Marty Arostegui and I fished the Holey Land today to try and break his 401 world record. Marty has more than double the world records than any other man. We had our chance at a big gar but he just wouldn't take Marty's fly. About midway through our trip we kind of aborted our mission of record breaking because we realized the big gar and mud fish weren't very active, and decided to help out with stocking the IGFA pond. We relocated 10 small bass one fairly large mud fish and four medium sized gar. Hopefully these fish will put a smile on a few kids faces during the fishing rodeos they have there.
Capt. Thadeus
www.gladesbassin.com
Tuesday, November 29, 2011
Monday, November 28, 2011
Bassin In the Glades with Jack Sovoie and Don Boyle
What a trip! I have to admit it took some time to find the fish for my friends Jack and Don. With all the high water we were stumped for the first part of our day. After a location change it was game on! The magic started about an hour and a half before dark. We had blow up after blow up! They weren't giants, but it sure was fun! I hope to see Jack and Don again. They were great guys to hang out with. Above is a photo of Jack with one of his bigger Bass.
Thursday, November 17, 2011
Cover of Fly Life Mag.
I'm headed up to Lake Okeechobee today to help Roland s' out with a guide trip. I'll give everyone the details later.
Keep catching them,
Thadeus
www.gladesbassin.com
Wednesday, October 12, 2011
A LESSON LEARNED AND MONEY EARNED!!
I had a third place finish for a 1,900.00 pay check, in the BFL Gator Division two day Super Tournament on Lake Okeechobee October 1-2, placing me 22nd in points and giving me the opportunity to fish the regional tournament on Lake Hartwell !
I practiced for about seven days, sun up until the mosquito's came out in the evening. I searched off shore 90% of the time, checking rock piles, holes, flats. and shallow grass lines. I threw traps, chatter baits, crank baits, swim baits, jigs, and soft plastics. Because the lake is low right now with lot's of clean water out there I assumed the winning bag would be caught off shore. What I found wasn't bad but it just wasn't good enough to win. The numbers were easy to catch. I caught schooling bass on everything I cast into the water but the big ones just wouldn't respond to anything I did. I know they were there, because a couple of times I would see a giant chasing a small bass up to the boat that I had on the line. Also, I found a four and a half pound fish dead with a full size bream stuck in it's throat, and a big bass was trying to engulf another blue gill that was half alive making ripples on the surface. That's why I decided to throw big swim baits but, they ended up getting very little attention. I did catch a couple of three pound fish on them but, it took way too long. On the final day of practice I went out to hone in on the off shore bite and it didn't go well at all. First of all, I was borrowing a friends boat that had different electronics than mine on it, and the couture lines were completely different, so I couldn't find the little sweet spots I had located a couple days before. I borrowed my friends boat because it runs faster than mine and I wanted to save as much time as possible during the tournament. Second of all, a cold front started pushing in causing the wind to blow a little harder making everything more difficult.
From past experience I knew that even though the big ones were there it doesn't mean they will bite, so I made the a last minute decision to abandon my whole off shore plan and fish the rim canal. I would have more fishing time, and less running time, and also the wind was supposed to pick up even more hurting the off shore bite.
Trusting my instincts worked. I had five fish totaling a weight of about ten or eleven pounds within two hours on that first day. I caught two pound fish after two pound fish all day on jigs and Venom skip shads. About two hours before having to take off for weigh in I found the sweet spot and the big ones became active! I upgraded to twenty pounds and headed in. I was in third place going into the second day, but the cold front was in full force and the temperature dropped about twenty degrees that night before the second day, shutting the bite down even more. Again it wasn't too difficult to get a limit right away, but the fish were definitely smaller on day two, at least in the morning. I worked my jig exclusively because my biggest fish were caught on it the first day, and I just knew that eventually I would hit another sweet spot like the day before. Well I was wrong!! By 12:00 I only had about eight pound's and weigh-in was at 2:30, so to say the least, I was freaking out! I put my jig rod down and let my attachment to that technique go. Picked up the skip shad rod and started taking my frustration out on burning the skip shad. That's when the madness began!! As soon as that thing would touch the water a fish would turn a flip on it!! I caught more than ten fish within the last hour and a half, and up graded with two nice two and a half pound up grades. I made a bad mistake though, I let the excitement and adrenalin get the best of me. Right at the end, I hooked a beautiful three or three and a half pound fish and tried to rush it in, all the while my co-angler was screaming "TAKE IT EASY, TAKE IT EASY" and sure enough, I lost the fish just out of net reach. That was it, that was my chance to maybe win the thing but, you know what, at the end of the day I held third and am happy to have placed as high as I did competing against such great anglers.
FISH HARD!
Thadeus Ragan
www.gladesbassin.com
I had a third place finish for a 1,900.00 pay check, in the BFL Gator Division two day Super Tournament on Lake Okeechobee October 1-2, placing me 22nd in points and giving me the opportunity to fish the regional tournament on Lake Hartwell !
I practiced for about seven days, sun up until the mosquito's came out in the evening. I searched off shore 90% of the time, checking rock piles, holes, flats. and shallow grass lines. I threw traps, chatter baits, crank baits, swim baits, jigs, and soft plastics. Because the lake is low right now with lot's of clean water out there I assumed the winning bag would be caught off shore. What I found wasn't bad but it just wasn't good enough to win. The numbers were easy to catch. I caught schooling bass on everything I cast into the water but the big ones just wouldn't respond to anything I did. I know they were there, because a couple of times I would see a giant chasing a small bass up to the boat that I had on the line. Also, I found a four and a half pound fish dead with a full size bream stuck in it's throat, and a big bass was trying to engulf another blue gill that was half alive making ripples on the surface. That's why I decided to throw big swim baits but, they ended up getting very little attention. I did catch a couple of three pound fish on them but, it took way too long. On the final day of practice I went out to hone in on the off shore bite and it didn't go well at all. First of all, I was borrowing a friends boat that had different electronics than mine on it, and the couture lines were completely different, so I couldn't find the little sweet spots I had located a couple days before. I borrowed my friends boat because it runs faster than mine and I wanted to save as much time as possible during the tournament. Second of all, a cold front started pushing in causing the wind to blow a little harder making everything more difficult.
From past experience I knew that even though the big ones were there it doesn't mean they will bite, so I made the a last minute decision to abandon my whole off shore plan and fish the rim canal. I would have more fishing time, and less running time, and also the wind was supposed to pick up even more hurting the off shore bite.
Trusting my instincts worked. I had five fish totaling a weight of about ten or eleven pounds within two hours on that first day. I caught two pound fish after two pound fish all day on jigs and Venom skip shads. About two hours before having to take off for weigh in I found the sweet spot and the big ones became active! I upgraded to twenty pounds and headed in. I was in third place going into the second day, but the cold front was in full force and the temperature dropped about twenty degrees that night before the second day, shutting the bite down even more. Again it wasn't too difficult to get a limit right away, but the fish were definitely smaller on day two, at least in the morning. I worked my jig exclusively because my biggest fish were caught on it the first day, and I just knew that eventually I would hit another sweet spot like the day before. Well I was wrong!! By 12:00 I only had about eight pound's and weigh-in was at 2:30, so to say the least, I was freaking out! I put my jig rod down and let my attachment to that technique go. Picked up the skip shad rod and started taking my frustration out on burning the skip shad. That's when the madness began!! As soon as that thing would touch the water a fish would turn a flip on it!! I caught more than ten fish within the last hour and a half, and up graded with two nice two and a half pound up grades. I made a bad mistake though, I let the excitement and adrenalin get the best of me. Right at the end, I hooked a beautiful three or three and a half pound fish and tried to rush it in, all the while my co-angler was screaming "TAKE IT EASY, TAKE IT EASY" and sure enough, I lost the fish just out of net reach. That was it, that was my chance to maybe win the thing but, you know what, at the end of the day I held third and am happy to have placed as high as I did competing against such great anglers.
FISH HARD!
Thadeus Ragan
www.gladesbassin.com
Monday, September 12, 2011
I'm still on the fish in the Glades. Did really well on a buzz bait yesterday. I love catching them on that thing!! The way they just follow it and bite it at the last few feet of the retrieve is awesome!!
Email me today to book your everglades bass catching adventure. thadeusragan@gladesbassin.com or thadeusragan@hotmail.com
Tuesday, September 6, 2011
Bassin with Ryan and Conner Hess!
 |
| Conner with his four pound bass! |
 |
| One of Ryan's first bass of the day! |
I had the pleasure of fishing with Ryan and Conner Hess from Pennsylvania last Saturday! We went deep into the glades to one of my secrete spots and found that the fishing has slowed. We focused our efforts on the beginning of the canal first and had fairly good results. I guess we caught four or five one and a half pound fish right from the start. About an hour into the trip, it slowed down, so I decided to take them to the end of the canal where I've always caught a lot of fish. When we got to the end, there were shore fishermen working over my favorite spot. We noticed one guy bow fishing and three more guys and a lady all fishing this one hole. They were an entertaining bunch, but they didn't have a very good effect on the fishing in that area. The only lady there caught the only bass in that section and I think it was her first one ever because she started screaming " I'm not taking it off, I'm not taking it off"!!! We had a good laugh over that! Conner hooked up with a couple of big gars that gave him a nice fight, but the bass were just not hitting. I suggested we run back to the beginning of the canal for one last effort before giving up. Sure enough, the fish were there! Ryan and Conner's casting accuracy and diligence started paying off. Ryan caught a couple of small ones, then Conner caught one. While releasing Conner's fish, I looked over at Ryan and by seeing the expression on his face I realized he had a nice one! It did a couple of beautiful head shaking jumps and somehow the line got wrapped around Ryan's rod tip. He fought that fish very well considering the line wrap. Just as I was about to reach down and grab the fish, the line snapped! NO!! I guess that's all part of the fun. That fish was at least four pounds. Then Conner makes this beautiful cast with the sling worm into a isolated patch of lily pads. He works the worm through the pads beautifully. When the bait reached the outside of the pads, Conner twitched it a couple more times making it dart back an forth. You would have thought this 12 year old had been doing this his whole life. What perfect presentation! After those twitches an underwater torpedo engulfs his sling worm. He sets the hook like a pro! The three and a half or four pound fish put up a great fight! He did a couple of jumps then went deep around the front of the trolling motor and to the other side of the boat. That bass had no chance with Conner behind the rod and before we knew it, he had the big bass in the the boat ready for it's moment of glory in front of the camera! NOW THAT'S HOW YOU END A DAY OF FISHING!!
Sunday, September 4, 2011
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)