Contest updates

Here's the current leaderboard. 22 days to go!

Texas Buckeye - 22 fish caught - 22 species - 0.00 Lbs
Pondbass - 19 fish caught - 19 species - 55.10 Lbs
Fishing Fedora - 16 fish caught - 16 species - 0.00 Lbs
ChickenWilly - 14 fish caught - 14 species - 9.00 Lbs
flyfshrgrl - 14 fish caught - 13 species - 3.50 Lbs
bws - 11 fish caught - 11 species - 41.00 Lbs
bryan_g - 10 fish caught - 10 species - 4.50 Lbs
sunfish - 10 fish caught - 10 species - 19.00 Lbs
ccabal - 10 fish caught - 10 species - 4.00 Lbs
GoFishNow - 9 fish caught - 8 species - 5.00 Lbs
yakker - 7 fish caught - 7 species - 0.00 Lbs
Texas Megafish Adventures - 7 fish caught - 7 species - 60.25 Lbs
Starless - 6 fish caught - 6 species - 0.00 Lbs
jcabal - 6 fish caught - 6 species - 2.00 Lbs
CrappieBandit - 6 fish caught - 6 species - 0.00 Lbs
ecabal - 5 fish caught - 5 species - 0.00 Lbs
bret - 5 fish caught - 5 species - 0.00 Lbs
OneBugIsFake - 4 fish caught - 4 species - 5.00 Lbs
addicted - 4 fish caught - 4 species - 0.00 Lbs
ghoule - 4 fish caught - 4 species - 2.00 Lbs
marc - 4 fish caught - 4 species - 7.00 Lbs
Luke - 2 fish caught - 2 species - 0.00 Lbs
Denise - 2 fish caught - 2 species - 0.00 Lbs
southlakeangler - 1 fish caught - 1 species - 3.00 Lbs
fallinfeathers - 1 fish caught - 1 species - 5.00 Lbs

Total Fish logged: 199
Total Weight logged: 225.35 lbs
Total Species Logged: 40 

Wow, 40 species logged in total! Wow! This is definitely one of the biggest years yet for the Txfishes contest. I'm still holding on to 2nd place barely, but i'm not done yet. I haven't even tried for several of the species I plan on getting. 22 days to go, I'd watch that leaderboard closely.

Also, TOKS big four ends today. Looks like Scott Osmond is going to take the western region win. I got 1st to 40 and won some flavorings and stuff from Wacker bait and tackle, so i'm pretty happy with it.

It's official

Yes, it's official. Got the forms in a few days ago

If you haven't seen the post yet, I stuck the Andy Brown Water Body record Largemouth Bass and Carp back in mid April.

http://pondbass.blogspot.com/2011/04/carping-around.html

They haven't updated the TP&W website yet but I'll post when it's on there.

Rain, Yaks, and Bass I didn't catch

Saturday Shannon and I fished the World Championship of Bass on the fly tournament at lake fork. Well, it sounds really prestigious but it's actually a pretty small event. We fished in the Non-boaters division, consisting of bank fisherman, Kayakers, and float tubers. The boaters division consisted of boats of course. The main difference between why we chose the man powered division is because of the slot differences. With the non boaters division it was a catch and release tournament, and we didn't have to follow the slot, meaning we could submit all the bass we caught. With the boaters, they had to follow Lake Fork's strict 16-24"slot, meaning they could only weigh in fish that were over or under the slot length. This would give us an advantage maybe? Not so much...

Shannon and I checked in at the tent on Friday after a several hour drive in a blinding rainstorm that contained hail and brought several inches of rain to the parched landscape of East Texas. Sure, we needed the rain, but the rain and the front that came with it did some damage on the fish. Pushed them back to deeper water, which we of course didn't know until we got out there.

I met Shannon at the ramp at 5:30 AM and we loaded up the kayaks and got down to buisness. We paddled out to the spot. After about 10 seconds my first thought was "Crap, the GPS/fishfinder isn't working!" it was flashing 0.6 feet and the screen was not changing. Back to Humminbird with this thing again! We kept paddling into the cove and finally got to fishing. Paddling around the cove, we decided to work our way in. We finally started to see some fish real real shallow, in range of a topwater bite. Yes!

No! The fish seemed lethargic. We ended up in the back of the cove, seeing a lot of bass and gar everywhere. Shannon made an exit but I chose to work the cove for a while. Finally after 10 casts I got a solid hookup and I set it with a strip set. My first thought was "It's not a bass". I was right, I hauled in this 13 inch channel cat minutes later.

The bass didn't cooperate here, so I headed into another cove. I ended up in the back of the cove and it was shallow. I was about to turn around when a brown shape in the water caught my eye. That's not a log, I thought. It was a bowfin, and it only took a few casts for me to have a fish on! It fought really really hard before the hook pulled. I needed that but I guess i'll be back after them again soon. Those fish fascinate me.

I'll skip to some fish action-

I moved to the mouth of the cove and started dredging a craw pattern deep after some bass that may be holding at the bases of trees. The first cast seconds after the fly hit the water I had another hard hit identical to the one before. It was another catfish! Why do I catch so many catfish on the fly?

It was 14 inches and 2lbs according to the boga. Now that the boga's certified, this is the soon to be junior fly record channel cat for Lake Fork. Easy to break record, but it'll get my name in the books again

So Agressive!

The rest of our fishing time was pretty uneventful, methodical cast-retrieve-cast again kind of stuff. It was pretty hopeless for the rest of the fishing time. Shannon lost a small bass, I hooked and lost a gar, and Shannon got a catfish. We decided to go ahead and weigh in empty handed.

At the weigh in we had a pretty good time messing around with the casting contests thinking we could win. I played with several rods and worked on my cast. I almost walked off with no injuries too, but I just had to stick a 3/0 bass bug into my hand before the official results came. That hurt, but it didn't get too deep.

The weigh in was fun, seeing everyone had a pretty slow day like we did with the exception of a few guys who actually limited and a few that had some stories to tell. There was also a great raffle at the end, and a lot of the prizes were really nice. Shannon ended up with a nice kayak vest and I got a little cheap lip gripper that would be great for sandbass and catfish.

We came in 3rd in our division. Not the kind of 3rd you want though, 1st, 2nd, or last in this case.

We will definitely be back next year, and next year we'll be competing as boaters. I hope we do a little better!

Tournament update

First of all, go check out the new fan page for the blog on Facebook! Just got done with it. There's a like button in the right margin. over here--->>>
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Pondbass-The-FishBlog/218554381487959

This is a sneak peek at the blog's new logo. Adding some stuff to this before it's on here

But the main reason for this post is the fact that Saturday is a pretty big event on Lake Fork. It is the World Championship of Bass on the Fly Tournament(Wow that sounded important) on Lake Fork. Shannon and I are ready and packed to leave tomorrow afternoon. I hope I get something at least!

http://www.bassonthefly.org/

We'll have the Diablo's over at Lake Fork Marina after the weigh in so come check them out! Being on the lake this time you guys can come test paddle them!

A little bluegill action

I can successfully say that the bluegill bite is ON and the big gills are starting to come shallow. I have been out a few times this week and haven't really taken many pics but you can see i've been seeing some nice ones mixed in! Today the Upside down breamkiller was, well, killing them today. Aptly named fly in my opinion. Thanks to Jonathan for turning me on to these.

http://www.breambugs.com/index.php?_a=viewProd&productId=227

Weekend fishing

Did some fishing this weekend. I was originally going to go do an overnight carp session with Ryan and Erick Saturday but I had to bail out and ended up back with them Sunday.

Friday I went to the Grapevine swim with Amadeo and his son Kaden. We each got a few carp and buffs.

Amadeo with a nice common

Buff

Triple. I should get some extra credit. I landed all 3 of these alone, at night, without using the net!

Saturday after Tailwaters I went with Marty(Sunfish fly, check out his blog) to the same swim again. We(I) did pretty good. Marty blanked hard. I caught 4 commons and a nice little largemouth on a roadrunner.

This was a 16lb common hit by a bowfisherman. The fish wasn't really hit and it sliced through about 6 inches thick of flesh and bone. The wound was really nasty. This is one of those times I wished i had some antiseptic made for carp, I need to order some.

Sunday morning Marty and I rode over to the Library canal and caught some nice bluegill and bass. I caught a warmouth FINALLY but it came unhooked and made a hasty escape before I could get a multispecies pic. Well, it made me want to keep trying! 

After a crazy report from Ryan and Erick we loaded up and headed over to their swim. Great idea, we hauled! Marty got like 10 or 11 before he left. Ryan, Erick, and I all got over 20 fish, ad Erick and Ryan were pushing 30 fish each. It really was an amazing numbers trip. No really big fish though.

Marty's first common over 8lbs

Ryan with a double

Marty's PB common

Marty's biggest freshwater fish. 12lb buff

another for Marty

14lb common

Hold your fish upside down! All the cool kids are doing it...

Double, one of countless multiples including several triples and quads.

This was a good weekend aside from all the sunburn, lost rigs, and tiredness...

Tailwaters Update

Tailwaters turned out great, Shannon and I showed off the Diablo's to a ton of fly fisherman and I think we sold a few boats today. I was really surprised at the interest in my fishfinder mount in the scupper hole, which is the new mount we stuck in this past week. It looks really clean, i'll try to get a post up with the pics and journey this weekend.

Shannon with the Adios, the 12 foot long fishing machine.

Of course I absolutely can't walk out of a fly shop without buying something, so I picked up some well needed stuff.I got a bunch of flies that were on closeout, Finally a new line for the clouser, got a few shirts, a new hat, and another buff. I think i'm pretty well stocked for a while. If you came you probably saw me showing the yaks, I was pretty busy the whole day, but I did get some time to visit with a bunch of people. I think this was a pretty good turnout, great job to Tailwaters Fly Shop for putting this on!

Oh, and on another note, anyone have any info on this?

I only lost a few comments and had some trouble for a few hours but not too much was lost. How many of you other outdoor bloggers got hit?

Tailwaters 4th anniversary bash

Tomorrow is the Tailwaters 4th anniversary party. Of course i'll be there, Shannon and I are going to have both models of Diablos there for you guys to look at and sit in. There's also gonna be food(Crawdads, yum!) ,all kinds of sales, rod demos, a bunch of fly fisherman, and, well, a good time. Come on out of you are in the DFW metroplex. See ya there!

Few flies

Haven't done much fly tying in a while so I decided to whip a few random things up during the rain

Really fun to tie craft fur shad. Looks really cool in the water. This is a number 2 SC-15 and it looks the perfect size for a bass or striper snack!

Little size 16 nymph

Squirmy carp fly, I really want to try this thing!

Marabou Marauder, this thing catches fish! One of my patterns, really good bulky bass fly. Size 6 hook and it's about 3 inches long. I also tie them bigger but this is the perfect size for a 6wt fly stick.

Oh, wondering what happened this weekend? I had a really epic carp session. It's maybe going in Uscarppro. I may give a teaser this week to give you something to look forward to, so stay tuned!

New Pond

My Grandma moved into a new house this week in a gated community in Dallas which has a few ponds and backs up to White Rock Creek. Of course I immediately wanted to get out there and check it out for myself. I really like it.

A little creek. Saw some bass, bluegill, and some shiners in here.

Channel cat! Saw some and flicked a bugger in front of them. Bingo!

I found some bass busting on fry schools later on. They were chasing around the little schools of baby bass and chowing down on them. A well placed cast meant fish on!

Kinda skinny... I don't care! Fought hard and pretty little fish.

Big eye and whiskers

Caught a few cats and a drum today. Wanted to try to find some carp so I brought along the 7wt but no carp were found. I did hook a little longnose gar on a Hipp's Hellcraw that shook off. Also the first time i've caught 3 different species of turtles in one trip. I caught a Softshell, a Redear, and an Eastern Mud Turtle. I hate catching turtles! All caught fishing some frozen shad I had left over from a while back.

Nice little Gaspergou aka Freshwater Drum.

Channel cat, where did all the blues go?

Ahhhh!

Relaxing Session

I fished a place I fish all the time- Moore Road Park in Coppell. The pond out there is huge, and full of really spooky carp and buffs. I fished a really relaxing cold session today. It was like 46 degrees outside(Where the hell did the warm go?) and barely any wind.

And I FINALLY got a carp at Moore! It was a little 8lber on Banana maize. It won't be the last!

Really relaxing trip. Also, this was the first time i've ever been awakened by the screaming of a bite alarm. Damn carp ruined my nap...

Ha ha you're dead

I'll post the fishing stuff first

I fished the drain after the cold front today and got a nice LMB on a rattle trap. Not much else happened fishing wise today...

Prespawn? Confused fish, it's May! There were bass spawning here in February!

Fatty

And on to news. A picture worth a thousand words

lol look at the typo! That should read Osama...

Yes, it's true. I'll follow that pic with a quote- and a video

"I've never wished a man dead, but I have read some obituaries with great pleasure" - Mark Twain

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CJuGwlXVojE