Last week, headed out on a road trip, big Smith-Root electrofishing boat in tow. First stop, Tuesday in Bastrop, Louisiana for an evening of electrofishing two lakes, each about 15-17 acres. Finished the last one at 10:30, head hit the pillow at midnight. Up and gone early the next morning, I arrived at a site outside Gulfport, Mississippi and worked on a 47 acre lake. Finished around 4 pm and headed to Ray's place. Got there about 8ish and visited with Jim Kientz until 10:30 and settled in for rest. Met up with Ray, Jim Kientz and Eric for breakfast and headed out to electrofish Ray's lakes.
The water was hot. Hot-tub hot. About 92 degrees. But, we shocked up lots of fish and with an excellent live well, we were able to take good care of the fish.
As you may know, Ray has opened his ranch to anglers in a package deal. It's pretty dang cool and affordable...when you consider all you get. Stay in the Presidential Cabin, fish the President's lake and another one on the property, good food and meet Ray in person...when he's there. Oh, and the fishing is excellent. Outdoor Life, in last month's issue, rated his lake the best in the United States. I must say, it is outstanding. We shocked up lots of bass. Most of the largest ones are deep right now and with several Lake Life Pumps going at one time, there is plenty of depth for fish to segregate. Still, we shocked up more than 75 bass ranging up to just under 8 pounds. Relative weights were a little short, suggesting the lake is overcrowded. So, we removed about 45 slot bass and moved them to another lake on a different piece of property.
The forage fish population is well above average. We saw tens of thousands of threadfin shad, lots of gizzard shad just the right size for his predominant size bass, bluegill in five size classes, tilapia and a few redear sunfish.
Ray was as entertaining as ever. He is a non-stop story teller and is enchanting in the way he tells them. His vocabulary is colloquial and he knows how to sprinkle just the right descriptive words at just the right time.
We were in his house and Ray asked Eric if he had ever met the very first B.A.S.S. member, Don Butler. Eric, in his soft Mississippi voice, just smiled and said, "no". Ray walked over to a beautiful walnut box, engraved on top, picked it up and said, "Eric, I would like you to meet Don Butler." Eric was catching on quickly. He said, "Is that his ashes?" Ray explained that it was and how Don wanted him to have his ashes. Then, Ray acted like he was about to drop the box and got some ashes on his hands. He set the box down and with a twinkle in his eyes and one side of his mouth turned up in a wry smile, he winked and said, "The box has a little leak." Then he dusted his hands and went on to the next story. Eric didn't quite know what to think.
He took us to a couple of his favorite eating haunts and we enjoyed some excellent food.
Ray was kind enough to grant an interview for the Pond Boss podcast list. As soon as I can get our audio editor to get it done, we'll get it up on the website.
Ray has one lake, about 14 acres, that's fairly new. I got to help design it several years ago and we made plans to stock it with forage fish and female bass. We've struggled to get enough females to adequately stock it, but those fish in its waters look like what Ray calls, "Alabama deputy sheriffs". They are rotund and growing exceptionally well. He calls this lake the "All Girl Lake" and expects the anglers to dress appropriately while in the presence of all those females.
The third lake is called the Tabernacle Lake. It's about 8-10 acres and hasn't been managed much over the last few years. Since Ray moved out of his big house to make it available for overflow angler groups, he's renovating the house next to Tabernacle and wants to renovate the lake, too.
It was a fantastic trip and I appreciate Ray counting on me to help be the architect to continue to grow giant bass in his lakes.
If you are interested in booking a trip, go to
www.rayscottoutdoors.com and check it out.
If anyone has any specific questions about Ray's program or his lakes, post it here. I'll watch this thread for a few days.
