Well, we had our LifeLine Fish With the Pros event this past weekend, and everyone had a blast down at Falcon Lake. The pros were: myself, Matt Reed, Gary Klein, Byron Velvick, and Keith Combs. We got to spend three days on Falcon taking guests fishing and raising money for LifeLine.
It was a cool event mainly for the great cause it supports. Each year, LifeLine will work with roughly 70,000 kids and families who have a variety of problems. It’s also a great time to hang out and goof off and catch a bunch of big fish. It was a little bit challenging because while we were at Falcon, there was a 200-boat tournament going on at the same time.
Usually you go to Falcon because it’s secluded and remote and you can fish all day and not see another boat. This time, though, was different. It is Falcon, though and even with a lot of boats there are plenty of places to fish and lots of fish to be caught. On Sunday we had a three-fish tournament. The trick was, though, that everyone in the boat had to weigh in one of the three fish. My team won the tournament with three that weighed 22-11. Byron’s’ team did great, too. They were right around 22 pounds as well. Everyone in the group had 20-plus pounds, come to think of it.
Besides the fishing, we got to ride around the ranch in open-air vehicles and see the wildlife that live on the grounds. We got to do shooting of several types as well. Then we did a lot of fishing right there at the La Perla Ranch which is loaded with bass, stripers and bluegill.
Byron was testing out a “prototype” swimbait rod as well. Check out this video for the scoop!
I mentioned that a 200-boat tournament was going on at Falcon, and Little Alton happened to be fishing that. It was the Bass Champs year-end Championship. It was a 2-day event, and he weighed in 10 fish that went 61-8, good enough for 20th place. I think Falcon is the only place in the world where it takes a 6-pound average to crack the top 20 in October.
This Friday I’ll be speaking at a banquet for Fishing for Freedom, then on Saturday we’ll have a tournament on Lake Belton. We’re taking soldiers from Ft. Hood out. I’m really looking forward to it.
I used to fish Belton a lot when I did a lot of local things, but I haven’t been on it three times in the last 10 years. It’s going to be fun going back and fishing memories there, though. It can be tough this time of year. I think between 13 and 15 pounds will win the event. Going from Falcon to Belton is a bit of a shock; Falcon’s got giants and Belton has “Belton Bullets,” 14-inch fish almost thin enough to read through.
In the near future, I’ll be fishing the Toyota Texas Bass Classic. It’s on Lake Conroe, but I’ve never fished it. That in itself will be interesting. What’s even weirder is that the media will probably consider me a local because I live three hours away.