Every angler thinks their dream job is being a professional angler out on tour fishing competitively against the best anglers in the world, but they would be wrong. John Tanner has every anglers dream job. He is a professional fishing guide on Lake Fork reservoir in Texas. Lake Fork is renowned for its huge schools of quality and trophy size black bass. Tanner relies on his years of experience on Lake Fork; in addition to using Talon Series Big Dandy Custom Lake Fork Spoons to put clients on trophy bass. 

Tanner (www.lakeforkbassguide.com) guides year round and commonly gives his clients big flutter spoons to fish with for bass. “Really the only time you can’t catch them on a spoon is when the bass are spawning otherwise late spring thru the winter you can catch bass on them. Even when bass are on the spawning beds, some years you can go catch them in deep spots,” said Tanner. In late spring during post-spawn as the bass move to deeper areas around late April or May, Tanner will fish long points, ponds, pond dams, road beds and the mouth of spawning coves staying in 15- to 20-feet water.

During the summer months Tanner moves to deeper offshore and more main lake areas. “I like to stay in 20- to 30-feet of water using my graph to find the fish. It’s best to have several spots and just keep running to them until you find the fish,” said Tanner. Tanner noted there was some brush piles put in Lake Fork by crappie anglers that often hold bass; in addition to standing timber that could be productive when fishing a spoon. “The bass in brush piles or standing timber will either be suspending or on the bottom around wood. Once you know which present you present your Talon spoon accordingly,” said Tanner.

In the fall, Tanner pays close attention to lake turnover since that plays a major part in how active the bass are going to be. “During this time of year on Lake Fork bass will often suspend in large schools feeding on groups of shad. This is a great time to fish a spoon. I like to fish around humps or deep points with schools of bass on them after I find them with my graph,” explained Tanner. Throughout the fall, Tanner found the most productive water depth is in the 12- to 15-foot range. During the winter months Tanner goes to the same areas as in the fall, but uses a slower presentation.
As for presentations, Tanner uses three different ones. “You can vertically fish them straight up and down. This works well over submerged or standing timber when bass are bunched up on the bottom. If the bass are suspended over submerged trees I will cast out and work the spoon horizontally counting it down to where the school of bass are suspending. The last way to fish a flutter spoon is to slow rolling it across the bottom and popping it every once and a while. That is really productive in the colder months,” explained Tanner.

As for spoons, Tanner uses the Talon Series Big Dandy™ Custom Lake Fork Flutter Spoons (www.talonlures.com). Most of the time, Tanner and his clients will fish with the Talon Big Dandy 500 Series Custom Lake Fork Flutter Spoon. It measures 4¾-inches and weighs 1.25 ounces. When bass are feeding on smaller shad he will change to the Talon Big Dandy 400 Series Custom Lake Fork Casting Spoon. The smaller casting spoon measures only 3½-inch, weighs 1.5-ounce spoon has the same action as the larger flutter spoon. The Talon Series Big Dandy™ Custom Lake Fork Flutter Spoons come with a custom paint finish that will not peel or flake away. Each one is rigged with a VMC Nickel finished treble hook that is hand tied with genuine Flashabou to keep it in place. “One of the best features of Talon Series Big Dandy™ Custom Lake Fork Flutter Spoons are the hand tied skirt and sharp VMC hook. They are so sharp you don’t have to change out hooks and they won’t bend when a big bass gets on them,” said Tanner. Tanner like to fish the Talon spoons with 20-pound Berkley 100% Fluorocarbon line on a 7-foot Abu Garcia Verdict Rod and Abu Garcia Premier Revo 6:4.1 Reel.

Tanner is one of the few anglers who have their dream job and get to make a living doing it. The view from his office window is amazing and his clients can experience the thrill of maybe catching that trophy bass of a life time.