Partly cloudy skies. Low 73F. Winds S at 5 to 10 mph..
Partly cloudy skies. Low 73F. Winds S at 5 to 10 mph.
(Ryan Woody) Lake Fork fishing guide Brooks Rogers put client Ryan Woody on this 12-pound, 6-ounce bruiser in late June. The big summer bass may have cracked 14 pounds during spring, when heavy with eggs. It’s one of the biggest bass reported from Fork in 2022. (Photo courtesy of Brooks Rogers)
Lake O.H. Ivie Brandon Burks recently landed his 20th double-digit bass of 2022. Burks claims he watched the fish on forward sonar as it merged from a flooded salt cedar and raced to his 8-inch glide bait from 15 feet away. (Photo courtesy of Brandon Burks)
Justin Broomhall of Jefferson was fishing for catfish from the shores of Lake Cherokee when this alligator snapping turtle scooped up the glob of Catfish Charlie the angler was using for bait. Broomhall estimates the prehistoric looking turtle weighed around 150 pounds. Protected by state law, the turtle was released back into the lake. (Courtesy photo Justin Broomhall)
Wayne Zartman was reeling in a small white bass at Lake Ray Roberts when this big flathead catfish decided it wanted to munch the fish for lunch. After a lengthy battle Zartman landed the 50-pound plus catfish and removed the sand bass from its throat. Both were released alive. (Courtesy photo Wayne Zartman)
(Ryan Woody) Lake Fork fishing guide Brooks Rogers put client Ryan Woody on this 12-pound, 6-ounce bruiser in late June. The big summer bass may have cracked 14 pounds during spring, when heavy with eggs. It’s one of the biggest bass reported from Fork in 2022. (Photo courtesy of Brooks Rogers)
Lake O.H. Ivie Brandon Burks recently landed his 20th double-digit bass of 2022. Burks claims he watched the fish on forward sonar as it merged from a flooded salt cedar and raced to his 8-inch glide bait from 15 feet away. (Photo courtesy of Brandon Burks)
Justin Broomhall of Jefferson was fishing for catfish from the shores of Lake Cherokee when this alligator snapping turtle scooped up the glob of Catfish Charlie the angler was using for bait. Broomhall estimates the prehistoric looking turtle weighed around 150 pounds. Protected by state law, the turtle was released back into the lake. (Courtesy photo Justin Broomhall)
Wayne Zartman was reeling in a small white bass at Lake Ray Roberts when this big flathead catfish decided it wanted to munch the fish for lunch. After a lengthy battle Zartman landed the 50-pound plus catfish and removed the sand bass from its throat. Both were released alive. (Courtesy photo Wayne Zartman)
It’s not every day you catch a 50-pound flathead catfish on rod and reel. The piscatorial giants are frequently caught by trotliners using live perch for bait or hand fishermen brave enough go rooting around in their spawning dens.
Many rod/reel encounters with flatheads happen while the angler is targeting an entirely different species. Wayne Zartman of Bedford knows all about that deal.
Zartman was enjoying an eventful white bass feeding spree at Lake Ray Roberts near Denton when he inadvertently crossed paths with a heavyweight flathead. His bait of choice was a 1/2-ounce slab spoon, a flat piece of lead painted chartreuse and white with a treble hook on the business end.
The sand bass had been biting fairly well. Zartman said he had already landed about 30 fish when he felt the thump of another bite. He was bringing the fish towards the boat when something much larger gobbled it up, headed the opposite direction and peeled drag off his bait caster.
What Zartman called an “epic battle” ensued. He figured he had hooked a big catfish, but said he didn’t know for certain until about 10 minutes later when finally managed to work the fish to the surface. A flathead with a weight problem had decided to munch the 8-inch sandie for lunch.
“Much to my surprise, when I went to retrieve my lure from this beast, the two of the three treble hooks were in the sand bass' mouth and only one hook was in the catfish,” Zartman recalled. “I got the single hook out of the catfish's mouth with a simple twist of my pliers and then did the same with the sand bass.”
Zartman said the fat cat bottomed out a set of 50 pound scales. He worked the sand bass out the catfish’s throat and his girlfriend took a few pictures. Both fish were released unharmed.
“It’s definitely one of my favorite fishing memories for sure!” Zartman said.
Some anglers may have been tempted to keep the catfish, but it would have been illegal to do so. That’s because the flathead ate the sand bass, not Zartman’s slab spoon. Both fish are labeled as “sport fish” in Texas, and it is illegal to use any sport fish as bait.
Walter "Junior" Thomas of Alba knows the situation all too well.
In 2010, Thomas was fishing for crappie at Lake Fork when he hooked a crappie on 1/16-ounce jig rigged on ultralight gear. Thomas was reeling the crappie to the boat when a big bass grabbed it and took off.
The angler landed eventually landed both fish. The 15.69 pounder would have ranked among the Top 50 heaviest bass ever reported in Texas had it been caught on a lure or minnow instead of a crappie.
Interestingly, Thomas was already aware the catch was not legal. The angler had caught and released two fish over 10 pounds the same way the month before. Thinking there was a chance he might catch a bigger one, he contacted TPWD's law enforcement headquarters to find out more.
Robert Goodrich, TPWD's assistant chief of fisheries enforcement at the time, explained that it is not legal to retain any fish that is caught using game fish for bait, even if it is unintentional.
"The bottom line is you can't use game fish for bait," Goodrich said. "It was ultimately a crappie that attracted that fish, not the artificial jig.”
Ryan Woody of Comanche, Okla., recently hauled in a heavyweight the conventional way.
Woody was fishing with guide Brooks Rogers on June 23 when he caught a whale of a summer bass. The 12-pound, 6-ounce fish is one of the best biggest bass reported from the 27,000-acre the lake this year.
Rogers fishes old school. He’s not fan of forward sonar.
“We had been fishing since daylight and caught maybe 16-18 fish,” Rogers recalled. “I pulled up on a main lake point north of the Highway 154 bridge about 1:30 p.m. and Ryan made cast into about 10 feet of water. It was one those deals where we just happened to be in the right at the right time. We didn’t do anything special.”
Woody’s bait of choice was a Zoom Ol’ Monster plastic worm. The 10-inch plum colored worm was rigged Texas style with a 1/4 ounce slip sinke. He didn’t crawl the worm very far before the fish inhaled it.
Rogers isn’t the only Texas fishing guide who has been around the big ones lately. In mid-June, Lake O.H. Ivie guide Brandon Burks notched his 20th double-digit bass of 2022. ’Ivie has been a hotbed for giants the last couple of years and fishing guide Brandon Burks is a specialist at catching them.
His most recent summer whopper, a 10.13 pounder, ate a Golden Belt Customs glide bait. The 8-inch lure looks as if it might be more than a mouthful. Burks insists it is not.
“Bass are like great whites,” he said. “If they see something they want to eat, they’ll eat it — it doesn’t make any difference if they weigh two pounds or 12.”
Burks thinks several factors make the glide bait effective at ‘Ivie. The lake has a bounty of big fish. It also an abundant population of large gizzard shad the glide bait does a good job of simulating.
Another is the gin clear water that cloaks huge fields of salt cedars and hardwoods, which allows the fish to see potential meals from considerable distance. Bass use the heavy cover to hide and wait for forage to swim dangerously close. Using forward-facing sonar, Burks actually saw his June lunker race out of the brush and nail the glide bait from 15 feet away.
“It gets pretty exciting when you see that happen,” he said.
Things can get even more dicey when you hook what you think is a fish but it doesn’t turn out to be a fish at all.
Justin Broomhall of Jefferson got a good taste of fishing’s wild side during a recent afternoon fishing trip to Lake Cherokee, a private lake near Longview.
Broomhall and his dad, Michael, were bank fishing for catfish in Lee Creek. He said they had caught several channel cat and blue cat when the bite suddenly waned.
“I told my dad there might be a predator around that spooked the fish,” he said.
Broomhall’s intuitions were correct. He saw a bubble trail on the surface within casting distance and lobbed a fresh glob of Catfish Charlie towards it. He saw the line jump and set the hook.
“At first it didn’t budge, sort of like a log or a rock,” he said. “I knew right then it was no catfish.”
Broomhall eventually worked the critter close enough to shore to it see was alligator snapping turtle. Sometimes called loggerhead because of its large head, the alligator snapping turtle is easily distinguishable by the three rows of spiked ridges on top of its shell. The snappers have jaws powerful enough to break a broom handle. They frequently use a worm-shaped appendage on the tip of their tongues to lure fish other prey close.
The prehistoric-looking reptile is the largest freshwater turtle in North America and are a threatened species protected by law in Texas. Turtles pushing 300 pounds have been documented, but Broomhall’s wasn’t quite that big. He knows because he got his hands on the turtle and carefully wrestled it to shore to get a closer look.
“I do a lot of heavy lifting at work — my guess is it weighed around 150-160,” he said. “And it wasn’t very happy at all.”
Broomhall used pliers to remove the hook, took a few pictures and released the big turtle unharmed back into the lake. Word of his catch spread quickly as the photos circulated social media, eventually getting picked up by local and national news outlets. Not surprisingly, he also got a from local game wardens interested to learn more about the fate of dino-looking turtle.
“He’s doing just fine — a neighbor saw him a couple of days later,” he said.
Matt Williams is a freelance writer based in Nacogdoches. He can be reached by e-mail, mattwillwrite4u@yahoo.com.
Rayburn team banks 50K in Texas Shootout
Brett Preuett of Monroe, La., and Ben South of Jasper, topped 145 teams to win the Bass Champs Texas Shootout on June 26 at Sam Rayburn.
Preuett/South weighed in five fish for 31.50. They won $50,000 cash.
William Flournoy and James Chumley of Diboll finished a close second with 31.40 pounds, earning $5,500. Sixteen other teams cracked 20 pounds. Big fish of the event was a 10.35 pounder.
NWTF to help fund Texas projects
Texas will be on the receiving end of a portion of $360,000 in research funding allocated for use in seven research projects in six states by the National Wild Turkey Federation and its partners, according to a NWTF report.
Wild turkey researchers submitted project proposals through NWTF’s Wild Turkey Research Request for Proposals, a program that facilitates and makes large investments in support of priority wild turkey research.
Texas research projects that won funding:
• “Impacts of Woody Understory Vegetation and Invasive Species on Roosting Habitat Potential for Wild Turkey.” The report says the study will complement a Texas Parks and Wildlife Department priority to examine changing roost site habitat in the Rolling Plains region of Texas. The study will classify vegetation and non-native, invasive species and then conduct a change assessment across the Edwards Plateau to determine impact.
• “Rio Grande Wild Turkey Habitat and Genetic Connectivity, Disease Prevalence and Survival in the Texas Edwards Plateau Ecoregion” will explore turkey abundance against a decreased number of hunters and turkeys harvested in recent years. Environmental factors such as flooding, unmanaged grazing and damage to vegetation are some study areas. The impact of parasites and disease also will be reviewed.
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