Ya, Chuck I have the evidence to verify that hidden stumps are a threat in Fork in my shop and in my check book.

Chuck, what a scary incident. Ya, I would have been really concerned when the transom started down.
I got nothing compared to that, but I will share an incident with you.

We were fishing with a guide on Lake Fork throwing spinner baits. My wife fishes spinner baits as well as anybody.
After a while with no fish, my wife tells us she maneuvered her spinner bait over a log, then the log sank and disappeared. Excitedly, the guide lifted the trolling motor up out of the water and said "we gotta get heck our of here, that was no log, that was a gator".

Yes, once the drought reduced the water levels and the marina closed, we have not been back. I hope you are right regarding the water levels. If we do get back to Cortez, we will contact you. Don't do as many road trips now that we are in our 80's.

It was all the way up the channel toward the dam, then go east and take the left fork and go up the canyon. It was years ago when the marina was operating and the reservoir was full. We would go up every late spring and summer to fish with him and his wife.

We also fished Totten back then (in the 90's) and caught some nice pike on spooks. I understand the drought has hurt both lakes badly.

Similar story fishing with my friend in Cortez on McPhee. Wife got a gold colored pop-R tangled in a lay down. We drifted the boat over and I got it un-tangled. I pitched it away from the branches and as soon as it hit the water a 4-5 lb. SMB grabbed it and headed for the lay down. We maneuvered the boat away from the lay down and eventually landed it. Biggest fish we ever caught on McPhee. Women have all the luck sometimes.

Chuck, I forgot to mention that there was a fellow stager named Ben Brag. He was a good fresh water fisherman. I learned a few tips from his posts. Unfortunately, he has not posted in a while. I know he had an accident, but
I thought he had recovered. Just wondering if anyone had an update.

Hi Chuck,
Good question and good comments. I learned a lot from fishing with guides on Lake Fork. The best one was Dean Stroman (who has passed on). He was always ready to share his knowledge and even show you what you were doing wrong. I agree with stagers that I value their input more than guys at sports stores or bait shops.

Chuck, I was fortunate enough in the "ole days" when you could put your name in for a drawing in the "Bassmaster" magazine to be drawn to fish with pros in tournaments like Jay Yelas, Dean Rojas, Stacy King. I guess where I'm going with this is if you could link up with one where you think you could benefit, the dollars might be worth it.

In the past, you have given me a couple of tips. Thanks.

Saw, what got you was the most the @#$%^&* long, long half time show. Got to where I leave the room when half time comes on. And the commercials or terrible!!!!

Ya Chuck, what happened to learning the lake, cover and structure???? The livescope bypasses the need to do some of that. I particularly liked the challenge of finding fish when others could not.

That was in 2002, this is 2024. Now the gov't shoots both cows because they "fart" to much.

Lots of good comments. I agree to check as many as you can and weed out those that don't look promoted. And the total number is important and the number of 4 and 5's is a good indication.

On restaurants, we have learned to ask for a menu if we don't know the place or have not been there in a long time. We had not been to a Mexican restaurant called Jalapeno Tree in while. Sat down in a booth and opened up the menu and came close to walking out. No wonder there were not many cars there at place. Just a word of caution. I think some places are using the "inflation concept" as an excuse to raise prices a lot if they can get away with it. And not just restaurants.

RJ, well double dadgum, wish I had known you back then. I could have used some good investment advice.

The ranch where I grew up is east of the intersection of Schultz and Meister Lane, just north of where the Rosendin Electric plant is if you Google that location. SH 45 cut through the north portion of the ranch and the state of Texas took it for less than what it was worth. You gotta have deep pockets to fight eminent domain.

Right now we live just a little ways from launching just east of Lake Fork dam.

The last time we were down there, we stayed with some friends and every day about 5 pm you would hear the sirens as ambulances were headed north of RR on I-35 where the highway narrows to less lanes going to Georgetown. Hopefully, that bottle neck has been fixed by now. Take care and we will talk to you down the road.

RJ, I grew up around Round Rock and Pflugerville and graduated in a class of 40 from Round Rock High in 1961. I can't even recognize the area any more.

What brought to RR? Family I suppose. I sold my ag consulting business to an associate when real estate values in Southern California rose to ridiculous values. I figured it was time to sell out and head back to Texas in 2005. We started raising Red Angus cattle and sold bulls all over East Texas. Trimmed down to raising grass fed beef for church people and friends.

I appreciate your stories and keep on keeping on!!!!

Well, I'll chime in. An interesting read in that it is good that so many were successful regardless of their amount of education. Just goes to show you the character of all the fishermen and women on the stage.

In my case, my mother was a teacher, so you know what I was up against. It was interesting that my Dad did not finish high school and my mother graduated from Mary Hardin Baylor college with Master's degree. What a combination. They were both successful and pushed me and my brother to get an education. Lots of doors opened up for us to go to grad school. Long story shortened, I landed up with an agricultural consulting business in the Imperial Valley in southern California. Once a farm boy, hard not to be a farm boy. The Imperial Valley is several hundred thousand acres of irrigated farm land that provides lots of veggies for the country during the winter. Grew up in Texas. You can take the boy out of Texas, but you can't take the "Texas" out of the boy, hence we live close to Lake Fork and raise cattle as well as fish Fork and lots of lakes around here.