Dallas Tx 3/10 - 3/13

[Felix77]

I was asked by my job to go to Texas for training.  When I first heard this I was extremely excited because where I live it's 20-ish degrees and the changes of getting to fish in Texas were much, much greater than up here.  So with that said I decided to fly in early to get some fishing in.

 

In the week prior to the trip the weather turned for the worse. Weather dropped to the mid 50's (from 60's and 70's) and that was for the weekend that I planned to be there.  It didn't stop me from catching fish although it wasn't the massive quantities I wanted.

 

3/10 - Temp mid 50's, wind 20mph, raining - Fished about 3 local ponds.  In each spot I slow rolled a swimbait (Sick Fish), a small swimming super fluke jr and ultimately slowed down to a shakey head with a finesse worm.  Nothing was working.  I added megastrike on my last go round and got the only bite of the day.  (Pic 1).  It was my first fish of the season, my first spotted bass and my first using Megastrike so I was happy.

 

3/11 - Same as 3/10 cloudy without the rain - Fished the same local ponds but this time I focused on some other lures I wanted to try.  Tried the sick fish, some soft jerkbaits a senko and finally the drop shot.  I wanted to test if Megastrike is worth my long term investment I intentionally fished without it and resorted to it once I had exhausted my options without it.  Well ... using the drop shot and finesse worm I got the biggest bite of my trip ... a 3+ lber.  The picture was too dark so I tried lightening it up.

 

3/12 - Decided to explore and try other lakes.  Temp was up to 60 degrees, winds were up to 25-30 mph and bluebird skies.  Caught one fish.  Nothing impressive and I didn't test the MegaStrike on this one.  I used it but didn't do the intentional tests I did the first 2 days.  Only fished a few hours and took a trip to Bass Pro instead.  There I saw a fish (Ethel) I wish I would have caught.

 

3/13 - Early AM.  Temps were still in the 50's but the wind had died down considerably.  I made a move to a hotel near my conference (30 minutes north of the airport).  I found a lake nearby so I fished that before my conference started in the afternoon.  I only had an hour or 2 tops.  I devoted it to the finesse worm and did intentionally test the Megastrike out.  I took one pass around without MegaStrike and one pass around with MegaStrike and BAM.  Caught the whitest bass I have ever seen.  Pic 3.

 

3/14 - Temp jumped to the 70's.  Did not fish because of my conference

 

3/15 - Conference ended and I had about an hour to fish at a pond walking distance from my hotel.  I caught 8 fish in about 45 minutes.  They were turned on.  Most likely because of the 2nd day in the 70's warming the waters considerably.  I didn't even bother experimenting.   I went solely with the weightless finesse worm and megastrike 100% of the time.  I didn't care about testing it.  I just wanted to keep catching fish.  Met some guys who saw me catching fish like crazy.  One of them took a pic of me with one of them.

 

Summary:  It was a challenge to fish under those cold conditions early in the week.  It truly tested my patience but also resulted in some positive feedback for me.  I got some bites on a drop shot and shakey head and it seemed as if Megastrike helped me turn some skunked days into at least a one bite day.  When the weather hit 70's and the water warmed up the fish were just "on".  Hard to tell if the Mega helped on that last day but who cares.  It didn't hurt.

 

Lessons Learned:  Take every opportunity to fish and learn something.  Even if I didn't catch a thing during those bad weather days I learned a lot about the drop shot and shakey head.  I also learned how to present things s-l-o-w-l-y.  Not easy to do.

[AK-Jax86]

Seems like u had a good time in Texas great stories and pics. I read that story about Ethel man what a fish!!!

You would think that bass pro shops would be able to have a better more realistic replica made that one looks bad IMO

[Felix77]

Seems like u had a good time in Texas great stories and pics. I read that story about Ethel man what a fish!!!

You would think that bass pro shops would be able to have a better more realistic replica made that one looks bad IMO

 

I agree 110%.  I thought it was just a replica of the world record and not which they had in store.  Once I saw it was about a fish they actually had in the tank I was surprised.

[paul.]

cool report.  who says you can't mix business and pleasure?

[Tuckahoe Joe]

Sounds like a fun trip and that story about Ethel is pretty cool!

[Felix77]

cool report.  who says you can't mix business and pleasure?

 

Exactly!  I laughed at my last pic because I am in my work clothes.  Didn't think of it when I took the pic.  I usually in some grungy sweatshirt and jeans.  What you didn't see is the camo sneakers I switched into ... 

[Bankbeater]

Thanks for the report.  Cool pics.