I always hold mine close to my body for scale, and being 6'5"…..

Yeah I remember Eloy and Fishing Texas too.

Similar story. Was fishing at Lake Whitney for black bass back during Covid (Katy Bridge area for those familiar with Whitney). Landed a great black crappie. Decided to weigh it while my buddy shot a video of the "weigh in." It was 2.83 lbs. We both thought...yea, nice crappie. Had a great rest of the day only to find out when we got back later that afternoon that the lake record for a black crappie was 2.21. We had a laugh...toasted a beer...and learned a good lesson.

Similar story, lake Whitney middle 90's. We used to go to Whitney for a week every Easter and Striper fish. Out slow trolling swimbaits for Striper and we see birds working hard near the bluffs around Walling Bend, we cruise in their and start throwing into the feeding birds and wham -o! Doubled the rod over and I think I have a nice striper, what I in fact had was a HOG smallie. I had a cheap Rapala branded spring scale and it hit just under 7# on it. I had never caught a smallie and quite frankly didn't even know they were in Whitney. I admired it for a second or 2 after weighing it, and flipped it back in the water. It would have been nice to have a phone with a camera on it that day!

Gunny456 said:

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Not to derail but on topic. Don't know if any of you guys remember a pro bass fisherman named Elroy Krueger. He lived in the Schertz area and owned a tackle shop across from Mercer Marine (later Penicks Marine) in Universal city. He was a bass fishing Icon in the South Texas area.
We sponsored Elroy and he ran one of our boats.
I got to do a fishing show with him and Allen Warren of a new show back then called "Fishing Texas". (This was in the early 80's).
Anyway we were fishing at Calaveras lake and Elroy caught a bass about 2.5-3lbs. The host of the show on film says " Elroy, what you reckon that fish weighs, 3 or 4 pounds?"
Elroy, without missing a beat, responds and says " yea, maybe 3lbs……or a Roland Martin
10 pounder."

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Elroy Krueger used to fish Choke Canyon a lot back in the day. I had forgotten about him hosting Fishing Texas? I do remember Nolan Ryan's son Reid hosting it for a while. Hm.... I wonder how he landed that gig?

He didn't host it. He was just fishing with them for the day so they could do a show.
Allen Warren was the producer but I can't remember the host name.
I think I have some old VHS tapes of those original shows. I need to go look.
I remember it was a guy who had done some tv news stuff in SA.
Roger something I think?

I know that Keith Warren hosted the show for a while.

Regarding the tv news personality, it wasn't Joe Fowler, was it?

Doesn't a guy on TA have the state record for Pelcostamus (black armored catfish) on a fly rod for a fish caught outta Brays Bayou?

I caught it on a minnow crank bait. And yes, I know you were probably being sarcastic.

Elroy was the best spinnerbait fisherman to ever do it. I fished with him many times. He had some techniques that I only saw him do. And they worked. Rick Clunn says the same.

I saw Elroy and Keith Warren come to blows on Texanna one day. Keith didn't stand much of a chance.

Just looked up Jerry Dunn. He was another long time guide on Choke Canyon. He just passed recently in July. I used to see him on Choke Canyon often and always friendly to chat with.

I caught what would have been an IGFA record bowfin in a bass pond about 90 minutes outside of Houston once! It was getting dark and I damn near lipped him, thankfully my fishing partner put a light on the fish just in time to see all those dam teeth!

I knew Jerry Dunn well as we made him a memo boat deal for a few years. I met him when working for another performance boat company years back. He was good friends with Sonny Coody who was the national sales manager for the old Arbogast bait company. Arbogast was then owned by Dave Porthouse out of St. Louis. Porthouse bought Champion Boats around 1991. He turned it over to his son who had just graduated from tu. A few years later it went under and was taken over by Johnny Morris. He subsequently did away with the brand altogether.
Sonny would oftentimes hang out in Jerry's trailerhouse down at Choke.
Last time I talked with Sonny he was living out in Marpha.

Gunny456 said:

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He didn't host it. He was just fishing with them for the day so they could do a show.
Allen Warren was the producer but I can't remember the host name.
I think I have some old VHS tapes of those original shows. I need to go look.
I remember it was a guy who had done some tv news stuff in SA.
Roger something I think?

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All this talk of fishing and then you mentioning VHS tapes has caused me to want to go look through mine (if I still have them). I had some made by Glen Lau that were titled "Bigmouth Forever" not to be confused with an earlier video just called "Bigmouth." The underwater photography was just amazing. Old timers might recognize the name of Homer Circle and on one of the tapes, Homer was fishing a deep diving bait, something like a Hellbender.

This big bass swam up behind it, flared its gills, inhaled that lure and spat it out and Homer never felt a thing. Of course equipment and line was not as sensitive back then. Later, after he had watched the video during editing he said after seeing that bass do that, he started setting the hook even on the slightest sensation.

Tomorrow I am going to look for those tapes, though I don't think I have anything to play them on lol.

That's what I'm talking about! Nice fish!!!!

I always wondered what happened to Champion bass boats. I have always owned a Ranger but I did like the Champions as well.