Fishing with Former Competitors
So what do a bunch of collegiate fishermen do with a few days off? You guessed it; they take a road trip to fish!
Falcon Lake in Zapata is my favorite vacation town in the United States, and what better time is there for a road trip than Christmas break? A bunch of guys I fished against on the Collegiate Tour just one year ago were also going down for the weekend and I decided I did not want to miss out.
Our group included Joe Landry and Zach Caudle who had a tremendous run in college fishing for LSU- Shreveport, Ryan Watkins who just finished a “dream year” fishing for SFA, and Justin Royal from Lamar University. Tarleton University's John Anderson, who could catch a twelve-pound limit in a bathtub, was also there with his partner Derek Gage. Now I must admit I was not great friends with any of these guys when I had to fish against them, but after moving on to the business world, I realize these are some of the best guys that I know.
I traveled to Falcon Lake by myself, split a room, and was able to jump in the boat with Zach Caudle and John Anderson, as they were nice enough to allow me to fish with them for multiple days. The fishing was steady, not great, but the trip meant much more to me than just catching fish. It was a great opportunity to “get away” as well as reflect back on all the memories I had when fishing against these guys. This trip was about the camaraderie of fishing and enjoying the sport instead of the competition.
One of the highlights was witnessing one of the most incredible fish catches I have ever seen when Joe Landry caught a massive bass that weighed in at 13.37 pounds.
Zach Caudle put a hurting on me for the next couple of days as well. It seemed every fish that he caught was a giant, while I would follow it up with a three pounder. I turned into a net man and a cameraman instead of a fisherman because I continued to take pictures of all the good fish he was landing. He caught a 9.51, an 8.82, and multiple fish over seven pounds, while I was standing on the back deck practicing my casting.
The last couple of days I fished with John Anderson and Derek Gage from Tarleton University. Derek has access to a nice trailer and they welcomed me to stay there the last couple of nights. The 25 mile per hour winds ruined one of our days but that did not stop us from having a good time; we went back to camp and watched a DVD on catching Peacock Bass in Brazil. The only problem was that after watching that video all I wanted to do was catch a giant Peacock Bass; so I was sitting at the best big bass lake in the country and that DVD made me want to be somewhere else. We did end up salvaging the day by going back to the lake for a couple of hours and catching some nice fish.
We were going to leave the next morning, but decided we would stay and fish a half day. Neither Derek, John, nor I had caught a fish over 7.5 pounds the entire trip, so we were all determined to catch one, or least give it one more try. We were reminded it was December, as the temperature dipped down to 31 degrees, challenging Zapata's record for low temperature. The water temp had cooled off substantially but we were able to catch a few fish. Derek started things off by catching a very nice 8 lb 14 ounce toad on a DD-22. Just before leaving, we stopped at one last ledge and I was able to finally catch a good one. It was the perfect way to end the trip, as she tipped the scale at 9 pounds 5 ounces. It was not a giant for Falcon, but I would not have wanted to end the trip any other way.
The only angler I fished with throughout the week that is not pictured in the article is John Anderson. The reason is simple, he is still waiting to catch one large enough worth taking a picture of.
About the Author
Brandon Dickenson is a graduate of the University of North Texas and was the founder and past president of their bass club. He continues to fish when and where he can while writing about the current college bass fishing scene. He can be contacted at brandon@carecotv.com.
