the hook and it would all be over with. I was a little angry to say the least. I took my rod and stuck it up under the bow of the boat and pushed it between the anchor and trolling motor to the other side. In discouragement, I started reeling the line and I felt the fish. She was still there. At that point, I finally realized what I had; a big fish. I still hadn’t seen the fish, but I knew it was a big fish. It could have been a gar or a catfish, but it was big. As I began to play this fish, after about 5 minutes, she rolled up on the side of the boat and I almost had a heart attack. She was huge. I did what every fisherman says, “Oh God, please let me get my hands on her.” I reached down and grabbed a hold of the fish and got her in the boat. I was so excited. I was standing in the middle of the boat with this fish in hand and I was looking around the lake and there was not a soul in the lake, not one person I could show my trophy fish to. At that point, I put her on the stringer secured the stringer to the side of the boat, put her over the side, sat down and took a sip of my coffee, rerigged my worm and recasted. I sat down again and picked up my coffee and my hands were shaking so bad that I was spilling my coffee. I still didn’t believe I had that fish so I reached over and rechecked the stringer and there she was. It was not a dream. I sat back down again, picked up my rod, and started reeling back when I told myself, “There’s not no way.” I got the fish on the boat, loaded up, and took it to the taxidermist.

WTJB: Catch and release?

JG: I’m a very big advocate of catch and release. I use to keep fish. Typically if I catch 10-15 bass, I use to keep 1 maybe 2. By and large now, I am 100% catch-and–release. I do it now for the sport more than anything else. Now, I am looking for a 13-pounder.

WTJB: Do you think there are any 13-pounders around here?

JG: I think they are there. Bass will put on anywhere from a pound to 2 pounds a year. As long as we have water in the lake and if the lake level comes up to at least 50%, I think there’s potential that in about 3-4 years there will be big fish in that lake. When I first moved here, we were in a 7 year drought period at that time. I caught my big fish in 1995. The fish are there and it takes about 5 years for one to get about 5-pounds. They are very territorial, very verocious eaters so yeah, I think the potential is there. The lake is fed by Spring Creek. When Spring Creek is flowing, it is a natural resource of food. Yes, I really believe the opportunity for having a big fish is out there.

WTJB: Cool! Do you have any personal heroes?

JG: As far as fishermen, I would say number one is my dad because he taught me how to fish. My grandfather on my mother side, also. He used to go with us all the time. Number two, Hank Parker. I like Hank because he is a Christian man. He’s sincere, honest, and he’s just a good man. He enjoys teaching children how to fish. He takes his sons and they built careers from the outdoors. As far as fishermen goes, Hank Parker is one of my heroes.

WTJB: In your opinion, who are the 3 best local fishermen?

JG: Well, ummmm, I don’t know because number one I’m not involved in club activity. I just fish for myself. I consider myself to be a pretty good fisherman. Rex Davis is pretty good. When we go fishing together, we have friendly competition. I’ve out fished him and he has out fished me. But to be fair, to date, I couldn’t say because I just don’t know anybody besides my son in law.

WTJB: (chuckles) Your son in law is not a very good fisherman.

JG: He will be.

We concluded the interview with the wind howling outside. As I packed up to get home to nurse my growing cold, I couldn’t help but reflect on the many fishing trips we took together. I’ve gotten better on my fishing skill, but I will be the first to admit that John is a veteran that probably has forgotten more than I will learn. A personal hero of mine? Maybe. Still, I can’t help but hope that his grandson will inherit the love of fishing and will be able to experience the same experiences I was lucky to have so many years ago.

Thanks for taking the time to read this. Hope to see you on the water!


Thursday, December 11, 2008

PABC Standings as of 12-1

I'm not how sure this will look, but I cut-and-pasted the current standings of the Paul Ann Bass Club overall standings as of 12-1. Please let me know if you think this is a good idea or not. If there are any other bass clubs that want their standing published on this blog, email me and I'll get them on here as well. We have over 40 members on the roles, but the below member are the ones that have totaled any weight.

Currently, we are engaged in a Weigh Ticket Tourney for the month of December.

  1. Brian Dorman 38.33
  2. Roy Cavness 30.77
  3. Jeff Morris 29.17
  4. Garrett Day 22.94
  5. Jesse Lucas 21.13
  6. Mike Dorman 19.94
  7. Chip Palko 17.57
  8. Jay Leeper 16.81
  9. Jim Day 12.01
  10. Scott Miner 6.13
  11. Justin Houk 6.00
  12. Drew Searsy 5.50
  13. Scott Gagliano 4.44
  14. Westley Wyatt 4.06
  15. Bob Whitt 3.00
  16. Kevin Johnson 1.94
  17. Justin Eady 1.88
  18. Wes Hayes 1.88
  19. Justin Brumley 1.69
  20. Noah Brumley 1.44

Sunday, December 7, 2008

Spring Creek/Twin Buttes 12-7-08

Well, the wind was making things "interesting" today. I had a little time to myself so I thought I would go investigate a way for a guy in a plastic boat to get to Spring Creek. I found one. All I can say is Google Earth and a Garmin GPSr are a beautiful thing. I was able to find a reasonable route that, though narrow at times, worked pretty well and took me to the part of Spring Creek where it is very shallow and rocky. Pretty cool! Now that I know where to go and how to get there, I plan to explore it better between now and during the Christmas break.

I got out there at about 4:15 PM and for grins and giggles threw a black worm with a black glass bead rigged Texas style for a few casts. I didn't expect anything. Imagine my surprise when I felt a tug. I was figuring it was the current. Since I was all alone and didn't have to worry about embarassing myself, I set the hook. I actually caught a fish that was about 10 inches. I still get excited about catching any bass, even when the bass is just barely bigger than my lurers.

Still not completely comfortable with my route, I headed out and timed it at about 12 minutes to get out. I'm confident I can find my way back in and out of there in the dark. I'm looking forward to exploring further.

I headed over to the old boat dock on Twin Buttes and tossed the worm around. Caught another fish on my second cast that was about 12 inches. That's a pretty neat area.

Weather has been difficult as of late, but it can't last forever. There is always next week.

Hope to see you on the water!

Tuesday, December 2, 2008

Interview with Jeff Morris

I first met Jeff through my wife who also teaches at Central. It didn't take us long to spring a friendship over many things we have in common; one of the biggest being (of course) fishing.

Jeff started the Paul Ann Fishing Club in about August of 07 as a way to gather fishermen in Paul Ann Baptist and to talk about Christ's teachings as well as better all of our fishing. Jeff is an interesting character in that he is a humble man, but will talk a lot of smack in a way that is humorous; never demeaning.

Jeff has been a member of a few of the local clubs over the years and has particpated in many area tournaments. With the PABC, he usually does well and has won a number of monthly PABC tournaments.

We caught up with Jeff at a monthly PABC meeting on 12-1 and pinned him down for an interview.

WTJB: Where are you originally from?

JM: Hereford, Texas but I have lived in San Angelo, Texas since 1983.

WTJB: Are you a member of any bass clubs?

JM: The Paul Ann Bass Club

WTJB: If you don’t mind, talk to me about your favorite area local lakes.

JM: Probably my favorite local lake, just because I don’t get out a whole lot, would be Twin Buttes. I do enjoy fishing from time to time on Nasworthy.

WTJB: Why?

JM: Just because I have fished it long enough that there are a number of places that I can go and very seldom NOT catch fish.

WTJB: (lol) Gotcha. If you don’t mind, what are your favorite techniques?

JM: Well, probably just because I like to be doing something I enjoy throwing a crank bait. If the conditions are right, I love to throw a buzz bait in the spring, summer and early fall. Watching a fish blow up on a top water is really fun! My 3 favorite lurers are spinner baits, a pretty good all-round producer that I throw just about year round and have a lot of confidence in. I also use a worm.

WTJB: Knowing that Scott and I are lagging in experience that you have, that’s some advice that you could give us to improve our fishing?

JM: Well, I’m not that experienced (Scott and I both roll our eyes on this one), but I think the things I do know is trying a variety of baits. Get to know a spinner bait, a crank bait, and a worm with the idea being to start at the top and work your way down until you find where the fish are or vice versa. Learn how to fish those 4 or 5 basic lures. Learn how to use them, what it feels like in the water and what a fish hitting it as opposed to hitting structure. Also, practice flipping, casting working it around rock ledges and trees. I remember when Wendell Ramsey, one of the best fishermen I knew, use to have all his tackle in a brown paper bag and he had just a handful of different baits in there. The guy could always catch fish, big fish and could win a tourney on any given day. For me, he showed that it was about technique and how you present a bait instead of having a huge tackle box full of baits and tackle. Spend your time fishing with a good reel and rod, but spend time fishing instead of accumulating a lot of lurers and worms.

Back when I got started and knew nothing, I met some guys through the local bass clubs that in their kindness showed me some things. I’m thinking of Jim Brown, Doyle Riddle, and Russell Smith who took me out and gave me confidence to fish these different baits and doing it in a variety of ways. Everytime I would go with one of these guys I would learn something new. One trip with one of them was worth more than hearing a hundred stories. I would ask a lot of questions about locations, conditions, and try to find places to apply those things. I think guys like them know this and can find ways to apply what they remember. They are like an encyclopedia of knowledge.

WTJB: What is your opinion on the conditions of the local fishing?

JM: Sadly, I think a lot of the clubs, and I’m not involved in the clubs like I was before, but the city club is not functioning and many of the local clubs are down. I’m really excited about the guys in the Paul Ann Bass Club because we are fishing 15 to 20 guys a tournament and we have a good group that shows up each month for the meeting. There’s a reason and a purpose in the club. It’s not just about the fishing. That excites me. But sadly, I think the low water conditions have really hurt the bass clubs but at the rate they are dropping Twin Buttes. I hate to think about what the fishing will be like in two years.

WTJB: I understand. If you don’t mind, what is your favorite true fishing story?

JM: After you have been fishing for a while you get a few fishing stories. One of my favorites involves Jim Brown and another friend of mine, Justin Brumley, who was making a TV commercial (for his business). They had this idea that they were going to film this Air Condition repairman who supposedly sold you this AC unit with the understanding that he would go to your home immediately to fix any problems but always seemed too busy to come fix it. In reality, he was out fishing and wouldn’t come out to make repairs whereas Justin’s company would come right out. We were going to play the other AC repairmen that were out fishing so we needed to catch some fish. There was a little pressure because we had to get up and go catch some decent fish before the TV shoot that was at like about nine o’clock in the morning. So Jim and I got up and went to Nasworthy and sure enough we caught a few fish with the largest one being close to 2 pounds. Well, we got ready to film so I took the big one and hooked him onto my hook and just kind of let out some line. When they were ready I would set the hook on the fish and be bringing it in as Jim was talking on the phone saying that we were too busy to get in to repair the AC unit. Well, we had to do like 3 takes so the fish was real lively the first time, not so lively the second time and the third time I just let some line out just hoping he wasn’t going to die. Well, as we were waiting for the film crew the third time I felt a tug on the line and all in a sudden that fish dove for the bottom. I was thinking “What the heck” and about that time the camera man said that he was ready so I set the hook and reeled him in. As I reached down to lip the bass, there was a crawdad in it’s mouth. A big old crawdad! That bass, even after being messed with as much as it was and with a hook in it’s mouth apparently saw the crawdad on the rocky bottom and hit it. I was like, “Wow!” There was some kind of basic instinct in that bass to make it do that. That was pretty weird.

We all got a good chuckle before we went on.

WTJB: Catch and release?

JM: Bass? Yes! That’s all we do with the club. We emphasize catch and release. I love to catch and eat crappie. Every once in a while I like to put out my jugs and catch catfish. We love a fish fry but it is mostly with crappie and catfish. My favorite recipe is to use Uncle Buck’s Fish Fry that they sell, I believe, at Academy. It’s pretty strong but I found that if you mix it 50/50 with corn meal that it is really good.

WTJB: Personal Hero?

JM: (Long pause) Well, you know, there are a number of people. I think one of the guys that have been a big influence in my life is Tim Russo. He’s a super Christian man with a ministry in town, “Winning Families”. I met him some years ago in church and we became friends. You know, he’s really been an example of how to live a Christian life. They’ve got 4 daughters that are super, neat young ladies. As we watched those girls grow up I was impressed about how he loved his kids and loved his wife. My wife and I thought that this would be a great model for us to raise our family like. I think “model” would be a better description than “hero”.

WTJB: In your opinion, who are the 3 best local area fishermen?

JM: This is a little tough as I have been out of the circuit a few years, but I would say easily Wendell Ramsey (Outdoors and Fishing writer for the San Angelo Standard Times). He’s unbelievable. I don’t think there are anyone better; maybe as good but not better. He’s one of the best all-round fishermen that I have seen. Also a guy I have mentioned a number of times in the interview is Jim Brown, a PE teacher in town. Just a super guy and a great fisherman. It’s amazing how he can catch fish. It’s hard to say a third, but if I could pick 2 guys to be on my team, it would be one of these two. Russell Smith, who use to do the local paper, is a wealth of knowledge. Charlie Becker and Doyle Riddle use to be great fishermen. I’d also like to say that in our club, the Paul Ann Bass Club, we have a pretty good bunch of fishermen. Last year, Justin Houk was unbelievable. He and Roy Cavaness were battling it out all year. They always brought in great stringers of fish. This year, Bryan Dorman has been on fire. He and Roy are fighting it out neck and neck. I’d say that these 2 guys in our club are 2 of the best fishermen we have.


We wrapped up the interview and stuck around for a bit more to try to pick up some tips.

I want to thank Jeff Morris for taking time out to talk to me. I count myself lucky for knowing Jeff as he has been a great guy and talks freely about fishing trying to help the novice/intermediate Angler of the Year wannabe to become a better fisherman. His easy manner makes him approachable and has helped a great many of us.

As I conclude this post, I just wanted to say that I hope you got something out of this and hope you check back as I conduct more interviews with local personalities.

Thanks for dropping by!