I returned from Trophy Bass Lodge and Lake Huites on March 29, having fished and filmed several days with a great group of guys. Those present at the lodge were Mark Davis from Pflueger-Sahekspeare. Mark has been crushing Lake Huites giants for years, and is one of the best. His dad, Delbert Davis, joined us as well. Mark was there to film some shows with Keith Warren, of Keith Warren Outdoors. Dan Hernandez, Executive Producer of Sportfishing with Dan Hernandez, joined us to film as well. Also present were Gary Tramontina with ESPN/BASS and Tramontina Photography; Mike Rice, Senior Product Manager with Pflueger-Shakespeare: Jeff Samsel, Public Relations Coordinator with Pradco Fishing; Lynn Burkhead, Web Site Editor - Outdoor Group of Grand View Media; and David Fields, CEO of Trophy Bass Lodge.
We were met with cool mornings and beautiful days with temperatures in the mid 80's. Lake Huites was at 85% pool, water was clear and 78 degrees. The bass were in a post-spawn pattern and finicky by Lake Huites standards. Those of us that fish Lake Huites often have become accustiomed to 100+ bass per day, however on this trip we averaged a more modest 40 to 60 bass a day. There were plenty of quality fish out there; you just had to fish the points in 15 to 30 feet of water to catch them. Mark fished and filmed with Keith Warren, and they crushed the big pigs on two primary baits. The first was a one ounce BOOYAH spinner baits with a single Colorado blade slow rolled on main lake points and humps. The other bait was 4 inch swim baits in pearl with the tail dipped in chartreuse dye. The two shows will air early next year, and with more than 50 fish between 5 and 10 pounds on film in 3 days, it should be some great entertainment.
Jeff's Samsels best big bass bait was a one ounce BOOYAH blade chartreuse and white spinner bait slow rolled on points and brush. His best numbers came on an XCalibut XT-3 twitch bait. Jeff said he would work the bait along all of the shore line cover, with most of the bites coming on the pause. This pattern worked well for numbers of bass, up to 7 pounds.
When I was filming with Dan Hernandez, we caught good numbers of fish up to 7 pounds fishing a variety of baits including big Fat Free Shads, Texas rigged lizards, and the BOOYAH Boogie. While Dan is usually a saltwater big game fisherman, he definitely enjoyed this bass fishing experience. I will also say that he is a fine gentleman with whom I enjoyed sharing the boat with.
I also spent a day fly rod fishing with Lynn Burkhead (he was fly fishing, I was watching in awe!). I was skeptical that a fly-rod angler could have good success on a bass lake like Huites, but was I ever proven wrong! While he did not have any really big fish, which has as much to do with the time of year as anything, he was able to catch as many as 40 bass a day up to 5 pounds. Just before we left for the lodge on the final day, I caught an incredible female spawner that was full of eggs (check out the picture!). This big mother was pushing ten pounds, and pulled me around half of that lake before we put her in net!
By the 2nd week of April the bass on Lake Huites will have fully recovered. They will be set up on main lake points, humps and ridges and become extremely consistent. Our clients will have 30,000 acres of pristine, virtually unfished bass water to hunt for those incredible Huites giants. We want to finish out the season with a bang, so we have offered an incredible $1,100 special for April and May, 2007 only. We are already into April and spaces are filling fast, so call me today to book your fishing trip of a lifetime!
Trophy Team Member
Brett Graham