I’ve fished in the Salmon Capital of the World – and it took me 5 days to catch a salmon.  So when I heard that many believe Lake Fork to be the #1 largemouth bass lake in America I was naturally a little hesitant to jump on the bandwagon.  It was 4PM when we met our guide John Tanner.  It was clear blue skies, 100 degrees, with 90% humidity.  The last thing I was looking forward to was 4 hours in the hot sun, sweating, trying to catch a fish.  However, John said his clients caught 25 that morning and that we would do fine.  I had read so much about John Tanner that I half believed him.

The first thing I loved about Lake Fork fishing is that we went looking for the fish – meaning we were moving which caused the sweat pouring off our bodys to evaporate – the best air conditioning mother nature can provide.  20 minutes into the hunt we were on top of a school of largemouth bass on a hump in the middle of the lake.  For the next four hours we hopped from structure to structure – every time putting ourselves on top of big fish – and big fish we caught.  A great day of bass fishing for me might involve two or three 1-2 pounders and maybe a 3 pounder if I’m really lucky.  Get a load of this.  Taylor boated 10 bass which weighed a total of 35 pounds.  I boated 4 bass that weighed in at 16 pounds.  Do the math.  5 pounder, 4 pounder, 4 pounder, 3 pounder.  We both lost as many as well.  Our guide probably caught 20 and his average was 4 pounds a piece too – with several in the 6+ range.  Are you kidding me?  This was the most unbelievable bass fishing experience of my life.  Trust me, if you are serious about bass fishing you don’t need to go to Mexico. 

Texas – YOU WIN!  You definitely grow-em big here and you proved it.

At 9:30PM we were back in the RV headed for Oklahoma’s Mountain Fork River to fish for smallmouth with guide Rob Woodruff the next morning.  We arrived around midnight and to my surprise realized that our day on the water wouldn’t begin until 9AM – SLEEP.  Yes, we would get some good rest tonight.