This is a bit late in coming, but I think well worth it!
WTJB: Hello fishing jerks! This is Jay Leeper conducting an interview on this 11th day of June. I have Tad Box and Shane Lemoine They have both agreed to sit down and talk with me and you guys about the fishing in the area.
Are there any folks you want to say “Hi” to?
TB: What’s up, fishing jerks!
SL: What’s up, fishing jerks!
WTJB: Cool! Name and hometown?
TB: Tad Box. Midland, Texas
SL: Shane Lemoine. Midland, Texas
WTJB: Names of any fishing clubs or any awards from the recent past?
SL: Concho Bass Club and West Texas Junior Bass Masters. I recently got the Angler of the Year for my age group and a few years back I won the Casting Kids Contest here.
WTJB: Do you want to talk a little about your award winning the Junior Bass Masters?
SL: The Angler of the Year?
WTJB: Yes. How did you win that award?
SL: Fishing real hard and using my favorite techniques.
WTJB: Cool! Tad?
TB: On which subject?
WTJB: Choose one! (laughter)
TB: On fishing associations Bass Masters mostly. I use to be associated with a bunch of clubs, but not like I use to. I’m kinda in a transitional phase right now. I’m getting back into a mopre competitive type of fishing.
WTJB: Did I understand that you both were involved with the Permian Bass Club?
TB: At one time I was in the Permian Bass Club, the San Angelo Bass Club, the Concho Bass Club, and the Silver Bullet Bass Club. Years ago, I use to fish on the Bass Masters Circuit. I started with the Centrals and worked my way up to the top 150s which are now the Elite Series.
WTJB: Shane, if I understand correctly, you fish in the same Bass Club as Garath Fulks and some of those guys?
SL: Yes.
WTJB: Any stories you could tell me about those guys?
SL: They catch a lot of big fish. It’s tough to compete against them.
WTJB: Alright! Let’s talk about local lakes. When we talk about local lakes, we are talking about San Angelo area lakes. Which is your favorite local lake and why?
SL: I like Nasworthy because I can take the Bass Buster out, go flip, and catch a lot of big fish.
WTJB: When you talk about big fish, what size are you talking about?
SL: Four plus.
WTJB: Cool! Tad?
TB: Well, being from Midland, we use to have a house here so my favorite local lake has got to be Ivie. Next in line would be Nasworthy and then Buttes. I don’t know Buttes as well as most of these guys do, but since it has come back up it seems like a whole lot better lake. Years ago, it was known for big fish, now it is known for the number of big fish; five plus pounds. Ivie has come back now. It’s incredible and it’s supposed to be like that. I think what a lot of people miss out on is not fishing Nasworthy like they use to when all you has to do to fish Nasworthy was flip the reeds. I think a lot os guys, since they dredged the lake and seen what’s changed, instead of only flipping reed they’re out Carolina rigging. They’re fishing some points and areas we didn’t understand that we have to go find with our graphs and it’s changed. I mean, you really have to adapt to it. You have to throw some deep crank baits and stuff like that to get these fish. There are some other techniques out there that some people will eventually find out or I can tell them what we have been doing to catch these fish that have basically in the past 2 months spawning in the 7 to 10 pound range. I think that people are going to laugh at that when I say it, but they wouldn’t laugh when I show them all the pictures. That is actually a true story.
WTJB: WOW! (I hated changing the subject, but …) When we talk about techniques, what would you consider your favorite techniques?
SL: Drop shotting for me because if the fishing is tough I can always go out and find some structure and catch my limit real quick.
WTJB: OK, so when we are talking about drop shotting, how do you do it?
SL: I find the structure and I pitch it around it and I just hop it around it. I get a lot of strikes doing that.
TB: Top water no mater what. That’s absolutely going to be my favorite way I can catch them. I surprise people sometimes because top water is a year round bite no mater what people think. There are always fish shallow. I’ve had fish blow up on buzz baits, spooks … spooks are probably one of my favorite baits to catch some monster fish on. I have caught them when it is absolutely snowing outside.
WTJB: That’s one of the things I find interesting about guys who talk about fishing top water is the same observation you have is that it’s not a seasonal type of deal that it is a year round type of deal.
TB: Top water is a year round deal and a lot of people don’t understand that.
WTJB: Do you think it is unique to the area?
TB: What I have learned in my past even going to Lake of the Ozarks and the way the fish pattern themselves the more northern strains in the dead of winter while it’s snowing and you can catch them in thirty foot of water on buzz baits just as fast as you can cast out on rock ledges. I’ve always got a spook tied on no matter what because something blows up in the middle of the lake the spook is flying and I’m going to get it. That fish most of the time bites, too.
WTJB: Let’s talk lurers. What would you consider your three favorite lurers and why?
SL: Texas Rig, drop shot, and a buzz bait.
WTJB: Why?
SL: A drop shot because I can find structure and catch them there. Texas rig because I can always go out on the bass buster and flip the reeds. Buzz bait because it is a fun way to catch them.
TB: For the local lakes I would absolutely have to say flipping creature baits. You will always find fish flipping. The second one has got to be the spinner bait. The third has got to be a top water.
WTJB: Excellent! This next question is a question near and dear to me; especially considering where I am at in my level of fishing. What is some advice you could give some guys like me to improve our fishing in the local lakes?
TB: The first thing is that time on the water is everything. The more time the better. It doesn’t matter if you just have 2 hours on the lake. You can learn so much in that 2 hours. Just because the fish don’t bite doesn’t mean that you can’t go observe. That’s one thing. The worst thing a new fisherman can do is get into a situation where they get too much information through too many people who are full of it. Some people will lead them astray. Just be honest with the new guys. Most of the new guys are just trying to get started. All they want to do is catch fish. For the new guy, you have to have the right set up. First of all, braid line is an absolutely must. 20 pound braid line, even on a spinning reel, is a must because you can feel what this stuff is doing.
WTJB: Cool! Shane?
SL: Try to have fun! You are going to rack your brain trying to catch fish. Just go out and have fun.
WTJB: What is your opinion of the condition of local fishing?
TB: We need more water first of all. A lot more water would help these lakes out; especially Buttes because we all know what Buttes is like when it is full. We need water, but the fishing is absolutely awesome right now. People go to east Texas and they say this and this, but when I go to east Texas those guys want to come out here. Now you have Amstead on the map. Falcon on the map. I fished Falcon many years ago and it was the same as it is today. Now we have Ivie with the grass. I talk to a lot of the elite pros who are still good friends of mine who talk about the lakes out here. Ivie is still the secret lake out there that no one fishes. It’s more of the local people who know that lake. A friend of mine, Ken Cook, and I still talk about that lake because he was out here for a bass tournament in 97 or 98 when he was all those 8 to 10s coming out of that lake. Ivie is the secret lake and Buttes is holding its own. Nasworthy is the silent lake that no one knows except the yakers. They know what it holds and they know how to get them. It’s incredible. West Texas fishing and the fishermen from west Texas are far superior to the guys in east Texas and that is a quote from Tad Box. It is the truth. The guys from west Texas dominate the tourneys in east Texas if they can get out that way. It’s just that way especially now that we have some grass that some people put out our guys are understanding the grass and how to fish it so that now they can go out to east Texas and fish with the east Texas boys at their own game.
WTJB: Cool. Shane?
SL: I can only agree with Tad about what he said about the lakes and their really starting to come back from where they use to be.
WTJB: OK! Here’s the next question. Favorite true fishing story?
TB: There are so many true stories that people think I’m BSing, but I’ve had great days fishing that people think I’m BSing. True fishing story? We are going to share with Jay a picture, and no discredit to the guy who caught the 18 pound hybrid, of a hybrid we caught on Thanksgiving Day in 2008 that I caught on Lake Nasworthy. I’ll share with you what the weight exactly was. We knew it was a monster, but we did not know that it was a record. It weighed in at 22 pounds and a few ounces.
SL: Myh favorite story was about the KDCD Tourney out at Lake Ivie a few weeks back. It was the last day of the tournament and it was a slow day. We weren’t catching anything. In the last couple of hours, we just grabbed the top waters and went to have some fun. We caught like 200 three pound bass every cast on top water.
WTJB: On top water?
TB: 3-5s.
WTJB: Catch and release?
TB: I’ll answer this one first. Catch and release is everything. It takes a 10 pounder 10+ years to get there. If you want to eat a fish, eat crappie. They can reproduce so fast. They are kinds like rabbits. Those guys keep coming and coming. I really don’t eat fish. My joy; my passion is just to catch the fish. My old saying when I was fishing professionally was “Why eat your profits?”
SL: I agree. Catch and release if a must.
WTJB: Just playing Devil’s advocate, how do you respond to the guy who says that too many fish are destroying the prey base?
TB: Absolutely! If this is the case, then keep the 14 to 16 inch ones. Most of the ones in that size are the male fish anyways. Just don’t eat those big fish.
WTJB: Cool! OK, next question. Personal heroes?
(Shane is looking at Tad)
SL: Tad.
WTJB: Really? You realize that you are going on record with that.
SL: Yeah. He took me from a regular bank fishermen and turned me into the tournament fisherman that I am today.
WTJB: That’s pretty awesome.
TB: Thank you Shane. I didn’t know that.
WTJB: Your turn, Tad.
TB: Personal hero? I’d have to say my dad. He was there to always take me fishing even though he didn’t fish. He always supported me. I taught myself to fish, but he was always there to support me. Personal hero in fishing would be Ken Cook because I got the chance to room with him for a whole year. To go with someone like Ken Cook, the 1991 World Champion, I learned more in that 1 year. I still use things that he showed me.
WTJB: I want to direct this next question to Shane. Where do you want to go to from here?
SL: I want to fish all my life, but I want to go to college to be an anesthesiologist.
WTJB: Do you ever see yourself going pro?
SL: I’ll fish local tournaments, but I want to be an anesthesiologist.
We talked about some of the local fishermen and swapped a few more stories and generally had a great time. Tad is truly passionate about his fishing and it shows. His mentoring Shane is a noble thing, but truth be known Shane is great all on his own. Having the benefit of Tad in his life only enhances his learning.
I’ve also posted a picture of the 22-pound hybrid caught Thanksgiving Day in 08. According to Tad, they put it on 2 separate scales both reading 22 pounds and 3 to 4 ounces. It was so big that they couldn’t keep it in the livewell and being Thanksgiving Day, they knew it would be tough to contact any one about the fish. As best they could, they documented the catch and let it go.
Thanks for tuning in to WTJB and I hope the interview was as much fun for you as it was for me.
