Wednesday, January 27, 2010

Fishing Gallery

I just figured out how to put a fishing gallery up. Take a look. If you have some great pics, send them in!

Sunday, January 24, 2010

Twin Buttes 1-17-10

Twin Buttes continues to be good to me ... and not just me.

Scott Gagliano and I went out on this nice day to out favorite haunt up the Concho. We were not alone and watched Roy Cavaness pull in ths three pounder.

That was a nice fish!

Scott and I pushed up and fished the rocks. I managed to catch a 5.10 on my first cast with the big crank bait.


We had some minor technical difficulties recording, but the fish was a blast to catch. I did also catch this one.










We also saw Chip Palko beating the banks.







It was a great day and I look forward to getting back out.

Tuesday, January 19, 2010

Amistad was fun but Stingy

My long time fishing partner Ronnie Wallace and I ventured to the Big Friendly for our 1st tourny of the year on Jan.16th.
Basschamps is the largest team fishing circuit in the country and with a guaranteed 1st place prize of $20,000. clams it makes your mouth water in excitement as does fishing against some of the most talented fisherman in the state of Texas. Ronnie and I took a year off fishing team tournys but are back and we took on the blue gin clear waters of Amistad in hopes of catching a big sack of fish.
The day started with a few clouds in the skys ,48degrees and light northwest winds. We ran up the Rio Grande arm of the lake to an area around Mile Marker 24 that we are very familiar with and have caught goods stringers before. Since we did not get to practice much at all we started with a spot we thaught we could get bit.
Starting witha DD-22 Crankbait we caught a nice 3 lber and thinking things were fxing to get good we chunked and cranked until are arms were sore. Ronnie picked up a Zoom Magnum finness worm Texas rigged and began filling out our stringer. We hit several spots that day but could not catch a good fish to our dissapointment. We caught about 3 limits of keepers but nothing better than 3 lbs. and ended up 66th place out of 201 teams. The Magnum finess worm caught most of our fish in depths of 15 to 30ft depths. near points and ledges that dropped into deep water. Keep this in mind when things get tough and nothing else seems to work. On Amistad this always works for me when I cant get any other baits to work.
See Ya on the Water

Sunday, January 10, 2010

PABC Standings

The PABC December Weigh Ticket tourney concluded 1-5-10 with the following participants recording weight.

1/2. Cavaness, Roy 13.88
1/2. Miner, Scott 13.88 (Big Bass: 8.94. The biggest bass caught in PABC History.)
3. Leeper, Jay 13.75
4. Watkins, Bandy 9.31
5. Palko, Chip 2.31
6. Lucas, Jesse 1.63

This shook up the standings considerably. The current overall standings going into the final month of the Fall Season are:

1. Cavaness, Roy 38.29
2. Leeper, Jay 35.93 (Who'da thunk?)
3. Morris, Jeff 30.77
4. Miner, Scott 29.26
5. Palko, Chip 28.87
6. Dorman, Bryan 25.26
7. Watkins, Bandy 24.47
8. Lucas, Jesse 23.33
9. Snyder, David 23.32
10. Whitt, Bob 23.03
11. McAlpin, Thomas 14.92
12. Day, Garrett 9.02
13. Dorman, Mike 8.75
14. Gagliano, Scott 6.81
15. Day, Jim 5.33
16. Carter, Randy 5.31
17. Lucas, Travis 4.81
18. Hall, Jason 4.34
19. Brumley, Justin 3.57
20.Elloitt, Carl 3.06
21.Rutledge, David 3.00
22.Strange, Cameron 1.25

The next meeting for the PABC is February 1 at the Paul Ann Baptist Fellowship Hall. Food served at 6:30 with the meeting starting at 7. This will conclude the Fall season. The first tourney for the 2010 Spring Tourney will be at Twin Buttes on February 27.

Saturday, January 2, 2010

Concho River: January 1, 2010 (I hope this is a good omen on the upcoming year!)

Wow! Wendell said it already, but .... WOW!

This day had great weather, friendly faces, and some big fish to include a personal best! It's always a great learning experience for me as my partner put me to the test on a quality experience.

Wendell and I took the plastic yacht up the Concho. We were tossing creature baits and he lost a couple of quality fish on the first set of bluffs. On our way up the river, we saw a few friendly faces from the Paul Ann Bass Club: Jesse and Travis Lucas as well as Scott Miner. Scott caught a nice fish.


We headed on up where the above mentioned yo-yos just left and started fishing. We cast at some rocks in the channel for a bit when I saw Wendell tying on a big crank bait. I thought he was nuts. Within a couple of casts he caught 2 fish to include this one.

Please note the Bass' Revenge on the camera.

For reasons which will hopefully become apparent soon, I cannot post all the fish that Wendell caught. Just note that I believe him to be a bass magnet. It seems that whatever he ties on almost calls to the green monsters. He claims that isn't so, but I have to wonder and the camera doesn't lie. If the fish get much bigger, I'll have to quote Brody from Jaws, "You're going to need a bigger boat" as my plastic piddler might start to look like a top-water.

After a bit, I got into the action with this one.

Dig the rubber boots?

This was my second catch of the day. Wanna see my first?

Now, THAT'S the way to start the new year! The funny thing is that this wasn't even the big fish of the day (although it was up there). It was; however, my biggest kick fishing-wise of the new year! Man, I gotta check that scale!

We had an unexpectedly great day. The winter has been good to us and I am appreciative of the relaxation and thrill bass fishing gives me. I know you share similar beliefs.

I want to post this last fish Wendell caught just because of how unusual the circumstances were regarding it. It is good for a few laughs.

Thanks for logging on and checking out the blog. Big shout out to Wendell Ramsey for taking time to take me out and show me a few things. He is an incredible fisherman. I hope to continue to bring you great info on the best west Texas fishing has to offer. I also hope to continue to bring in some great writing and writers from the area. This experience has definitely been worth while.

Remember, "Cast straight, cast often, and be kind to the guys in the plastic boats!"

*PS: For the record, Jesse Lucas was finally nice to the guys in the plastic boat! ;-P

*PSS: I'm still tinkering with format and some feedback would be appreciated. Do you like the above text-with-video-component format as opposed to the webisode format? Let me know!

First Trip a great start in 2010
It was Jan. 1,2010 at 11:45 a.m. and after I had just got off work ,headed to Jay,s house, loaded his 9ft.2 man buster boat, we were headed to Twin Buttes. My boat is out of commision for another week or so so when Jay offered taking his little boat I did not hesitate to go wet a hook. Dropping the boat out in the middle concho river we trolled to a couple of rocky spots along the banks. We started with creature baits and soft plastics ,slow and methodical but only one bite for our efforts. Then at about 1 pm I tied on the only Deep Diving Crankbait I had in my little carry on tackle box. A Berkly Frenzy Crankbait in a color that kinda looks blue green??? Anyway a couple of casts later I swung the rod hard and with a slow heavy pull the 1st of several big fish came to the boat.
After my 2nd fish(a 5+lber) it was time to get Jay set up and let him fill the power of one of these brutes. Jay tied on Bomber Fat Free Shad in (Citrus Color) and fired it along the rocky bank. It wasnt long before his rod loaded up heavy and I new it was a giant. Sure enough after a brief fight and a scoop of the net we were high fivin and getting the camera a good work out.
Jay and I never expected to make a video that day. Maybe a few snapshots and do a little story on an afternoon of fishing. But as you will see things changed that day.
I dont want to spoil it to much for you but as soon as Jay gets the video up you will see what an exciting few hours of fishing was all about. We caught 7 or 8 quality fish ,nothing under 2.75
lbs and Jay with a personal best.You cant ask for much better when your catching 5-7 lbers and your best 5 are well over 20lbs......
Maybe it was the full moon, maybe it was light winds with 48degree water temps. Maybe Jay is good luck charm? "NAAAAA that aint it" We will see ya on the water. Wendell