I recently met Anne Parker, co-owner with her husband Ronnie of Lake Fork Trophy Lures. One thing led to another and we soon had a Plant tour and a couple of fishing trips lined up. August is a tough time to crappie fish, but I’ll be tied up all of September. Then October hits and with the trip lined up with the Lake Charles/Southwest Louisiana Convention & Visitors Bureau (www.visitlakecharles.org) and a few other trips it worked best to hit it now.

    I hit town and was greeted by Ronnie, Kevin Sharp and Brad Williams, who would be my guide that afternoon. After the greetings Brad said, “Well, are you ready to hit it? In a hot second we were zipping out to our first spot.”  

    But before we get started, I’m going to combine the afternoon with Brad with the next morning with Sean Gossett, and then next week I want to talk about Lake Fork Trophy Lures and their famous lures.

    Sean and Brad have fished together for years as guides and in crappie tournaments. Both are LFT Prostaff Members, Crappie Guides and they qualified for the Crappie Masters National Championships in 2012 and 2013.  

    In Idaho, most crappie fishermen use a lightweight spinning rig. Brad and Sean used an 8-foot ProAngler Rod, and many times they’ll use 9 or 10 foot rods. These longer rods work super good for reaching out and dabbling in the brush and around trees. Us Idaho-crappie fishermen fish in a total different terrain.

    As you can imagine, we exclusively used Lake Fork Trophy Lures. I love their crappie jigs. I can’t wait to use them here in Idaho next spring.  Then I grabbed some of their bigger plastics to use on Gar. If you’ve been reading any of my articles lately, then you know that I’ve been hitting them hard the last few weeks. He also had some plastics that he promised would slay the smallmouths in Idaho.

    The Baby Shad and numerous other of his plastics have what I’d call slots cut out of their sides which makes them super sensitive to any movement. You can hold one in still water and the tail will be moving like a live minnow. We used the 2-inch Baby Shad which comes in three options as far as tails go and then of course multiple colors. We used the regular Baby Shad, the Sickle Tail Baby Shad and the Boot Tail Baby Shad.  I like all three and don’t know if I can recommend one over the other. But again, what made me like their plastics above the others that I’ve been using are the slots cut in them that make them super sensitive.  

    I’ve crappie fished all my life, but I learned a lot on this trip watching Brad and Sean. They are fanatics, which is what it takes to be good at anything isn’t it? They taught me a lot of subtle little tricks. Sean is a finesse fisherman. He really knows how to fish a brush pile.

    August is the worst time of the year to hit Lake Fork for Crappie. We hit it hard, but it was tough fishing. Brad and Sean felt bad and kept inviting me back but I told them, “Gee guys, I learned a lot, and we had a great time didn’t we?” They’re the best crappie fishermen that I’ve ever fished with. I learned a lot, we had a good time and got to fish on a legendary lake together. It doesn’t get much better than that does it?  

    If you’re ever down in Texas and want to line up a good crappie fishing trip, give these guys a call. They can be contacted through Lake Fork Trophy Lures.