Texas, the land of Largemouth Bass! Not only do they have some of the best bassfishing lakes in the world but what fascinates me almost more is their ShareLunker program which actively tries to enhance the size of the bass there.
I've done most of my bassfishing in Europe so far where the chances of catching a +10lbs bass are basically non-existent plus a lot of lakes are kind of overfished because it seems like a lot of people want to do bass fishing but only few take care of them in general.
I couldn't recall any breading and stocking programs I know about not to mention the bass population in the South of Switzerland which basically got eradicated by various factors because our people in power regarding fishing say that the bass are not an domestic species here and a lot of idiots here followed those words or didn't even know what a bass is so they just threw it in the frying pan...
Anyway, the more I learned about bassfishing over the years, the more I realized that one of my absolute must-dos has to be Texas. There's several famous lakes but the one I read about the most was definitely Lake Fork!
Back in January while Peacock Bass fishing, I luckily ended up on the boat with Dale, a gentleman from Texas. We got along well and after inviting to fish his homelake, Lake Fork, several times over that week I finally believed it and knew I definitely had to take this great chance!
Just a few months later in June I flew over to Dallas, TX. It felt kind of unreal at first as everything is bigger in Texas so of course I had my hopes up for some giant Bass. I knew that June wasn't the ideal month but was told that we would still have a good chance to catch some nice fish. Of course I was dreaming of a +10lbs Bass but I was just happy to experience this new, exciting adventure. I had 10 days there and the plan was simple - fish 10 days on Lake Fork so I was almost sure that in these days I will catch my first Texas Bass. Before going into detail, the fishing wasn't easy and we had to work hard for the fish. Dale put in a ton of effort in order bring me on some Fork Bass and provided overall one of my most memorable fishing adventure ever! We lived, what I felt was, the complete bassfishing lifestyle experience. It is obvious that bassfishing in the Lake Fork area definitely plays an important part in this region, there's tackle-stores all along the lake, even some campground receptions have better tackle assortments in stock than some Swiss fishing shops, huge, shiny bassboats are parked all over the place, there's pictures of big bass caught in every restaurant and gas station and all the accommodations I saw along the lake are named somehow related to fishing. I felt like how I imagine a lot of people feel when they are in Disneyland or some other park that promises happiness.
Our first fishing day fell on a Saturday, not only means that all the weekend anglers are out too but there was also a tournament happening with over 1000 boats registered, so yeah, the lake was crowded!
We went to get my fishing license in the tackle store nearby which went surprisingly easy, while the nice ladies at the register filled out my license Dale showed me which tackle I would need for the coming days just to tell me "but you don't need to buy that, I got enough in my garage" after every lure he showed me. :) Of course I bought some stuff anyway and got my Texas fishing license.
Now that I was all set we headed to see how things are on the lake. There were boats everywhere, I didn't see one of them land a fish despite all kinds of lures were worked through the water. I had just a shy bite that I missed until a big storm came up and we decided to get off the lake and come back later. Luckily the weather cleared up and it got really hot, the tournament guys were still fishing but we still found some spots to fish but the Bass seemed more stressed than hungry...
We had to try around a bit but then I finally hooked and landed my first Lake Fork Bass! With something around 5lbs nothing mentionable for Texas standards but to me that was and still is a great fish, Day 1 was a success for me!
The next day, was also the second and last tournament day so in the morning Dale wanted to show me around the weight-inn station where we came right on time for one of the hourly weight-inns which was pretty interesting to see.
Probably the most memorable thing for me was the guy who brought in a 9lbs Bass (which is a giant to me) and got disqualified plus a $500 fine. The reason was that on lake for they have a slot for Largemouth Bass which means that only Bass under 16" or over 24" can be kept which counted for that tournament too, even tough the fish get released afterwards. The Bass which was brought in measured 23.75" after multiple measuring tries so it was basically too small... with 9lbs!!! I kinda felt sorry for that guy but also hoped to catch one like this too.
After my introduction to the bassfishing tournament circus we visited several tackle stores along the lake and finally headed out to fish when the tournament guys had to get off the lake in the afternoon. We checked out several spots but without much success so we drove back to where I caught my bass the day before and it worked! After again losing rigs to the trees I managed to hook some more Bass instead of branches! Again nice fish in the 5-6lbs, awesome!
During the week, way less people were on the lake and we started fishing every day early in the morning until midday when it got too hot. We then would have lunch and return in the afternoon. I was told that the weather wasn't perfect and the hot temperatures without any wind were pretty tiring but Dale made sure that I got to be on the water as much as possible which I still appreciate a ton!
He even took me night fishing which was something completely new for me and I still think its pretty strange that people there can just put lamps in the lake to attract fish and control that as they want to (one house turned off its lights when they saw us fishing them).
I fished mostly huge worms on heavy T-rigs and Shakey heads, completely different from the finesse approach I know from the European Bass. Because this lake is full of dead wood and we fished mostly in that cover, I lost quite a bunch of rigs which gets expensive fast when you have to use 1/2-3/4oz tungsten weights. I assume I spent around $100 on weights alone on this trip...
Each day we had to grind hard for every bite but if we got a bite it was usually a pretty decent fish in the 5-6lbs range which was fine with me. Dale got the biggest of my trip with something over 9lbs, when that fish first came to the surface I was shocked! That head was huge, even on distance I knew instantly that it had to be a big one! Of course I would have loved to catch that fish but I was happy for Dale and just overall happy to witness such a catch.
For the last day we made up a strategy out of the experiences from the past days, there was that one spot which could basically just be fished properly by one boat at a time and during the week a lot of people were seen sitting on that spot. So Dale told me to get up extra early and in darkness we drove out to that spot to be sure to have it for us on my last day of that trip. Luckily the spot is just a few minutes careful driving away from where we put the boat in the water so it wasn't a too dangerous ride. We arrived and to our joy nobody else was there so we sat there chatting in pitch darkness waiting for the sunrise.
With the first light we started casting but it took over an hour until the first bite but then we hit several time windows when they seemed to come to exactly that spot to feed and we caught several fish and in the end I could even push my Lake Fork PB up to 7lbs - what an end to this already memorable trip!
We caught most fish that day on a C-Rig which before I only used for perch. Fishing that rig for Bass is a completely different story I figured, most perch I caught like that so far bite rather hesitant and I'm sure I already missed a couple of fish because I didn't feel the bite at all despite thin braid and ultra sensitive rods. There on Lake Fork I was handed a Crank-rod, put my Calcutta Conquest with 20lb Fluoro on it, 1/2oz Tungsten sinker and 5" softbait at the end. Once I got a bite, I could feel the fish chewing on the lure and swimming away with it and that's exactly when I would set the hook- Boom in ya face! I call that heavy C-Rig and I like it a lot! :)
After a successful last day on the water it was time for me to head back home, just in time for the start of the Swiss festival season. As much as i like fishing, the one thing I like about living in Switzerland is the Festival-Summer!
Even tough I didn't catch a 10lber this time, it was still one of my most memorable fishing trips of my life so far!
All the people I met during my stay in Texas were so friendly added some extra smiles to this great experience.
I can't thank Dale enough for spending time with me, showing me around and of course taking me fishing day after day! I think I'm safe to say, that I got the real American bassfishing-experience and I really hope I can fish in Texas again soon! I definitely would love to fish there during pre-spawn and check out other lakes too, from what I heard and read there are so many interesting lakes to fish and I want to see them all and catch a true Texan giant!
We will see what the future brings but if I get another chance to fish there, I will on my way in no time!
A big thank you to all the people I met during this trip and a special thanks to my friend Dale, leave some of those big ones for me! :)
Thanks for reading!
PEACE & LOVE
Joel