Agree with your post as far as catching multi-freshwater species on roadrunners . Have caught all varieties of panfish, crappie, smallmouth and largemouth, gaspergoo, and channel cats on roadrunners.

Never tried one in saltwater . I did see a kid catch a 25# drum at hackberry on a roadrunner head a few weeks ago but it was baited with shrimp. It was at Spicers marina where where people clean fish and throw the carcasses in the water

A woolly bugger for sure. I would be willing to bet you could fish this whole country with a woolly bugger and catch every game fish on the continent. You would have to change hook sizes to go from red fish on the coast to brook trout in an alpine lake but you could keep the same color.

I've caught bass, small and large, pan fish, all the trout species, salmon on the coast, it wouldn't be hard to jig for crappie.

Am I the only one that feels like I may never fish again, after each trip? Some of that may be in being almost 50 yo. It seems like ages between fishing trips!!!

rather be fishing said:

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Fly fishing, I'd go with either a foam/deer hair popper or a redfish crack fly.

I caught a 15" cutthroat on one last weekend, so it's elevating itself.

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Where you fishing at? In general not looking for your "secret spot". Relocating to SLC are on Utah next week and trout or walleye will be the go to apparently...

I am almost 50 yo and I fish once a week. I am self employed and have my work schedule set up to have Wednesday off so that's my fishing day. I've done that for the last 20 years. I actually hate fishing on the weekend these days. Too many people out there!

What's keeping you from fishing? Family obligations, work, or something else.

ddp ... again

Both...and kids sports are about to tune back up for the summer, it looks like. But I think we are sneaking out later this week. I just wish I could find a way to get back to monthly or every 6 week timeframes.

agbuck said:

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rather be fishing said:

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Fly fishing, I'd go with either a foam/deer hair popper or a redfish crack fly.

I caught a 15" cutthroat on one last weekend, so it's elevating itself.

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Where you fishing at? In general not looking for your "secret spot". Relocating to SLC are on Utah next week and trout or walleye will be the go to apparently...

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I'm in northwestern Montana.

We've got walleye, pike, largemouth, and smallmouth in the reservoirs along the Clark Fork up here.

Yep, that's the way it was for me when my kids were in that 10-18 yr old range. Now that they're both 20+ my only weekend restrictions are my wife's social schedule which has been zilch for the past 2+ months for obvious reasons.

Bonus is my 22 yr old son now wants to go as much as possible. He's 4 hrs away but we meet in the middle. He even helped me replace my boat steering last week. Swapped old cable style steering for hydraulic. Big difference.

Aggieangler93 said:

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Am I the only one that feels like I may never fish again, after each trip? Some of that may be in being almost 50 yo. It seems like ages between fishing trips!!!

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I felt like that when I still had kids in high school activities - I moved to a lake home with boat lift After they finished college so I get to go pretty regular even if it is just for an hour in the fencing after work

Now I do feel like that every time I get to fish the coast or make a river float - only make a couple of these trips a year which isn't nearly enough.

Sounds like there is a light at the end of the tunnel and it may not be a train. I love these kids, and I am dealing with no-baseball depression......but a man needs a few minutes to contemplate life while casting, now and then.

docb said:

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Let's do it. A ton of my 8+ fish were from Choke Canyon in the early 90s and again from around 2005-10. I also caught the lake record there. Now I mostly fish closer to home in Austin. Still fish a lot but just don't feel like making long drives as much.

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My youngest son is living and working in Austin so I woll look you up the next time I am down there - I have been encouraging him to take a kayak float on the Colorado in the area you fish. (Also read the jet boat thread)

AgDad121619 said:

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docb said:

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Let's do it. A ton of my 8+ fish were from Choke Canyon in the early 90s and again from around 2005-10. I also caught the lake record there. Now I mostly fish closer to home in Austin. Still fish a lot but just don't feel like making long drives as much.

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My youngest son is living and working in Austin so I woll look you up the next time I am down there - I have been encouraging him to take a kayak float on the Colorado in the area you fish. (Also read the jet boat thread)

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Pretty cool that you have lake record - impressive fish

docb said:

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Let's do it. A ton of my 8+ fish were from Choke Canyon in the early 90s and again from around 2005-10. I also caught the lake record there. Now I mostly fish closer to home in Austin. Still fish a lot but just don't feel like making long drives as much.

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I remember seeing an article on that fish. Didn't you lose two other giants that same day?

The Shank Ag said:

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docb said:

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Let's do it. A ton of my 8+ fish were from Choke Canyon in the early 90s and again from around 2005-10. I also caught the lake record there. Now I mostly fish closer to home in Austin. Still fish a lot but just don't feel like making long drives as much.

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I remember seeing an article on that fish. Didn't you lose two other giants that same day?

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I did. I went back two weeks later and caught about 12-15 fish off that spot with the smallest bass around 6 pounds. But no SALs. Went back two weeks later and they were gone. Did catch a 12 pound fish that same year out there in June. Those were fun times at Choke Canyon. Hopefully that lake will fill up again. One of the only lakes that never recovered from the horrible drought we had several years back.

docb said:

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The Shank Ag said:

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docb said:

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Let's do it. A ton of my 8+ fish were from Choke Canyon in the early 90s and again from around 2005-10. I also caught the lake record there. Now I mostly fish closer to home in Austin. Still fish a lot but just don't feel like making long drives as much.

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I remember seeing an article on that fish. Didn't you lose two other giants that same day?

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I did. I went back two weeks later and caught about 12-15 fish off that spot with the smallest bass around 6 pounds. But no SALs. Went back two weeks later and they were gone. Did catch a 12 pound fish that same year out there in June. Those were fun times at Choke Canyon. Hopefully that lake will fill up again. One of the only lakes that never recovered from the horrible drought we had several years back.

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As someone that has never broke the 10 lb barrier (Have had a dozen or more at 9+), I would have killed to have had that kind of year. That 12 is essentially a SAL just caught the wrong time of year.

The Shank Ag said:

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docb said:

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The Shank Ag said:

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docb said:

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Let's do it. A ton of my 8+ fish were from Choke Canyon in the early 90s and again from around 2005-10. I also caught the lake record there. Now I mostly fish closer to home in Austin. Still fish a lot but just don't feel like making long drives as much.

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I remember seeing an article on that fish. Didn't you lose two other giants that same day?

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I did. I went back two weeks later and caught about 12-15 fish off that spot with the smallest bass around 6 pounds. But no SALs. Went back two weeks later and they were gone. Did catch a 12 pound fish that same year out there in June. Those were fun times at Choke Canyon. Hopefully that lake will fill up again. One of the only lakes that never recovered from the horrible drought we had several years back.

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As someone that has never broke the 10 lb barrier (Have had a dozen or more at 9+), I would have killed to have had that kind of year. That 12 is essentially a SAL just caught the wrong time of year.

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The weirdest thing to me is that I feel like I will never be able to top my personal best fish. Partly because of luck and the other part is I just don't fish "big fish" lakes as much as I used to.

One-Eyed Fat Man said:

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. My wife and I are going to the same general area as you are the 2nd week of September - would like to hear what flies worked for you - we will be in N Lamar Valley area so just. Few hours East And will be fishing sofa butte creek and other feeders in the area

I hope it never fills back up but for different reasons than you. The 8-10ft rise of it 2 years ago already screwed me up enough. I'd like it to stay where it's at or just a lil lower.

TH36 said:

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I hope it never fills back up but for different reasons than you. The 8-10ft rise of it 2 years ago already screwed me up enough. I'd like it to stay where it's at or just a lil lower.

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Actually I hope it does fill back up and stay there for several years. The bass fishing and duck hunting will explode. I've witnessed this twice and hope to see it again. Although the duck hunting is not a secret like it was in the early 90s.

I think every time I've hunted it clear back to when I was introduced to it about 10 years ago it's always been low. I only hunted it a couple times back then but now that I hunt it a lot the hunting was definitely better a couple years ago when it was much lower than it was this year.

I think it'll be almost un-huntable if it was 100% full cause the brush has gotten so thick it's been so low for so many years.

But that's just my .02 cents. I agree with you about everyone knowing about it, you've obviously been going there a lot longer than I have but even in the last few years there's been a big influx of people.

Gunna shoot you a PM.

Creature bait on a weighted ewg hook. Can fish it slow like a jig or swim it ....

Used to fish Choke all the time but for drum and whites. It was nothing to haul the 13 ft. Whaler down on a Saturday at 4 p.m., launch at a South Shore before 6, cross the dam face to the opposite shore and troll up a bunch whites until dark. Then head home.

Or, in late February or early March, launch at Daughtrey and go up the Frio as far as the boat could go and load up the ice chest.

Duck hunting back then was great too. There used to be lots of walk in access. We'd drive into the compartments adjacent to the 99 bridge and sometimes didn't need to set out dekes or get there super early. And shoot plenty of birds.

Good times, great memories. I was younger then (52 now) and don't have that little Whaler any more.