Coastal Bend Rods

Bass Champs- Falcon Lake

2012-01-15T19:26:00.000-08:00

Here's a couple Mexican bass that got a free trip to the US on saturday. Bryan Cotter and I had a bit of a tough day on Falcon, but we did manage one nice one... Bryan caught the fish on the left on a mag fluke outside of Benavides cove. It went about 8.5lbs. I caught the 5lbr on the right on a jig. We hit alot of spots, but had trouble catching the numbers and size we were looking for. Congrats to Terry Oldham and Jaime Buitron... they caught a 9lb average and won it with over 45lbs!

NOT a Longhorn rod!!

2012-01-10T06:52:00.002-08:00

Just orange and black.... Phenix X-13 with cactus, a cracked paint reel seat, inlaid quarter, and a little JTob wrap... The pics came out dark because we finally have a little rain coming through.

January Club Tournament

2012-01-08T15:48:00.000-08:00

I partnered up with Rachel for the first club tournament of the year on Lake Bastrop! Rachel fished hard all day and caught this 19" bass on a shaky head rattlesnake. We had a good day of fishing, and Rachel was quick on the net... We ended up in 4th place out of nine teams, and my 17+ lbs was enough to start the year 1st in the club standings. I was proud of Rachel for putting some good points on the board in her first tournament!

Happy New Year!

2012-01-04T21:57:00.000-08:00

Cheers to 2012!! This last year was one of my favorite years of fishing, and I'm hoping 2012 will be even better. Make a resolution to hit the water more often this year!!!
I am honored to be featured in the Mud Hole rod builders calendar for the second year in a row!! The 15' CTS fly rod was a fun build, and I'm humbled that it got some recognition among some of the best builders from around the world!!
Go catch a giant this year and send me a shot with your Coastal Bend rod in the pic!

Texas Longhorn light offshore rod

2011-12-30T17:34:00.000-08:00

This is a Longhorn rod built on a Phenix PSW700M. It has Alps components, an EVA foregrip, and x-flock over ribbed EVA rear grip. The thread is Madiera and Pro-wrap, and the finish is Threadmaster lite. This one will be paired with an Avet and used for light offshore work in TX.

Ship Channel Snook Trip

2011-12-29T23:04:00.000-08:00

On 12/27, Keith, Steve and I hit the Brownsville ship channel in the Panga to look for some snook. It was very low tide, but the water was clean and the snook were hungry. We ended up with 9 snook, 3 reds, and a bunch of ladyfish. Steve had the hot hand on the ladyfish with a gulp shrimp, Keith was hammering the snook on a chrome/black baby buster, and I caught my snook on a white 6" gulp jerk shad. The biggest snook was Keiths at about 27". We had some strikes from some giants, but didn't connect. This was Steve's first redfish, so we snapped a pic. Good times with the family this Christmas holiday!

Willamar Hog Hunt

2011-12-29T22:02:00.000-08:00

The day after Christmas, all the boys headed out to Willamar to meet up with a pack of pig dogs. (I'm gonna hold off on mentioning the dog owner's name, because I'm not sure if he wanted us to be shooting video) The pigs have been getting into the stored grain out by the gin, so that's where we started. We worked some of the brush leading up to the pasture block, and finally found a big pack of about 15 hogs. The dogs killed one of the small ones before we got to it, and they caught another one that had a wounded leg. Cale wielded the knife on that one. The rest of the pack got across the highway and got away. From there, we hunted the backside of the L block. The dogs picked up a scent almost right away, and the chase was on. After a long run through the brush, through a muddy ditch, and across a couple fields, Cale, Keith and Charlie were the first on the scene. After a short wrestling match, Cody put his Rambo knife to good use and dispatched a good sized boar. After that, we had another big one on the run, but it managed to slip the dogs. Here's some shots of the dogs, the fully rhino lined truck, the hero shot, and the kill video.

The quote of the day was when Steve asked the dog owner's 9 year old daughter what the bucket of water was for on the truck. "Is that to give the dogs a drink?" -- "Naw, that's to wash the blood off the knives"
Calm before the storm...

Beast of a hunting truck...

Cold blooded

**The video is very graphic and may be disturbing - viewer discretion advised**
Cody's kill

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i596Ve8Am3c

Bully Bat

2011-12-15T09:12:00.000-08:00

Here's a fish bat that's headed to the East Coast today. It is bocote wood with a hemp wrist strap. Should put a helluva headache on any skulls it meets! Rod pics coming soon!

Ling on a Redfish rod!!

2011-10-31T20:28:00.000-07:00

Here's Hailey Smith with a nice ling she caught on Cade's "Redfish" rod. They were casting for tripletail around a rig when this bad boy came up and ate her Texas trout killer!! I bet that thing gave the rod a good workout! Thanks Cade!!

Sir's Stick - Pistol Grip

2011-10-28T07:36:00.000-07:00

This is a sweet little 6'6" pistol grip bass rod built on a Rainshadow CB66MH blank. The foregrip trim is a slice of mesquite. Lot's of rods on the rack right now, so I'm trying to crank out as many as I can before Christmas!!

Fishing for Freedom 2011

2011-10-19T06:47:00.000-07:00

Last weekend was a fun weekend of fishing! I entered the Fishing for Freedom tournament on Lake Belton and fished with Mike Rivera. Mike is a veteran Apache helicopter pilot, so right away I knew I was dealing with a sharp dude. We were boat 197 out of the starting blocks, and we ended un in 6th place out of 286 teams!! It was a really tough day of fishing, but our three smallmouth and one largemouth were enough to get us in the money for a $700 payday! We caught our fish on white square bill crankbaits and green pumpkin hula grubs. Ok the way back to the weigh in, I spun the hub on my prop, so Mike had to get picked up and go to weigh in on his own. I made it to the weigh in just in time to pick up our checks! This one was a confidence booster, as we beat out several Bassmaster Elite series pros... This was my first time on Belton, so we'll call it beginners luck!

Takeoff... got our game faces on:

Mike with our 2 best smallmouth:

Payday:

The results are here: http://faithanglernetwork.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/10/FFF2011-Tournament-Results.pdf

On sunday (after getting a new prop with my winnings), I fished the club tournament at Stillhouse Hollow Reservoir. Bryan Henegar and I got second place and I picked up this one that was just shy of 5lbs. My weight was enough to hold my 2nd place spot in the club standings.

Lake Travis 10/8

2011-10-08T10:28:00.000-07:00

Tom Martens and I hit Lake Travis today for a few hours. The lake is lower than I've ever seen it... We started the morning under a little drizzle, so that was weird. We had a killer morning of fishing. Tom was on fire with a jig, and I was catching them on cranks, jigs, shaky heads, and Baby Buster. We probably caught about 50 fish from 7am until 11:30, with the biggest five about 15+lbs. I kept my 5lbr streak alive with this one... It came on a shaky head from way behind a dock. I didn't think I was going to be able to get it out, but somehow I managed to land it. I also caught this nice Guadalupe bass. Guads don't get very big, so this one was actually a "picture taker". Fun morning on the water!! I promise, some fishing rods are coming up soon!!!

Cousins weekend at LBJ - 2011

2011-10-02T15:48:00.000-07:00

We had our 3rd annual cousins weekend at LBJ on 10/1. Keith, Travis, Ross, and Cale made it out, and we had a rip roarin' good time as usual... On friday, Ross came out a little early and we hit lake Travis in the afternoon, and LBJ just before sunset. We caught quite a few fish, mostly on cranks and shaky heads, including this one that went about 5lbs. After watching the Aggies blow it on saturday, we cooked up a feast. We had fried wild turkey with gravy, fried cobia, grilled cobia, fried potatos, T-bone steaks, and fried bass! At about 11pm, we jumped in the ski boat and went out to hit some green lights. After picking off several white bass and largemouth, Keith hooked into a GIANT flathead catfish. Unfortunately, it went on a hard run with 12lb test, and broke the line. Not even 5 minutes later, on the next light, I hooked into this flathead that was almost as big. We guessed that Keith's fish was about 8-10 inches longer than this one. After that, we had a gar rodeo when Ross foul hooked a spotted gar and Keith lasso'd it into the boat. Good times and lots of laughs with the cuz's!!

SPI - Spearfishing with a whale shark!!!

2011-09-26T14:31:00.000-07:00

On saturday 9/24, I had one of the greatest experiences I've ever had on the water. Keith, Cesar and I headed out of the jetties and ended up at the Little Sarah rig about 10 miles out. Keith and Cesar jumped right in with their snorkels, and I decided to stay in the boat and drop down to try to catch some snapper. I had a couple snaps and grouper to the boat and had gotten hit by a big 'cuda, but nothing too exciting. After about an hour, Cesar finally got a shot on a big ling that they had been stalking. We decided to stick around a little longer, so I geared up and jumped in to check out the scene underwater. The visibility was about 60'+ and there was almost no current. The rig was a beautiful sight and there were lots of fish on it. Most of the snapper we could see were just out of range, but there were lots of big barracuda cruising around. I was getting ready to shoot a barracuda when I heard Keith yell that a whale shark was coming in. I looked over and saw the 25'-30' behemoth slowly swimming toward me!! We swam toward it and could see that there were about 10 big ling swimming with it. For the next hour or so, the shark was circling the rig, and it came up about 4 or five times. We were picking off the ling at every opportunity and taking short rides on it's fins.... We took a little break, and as soon as I got back in the water, it was coming up at about a 45 degree angle about 20 yards from me. I swam to it, shot a ling, and then grabbed its dorsal fin. It kept coming up, so I let go of the dorsal and grabbed its tail. By then it was on the surface, and I got a nice tail ride for about 5 swoops of it's tail!! The whole time, I had the ling pulling on the line, but I was able to pull out the camera and take the video. In the video, you can see my shot ling, Caesar taking a fin ride, and Keith going in for a shot that he decided not to take. You can also see a snapper that was caught by a kid in a little skiff on the surface. After this last encounter, we loaded up and went to the sea buoy where we found a nice tripletail sitting under the buoy. I got up close and personal with it and gave it a skewering... From there, we hit the end of the jetties. I stayed in the boat and fished for some of the tarpon that they were seeing, while they shot several more mangrove snapper. We ended the day with five nice ling, the tripletail, and about 8 mangrove snapper!!! I must say, Keith has found a cool new hobby and I can't wait to get out there again with him! This trip will be stuck in my head forever. I'll never forget taking a ride on the biggest fish that swims in the ocean, and I'm really glad I had the camera to capture some shots of this beautiful animal!!
This was the first thing I saw when I jumped in:

This 'cuda was the second thing I saw:

Caesar fighting up a big ling:

Enter the whale shark:

Keith down about 40'+ You can see the whale shark under him:

Keith coming up:

Keith with a nice ling:

Me with a ling:

Big ling:

Gangster fishing!!!

Me with the tripletail:

Whale shark video:

Lake Travis 9/11

2011-09-11T12:48:00.000-07:00

I hit Lake Travis today with Lance Hale and his neighbor, Domingo. The day started off with steady action on crankbaits and frogs. Lance caught a nice bass and then a nice yella cat on a crankbait. We hit a few more spots and I picked up this one on a Lucky Craft crankbait. It was 5.5 on Lance's scale, but I'm callin' it a six!!!

Baby Buster Double Up!!

2011-09-09T19:22:00.000-07:00

I hit up Lake Travis this afternoon and caught this double on a pearl colored Baby Buster!! I also caught fish on frogs, shaky head, Gunfish, and crankbaits. The lake is about 45' low & I found some nice brushpiles to hit up after we get some rain....

Mexico Super Grand Slam!!

2011-09-02T14:50:00.001-07:00

Rachel and I had a great day of fishing with Enrique Trinidad in Isla Blanca, MX on 8/25. I caught my first inshore Super Grand Slam!! All of these fish were sight casted on my new 3 piece travel rod I made for this trip! The permit came first on a small pink & white spade head jig. Right after that, I got the tarpon on a crab pattern Buggs lure. The bonefish was a little hard to get because the sun went behind some cluds and they were tough to spot. Luckily, I saw a little flash and was able to reach them with a long cast. After that, Enrique took us through a tunnel of mangroves to a perfectly glassy lagoon. There was a little 3' channel running into the lagoon on the back side, and there were about 6 snook sitting on the side of it. The snook hit a 3" rootbeer/gold gulp shrimp. This was definitely one of the most memorable days of fishing I have ever had!!! While we were looking for the snook, I started telling Enrique the story about last time I was down there six years ago and a shark ate my snook right after I released it... His reply was "That was me!"...It turns out this was the 2nd time I've fished with Enrique, so I guess now it's a tradition! Big thanks to Enrique and to Martin van der Does at http://www.cancuntarponfishing.com/ for setting this trip up!!

Scorpion Rod!!

2011-08-17T19:55:00.000-07:00

This rod is built on a Phenix S700M blank. It has a prickly pear cactus butt with an inlaid scorpion over South Padre sand. The scorpion is a tribute to a bay house that gets regular visits from the little devils!!

TIFT weekend - 2011

2011-08-10T21:51:00.000-07:00

Keith and I decided to fish the tarpon division of TIFT in his new Panga. It was a fun weekend of fishing, but we had a heartbreak on friday morning... There were no tarpon caught in the tournament, and we had one on for 4 jumps before we lost it at the boat.... Other than that we had a couple other tarpon bites and jumped one more off on saturday morning. It was tough fishing, and the bite pretty much turned off after the sun came up... I also caught a real nice snook on friday morning. On thursday before the tourney, I went out to the first rig with Lance Hale and his friend from PI, Keith. We caught some really nice barracuda on slow trolled ribbonfish. Here's some pics...

Lake LBJ

2011-07-25T07:41:00.000-07:00

Rachel and I got an invite to go fish LBJ yesterday with Tom Martens. Tom just picked up his 2011 Ranger Z521, so we were cruising in style. I got a chance to drive the boat some, and it's a Cadillac!! Here's a couple of fish we put in the boat late in the afternoon.... We caught these on finesse worms, but the frog bite and crankbait bite was also good. The next club tourney is on LBJ, so this was a good warm-up!

Tourney report - July

2011-07-16T20:45:00.000-07:00

Here's a couple fish that Bryan and I caught on wednesday night. I caught the one on the left on a black lizard, and Bryan caught the one on the right on a Senko. Unfortunately, we had a cracked engine bracket and couldn't make it to weigh in. We would have gotten 4th out of 23 teams. Today I fished the Big Sandy Creek bass club tournament on Lake Georgetown with Lorne Dornak. We got 3rd, and my 11.2 lbs was good enough for me to keep my #2 spot. Time to crank out a couple more rods before I head south to fish the tarpon division of TIFT in Keith's new Panga!

Boys & Girls Club Rod

2011-07-11T08:38:00.001-07:00

This is a rod that my dad's church donated to Gerald Gathwright, the director of the Boys & Girls Club of Harlingen. It is a 7' Phenix S700MH blank with a blue cactus butt, carbon fiber spinning seat, and custom metallic decals. The guides on this one are titanium plated Fuji's.

Crown Royal Tuna Sniper

2011-07-05T20:59:00.000-07:00

This is a Crown Royal themed 8'6" OTI tuna sniper. It has an Alps triangle reel seat and Alps gimbal, ribbed EVA rear grips covered with shrink grip, dark purple and gold marbling with a Crown label on top, hypalon foregrip, purple trim rings, and Fuji K series guides. This one's going to be putting the hurt on the tarpon in South Texas!!!

Texas Flats Grand Slam

2011-07-04T22:59:00.001-07:00

This weekend, on 7/3, I caught my first Texas Flats Grand Slam! It started on the first cast of the day wih a 32" snook! From there, I picked up a flounder in the same general area. We took a break for lunch and then went back out and picked up the trout and then the redfish. As soon as we had the red, we went to the jetties to try to get a tarpon for the super slam, but it was still a little rough, and the tarpon bite wasn't on... This weekend was some of the most fun fishing I've ever had! My brother, Keith, also caught a Grand Slam on 7/2. Check out the post below for the report on the incredible snook fishing!

LLM = Epic snook fishing!!!

2011-07-04T22:20:00.000-07:00

This weekend was the best snook fishing I have ever had. We caught a total of 14 snook in 3 trips, and caught three over 30"!!! We also lost several more over 30". The fishing in the lower Laguna is amazing!! We caught snook in several different spots, and were in the right place at the right times to put a bait on their breakfast table. All 14 fish were caught on artifical lures, and all were released. Here's some shots of some of the memorable ones!

This one was my biggest, at over 32". I caught it on the first cast on sunday morning on a mascara colored Buster Jerk II. I was using 30lb braid with 60lb leader, so I was prepared for the big one and it happened on the first cast!

This is Rachel's 31". It hit a white Gulp 4" shrimp late in the day on saturday. Yes, she hooked it and caught it all on her own! I was very proud of this one!!!

This is Keith's 30"+. It hit a bunker colored Baby Buster right at the boat. We both saw this fish swirl and casted at it simultaneously. Keith had the mojo working on saturday morning and got the big bite. We caught 9 snook on saturday and Keith caught a Grand Slam.

Here's Dad's 25" he caught on a white Gulp 4" shrimp on Monday morning.

This is my father in law, Frank, with the fish that started it all!!!

The Eye of the Tiger

2011-06-29T11:29:00.000-07:00

This is an LSU rod with a custom "Eye of the Tiger" decal that I made myself. It's built on a Castaway 803 blank. It has REC Black Pearl Recoil guides, Texas algarita/purple resin butt with an inlaid tiger, Castaway reel seat, and a split foregrip. This one's headed across the Sabine river into Cajun country!

TTZ Tuesday Nighter 6/28

2011-06-29T11:18:00.000-07:00

I fished the Texas Tournament Zone tuesday night tournament last night with Randy Frederick. We had a pretty good night of fishing. I caught the biggest one on a crankbait about 30 minutes into the touurney, so we had a good start. From there, we picked up 3 more decent sized keepers. We caught tons of little fish, but couldn't find our 5th keeper. One more keeper fish and we would have been in the money... We ended up in 4th out of 15 teams with only four fish... Here's the complete results: http://ttz1.com/results/ttz-travis-tues-night-62811-2/

Todos Locos 2011 rod

2011-06-27T23:48:00.000-07:00

This rod is going to the winner of the $150 gift certificate that was donated to the Todos Locos fishing tournament. Jason chose an American Tackle AT841-3 piece travel blank. It has Fuji ICYSG titanium plated guides, and a Fuji red trimmed spinning seat. This one's lean & mean...

Lake Austin - Big Mama

2011-06-26T18:27:00.000-07:00

I hit Lake Austin today from about 8am-2pm. It was a pretty slow morning... but at about 12:15, I got a big bite. I was throwing a bone colored Strike Pro baby buster over a really rough flat that was getting hit hard by boat wakes. I had a couple followers just before this one hit, so I was working the lure pretty fast. When this fish hit, it looked like a bowling ball got dropped in the water. She jumped immediately, so I knew it was a big one. After a long fight, I finally got her to the boat and lipped her. The whole fight, she had another fish that was about 4-5lbs following her. The tail was very worn and bloody, so I think she was on a bed and the other fish was the male. This is the 2nd biggest bass I've ever caught. She went 9lbs exactly and was about 25.5" long.

Lake Georgetown

2011-06-25T21:47:00.000-07:00

Here's a bass I caught today on Lake Georgetown. Rachel and I spent the afternoon looking for deep brushpiles to fish in the upcoming club tournament. I found a new lure that I really like... it's called a Bubble Shaker from Reins fishing (www.reinsfishing.com). I was fishing the green pumpkin All Star color on a 3/16oz Dirty Jigs shaky head... I found some good stuff today, so I'm looking forward to the tournament! Ivie moved me up to #2 in the club... The #1 guy is 40lbs ahead of me, so I have some work to do!!! Three rods on the dryer now... stay tuned for some rod pics!!

O.H. Ivie club tournament

2011-06-12T19:01:00.000-07:00

Here's a couple of 6lb+ fish I caught at O.H. Ivie during the Big Sandy Creek bass club tournament today. I fished with Tom Martens out of my boat. We found these fish early before sunrise. They were chasing bait on a big grassy point, and I got 'em on a topwater popper. I ended the day with about 19lbs, and we got 2nd in the tournament! Ivie is a fun lake with lots of big fish. It was my first time out there and I'm looking forward to going back!!

LBJ Memorial Day weekend

2011-06-06T15:07:00.000-07:00

Here's a few LBJ fish we caught during a very fun Memorial Day weekend! We had alot of family out at the lake, and had a great time. Mom & I put the hurt on the white bass under the lights one night, and caught a few really nice black bass too. The next night, Steve, Karyn & I hit the same lights and Steve caught another nice one!! The fish were hitting white Lucky Craft square bill cranks on top of green lights. Great kickoff to summer!!!!

BB1 - Big Show

2011-05-17T22:21:00.001-07:00

This is a Castaway BB1 - Big Show blank that's built bare-bones with an oversized EVA fighting butt, hypalon rear grip, Minima seat, Recoil tear drop hook keeper, and Recoil micro guides. This was my first attempt at the Olive branch wrap, and I like the way they turned out! This blank is great for pulling bass out of the thick stuff!!

Decker win

2011-05-17T22:13:00.000-07:00

I fished the Big Sandy Creek Bass Club tournament on Decker last saturday with Lorne Dornak. We had a good day with a steady bite all day long. We ended up in 1st place out of 9 boats with a 10 fish limit with a paper weight of over 35lbs. We caught fish on wacky senkos, shaky heads, spinnerbaits and swimbaits. The next club tourney is on OH Ivie. I'm in 5th now, and will be working to keep my top six standing!

TTZ Tuesday nighter

2011-04-27T08:46:00.000-07:00

I finally got the chance to fish the Texas Tournament Zone's tuesday night workingmans tournament on Travis last night. I teamed up with Justin Reiger and headed out into the 25mph+ winds.... On the way out, I broke half a blade off my trolling motor prop, so we fished with a rattling motor all evening. We found fish with crankbaits and senkos and ended up in 2nd place out of 15 boats, for a $135 payout. The first place team was Dean Alexander, so I guess if we were gonna get beat by someone, it might as well be an Elite Series pro! On the way in, we found a lighted dock that was loaded up with fish, so we stayed out an extra hour or two catching fish under the lights. Fun night of fishing!!! There was a giant thunderhead off in the distance at sunset. The view of it from the lake was incredible. We didn't get a picture, but this is it from another angle.... Right at sunset, it looked like an A-bomb went off...

Long time coming

2011-04-13T11:42:00.000-07:00

Here's Stephen Gustafson with a real nice Laguna Madre Trout caught on his LSU themed 7'6" Phenix 706M. The postal service mangled the first version of this rod, so after a patient wait, I finally got the replacement to him and turned the original into a 2 piece. Glad to see they're being put to good use!!!

Cowboys Rod

2011-03-27T20:59:00.000-07:00

This rod is built on a Phenix 700m blank. It has a blue prickly pear cactus butt with an inlaid Cowboy's star. It has a split minima seat, and spiraled Fuji SIC micro guides. This is the first of 3 rods that I'm building for Jim, and I'm really looking forward to the next two, especially the third one! It's going to be one of the coolest rods I've done.... Stay tuned!

Tournament report

2011-03-26T18:11:00.000-07:00

Well, bass tournament season is in full swing!! On thursday evening, I fished with Lance Hale on Travis in the first Austin Boats & Motors workingman tournament. We ended up in 3rd place, just in the money for a $72 payday! To follow that up, Brian Cotter and I fished the second stop of the Lone Star Series on LBJ today. Brian had a nice 6.5lbr to anchor our bag, and we had a total of 14.6lbs. That was good enough to take 8th place out of about 80 boats and won us $375!

I'm off to Sam Rayburn Reservoir for the BASS federation state championship this week, so I'm hoping to get a little streak started!!

Falcon - late report

2011-03-22T07:59:00.001-07:00

Keith and I hit Falcon lake earlier this month, and I just got the pics... Fun 3 days of fishing! No giants, but we caught some solid fish. Looking forward to going back down there on April 16th!

The Bass Whisperer

2011-03-17T19:11:00.000-07:00

This rod is a 7'3" flipping stick built on a Phenix 703XH blank. It has an Arizona State University theme with maroon & gold thread and an inlaid "Sparky" in the cactus butt. It has the new Recoil micro guides, down to size 4. This one has some muscle & it's going to see action on all the big bass lakes in TX... Looking forward to seeing what this one hauls in!

Another Canadian Brute!!!!

2011-03-16T22:09:00.001-07:00

Here's another one that Paul sent me tonight from Canada!!! This beast of a steelhead went 17lbs and put the 15' CTS to the test!!! Congrats Paul!!

The 15' CTS sees action in Canada!!!

2011-03-14T09:05:00.000-07:00

Here's some pics that Paul sent to me last night... He said that the rod fishes great and it's a show-stopper on the river! I really wish I could get up there and do some of this early-spring fishing. Looks like alot of fun!!! Thanks Paul!

Deadhead Rod

2011-02-24T21:14:00.000-08:00

This is a Grateful Dead themed rod that's built on an ATC PV704 blank that I had stashed away. It has a prickly pear cactus butt with an inlaid Aztec Steal Your Face logo. The split is red, white & blue with a melting Steal Your Face. The cork grips have red, white & blue acrylic spacers worked in. The seat is a Fuji soft-touch 17, and the guides are AmTack HTRLA's with holographic rings. I also worked a little marbling in there under the logo decal!

"No Bling" rod

2011-02-20T21:04:00.000-08:00

This rod is built on a Rainshadow XSB822.5. It has spiraled Fuji titanium SIC micros. The thread colors are Gudebrod almond and metallic gunmetal. The order was for "no bling", but I just couldn't help myself & threw in a subtle tiger wrap in the split grip. This one is headed down to the lower Laguna. Mr. Dosher requested a length marker at 24" - the minimum length for Texas snook. I like the way you think, sir!!!

Keith's new microskiff - "Before" pics

2011-02-17T17:27:00.000-08:00

Keith hit me up last night from Palau and told me about a little skiff for sale here in Austin. I sent the guy an email late last night, and went and picked it up today. It was a great deal, to say the least. It's a late 60's/early 70's model 13' Mitchell. This brand is pretty sought-after, especially in Florida. Keith's coming back later this month and will put his professional boat painting skills to good use! This one's going to see action in South Bay and the Lower Laguna... I'm looking forward to seeing the finished product!!

Aussie Jigging Rod

2011-02-14T19:41:00.000-08:00

This rod is built on a 6' OTI 40-60 jigging blank. It has an Alps gimbal and Alps triangle reel seat, shaped hypalon rear grips, and a crosscut EVA foregrip covered in X-flock shrink grip. This one is going to one of Keith's shipmates from Australia. He wanted a green and gold Aussie theme, so I threw in the 'Roo decal with the Southern Cross on top. This one will see some exotic water, so I'm looking forward to seeing what it hauls in!

Snake & Cactus Travel rod

2011-02-09T21:27:00.000-08:00

This rod is built on a 3 piece St. Croix travel blank. It has the new green cactus butt, and western diamondback rattlesnake skin. Titanium guides, split foregrip, green and tan tiger wrap. This rod will see some remote locations & I'm looking forward to seeing what this one pulls in!

One more from Lake Austin

2011-02-01T07:05:00.000-08:00

Went out again last night and fished in the dark. This one was 8lbs, caught on a shaky head 6.5 rattlesnake.

Lake Austin Drawdown

2011-01-29T19:20:00.000-08:00

I fished Lake Austin today by myself until noon, and then met up with Lance Hale. The day started off slow, but the bite picked up in the afternoon. There's a big buzz on the lake about the new lake record that was caught this week... 16.03lbs!!!! Lake Austin can be a greedy lake, but when she gives, she can give generously!!!

Today, we started off catching little ones, and they just kept getting bigger as we moved into deeper water. All our fish came on GrandeBass Rattlesnakes on shaky heads. These two were 6.0 and 6.2 lbs. 10 hours in the jonboat is a long day!! Goin' back tomorrow for more jonboat punishment!!! The last pic is a shot of how a typical dock looks right now. The lake is about 12 feet low.

15' CTS Fly Rod

2011-01-14T17:31:00.000-08:00

This is a 15' (yes, fifteen foot!) 3 piece CTS spey rod. It has been a long time coming, but it's finally on its way to Ontatrio, Canada. It has several firsts for me... My first fly rod, first turned fly seat, and first feather inlays! The butt, seat, and grip transition are "Original Cactus Blank" from Turn-Tex woodworks. The reel seat is a Batson, it has a Recoil tear drop style hook keeper, and peacock and hackle feather inlays. The thread is Gudebrod dark blue and metallic gunmetal, and the guides are Fuji titanium TVLSG's.

I spoke to Paul today, and he's pretty much buried in snow and it's -20 degrees up there! He'll be using this rod for winter steelhead fishing, and I have a feeling the cold is not going to keep him off his water for very long... can't wait to see some pics of those cold Canadian silver bullets laying on the shoreline!!

Another for the ladies...

2011-01-11T17:38:00.000-08:00

Here's a Phenix 700L blank that was a Christmas present for Lauren Foster. The colors are electra turquoise and purple. It has black pearl Recoil guides, and a Recoil snake guide hook keeper. Lauren is a heck of a fisherwoman down in South Texas, so I'm looking forward to seeing some big flounder & speck pics with this rod!

Pink RN rod

2011-01-11T17:09:00.000-08:00

This rod was a gift for a recent nursing school grad. The blank is a Phenix 700M, it has a Fuji soft touch seat, a cactus butt, and an inlaid RN cadeuceus. The guides are Recoils. The colors are Prowrap Pink and light green. Congrats Nurse Guillot!

Falcon Lake!!

2010-12-30T08:59:00.000-08:00

Well, I finally got to fish the fabled waters of Falcon Reservoir!! The boat has lots of new scratches, spiders, and broken off thorn sticks & I couldn't be happier! Dad and I fished 12/22,23 and again on 12/27, 28. Dad caught his new personal best twice!! The first one was a 7.25lb bucketmouth caught on a black megatail rattlesnake on a main lake point. The second was a 8.25lb fat bellied mama that ate a green shad JoBaby spinnerbait with a white Zoom grub trailer. We fished main lake points, flooded brush, deep humps, pond dams, creek channels, dam rocks, bridges, submerged bridges... pretty much anything we could find, we fished. The best bite was on the spinnerbaits on tuesday. We ended up with 33.5lbs for our top five, with dad's 8.25 anchoring the sack. The bass were crushing the spinnerbaits, and at one point, I almost lost a rod when a 6.5lbr hit it so hard that it ripped the rod out of my hands! Dad and I both got a new lesson in what it takes to catch these fish out of thick cover. PULL!!!! We didn't catch an undersize fish the entire trip & we probably had a total of 15+ fish over 5lbs. I got the Falcon bug out of my system for now, but I have a feeling it's gonna hit me again soon!!!

New fishin' buddy!!!

2010-12-12T16:34:00.001-08:00

Heeeere's Louie!! Rachel and I decided to go ahead and get a boxer puppy for Christmas. He's about 9 weeks old and he's a great little pup. Right now, he has two speeds.... sleep and destroy. We went on his first fishing trip on friday afernoon and he was pretty fired up!

LSU Tiger Rod

2010-12-04T00:12:00.000-08:00

Here's another LSU stick! This one is a Phenix 700M blank with a Texas Algarita/purple resin butt with an inlaid LSU Tiger ball marker. It has a split Fuji Cobra finish reel seat, a winding check to match the butt, purple and gold tiger wraps, and REC black pearl guides. Time to geaux fishin!!

Lake Travis 12/3

2010-12-03T17:38:00.000-08:00

Fished Lake Travis with David this afternoon from Sandy Creek to Arkansas Bend. The fish were pretty aggressive. We caught quite a few on crankbaits, shaky heads, C-rigs, and poppers. At one point, we found a big school chasing shad and had five or six bass at a time coming out of the water and doing backflips as they were busting bait. The DD-22 bite was real good for a while on some deep points. The biggest fish came on a popper right next to a chunk rock bank. I casted to the bank and was a little high. The popper got caught on a rock right at the waterline. I pulled the rock and it flipped over into the water. I guess the splash from the rock got this fish's attention, because before the rock had even sunk to the bottom, this fish came up and crushed the popper. This one was 21.5" and about 5.5lbs. Fun afternoon on Travis!!

Saints Rod

2010-11-22T08:25:00.000-08:00

This is a Phenix 700M blank with a Mud Hole Super seat, black pearl Recoil guides, and a midnight black cactus butt with an inlaid Saints logo.

Cousins weekend at LBJ

2010-11-17T16:48:00.000-08:00

Last weekend, we had our annual cousins get together. This year it was at LBJ, and Keith, Ross, and Cale came out. We had a fun couple of days of fishing, running the entire lake, and watching the Aggies beat Baylor! We caught lots of fish in Sandy creek and Horseshoe bay on friday, and did pretty well on saturday upriver. Good times and lots of laughs!!

Tournament debut in the new boat!

2010-11-02T22:30:00.001-07:00

I fished the ABM tuesday night tournament tonight with David & ended up in 2nd place out of 27 teams!! We barely got edged out for big bass and 1st place, but still walked away with a $100 gift certificate to Austin Boats & Motors. It was a cold, rainy evening, but having some nice fish in the livewell made it alot less miserable! That gift certificate will be good for some free boat oil!!

My new ride!!! It's now officially ON.

2010-10-29T17:40:00.000-07:00

This one's been a long time coming, but I didn't think it would happen this quick... I was made an offer I couldn't refuse on this 2000 20' Cobra 201S with a 200hp Mercury!!! The seller drove it down from Shreveport today & we met up at Lake Georgetown for a test run. Everything checked out & we decided to pull the trigger. After a washdown & vacuum, Rachel, Cabo and I took it out on Travis to catch the first fish out of it. Mission accomplished!! Lots of good times to come in this machine!

Gone Fishing for Kids Tournament - Lake LBJ 10/23,24

2010-10-28T11:06:00.000-07:00

Had a good time last weekend at the charity tournament on LBJ! We stayed out at the lake house & fished hard saturday and sunday. Saturday started off windy, overcast and rainy, but the fish were in a frisky mood. We caught fish all day and ended up with 40+ fish caught, and probably about 20 keepers. We just couldn't seem to put any bass in the boat bigger than 16". The highlight of saturday morning was catching this big ol' yella cat on a crankbait under a green light!! I thought I had the tournament winning bass for sure!! We ended up with 10.00lbs on saturday, and after a tougher bite on sunday, we had 18.61 lbs for the weekend. That put us in 35th place out of about 100 boats. Can't win 'em all, but we had a fun time!!!

TEXAS wadefishing rod

2010-10-25T09:27:00.000-07:00

This rod is a Rainshadow XSB822.5 that I cut down to 6'6". It has a prickly pear cactus butt with an inlaid TX quarter. The split is western diamondback rattlesnake. The wood trim on the grip is a piece of mesquite. It has a Minima real seat, an inlaid hook, a Recoil snake guide hook keeper, and a TX flag wrap. The guides are spiraled size 4 Fuji titanium micros. This one was a long time coming, so I hope it was worth the wait!!

ABM Tuesday nighter 10/19

2010-10-19T22:08:00.000-07:00

The lucky streak stayed alive tonight at the ABM tuesday night tournament on Lake Travis!! I hooked up with Lance Hale this week and we fished out of his new Skeeter. We got 1st place out of 21 teams, and we had big bass of the tournament!! We had our limit within the first 45 minutes, and culled a couple of times to make our 3 fish bag (6.69lbs). Lance caught the big bass (3.01lbs) on a crankbait. He hooked a small fish that jumped and spit out the crankbait. As soon as he started reeling in the lure, the big one hit it!! We caught fish on crankbaits, shaky heads, frogs, and poppers. It was a fun afternoon, and a nice payout of $350!! Gotta keep the luck going for the 2 day tourney on LBJ this weekend!!!

Choke Canyon Hawg!!!! 10/17

2010-10-17T17:38:00.000-07:00

Had a great time this weekend fishing with the bass club at Choke! The highlight of the weekend was catching this 10lb 2oz, 26.5" monster!! This was my new personal best bass, and it gave me the best bass fight I've ever had. I hooked her on a Texas rigged 8" black neon GrandeBass Megatail Rattlesnake, with a Gamakatsu 4/0 superline hook and tru-tungsten sinker. I was fishing 20lb test flourocarbon with my custom "rattlesnake rod" built on a Phenix 707H blank. She was hanging on a deep point in a hydrilla bed in about 15'. I had my drag cranked down tight, and once she realized she was hooked, the fight got very intense. She ripped drag and took me on a big loop around the boat and came close to breaking me off on both the trolling motor and the outboard. I was very happy that I had the extra length of that 7'7" rod to be able to sweep under the engine and keep things under control. When we finally got her in the net, I was shaking, hyperventilating and my heart was pounding out of my chest, and that didn't stop for about 20-30 minutes!! I'm so excited to have caught this fish, and am very happy to be the newest member of the double digit club. Of all the fish I've caught, this one will be one of the most memorable. We kept her in good shape, and she was released in great condition. This fish won big bass for the tournament and took the lead for big bass of the year for Big Sandy Creek bass club. If it holds up, it's going to be a nice payout in December!! The last pic is to give some perspective. The fish on the right is a 14.5" keeper bass! Big thanks to Bryan Cotter (http://www.texashawgs.com/) for running me around the lake all weekend and putting me on the fish of my lifetime so far!

ABM tuesday night tourney

2010-10-12T21:35:00.000-07:00

No pictures for this one, but I fished the Austin Boats & Motors tuesday night working mans tournament on Lake Travis this evening. It's a team tournament, but I fished it solo out of the jonboat! It's a 3 fish tournament, and I ended up in third place out of 19 teams with a three fish sack of 7lbs 2oz! It was a fun afternoon of fishing, and I caught keepers on a Strike Pro Hunchback wake bait and a green pumpkin straight power worm on a spot remover. It was the first tournament run in the jonboat, and it felt good placing above most of those 30k+ bass boats!! Third place was just out of the money, so I won a tackle pack. Can't wait for Choke Canyon this weekend!!!!!

Lower Laguna Madre 10/2-10/3

2010-10-04T20:50:00.000-07:00

Rachel and I headed to the RGV this weekend for a quick visit. I met my dad on saturday and we headed straight to Port Mansfield and out to the jetties to try to find some tarpon. We fished the jetties and outside bars in the surf for most of the afternoon, and couldn't make it happen for tarpon. We didn't see any rolling fish, and there were quite a few boats out there to contend with. We decided to spend the last couple hours of the day fishing in the bay, and found some fish just south of the port. We caught 4 keeper reds and 5 keeper trout in about an hour and a half.

The next day, I went out with my father in law, Frank. We fished out of Arroyo City, and had a good day. We started south of the Arroyo, but ended up finding fish north of Green Island. We ended up with 19 fish. 16 trout, and 3 reds. We brought a nice 10 fish limit back to the dock and we really enjoyed the cooler weather! Frank caught this bruiser trout with a big appetite! The hot bait this weekend was a Strike Pro Baby Buster. I had alot of fun fishing this bait, and can't wait to head south again to give em another dose of it!!

Stinky Pants Rod

2010-10-04T19:48:00.000-07:00

This is a rod I just finished for Jason Paul, the owner of Stinky Pants stringers. This rod is a Phenix 700M blank with a Minima reel seat, spiraled black pearl recoil guides, and the new "Midnight" black prickly pear cactus butt grip. I also did the Stinky Pants logo inlaid in the cactus. The idea on this one was to go dark on the grips and just black and white for the threads. I'm looking forward to checking out my new Stinky Pants stringer!!!!

San Luis Pass 9/29

2010-09-30T10:32:00.000-07:00

I made an early morning trip to Houston on 9/29 to meet up with James Andreatos. The plan was to run the surf and try to find some big tarpon. We ran all the way from San Luis pass to the Galveston jetties without seeing a single tarpon. When we got back to the pass at about 3:00, we headed for a rig offshore and crossed paths with a huge school of rolling giants. There were several 6'+ monsters in the group. Unfortunately, I got a little "tarpon fever" and after a comedy of errors, I missed our best opportunity of the day. From there, we chased tarpon for the rest of the afternoon. We got some good chances, and casted to several really big fish, but couldn't quite get them to eat. Finally right at sunset, we got a double hookup on this big bull redfish and a nice sized Jack Crevalle. The jack had this little remora cruising with it, so I picked it up for a quick picture. It was a fun day on the water & James put me on some nice fish... It was a learning experience... You definitely have to be 100% ready out there at all times, because the big ones don't usually give you a second chance!!

Lake Austin 9/24

2010-09-24T21:57:00.000-07:00

I hit Lake Austin this afternoon with big bass on my mind. It was my first time on LA with the new outboard, so I was looking forward to running & gunning to a few of my favorite creeks and laydown trees. I caught several decent keepers and lots of dinks on flukes and wacky rigged senkos. I saw several fish that were giants... I went back to the mouth of one creek three times to fish for some huge bass that were hanging out on the edge of a grass line. I saw at least 3 that would have gone 10+lbs. They were pretty spooky during the day, but I went back just after dark and made long casts to the spot they were hanging out in. I ended up catching several in the 17-18 inch range, and this one that was 22.5". I figure it was about a 7 pounder. This is the biggest bass I've caught in a while, and as excited as I was to catch it, I was also a little disappointed that it wasn't one of the giants that were there. Bass fishing should be heating up now that the weather is cooling!! Big tournaments coming up soon at Choke Canyon and LBJ!!!

High Mountain Trout

2010-09-22T07:37:00.001-07:00

Here's some shots that my brother, Keith, sent me yesterday. He had a couple days off of the boat and hiked up into the Spanish Pyrenees mountains. They were headed for a summit when they came across this high mountain lake. The lake was full of these little brown trout & he caught several of them on a little minnow lure. How do you say honeyhole in Spanish?

Matagorda Redfish

2010-09-21T16:18:00.000-07:00

The rod building circle was completed when Cade emailed me this pic of a nice redfish he caught on his "Redfish Rod" in Matagorda bay. To see more on this rod, click here:
http://2coolfishing.com/ttmbforum/showthread.php?t=209703&highlight=redfish

Congrats Cade!

Lake Georgetown - club tournament - 9/19

2010-09-21T07:54:00.000-07:00

I recently joined the Big Sandy Creek bass club, and fished my second tournament with them on sunday. Lake Georgetown was up quite a bit, and the bite was pretty tough. We started off catching fish early, but after the sun came up, it started to shut down on us. I ended up with 3 keepers. It was a fun day on the water, and a fun lake to fish. There's lots of cover right now with the water so high. Unfortunately, the big fish don't seem to be hanging in the shallow cover. The highlight of the day was when we got back to the weigh in and I saw that Bryan Cotter caught a giant on a Coastal Bend rod!! This 25" 9+lb fish was caught in about 20ft on a finesse worm! Congrats to Bryan on the tournament win and a great fish!!

Ringtailed Cat

2010-09-20T20:22:00.000-07:00

I was fishing on Lake Georgetown on saturday afternoon and saw a ringtailed cat! These are pretty rare and actually seeing one is very rare. It was right before dark and it was hanging out on the rocks on the dam... Never know what you're gonna see while out on the water! It was too dark to get a pic of it, but this is what it looked like...

RIP - MAGNUM

2010-09-07T08:55:00.000-07:00

This Labor Day weekend was a tough one. On sunday morning, our boxer, Magnum, suddenly passed away. He went peacfully and quickly and didn't appear to be in pain. Magnum was definitely a one in a million type of dog. He had a ton of personality and everyone who knew him fell in love with him. He will forever be remembered as "the George Clooney of dogs". He was very special to us and will be deeply missed. He got a prime burial spot next to Lake LBJ, so it'll be good memories of him when we're out there. Rest in Peace buddy!!!

Lake LBJ - Labor Day weekend

2010-09-07T08:49:00.001-07:00

Here's a bass I caught while fishing with Dad on Labor Day. This one wasn't nearly as big as the 5lb'er he caught the day before, but I "conveniently" forgot to bring the camera on that trip. This one was caught on a shad colored popper.

TTZ Tuesday night big bass rollover tourney! In the $$!!

2010-08-31T14:26:00.001-07:00

After fishing a few tuesday night tournaments and finishing pretty close to the money, Bryan and I finally cashed in on saturday!! This tournament was to fish for the big bass rollover money for the weekly tuesday night tournament on Travis. Bryan and I fished the mid lake area and caught fish on 8" worms, C-rigs, crankbaits, jigs, poppers, and frogs... it was a little bit of everything, but Bryan was sticking to the frog and got a couple key bites that barely squeaked us into third place and $470. We edged out the 4th place team by 1/100th of a pound!! The full results are here:

http://ttz1.com/results/ttz-travis-sat-rollover-82810/

TARPON!

2010-08-08T17:09:00.000-07:00

After my tarpon trip last weekend, I talked to Paul Guillot and gave him the hot tip on the SPI tarpon. He made the best of it and went 2 for 3 including this giant 6'6". These were caught on the "Tarpon Sniper" rod I made for him last October. You can see more of this rod at:

http://2coolfishing.com/ttmbforum/showthread.php?t=239813

Congrats to Paul on a fantastic catch. Tarpon this size are a rare find, and to catch one off the rocks is a great accomplishment!!

Rainshadow Bay Rod

2010-08-03T23:16:00.000-07:00

This rod is built on a Rainshadow IP843 blank and will be used as an all-arounf bay rod. It has a Forecast rubberized textured reel seat with a spalted maple winding check. The thread is Madiera dark emerald green with Holland tan trim. The guides are REC Black pearl recoils, and it has a teardrop Recoil hook keeper.

South Padre Tarpon/Snook

2010-08-02T19:44:00.000-07:00

Here's some shots from the SPI jetties on 7/30 and 7/31. On friday morning, I jumped six tarpon using rattle traps and a Rapala shad rap. It was a strong outgoing tide, and they were setting up on rocks on the channel side of the jetties. Dad and I went back out friday afternoon, and dad caught his first snook! The tarpon weren't cooperating in the late afternoon. They were rolling just out of casting range. On saturday morning, Travis came down and we hit 'em with some live mullet. Travis hooked a monster that had him almost spooled twice before it finally broke off. He jumped about 4 more and I jumped about four before I finally got a hook into this one!! This was the first tarpon and snook I've caught in several years, and we got to spend some QT with Keith, Karyn, Presley, and the rest of the fam, so it was a great trip down south!!

Lake Austin - Late Spawn!

2010-07-22T21:08:00.000-07:00

Keith and I hit Lake Austin today and found this fish sitting on a bed! I got her pissed off enough to bite, and then Keith threw in and caught her... twice! Once on the way out and again on the way back. We caught about 8 fish total and 3 nice keepers...

Ranch Rod

2010-07-13T16:47:00.001-07:00

This is a Phenix S700L blank with a prickly pear cactus butt and rattlesnake skin in the split grip. The customer requested "ranch colors", so I went with a green and black classic twist thread with vintage tan trim.

Lake LBJ - 4th of July weekend

2010-07-07T08:56:00.001-07:00

We hit the lake for July 4th weekend with my cousin, Ross and his wife, Kim. Rachel also had her friends, Lindsay and April out there. Ross & I had rods set out all weekend and were only catching little catfish. The one time we decided to go up to the house, Rachel and Lindsay were sitting down on the dock watching the poles.... Of course, that's when the biggest bass of the weekend came along and took down a live perch!! This was Lindsay's first bass ever!! Nice catch!!

LSU Tiger Rod

2010-07-01T14:36:00.000-07:00

This is a Phenix S706M Blank built as a light surf casting rod. The butt cap is Texas Agarita wood mixed with purple acrylic resin, with an inlaid Tiger coin. The thread colors are Gudebrod purple (with cp) and metallic gold. The guides are the new "Black Pearl" Recoils, and they're spiral wrapped.

Lime green & Pewter

2010-06-23T18:57:00.001-07:00

Here's the latest rod fresh off the dryer! It's a Rainshadow RX8 XSB822.5 with spiraled Fuji titanium 3.5 micro guides, a minima reel seat, and Gudebrod metallic lime green & pewter thread.

Snorkeling in Lake Travis!!

2010-06-21T21:01:00.000-07:00

Rachel and I went on a little snorkeling/fishing trip this afternoon. I took some pics of these little fish I've been trying to ID:

After some asking around, I figured out that they are Texas Logperch. Cool little fish!

I also found a Rio Grande Cichlid:

And some bass:

I ended up fishing a little right before dark and caught 2 pretty decent bass on a white fluke. Great time on the water! Four new rods coming soon, stay tuned!!

Bent rod!

2010-06-07T22:02:00.001-07:00

Here's some shots that Tim O'Brien sent me of his new rod in action. These pics really show the backbone of the Phenix S700M blank! Nice pics Tim!

Fishing quote of the day...

2010-06-04T23:39:00.000-07:00

Catch and release fishing is a lot like golf. You don't have to eat the ball to have a good time!!

Lake Travis - 6/3/10

2010-06-03T20:53:00.000-07:00

I hit lake Travis for a few hours this afternoon and decided to concentrate on marinas only. I fished a white fluke, a white spinnerbait, and a 3" swimbait in Easy street marina and Jones Harbor marina. I ended up with 7 bass with 2 keepers. Nothing picture worthy, but it was a pretty fun trip....

Swamp Rod!

2010-05-26T11:33:00.000-07:00

This rod is built on a Phenix X-12 composite blank. It has graphite in the bottom 2/3 and glass in the top 1/3. It has Fuji 3.5 micro guides and a purple resin/Aggarita wood butt. It's going to Lance Dupre, the owner of Swampland Tackle. He'll be using it to muscle redfish out of the Louisiana swamps!!

Keith scores a New England Stripah!!!

2010-05-25T22:07:00.000-07:00

I've been trying to get Keith to take some pics of his exotic catches on his Coastal Bend travel rod during his circumnavigations of the globe, and he finally came through! Here's a stout Newport, RI striper he scored under the lights on the back of the Plan B with a chartreuse bucktail.... How 'bout them apples??? That's a heck of a striper fishing boat!!

Coastal Bend Rods wins Shallow Sport Tourney!!

2010-05-24T11:01:00.001-07:00

Congrats to Tim O'Brien for winning the Shallow Sport Owners Tournament on South Padre with his new Coastal Bend Rod! Tim's rod is a Phenix s700l blank with a soft touch seat, split grips, and a wicked chartreuse/black color scheme. Tim had an epic day on the water and caught over 30 reds up to 28" and this massive 30" trout! Way to represent!!!

This is a BLACK bass!!

2010-05-23T20:59:00.000-07:00

This is the weirdest bass I've ever caught! It was out of Lake Austin and was caught under a laydown... This one was lucky it wasn't double digits, or i'd have been real tempted to hang it on my wall!! It's still swimming out there somewhere!!

Senko rod headed to California Delta

2010-05-17T19:20:00.000-07:00

This is a Rainshadow RX8 XMB 843 blank built with titanium micro guides. This one went to a customer in California. He'll be using it as a Senko rod for bass in the California Delta.

RN Spinning Rod

2010-05-16T22:41:00.001-07:00

This rod is the second of a pair that I built for Steve Guillot, a RN out of Corpus Christi. This was a spinning rod built on a 7'6" Phenix blank.

5/15/10 Lake Travis Cat!

2010-05-16T22:21:00.000-07:00

Here's a cat that I caught on saturday... I was fishing a deep ledge with a jigging spoon and this guy hit me. Not a big cat, but it was a suprise to catch him on a spoon. Caught 2 bass (1 keeper) and saw lots of tilapia on beds. I havn't done much catfishing on Travis, so this was a bonus!

Arroyo City 5/6/10

2010-05-12T16:06:00.000-07:00

These are some of the fish from my trip with dad on thursday the 6th. We launched out of Arroyo City and found a little sweet stretch of water near Three Islands. We had steady action on Gulps, baby busters, and plastics. The trout were 24" and just under 27". We caught a limit of trout and a couple bonus reds. On friday, I fished with James Williams out of SPI and we had a mad skipjack session out in front of the island. On saturday me and Travis went out and caught 13 trout and 7 reds. Good times in El Valle!!

Longhorn rod with cactus butt

2010-05-02T08:54:00.001-07:00

This rod is a Phenix S700M blank with burnt orange and white thread and a cactus butt with a Longhorn coin inlay.

Lake Austin Wed night tournament 4/28/10

2010-05-02T08:48:00.000-07:00

These are a couple of bass that Bryan Cotter and I caught during the TTZ tournament on 4/28. I caught the fish on the left on a Chigger craw out of a fallen tree, and Bryan caught the other one on a fluke. These were our only two fish, and we ended up 5th in the tournament.

Lake Austin Bass 5/1/10

2010-05-01T23:12:00.000-07:00

Here's a couple of Lake Austin bass caught off the jonboat in Bull Creek. The both hit belly weighted watermelon/red flukes.