JANUARY IS THE TIME TO START GETTING READY FOR PRESAWN BASS IT IS THE BEGINNG OF THE SPRING SPAWN

Now that Christmas is over and the New Year is here I hope everyone had the best Christmas of all and I hope you got plenty of stuff from Porters Sporting Goods on Lake Palestine so that you can join me this year! Fishing two of Texas best lakes ever Lake Palestine and Lake Fork. At Porters Sporting goods on Lake Palestine you can purchase just about every thing I use except my Shimmy Shakers, My Big Eye Jigs and my Lake Fork 430 Special Spinner Bait or any of my Top BIG Spinner Baits because I haven't tried to put them in stores yet I have just been selling on line and to my clients that fish with me , but you can count on Greg and his friendly staff to help you find everything else. Greg will be happy to point you in the right direction to find everything I talk about in my fishing articles and make sure you have plenty of new tackle when you come fish with me. Now let's go fishing! You will find fishing in January can be kind of tricky due to the cold fronts and the warm days that we will have. The bass will feed up just before a cold front blows in and then they will get slow and hard to find. When a front hits this is a time for you to not worry so much about catching big numbers but a time to slow down and master your skills of fishing a jig -n -pig and a soft . When you fish on the warm days you can generally catch some good numbers on moving baits such as my Lake Fork 430 Special Spinner bait or my Shimmy Shaker and you can get them to hit red Rattle traps and Bomber 6A crank baits in a fire tiger or craw fish color. You can get out on the water just before the cold front hits and fish the lures I named above and at times load the boat with good numbers and big bass but if you want the really big bass learn to fish the cold front and the blue bird cold days. For those of you that don't know what a blue bird day is, this is a bright sunny cold day just after a front blows through and there are very few clouds to be found and this is probably one of our toughest times to catch bass, but if you will slow down and change your style of fishing you can still go home a winner. Now let's talk about this tough time and what we will need to do to catch these big bass during the toughest time of the year. The first thing I will do is re- my rods because what was working during the warmer days in November just won't work as well during this time in January. When I rig my first rod I will rig it my New Big Eye ¼ oz. Jig in a black / blue color and as a trailer I will rig it with a Mister Twister Pocket Craw or a Flip'n Out jig trailer. Mister Twister is one of my long time sponsors and Mister Twister builds the Pocket Craw and the Flip'n Out trailers I use. Now I said they were jig trailers but they can be used on a Texas rig fished as a plastic worm. My next rod will be rigged with My Big Eye Jig in the 3/8 oz. size in my favorite color Bk/Blue/Red flake color and my trailer will be a Mister Twister 4 inch pocket craw. My next rod will be teamed up with another Big Eye Jig color Black Brown Amber color with just a hint of green in it, my next rod will be rigged with a black blue Mr. Twister Thunder Worm. The thunder worm has a ribbed wide tail to make the bait fall at a slower pace and the ribs make a slight noise as it falls. Now for my next rod I will rig it with a Tub Jig in a green pumpkin color and I will dip it in my Spike-IT Dip N Glow Chartreuse garlic flavored dye, my next rod will be rigged with MY Lake Fork 430 Special Spinner Bait in a chart/white color rigged with the Mister Twister Split Double Tail Trailer , my next rod will be rigged with the Mister Twister 5 inch Comida worm which is fished by dead sticking. When you look at the Comida worm you will think Sinko but it's not it looks and fishes like the Sinko but its not . It looks very close to the Sinko but the Comida worm looks very close to it , The Comida has a touch more salt and is tougher to make it last longer so you can catch more fish and with that combination you as a just can't go wrong. Last but not least I will rig up my last rod with my world famous Shimmy Shaker in my new Blue Herring Shad color and my trailer for it will be the Mister Twister Double Tail. If you have not tried the Mister Twister products well you have missed out. Now we have our rods rigged with what I think is the best lures made today for catching cold front bass. Now let's talk about how to fish them during this time. First choose where your going to fish before you go to the lake and the type of water, whether your going to fish brush, creek channels, river channel, rocks or boat houses. If you will make this decision before you get to the water you will save time, gas and wear and tare on your rig. All these choices are good so pick out one and dedicate your time today to fishing just one of the choices and not running all over the lake trying to fish them all in one day. This will normally make for a long expensive day and not a lot of success. If you don't have a map of Lake Palestine then give me a call I have maps and can sell you one for five dollars and it also comes with a four county map on the back of it. Now let's say we choose to fish a creek channel or a river channel, you will fish both almost the same way. I like to try and picture in my mind just how the bottom looked before there was water and then think about all the brush and other objects that may have gotten trapped in the bends next to all the stumps and trees left in the lake. When I get this pictured in my mind I will then think about where Mr. Bass will get to think he is hidden and then I will pitch my Big Eye Jig in a let it fall ever so slow down to the bottom and then I will pick up on my rod and jiggle my lure up and down in the same place two or three times and then I will reel my bait up about two turns and jiggle my lure up and down again. I will then pull up my lure and reposition it back into the spot again. I will normally give a bass about three chances in one area and then I will move over to another spot. When fishing the creeks and river channels I will concentrate on my bends and any lay downs that may be laying off the shore into the channel. These objects will be very productive so fish them very good and let me caution you to wait on your cast until you get strait out in front of the objects and then make short and accurate cast so that you can cover all the productive area and never make long cast to throw over the structure for this will in most cases spook your fish and you won't get any where if you rush into your cast .If you wait you could catch as many as three or four fish out of one top when fished the right way. The lures of my choice when fishing the creeks and river will be the Big Eye Jig and pocket craw trailer and the Comida worm, both lures are great lures when fishing heavy cover. Now let's say we choose to fish the points and brush piles. Here I will still fish the jig n pig and the Comida worm but my first choice will be the crank bait. I will fish the crank bait first out in the deeper water and work myself in to the shallower water covering every inch of the point and after I fished the crank bait I will then go to my tube bait and then on to the jig. Fish slow and then when you think your fishing slow then slow down some more and this will help you to catch more of these hard to catch fish and when you do you can then go home a winner. Now to fish boat houses I like to start by working my boat to one side of the house and fish the shore first and then begin working each set of post to work all the way round to the other side. My lures will be the crank bait first and then on to the plastic worm and the jig. Again I will fish very slow so that I cover every inch of each boat house I approach and when you find brush in under the house and out in front of the house I will tend to fish the brush even harder than I did the main portion of the boat house and when I take one fish from the brush I will pitch back in several times more to try and catch two or more to make a great day out of a hard fishing day. When you fish the cold blue bird days be on your toes because you may not get that many bites but the fish you catch should and probably will be big fish and that's what most of us want when we go fishing. Now for the warmer days in the winter months try the 430 Special Spinner Baits and the World Famous Shimmy Shaker or at least I like to think World Famous on my Shimmy Shakers. On these not so cold days the bass will hit more moving baits so try these on the points , around boat docks and in the back of your creeks on the northeast side and you will find the lake is just a tad bit warmer here and moving baits will work well. Here's a fish I caught during a cold, cloudy day in the middle of the winner on My Shimmy Shaker up near the grass. I had fished hard that day and bass were slow but with the cloud cover I just felt that I could stay with the shallower water and grass that had a drop off just out from the shore and that the ole Shimmy Shaker just might pull a good bass and it did. If I can catch fish like this then so can you. So get out there on the water and give it your best and I just bet when your day is through you will have reason to brag about your fish just as I did.

When we have those old cold days get out on the water and try fishing for the hard to get fish and this will make a better fisherman out of you. When going to the lake if you don't have a good map to plan your trip and your strategy then call me I have in stock maps that I have had made up and can sell to yo for just five dollars. We have had very good rain back in the Fall months and just presently that has brought Lake Palestine up to the top and more and then we got five inches just after Christmas which will bring lakes back above pool, so be careful when running up north , there will be cover that is just under the surface that you may hit if not on your P’s and Q's. Lake Fork was about two feet low but the rains we got last week has brought it up to 95% full. Hopefully the Sabine River authority will not open the gates and Dallas wont pull water to let Lake Fork stay full for our spring time fishing. Fishing over all has been very good with some really nice bass coming in up to about 9 lbs on Lake Palestine and while Lake Fork spite the low water it had some good lunker bass have been caught. Crappie have been very good under the bridges on jigs and minnows on Lake Palestine and will soon be on very strong near the dam. For those that like fishing the river bed for deep crappie they have been very good. Lake Fork has been very good on crappie under the bridges and out in front of Little Caney Creek. White bass and Hybrid Stripe bass have been slow on Lake Palestine with best fishing being on main lake points on spoons and Mr. Twister Sassy Shads. Lake Fork has been very good on white bass and Bar fish out on the main lake humps and road ways on spoons and sassy shad lures. Remember fish slow and then slow down and when fishing the lures I mentioned try different speeds with each of your lures for today they may want the bait moving at a faster speed and tomorrow they may want it just barely moving. Until next month remember to keep only the fish you can use and release the rest so our kids can enjoy the great sport of fishing just as we have. If your coming to Lake Palestine or Lake Fork and need a guide then give me a call at (903)561-7299 or (903)530-2201 or email me at [email protected] and let's get you out on the water. Be sure to book ​ ​ early because in the spring I book way in advance and stay very busy so call now so you can get the day or days best for you. If you would like to purchase any of the lures I build then you can order on line through my web site rickysguideservice.com or you can call me at (903)561-7299 office and my cell is (903)530-2201 and you can get me on my cell 24 hours a day. I will build the lures of your choice and in most any color you want. For the ones out there that have purchased my lures I would like to say thank you for your orders and hope you are catching good numbers of large fish on them and I say it again thank you so much for your orders and for all of you that have fished with me in the past Thank You and please come back again for without you I couldn't be here. If you catch a good bass on one of my lures send me a copy of your photo to me with the lure showing in the bass's mouth and I will get your photo in my next article and who knows I just may send you a new one in one of my newest colors for you to try. Purchase fifty dollars are more of my lures and I will enter you into my drawing for a free Ricky's Lake Fork /Palestine fishing cap.

Good luck ​ and Good fishing

Nice Bass caught on a miserable cold rainy day on my Big Eye Jig

Another cold rainy day and this bass was caught on the 430 Special Spinner Bait in the Chart/White/silver flash Skirt Color

Here's a cold front blowing in and it got the Hybrids chasing shad, This one was caught on a Bomber Crank Bait

This is the big eye jig , I can make just about any color you can think of

The Shimmy Shaker in action. The Shimmy Shaker has produced Bass for my clients and myself up to 10 ½ lbs and the Big Bass just keep coming in. To try the Shimmy Shaker, the 430 Special Spinner Bait or my Big Eye Jig you can order them by emailing me at [email protected], or calling ​ me at 903-561-7299 or 903 530-2201