Bass (just like humans) are creatures of habit. There will always be exceptions to the rules. But there is some predictability that can help you to be on the water when your odds are best. The biggest fish tend to be caught when it warms up just before the spawn really gets in gear. These are caught using prespawn methods. Then, a cold front usually messes things up for a week or so. Then, it warms back up and the spawn gets in gear and the guys that know how to sight-fish for bedding bass catch will really get some big fish. This happens most every year. It usually starts at the end of February or the 1st week of March, but can vary by a month depending on the temps. Remember this for future years.


On March 5, I made the following prediction:
I predict that this Saturday (March 9) there will be some giants (sharelunkers very likely) caught all over Texas. The warming trend should hit at the perfect time that the weekenders, vacationers, tournament fishermen, and spring breakers are hitting their favorite lakes on Saturday. Then, Sunday's cold front will slow things down until spring break and the big tournament on March 16 is over. Then, Lake Fork will start getting really good.
On March 8 at 11:42 PM, TPW picked up a 13.73 Sharelunker on Lake Fork, caught by Barry Prince. Then on March 9, a 13.36 Sharelunker was entered in the program from Lake Conroe. Currently as of 3/26, those are the last 2 Sharelunker entries. Additionally, Minnow Bucket weighed in 2 fish over 11 pounds on March 9. The first 2 double-digits of 2019 weighed at Minnow Bucket were caught on the same day - the day I predicted. After that, Minnow Bucket weighed a DD on March, 19, 20, 21, 22, and 23. If Barry would have just caught his Sharelunker a few hours later, I would have really nailed it. Congratulations Barry Prince, Jerry Page and Don Trent!


For articles and pics see:
https://www.facebook.com/sharelunkerprogram/
https://www.facebook.com/Minnow-Buck...2588010643967/
https://www.facebook.com/oakridgemarina/
Predictably, the week of the cold front and Megabass was very tough. Over 2000 experienced anglers fishing in this tournament, yet there were no fish over 24 inches weighed-in during the first 3 hours of the tournament. But as the tournament came to an end, the fishing drastically improved. Only 4 over 24 inches the entire day. The two biggest fish were caught in the last hour. Prefishing for the tournament for 3 days, I never saw a 5 pounder. After the tournament, I caught a 7 pound female twice while I was pursuing a bigger fish that moved up in the last hour of the tournament. She may have been 24", but I couldn't get her to bite.


Predictably, the week following the tournament was awesome! In my boat, we got 4 fish over 8 pounds in a 36 hour period starting Tuesday evening. I didn't get any double-digits in my boat, but there were a bunch of them caught last week. Several guides did as good or even better than I did. We caught fish over 6 pounds and got some awesome video footage every day of the week. I'm looking forward to some awesome videos. It was an outstanding week for many of us!
Fork is looking really good right now. The lake is clear enough to sight-fish in most areas. There is a good amount of vegetation and tons of good wildlife. Afternoon water temps are in the 60s in most of the northern coves.
We are mostly sight-fishing in the shallow northern coves. We just got a good rain that muddied many of them up yesterday. It will be several days before it gets as clear as it was last week. But I think the water needs a little color so they don't all spawn in 10 feet. It looks better than this time last year even after the rain.


In case you didn't know, sight-fishing for bass is my specialty. I wrote the book on it - back in 2010. It's an E-book that has tons of sight-fishing information & terminology, live statistics, historical sight-fishing and weather information, Flash animations, etc. to help you become a better sight-fisherman. It is a perpetual e-book that gets updated every season. I purposely priced the book very high ($99) because less competition gives my clients a better value for my expertise. In fact, I try to give a complimentary copy to any client who hires me for the spring.


I just found out that Chrome will not support the Flash animation files after 2019. That probably means that if you get the ebook and want to see the animations that I spent hundreds of hours making, you will probably have to use an older computer (or older browser) after the year 2019. You only need to see them once. Just do it this year! The rest of the ebook will not be affected.


Because of the Flash obsolescence, I decided to cut the price of the Ebook in half ($49). If I sell enough copies at $49, I may take the time to redo the animations in a modern format using the HTML5 canvas and raise the price back up. In any event, you will have a perpetual license if you purchase it or receive it as a client. And I'm sure there will be a way to view those animations 20 years from now, but probably not on your phone or modern browser. See http://www.bassfishing.org/spawnbook