Conference wahoo::fishing-v2

306.0. "My Texas fishing trip" by TOLKIN::KILEY () Tue Jun 15 1993 11:15

	Every year my wife and I like to get away somewhere for vacation.  This
year we wanted to go some place warm and some place where we could fish.  This
year we went to Silver Leaf's Villages in Tyler Texas, about 100 miles east of
Dallas.
	The Villages is part of RCI, so we were able to exchange our RCI weeks
for two of their weeks.  RCI really helped us and we got a huge unit.  It had a
dining table, full kitchen, two pullout couches, fire place, bedroom with
with queen size bed, bedroom with king size bed, two bathrooms, and a big
jacuzzi tub in one of the bathrooms.  The Villages has many things to do on
site.  You can swim in the pool, rent mountain bikes, ride horses, play
tennis, play basketball, play minature golf, do archery, rent videos, rent
nintendo, or play pool.  They also have their own marina located on Lake
Palestine, about a mile from the condo. At the marina you can rent 16 foot john
boats, 18 foot pontoon boats, 24 foot pontoon boats, or jetskis.  Needless to
say, there is plenty to do.  
	But we went to Texas to fish.  You might think why go fishing in Texas,
go to Florida instead.  But as we found out, Texans are very much into fishing. 
For instance, Texas has recently stocked their one billionth fish.  They have
introduced Florida-strain largemouth and they are doing very well.  The state
record bass is over 18 pounds, and the smallest bass on the top 50 list is
over 14.5 pounds.  Texas has also been stocking some stripper hybrid bas into
some of the lakes. 
	The first day we went to take out the 16 foot john boat for fishing,
they we wouldn't let us out.  The wind was making the waves to big for the john
boat to be safe on the lake.  Safety is big thing at the Villages.  Well, we
spent the first fishing for blue channel catfish from shore on the causway 
near the marina.  (The causway is a big L shape barrier which protects the 
marina.)  Even though we had to fish from shore, we had a great time.  We got
lots of catfish, and my wife killed me by getting the two biggest fish of the
day.  She also got the most. She got one that was just under five pounds, and
another that was bigger.
	The next day we got to the marina at nine were able to go out.  We
were able to get some catfish, but no bass.  When we got in, Bruce the manager
at the marina helped us set up a half day trip with a guide.  We had to meet
him the next morning at 6:00 am.  
	The following day my wife and I were not pleased at getting up to meet
the guide at 6:00 am.  We were both thinking, this guy better be good.  Well,
he wasn't good. He was great !!!!  The guide's name is Ricky Vandergriff, and
he knows fishing.  He is sponsored by Castaway Graphite Rods.  He also get
endorsments from Bomber lures, Cordell lure, Rebel lures, Heddon lures, 
Shimano reels, Skeeter boats, Mercury outboards, Motorguide, Triple fish
fishing line, Morris worm weights, Bulldog lures, and Mister twister.  When
we get there he was there waiting for us in his 20ft Skeeter bass boat with a
200hp motor.  We hop in, and he asks if we mind going fast to the first place we
want to fish, still not awake yet we say no.  Well, you wake up real fast when
the boat is going 70 mph across the lake.  We started by fishing the shore line
for white bass (also called sand bass).  My wife and I are not the best at
fishing, so Ricky was giving us a crash course that morning.  We caught a lot
of sand bass that morning, and my wife even got a good sized striper hybrid. 
Around 9:00 am, we stopped to take a break, so at 70 mph we went back to the
marina.  After a 15 minute break, we were back in the boat zipping to fish for
black bass.  Ricky really knows every inch of the lake.  He flew under bridges
and weaved between stumps at 70 mph, until we got to were the black bass were. 
This time Ricky gave us a crash course on spinner bait fishing, and plastic
worm fishing.  Before we finished at noon time, my wife had gotten a 5 pound
black bass.  Ricky really gave us a great time that morning.  In between 
instructing us on fishing, he answered all my fishing questions and he kept us
laughing.  We had such a great time that morning, that we booked him for a full
day the next week.  This time we would be going to Lake Fork.  Lake Fork is
being managed by Texas to produce trophy bass.
	For the rest of the week, we used what Ricky had taught us and
fished for bass on the good days and catfish on the days we couldn't get out
due to the wind.  Ricky really did change us, instead of getting up at our
usual 9:00 am for fishing, we were getting up at five every morning.  This is
on our vacation, up at 5:00 am every day.  We would fish till noon, take rest,
and then play at the resort the rest of the day.  Fishing really tired us out,
but we really enjoyed it.  We got a lot of sand bass, a couple of stripper
hybrids, and one drum.  One of the stripper hybrids gave my ultra light 
spinning tackle a real workout.  The manager at the marina helped out a lot.
When we would get to the marina at 6:00, he would start the boat motor to
warm it up, and give us life jackets before he even opened the rest of the 
marina.  Talk about service.  Half the times he just charged us for boat
rental, and not for gas and oil.  
	The day to go out with Ricky finally arrived.  This time we had to meet
him at 4:30 am at the marina.  I could hardly sleep the night before, I wanted
to fish so bad.  We rode with Ricky in his suburban from Lake Palestine to
Lake Fork.  He had prefished the lake before, and said that they were biting
real good.  He told us that the fish in Lake Fork and know as hard fighting
fish, and the day before a fish had stripped the gears on two of his reels and
pulled another out of the reel seat on his rod.  All I said was that I wanted
to see some of these fish.  On the ride he told us of the 9lb bass he got
a few days ago in Lake Palestine.  This had beaten the 8 lb bass he had gotten
the week before.  By 5:45 we finally arrived at the lake, and by 6:00 we were
zipping off.  Lake Fork is filled with stunks and weeds.  It is definitly
a fishing lake.  We fished the shoreline weed beds in the morning, the old
creek bed and stumps during the day, and another set of weed beds in the
afternooon.  We only stopped for 45 minutes for lunch, and didn't get off the
lake unit 7:30pm.  Unlike most guides, Ricky has you fishing all day.  My
very fist fish of the morning I found out how hard the fish of Lake Fork fight.
My first fish busted my reel so bad when he hit my spinner bait, that I had to
pull it in by hand.  This fish was only about 3lbs.  During the day I caught
4, 5 and 6lb black bass.  I thought I did great for a weekend fisherman.  If my
worming and jigging techniques were better, I could have gotten more.  The
guide got nothing under 5lbs. all day.  His biggest, a 9 lb., came at the
end of the day.  I have never seen a bass so big.  This lake was definitely 
great.  We fished every type of structure I have read about in the magazines.
With the guide fishing with us, I was able to watch him and learn how to fish
each structure correctly.  Ricky answered all our stupid questions, and even
showed us how to tie a couple of knots.  
	The only bad part of the vacation was that we had to leave.  This was
definitely one of my best vacations.  If you live in east Texas or want a place
to vacation where you can fish, then go to the Silver Leaf Village's.  We 
checked with the office and only people who own there or exhange RCI time to
there can stay there.  The prices of the units are ok, but they were willing
to talk on the price.  If you do go down there for fishing definitely use
the guide Ricky Vandergriff.  He was great.  With Lake Fork having 150 guides
working on the lake, it is has to find a good one.