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Does your teacher know Squirmin Wormin ? ? A-Jay

After a lackluster Saturday with only 1 fish, I decided to head east to the TN river with Brian Needham for a smallie beat down. We got there and had good water flow, but it was dirty. Caught a couple real quick, and then nothing but rocks for a while. Settled down and actually did what you would think not to do. We normally would have headed up towards the dam, looking for cleaner water, but I have confidence in a spot away from the dam, and the water flow was just right for my spot, so we headed off. After a short boat ride, we get set up and right away, fish on. After a hard run up current, it turned and sped right back at us. Thinking at this point, with no jumps I have a TN River special (Drum) but just then out she comes. After a few under the boat dives she comes up and in the net. After a quick photo op, we weighed her and released her. 4.52 on the digital and ended up being the heaviest of the day, but not the highlight of the day! We fish on for a while and nothing else to speak of. And although we caught 18 smallies there were only 2 that mattered and next up was THE ONE! We fished my spot for a little while with nothing to show, so we moved and let the spot rest for an hour or so. We came back, and caught a dink quickly. Then it happened. Brian sets the hook and the fight is on. After a drag squealing run or two, the fish breaks near the surface, and Brian says, *** just a drum. I told him "NO, that is a big smallie." And just about then she jumps. Brian manages to get her tired and near the boat when I go to net her and she jumps again, narrowly missing the net. But after that jump, she was tired and easily coaxed into the net. On that last jump, we noticed a large half digested ?shad? that she threw up in the fight. This thing was about 6-8'' long. We get her on the scale and she was 4.40, and I am pretty sure had she not thrown up that shad, she would have been pressing 5 and was definitely the biggest fish of the day. Congrats to Brian on his new PB! Brian's comments after she was in the net, " I thought it was a drum, because I had never seen a smallie so wide across the back!" Jeff

A couple was having dinner one evening when the husband reached across the table, took his wife's hand in his and said, "Beth, soon we will be married 30 years, and there's something I have to know. In all of these 30 years, have you ever been unfaithful to me?" Beth replied, "Well Charles, I have to be honest with you. Yes, I've been unfaithful to you on three occasion's during these 30 years, but always for a good reason." Charles was obviously hurt by his wife's confession, but said, " I never suspected. Can you tell me what you mean by 'good reasons'?" Beth said, "The very first time was shortly after we were married, and we were about to lose our little house because we couldn't pay the mortgage. Do you remember that one evening I went to see the banker and the next day he notified you that the loan would be extended?" Charles recalled the visit to the banker and said, "I can forgive you for that. You saved our home, but what about the second time?" Beth asked, "And do you remember when you were so sick, but we didn't have the money to pay for the heart surgery you needed? Well, I went to see your doctor one night and, if you recall, he did the surgery at no charge." "I recall that," says Chuck. "And you did it to save my life, so of course I can forgive you for that. Now tell me about the third time." "All right," Beth said. "So do you remember when you ran for president of your golf club, and you needed 73 more votes"?"

Dwight. I caught this walleye a couple weeks ago on the Wisconsin River.

Looks like your using bait again to get an unfair advantage

Trimming the excess threads off the reel seat. It used to be difficult to trim it with a Dremel and keep it square and clean. Then I had an epiphany! Put it on the lathe and cut it with a parting tool. Perfect every time!! Same thing with boring the seat concentric. No problem on the lathe. Getting ready to rough-in the grip. Finished grip & reel seat.

Had my Dad fly in from Orlando over the weekend. My son and I took him out for a SMB trip to Melvern Lake KS. We caught over 100 fish in 1.5 days all on the ned rig. 1/8oz ned head zman PB&J 2 inch senko w/super glue, used 25+ of them! Here are a few pics of the larger ones.

Fished Melvern Friday afternoon 2 to 6 and Saturday 8 to 1 and 2 to 630 with my Dad in town from Florida and my 9 year old Jake. 1/8 oz ned head with 2 inch PB&J Zman, super glued is all we ever needed. Started with 30 neds came home with four. We caught over 100 fish, the biggest being almost 3, lots of 1 to 2 lbs both days, when fishing with a kid catching is a good thing regardless how big or small. The cove to the right of the dam proved once again to hate me, I lost a 19 - 21 inch fish at the boat again weather was great and we sent my Dad back to Florida with a SMB thumb!

The only way to pull off a Sunday afternoon "quickie " with their 8-year-old son in the apartment was to send him out on the balcony with a Popsicle and tell him to report on all the neighborhood activities... - "There's a car being towed from the parking lot," he shouted. He began his commentary as his parents put their plan into operation: - "An ambulance just drove by!" - "Looks like the Andersons have company," he called out. - "Matt's riding a new bike!" - "Looks like the Sanders are moving!" - "Jason is on his skate board!" After a few moments he announced... - "The Coopers are having sex!" Startled, his mother and dad shot up in bed. Dad cautiously called out..."How do you know they're having sex?" - " Jimmy Cooper is standing on his balcony with a Popsicle." A-Jay

It does have a small mouth though If I had a dollar for every time one of those ugly things fooled me into thinking I'd hooked a state record smallie....

For planning on not fishing this weekend, I sure did a lot of fishing! Thursday I ran out to Olathe after work hoping to get into a wiper or two. They were busting shad like crazy but couldn't buy a strike KDWPT was out there netting so I decided to hit one of my favorite short stretches before they got to it. I missed a bite on a jig and then stuck the next one. I was surprised by the amount of weight I felt, even more surprised when I saw the size of the fish. Not a monster, but a heck of a nice fish for Olathe, my biggest of the year anyways at 19" long and 3.72 pounds on a sapphire blue home made finesse jig. After that little victory I spent the next couple hours trying to get a wiper to bite, all in vain. Even freelining a live shad was unsuccessful. I did get extremely lucky despite not catching a fish. I'd lost my favorite chrome/blue XR50 on the same point fishing from the bank the day before. I got snagged momentarily and it felt like I had a stick still when I reeled in, but this is what I found. So back to chasing bass, I hit another one of my favorite spots and caught a small one on a shakyhead. Next cast I fired a trap through and got hit by a heavy fish that was giving me slow headshakes. I was pretty sure what it was and my feelings were confirmed when it broke the surface. A fat saugeye was soon in the net that went 20" and 3.09 pounds. Nobody wanted her so back she went to get bigger Didn't catch many other fish but those couple nice fish made up for it easily, plus I didn't hook myself this time! Saturday I fished the Lake Quivira fishing club tournament with my buddy Tony. It's a good group of fishermen and obviously living on the lake gives them a pretty big advantage. Being an Elite Series pro probably gives you an even bigger advantage though! When I saw on FB that Brent Chapman was planning on fishing it with his son I knew it was going to be a serious uphill battle. I formulated a game plan the night before that we were going to go up the canals and risk getting way fewer bites in hopes that they would be the right ones. I missed 3 fish and was not having a good start when Tony set the hook on his jig and immediately one of the biggest bass I've seen out there in a long time was on the surface. Grab the net and scooped her up. 19" and 3.52 pounds was the start of our 11lb 1oz limit. I thought we probably finished in the money but couldn't believe when I heard we'd actually won the thing! Not only first place, but Tony's fish was good for big bass as well. He fished one of my home made finesse jigs in black/ gold flake with a Okeechobee craw colored YUM craw papi while I alternated between a home made sapphire blue 1/2oz brush jig with a black and blue Zman Batwingz trailer and a home made black on black bladed jig with a sapphire blue pit boss as a trailer. Getting the win was awesome, catching them all on my baits made it that much better I got to talk to Brent quite a bit afterwords and he was super nice as he is every time I've gotten to chat with him, congratulated us on our win and fielded everyone's questions afterwords. I'm sure if we tried 99 more times he'd get the best of us, but just once we got to say that we got the best of the former AOY and Elite Series angler on his home lake

Before this past weekend, I had only caught one smallmouth in my life. I have a 2 hour drive north to find the Tennessee River for the nearest smallmouth. Well I fished a tournament in TN this past weekend and landed big bass in the tournament with this 21.25 inch smallmouth. It was between 5 & 6 lbs. Caught it in a few feet of water on a Rage Craw.

Wanted to try something different for Halloween so made this Black Widow from epoxy putty and bailing wire. A lot of fun!

Saturday I fished the Lake Quivira fishing club tournament with my buddy Tony. It's a good group of fishermen who all live on the lake which gives them a pretty big advantage. Being an Elite Series pro who lives on the lake probably gives you an even bigger advantage though! When I saw on FB that Brent Chapman was planning on fishing it with his son I knew it was going to be a serious uphill battle. I formulated a game plan the night before that we were going to go up the canals and risk getting way fewer bites in hopes that they would be the right ones. I missed 3 fish and was not having a good start when Tony set the hook on his jig and immediately one of the biggest bass I've seen out there in a long time was on the surface. Grab the net and scooped her up. 19" and 3.52 pounds was the start of our 11lb 1oz limit. I thought we probably finished in the money but couldn't believe when I heard we'd actually won the thing! Not only first place, but Tony's fish was good for big bass as well. He fished one of my home made finesse jigs in black/ gold flake with a Okeechobee craw colored YUM craw papi while I alternated between a home made sapphire blue 1/2oz brush jig with a black and blue Zman Batwingz trailer and a home made black on black bladed jig with a sapphire blue pit boss as a trailer. Getting the win was awesome, catching them all on my baits made it that much better I got to talk to Brent quite a bit afterwords and he was super nice as he is every time I've gotten to chat with him, congratulated us on our win and fielded everyone's questions afterwords. I'm sure if we tried 99 more times he'd get the best of us, but just once we got to say that we got the best of the former AOY and Elite Series angler on his home lake

Great family outing. The kid's obviously a smallmouth stud.

CONGRATULATIONS!

You guys caught some nice smallies!

I learned to do it years ago, before ii became vogue. I feather my line on the outcast.. Stopping my bait where I want the splash down.. At that point, my hand is in such a position as to easily, and blindly be able to close the bail, and tug my line slightly in the event of a loose coil or 2.. It was just something I learned on my own in the 80's.. It was just a learning progression for me and nothing else really.

Glad to see you guys get into them. Congrats on the new PB Brian!

Too bad. It looks like the Drum PB will have to wait but at least you caught some quality smallmouth. Very nice!

Got me a smallie PB this weekend. SO GLAD to be able to up my donation total for 2014!!!

Jeff will not let me take pics of drum anymore..............but for you mike, next time we'll get some!! Had a jig bite worked up for the Drum.......we both got a little excited over that one, until we saw it

What a let down Jeff. I expected a drum!! Awesome job!!! Congrats on the PB.

Its economic theory. Even if you could read it, it would still be gobely-****. Imagine instead that it reads "the topwater bite is on at Lake Hangahawg, lots of pigs eating spooks" and then follow her lead...

Not sure how it is lazy, sloppy maybe... Cursive was all we wrote papers in school, unless it was required to be typed on a GASP typewriter...

hey yall, ya boy Needham IS BACK!!!!!!!!!!!! after a long summer of super busy, I am back and ready to catch fish, and it feels GOOD!!! catching a smallie PB is a great way to start the fall season, and even better to do it with my good friend Jeffro.............even though by "narrowly missing the net" he means........I stabbed at it, cause I thought it was bigger than mine. BAWHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!!!!!!!

Couple of nice smallies!

That's Two hawgs, nice fish!

Got back from Milford yesterday afternoon. It turned out to be a frustrating weekend for me but in a good way I guess. We caught a whole bunch of fish but only a couple worth mentioning. We ended with over 100 fish total so it was fun at least. We never could find the wipers though. I caught one by accident trolling a Ned rig as I went around a father and son fishing from shore. I also caught a LM that I didn't weigh but I'm guessing was just under 3 lbs on a spook--the only fish caught on top water. The Ned rig was the bait of choice for sure. I could probably count on one hand the number of fish caught on other techniques. The first picture was caught the first night on... wait for it...The ned rig... what else!? We had been catching a bunch of small fish and she hit just like the rest with a rapid fire tapping. I set the hook and it felt solid right away and then nothing. I thought either it must be small because no matter how fast I reeled in, there was just a little weight. It got about 3/4 of the way to the boat and decided to turn. My drag peeled off and then it jumped. It was dark outside so we couldn't see it but I could tell from the giant cannonball splash that it was big. We finally got it in the boat and realized how big it was. It weighed 4.36 lbs. The second fish was my wife's biggest. It was roughly 2.75- I can't remember the exact weight unfortunately. The final picture is my first blue cat (thanks to Bluebasser's identification). We were fishing at the dam and I marked a bunch of fish around a bait ball so I dropped a jigging spoon and ended up snagging that blue.

Anybody watch the Colts game today? Either the Bengals stink or the Colts are legit? Anybody see the hit Davis laid on Bernard? Go Colts

Monsterquest tourney on st clair today was won with a 5 fish limit of just over 28lbs of smallmouth. 4th place was 24lbs 12 oz. Awesome fishery.

That's exactly my point, most fish don't pose much of a landing problem, it's the lure and the water conditions that dictate the gear. Muskie are fragile and lack stamina they should be landed as quick as possible, it's a magnificent beast that should be handled with care. We handle tarpon the same way, they can go belly up, conversely there are fish that after 30 minutes look at you as if to say " is that all you got?", and swim off unphased.

I'm constantly "modifying" my technique and lures to try to establish a pattern. Each fish caught should put you closer to finding the pattern at that moment. If we get locked into just one technique, chances are we're giving up fish. I think the harderst part for me is to leave an area that just feels right, but your not getting hit. I know early on, I used to stay waaaaay to long in an area. Think back of a cove, or big flat, etc. not a single doc or point etc. During my first few years on the lakes, I though we were fishing pretty efficiently, and did a good job catching what we could out of a given area. Then one day our club was holding an open tournament, and I did some fun fishing with an old vet. He was fishing water faster with a shakey head then I did with a crank. I honestly thought he was trying to back seat fish me at first he was going so fast, then we started getting a few bites, then midway down that same bank - he pulled up the trolling motor and we took off. He had picked up a pattern, and his experience told him where the fish were. I was still trying to figure out how he was fishing the worm so fast lol. [and he was right, we got into better numbers at the next spot and he did slow down a bit there] The point being, if you are on familiar waters you can get by with fishing an area much more quickly than you can on new waters because you have years (in his case about 30 some on that lake) of experiences to draw from. I've also found that unless you are a pure powerfisherman, most of us spend too long in an area if we are looking for the best 5 fish. Now, if you are fishing just to catch fish - slow down and pick apart an area, nothing wrong with it if you are getting bit. But if there's money on the line, wasting time in unproductive waters is just wasting time. I didn't really answer your question so I guess for me if I'm getting no hits with search baits, I leave an area quickly (now). If I do get a few hits, then we will slow down and start working an area and building out a pattern and changing baits quite often to try to dial in the bite. Each move from then on is an attempt to improve on that pattern. If we're catching them from under docs, then I will buzz right by a big weed bed and just cast a spinner a few times as we pass it just in case, then at the next dock we will slow down and fish it hard. Unless of course we pick up bites in the grass... The biggest mistake I caught myself donig early on when trying to find fish was that I would go from one great looking place, maybe a cove with a defined channel and lots of lay downs and not catch anything, to another great looking place...with the same set up. If they are not holding in a cove with "X" structure and cover, then why go to another cove with the same thing?

The boat bass angler with sonar can determine if the spot has fish on it and with practice can determine if those fish are active feeding bass, how deep those bass are and if any bait fish are nearby. This information helps to solve the problem, only trail and error trying to catch these bass will answer it. No panacea in bass fishing and the reason we call it fishing. Right location, right time, right lure = success. Tom

Fifteen minutes. If you have waypoints the fish are ALWAYS there SOMETIMES, but not necessarily when YOU are there! The best example is ledge fishing. You need several spots and go back throughout the day. The bad news is they may not be there; the good news is that when you find them, they are ALL THERE!

If you're ever feeling down and out, need some motivation or whatever. Just watch this.

I was crappie fishing when this lunker hit

You could use nail weights but i feel like it may be easier to just buy a slow sink

Alonerankin2 - Thanks ... If I have a good experience I would possibly look at the Sellus Drop Shot model IF there was an opportunity to compare four or five of the same model side by side . You have to remember these rods are made in China and at a $49.00 price point the workmanship , sorting , quality , etc. is going to allow what is acceptable at the price point to go through as "good" versus having a straight rod blank guides with good wraps (it can be done - I just had to go through a few to find "it"). In fairness to Shimano - the initial quality is better than other manufacturers at this price point ... I'm not too hard on my equipment and maintain it well ...Time will tell how the Sellus series holds up - however looking forward to the journey !

catching big walleye and slab crappie through a hole in the ice!

and i completely agree with bcarter261

Had a great morning on Mendota 2 big 4 lb smallies and a 6 lb large mouth and then I thought I was snagged until I saw my line moving and reeled in about a 12 lb northern All 4 personal bests within an hour and all on a 1/2 ounce orange/red craw patterned red eye shad What a morning

Great choice JT. You won't be disappointed is the PSE line up.

Went out Friday in Delaware.The air temp.was in the 70's.Fished pads and wood,not one strike.We had rain the middle of the week,which probably didn't help.Still waiting for the fall bite,heck i'm still waiting for the pre-spawn bite.lol

Went bank fishing today here in central Arkansas. Didn't catch too many fish. Was too busy chatting it up with a cameraman from the bassmaster elite series tournaments while he sat and watched me practice skipping a jig under the same dock for like two hours lol.

I fished the Upper Delaware today. Today's charter was postponed to next week due to high water from wednesday's rain. Today we had post frontal conditions with winds between 20 and 30 MPH. The river came up 3' yesterday and came down two feet today. Water color went from Gin clear to 6" visibility chocolate milk color. I fished a deep long pool with my outboard instead of drifting the river, Water temp was pretty stable at 60-62 degrees, and most of the bass are still in the fast water. . I managed to put some decent fish in the boat, but nothing big. 3 16-18" smallies and a few 11-13". I thought the spinnerbait was going to do the job, but I should have spent more time on jerkbaits, as the x-rap accounted for most of my fish. we ended up with about a dozen fish. All in all a tough day.

Cry a lot.

Use a nail weight or a finshing nail. You can put it where you want to give it a different fall rate or angle. Mike