DrewMixon

I'm not from Dale Hollow, so forgive me if I call a location the wrong name. I traveled up to the lake in mid April to pre fish and fish in a kayak bass tournament. To cut to the chase, I pre fished Goat, Little Goat, Graveyard Islands, the shorelines of Lillydale and Willow Grove, Boy Island, Illwill Creek and the Obey River. During this time, I found plenty of largemouth in the back, back of the coves on the shorelines that were in the last few days of pre spawn, prepping for spawn. I expect by the time I post this report they are hot on the beds now. These fish were difficult to catch, as bedding fish are, but I was able to catch a few decent fish by making long casts with soft plastics and finesse fishing. Robo worms, trick worms and trout worms in browns worked. My dreams were to target the famous smallmouth with the historic lures for those fish. I threw tubes, drop shots, every pattern of crawfish and jerk baits. I caught a couple of fish but not what I had hoped for. As the week developed, the talk at the docks and shops was all about white swim baits. We call those paddle tails in Florida. I'm a die-hard chatter bait fan, so I went on with my trusty white chatter bait with a 5" paddle tail trailer. This bait I threw mainly on the South sides of the islands where there was grass in 5 feet, to 15 feet of water. There is a pebble hump near Goat Island with a ring of grass that produced, and the points and coves behind Boy Island had the same pattern of grass. This is where i consistently caught bigger fish. All on the white chatter bait rolled as slowly as possible directly through the grass. A slight hang up and consequent jerk would result in a strike very often. I ended up out of the money in the event, but did catch big bass and won a chunk of bonus money. I know i don't post very often, but as a traveling tournament angler I greatly appreciate this site/forum as an aide in my pre fishing. Hopefully this report will help someone fishing Dale Hollow. Cheers Drew

i'll be there. along with a pretty good contingent from the F-L-A. couldn't care less what you sit in. just bring your best game. cheers drew

hey gang. just a note of clarification on weighing fish of any kind for records. having held 7 IGFA state records in 3 different states, i can tell you to have your T's crossed, and I's dotted. but the scale is the easiest of the aspects. the original Boga Grip, made by Eastaboga company is not only the only spring-type scale that is certifiable, but is also one of the cheapest certifiable scales to own. if you are a serious trophy hunter like i was for several years, do yourself the favor and buy a Boga Grip and send it to the IGFA to be certified. it costs like 15 bucks to have it certified and there will be no question about your weights. it only has to be sent in annually to ensure it's certification. as far as witnesses, unless rules have changed lately, as long as a witness is reliable and can be contacted by the certifying authority you should be clean. but--rules will say that a fish must be weighted on land. not in the boat. you are welcome to (and encouraged to) release that fish, but your feet should be planted firmly on ground doing the weighing. for all the guys who are posting up these multiple catches and continuous catches catches of 10+ pound bass, i humbly bow to you. you guys rock. if i could catch those kinds of fish with that kind of regularity, i'd be the winningest tournament angler in florida. i'll buy the fuel and roast beef on rye if you'll let me tag along here and there. cheers drew

hello gents of the 'Sam Rayburn endless thread'. i'm new to this site (please feel free to read my intro on the intro page or look at my profile). i have poured over this thread like a mad scientist gathering as much knowledge as possible about lake Sam Rayburn as you guys have generously shared. i'm coming from Florida to fish the lake the last week of February for a kayak tournament and am learning as much as i can before i get there. my options are wide open as far what part of the lake to fish--i can launch from any public location and i fish out of a Hobie pedal drive kayak, so my range is about 16 miles over the course of a tournament day, and i can handle open water pretty well. i fish in the Gulf and Atlantic frequently so a lil bumpy is do'able. anyway, i mention all that in the context that i'm not 'stuck' fishing backwater or a spot near a ramp. while i absorb your vast knowledge on this site, I'm soaking up some of the popular spot names and how many of you fish them. of course we all have our favorites and i'm no different. but, i like to be versatile i will punch all day one day, toss soft plastic till my arm hurts the next and gladly work an offshore point with cranks if need be. i'm certainly not the master of all, but i'm open minded and not a one-trick pony. one thing i do notice about many of the reports is the use of lipless crank baits. i think there is even a rat-l-trap tournament on the lake? we have one down in FL as well. there is one rule about lipless crank baits in my area…."any color will work as long as its gold". as such, my inventory of lipless baits is pretty solid in the gold colored category. i'm wanting to make an order of a couple of different sizes and colors but would enjoy hearing your opinions on that. i don't want to buy all reds if silver and black is all they eat. i greatly appreciate all the sharing you guys have done on this thread and humbly await your replies about trap colors. cheers drew

I'm new to the site here, and appreciate the info exchange. but that does not mean i'm new to the game, by any means. having some 15 years of sponsor and pro-staff experience (and answering to the pro-staff 'debate' frequently), please understand that the definition of 'pro staff' varies from one company to another. a local-pour soft plastics company who gives away some bags of goodies and decals might call someone a 'pro staffer', but i can guarantee you that if you indicate that a place on the 'pro staff' is something menial to my team manager at Shimano, your resume will be tossed into the trash. even 'sponsorship' has different shades of grey. to one company that means a flat discount, to another it means buying 'at cost' or to yet another it could be a free ride--and the golden ticket is the paid compensation. the truth of the matter is sponsorship and pro staff neither have cast-in-stone definitions. its totally different from one company to another. posted with respect. cheers drew

hello hello. this is the place for introductions so please allow me. most people call me Drew (to my face anyway). i'm a Florida native living on the central east coast in Vero Beach. my local lakes are Blue Cypress, Stick Marsha and Farm 13, but i fish all over the place. i have fished all my life, growing up bass fishing in Florida and Alabama and started tournament fishing in 1986. i raised two sons angling and competitive angling. my youngest son who is 19 now, still fishes competitively. we fished as a family team in countless multi-species coastal tournaments, off shore tournaments the SKA kingfish pro tour and my son and i have fished 2 different redfish pro tours. I've never fished any pro or pro/am bass tours, though. my son got into kayak fishing when he was about 9. i thought it was a phase, but he really got into it. i think it was the fact that he could do it all his self, and he could rig his kayak his own way. it was all 'his world'. when he was about 14 he wanted to fish a redfish tournament out of the kayak. he won the junior division and went head over heals for kayak tournament fishing. since it was just he and i at home--divorce and my oldest off to college, i had to join the plastic navy if i wanted to continue to spend time with him on the water. fast forward a couple of years and i am a devout kayak angler and tournament kayak angler. i guide part time and fish only kayak tournaments anymore--about 25 a year, from inshore to offshore to bass. i fish mainly Florida but i travel to Louisiana, South Carolina, Georgia, Texas and beyond to tournament fish. i've been blessed to build a good reputation and strong sponsor family from some of the greatest names in the fishing industry and they have either gladly followed my career into kayak tournament angling or have joined along the way. i'm pleased to have the support of Hobie kayaks, I've been a member of the Lowrance Elite team for some 12 years, Shimano elite team, Ande monofilament, The Fish Grip, Pro-Cure bait scents and Unfair Lures round out the major sponsors in the family. "I never met a man so ignorant, I couldn't learn something from him." --Galileo this is completely true for angling as well. i'm happiest when i'm talking about fishing, and i'll offer up assistance in areas i might have some knowledge, but i truly love hearing stories and learning from anglers from all walks of life and levels of experience. i hope i never stop learning about fish and the pursuit of the adventure. cheers drew