Posted 9:34 pm Sunday, November 22, 2009
Tyler's Detwiler Catches On To Fishing Quickly With Top Teachers
Being a doctor sometimes comes with some perks.
Being the doctor for bass fishing pros comes with even more benefits, including having pros such as Denny Brauer on your speed dial.
Being the doctor for bass fishing pros comes with even more benefits, including having pros such as Denny Brauer on your speed dial.
That, along with a prototype of a three-quarter ounce Strike King Red Eye Shad lure, helped Tyler's Paul Detwiler land a 14.43-pound Toyota Share-Lunker Monday on a private lake south of Athens.
BIG ENOUGH: Dr. Paul Detwiler of Tyler caught the second Toyota ShareLunker of the year Monday when he landed this 14.43-pound bass on a private lake in Henderson County.
The 27½-inch fish is the second entry in the program, but the largest this season. The other ShareLunker is a 13-pound fish caught on a private lake near Ben Wheeler.
Detwiler was at the lake with his hunting buddy Dennis Spence. They were celebrating Spence's birthday.
Detwiler got into bass fishing about five years ago after operating. Brauer, the veteran angler, was about to be forced into retirement by a bad back that no one else could fix. Because the surgery allowed Brauer to continue to fish, part of the payment was the forging of a friendship and some fishing lessons from one of the all-time greats of the sport.
Brauer also has referred other pros to Detwiler, and they have also returned the favor for pain-free fishing by inviting Detwiler to fish.
"Five years ago when I operated on Denny Brauer I didn't even know who he was," said Detwiler, who now is in weekly contact with about 15 professional anglers around the country.
When the fishermen have time off, they will invite their doctor to join them for a day or two on the water. This has taken him to some of the top private lakes around the country along with Lake Erie, Lake Champlain, the California Delta, Falcon and recently El Salto in Mexico.
What he has learned has paid off.
"In the last year I have gotten on a roll with big fish. I caught a 9 ï¾½ on Lake Tyler and a 6 ï¾½ on Lake Erie, and for that lake that is a trophy," Detwiler said.
"In the last year I have gotten on a roll with big fish. I caught a 9 ï¾½ on Lake Tyler and a 6 ï¾½ on Lake Erie, and for that lake that is a trophy," Detwiler said.
In the case of the ShareLunker, Detwiler was actually on the 80-plus acre lake to cull fish. It had recently been sold, and was in need of severe management after several years of neglect. Detwiler started by inviting Brauer to Texas to fish.
"The owner said they needed to take 600 pounds out of the lake. Denny and I culled 120 pounds in six hours, and the owner asked when I was coming back," Detwiler said.
That opened the door for him and Spence to return Monday.
Despite it being a misty, cool morning, they were on the lake by sunrise. During consultation with Brauer by phone, he suggested they start early because conditions looked good for a topwater bite at daylight. However, the fish weren't on the points. They were instead in channels between fingers jutting into the lake. Spence found them first using the Strike King Rat-L-Trap-like bait. Fishing this pattern the two boated about 80 pounds of bass in six hours, with the best being in the 3- to 4-pound range.
"I decided to go out into the main lake and fish around the dam and some islands that are in the middle, but nothing. It was cold so we went up into some cuts on the north end of the lake to get out of the wind. The lake was the highest I have ever seen it. It is up about three feet. Bushes on some fingers sticking out into the lake that are normally out of water are in a foot of water," Detwiler said.
He started throwing jigs around the bushes, but was only catching small fish.
"I picked up a rod with the Red Eye Shad on it and threw it and it loaded up," Detwiler said. Although in production now, the lure he used was actually a prototype Brauer gave to him a year ago.
When Detwiler first hooked the fish it was about 40 feet from the boat.
"It went from the left to the right. It was about to get hung up in the trolling motor. I was trying to tire it out working the rod. I was free spooling it, holding onto the line with my thumb. Then it went back to the left about 30 or 40 feet.
Detwiler said he never saw the fish and Spence was too busy taking video of the action to see how big it was. It wasn't until he pulled it out of the water that Spence noticed the fish's size.
"I knew it was a big fish, but I was more concerned about getting two treble hooks in my hand. Dennis saw it and said, 'Hey dude, it is like 14 or 15 pounds,'" he recalled.
