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Back out on the bank for 2 hours after work this evening. Major cold front moving through the state last night and today with highs mostly in the 60s and W winds, along with a rising barometer. Still managed to land 38 bass, so a good trip. Better water clarity than last week helped, I believe. Here's a couple: One last pic to reiterate my thoughts on tackle management from shore...a sneak peak inside my tackle box for tonight's trip. It's in both pics, but you can't see it tucked away in my t-shirt pocket - mobility rules!

After almost 2 weeks without being able to go fishing, had about a couple hours to wet my line this evening after work. Could only go to Lake Buhlow, not exactly the best fishing there, to get my therapy in. Tried out my new Zoom Centipedes, Ultravibe Speed Worms and the Ol' Monsters. Didn't get any bites on the Centipede. Got a couple bites on the UV Speed Worms including one that snatched off more than half the worm all the way to the hook. Was using Gammy 2/O EWG offset hook. Took that off and put on a 4/O Gammy EWG offset hook and the Ol' Monster. Caught this 1lber, I know he ain't that big, but he took that big worm pretty aggressively. It was right after a little drizzle of a shower. Even though I didn't catch a big un, I was thankful to land this little guy. Any bass beats no bass any day.

Finally got my fishing partner back. Son pulled out 8 this morning after a few years hiatus

Introducing the SUPER TECKEL...................

My boy just had his 12th birthday.

Location is more important than presentation IMO. You put a Ned rig or Dropshot Roboworm on a big fish's nose, there's a good chance it will eat it because it's a low risk, easy meal to catch. If you pull a Strike King 1.0 past the same fish, it might not be the same results because it has to chase down that small meal that is going to be very minimal calories gained towards the calories burned chasing it. I've seen fish come a long ways to eat a big topwater, spinnerbait, or swimbait, because the reward of chasing down a big meal is worth the extra exertion and calories burned.

Let me give you a little Tatula lesson. OH Boy here goes. First Daiwa brought out the Tatula and next the Tatula Type R. These are the original size reels. The standard Tatula is a fine reel and came in many gear ratios. The Type R is a slightly upscale version which included a slightly lighter weight spool and one of the regular bearings was exchanged for a second corrosion resistant bearing. This was supposed to improve the Tatulas ability to handle lighter baits. Both are great reels. I own some of each and if you cast both you probably would not think the type R was worth its upgraded price unless, like me, you wanted a left handed 8-1 reel. That is why I own some Tatula Type R reels and I love them. One of the things that I must point out on these reels is they are aluminum frame reels, so they were not as light or as small as some of the competitors' offerings. To help combat that Daiwa designed the CT body. So there is a Fuego CT and a Tatula CT series of reels that share a slightly smaller body and are also slightly lighter than the original Tatula. The Fuego CT is the replacement for the $100 Exceler reel, which was Daiwa's good quality non T wing system reel. The Fuego is its replacement, but shares the smaller CT body. The Tatula CTs are terrific reels and yes there is an upgrade Tatula CT and it is the Tatula CT Type R. It is basically like the original Type R a bit of an upscale version. Again not a major upgrade but an upgrade. Daiwa is known for its top of the line reels where they generally develop their best technology. The SV spool technology, the T Wing System, and Magforce braking all comes from the higher end reels. They are also known for bringing that technology down to their mid priced reels as well. That is how the Mag Force brakes and T Wing System helped the Tatula line of reels become the excellent reels they are today. The final reel I will try and explain is the Tatula SV TWS. It is the newest reel in the Tatula lineup. It is built on the aluminum Ct body, includes a special SV spool and also has the T Wing System. The SV spool borrows technology ( but not the exact same parts and pieces ) from the Daiwa SS SV series and Steeze SV reels. The SV spools are lighter and designed to speed up quick and handle very light baits. The Mag Force brakes for these reels are designed specifically to allow you to cast light baits better without backlashing. they still handle heavier baits as well. I own one Exceler, one original Tatula, 4 Original Tatula Type Rs, and 2 Tatula CTs. SO I guess it is obvious I like them! From my own experience I would suggest a Tatula CT in 6.3-1, left or right hand retrieve depending on your preference. That makes a great setup for throwing small to medium crankbaits, spinnerbaits, squarebills, rattle traps, plastic paddle tail swimbaits like a Skinny Dipper or Keitech, jerkbaits and even topwater poppers. I think it will match up with your rod nicely. I hope my ramblings helped explain the way the Tatulas morphed into so many reels.

This one just dropped another ten bucks if you like this lefty. http://www.ebay.com/itm/142163817285

The saying goes big bait= big fish I don't disagree but the right bait in the right place at the right time matters more.

Toast is made from bread. That appears to be made of stainless steel.

This thread was on the second page?! Bait Monkey must have gone on vacation! He must be staying somewhere near me though...

Since last report: Sunday 7/23- Held my yearly July team open on Silver. A tournament which I have won 2 out of the last three years. This year..........not so much. Had 3 small keepers with an hour or so to go,dumped them, put the boat on the trailer, and set the scales up early. I fished Mon and weds evening on Silver the following week (7-24 + 7-26) I was skunked both nights. Thursday 7/27 Fished Conesus from day break to 3pm. Caught a few smallmouth in the AM drop shotting off points when the early morning top water/moving bait bite didn't happen. Once the sun was high in the sky, I went to flipping heavy milfoil in 6-8 feet of water and caught them pretty good. Caught 20 + largemouth doing this, with 7 of them over 4lbs, and a pair of those said 7 over 5lbs. Pulled out at 3 to go fish/run my Thursday night tournament at Silver. Caught two 2.5lbers all night, as did my partner, which was about middle of the pack, but since I was in a hurry, the last one to have yet weighed in, and already out of it, I dumped them and went home. Sat 7/29: Fished in the evening after the boat traffic died down on Silver. Not much, a couple of 3lbers and a 2lber Sunday 7/30: Fished from 6am-5pm on Silver. Decent day given my current performances there. Caught one over 4, one over 5, and a bunch of 2-3 lb fish. Just junk fishing. Some deep, some shallow, some in the mid depth grass. Monday night 7/31: Fished Silver from 5pm-dark after work. Caught a 5+ lber and a bunch of decent ones working deep grass lines. Weds night 8/2: Fished Silver from 4:30 pm-dark after work. Only caught 5, but those five were a 6-3, a 4-14, a 4-4, a 3-15, and a 3-11. All caught flipping docks shallow. Thursday 8/3: Fished Conesus all day from 7am-5pm. Slow morning. Only caught 4 in the grass after NOT catching any on reaction baits early. Went shallow and flipped docks the rest of the day. Good numbers day doing that, but no real bunchs of hogs like Conesus is good for at times. Best I could do for size doing that was an upper 4lb range fish, and a couple low to mid 3lb range fish, but lots of action on 2-3 lbers. Enough so that it kept me doing it all day, because I was catching fish.

Numbers have been a lil slow for me but days like this make up for it. 9 lb on a c rig in 15 Fow on main lake point off Tenn bay

After I sold my gears that I rarely use and wanted to go different direction on the stuff. Those have arrived at my door ready to be adopted. I still have few parts coming in (96mm handles for on three baitcasters) did the monkey get me ?

Braid is the most versatile - just tie on the leader of your choice for whatever situation you encounter. As far as a good budget line, I'd go with 832.

Make sure you aren't overfilling the spool. Try cutting off the first 10-15 yards of line and then try casting again. What kind of line are you using? Does it seem to have a lot of memory?

He went back there almost immediately most likely but he might be weary. Give it a few hours and try again or wait until next time you are out.

Well, this is slightly embarrassing then. lol

It's been a trying few weeks for me fishing for Atlantics. I've hooked into 4 solo fishing. The first two have snapped me off, one of which I fought for literally 45 minutes before my mainline gave-out. The third used my clamp line as leverage to pop loose. The fourth wasn't so lucky. I've been gradually improving my setup and I believe it is safe to say I have found the 'magic fly' thanks to trying multiple nymph patterns via Orvis. Picture looks a little funky, but was happy to land this 18 incher for a tasty shore lunch.

Smaller baits are often referred to as finesse baits and they will get you bites when the fishing is tough. Don't think of it in terms of the fish being hungry, bass are predators and if they aren't feeding they will often strike out of reaction which is why sometimes fast moving baits work better than slower ones. Small baits can, and will catch large fish, I've caught numerous smallmouth in the 5lb class on 1/16oz hair jigs with small size #2 hook but most of the time they are going to catch you numbers of fish more than large fish. Big baits do catch big fish and sometimes small fish, but my biggest smallmouth came on a regular size Zara Spook, and that bait is 5" and weighs 3/4oz. The point I'm trying to make is don't limit yourself, yes small bait genrally will catch higher numbers of fish because they appeal to more sizes but I've had more than a few days when going bigger got me more bites, it doesn't happen all the time but it happens enough to have some larger baits in the same styles as the smaller baits that work for you. If you are using 4" and 5" worms that work, try having some 6", 7" and 8" worms in the same style or if you do well with small 1/8oz and 1/4oz square bills, try have similar ones in 3/8oz and 1/2oz models as well, it will pay off for you in the long run.

I use to love crankbaits, can't stand fishing them now, trying to get rid of most all of mine. One of my biggest Kansas bass was on a Strike King 5XD in green gizzard shad color. She was in about 7' of water and ate it off the ricochet.

I've had good luck cranking a Fat Free Shad in shallow water from shore. I crank it very slowly so it scoots slowly across the bottom, kicking up silt and bouncing off rocks. They're not too expensive either, which is good because you're going to lose some.

Had a great day for size yesterday afternoon, only caught 16 in 3.5 hours but most of them were keepers. Best five weighed 15 3/4 pounds, topped by a 5.6 pound kicker. First big bass I've caught (in Indiana) in a while. She grabbed it on the fall and just sat there, i thought i had hooked a stick. It took a 2-3 seconds of me reeling it in for the bass to start moving, guess she was confused or something. Everything hit an 1/8 ounce shaky head/full size trick worm combo, in old school black grape. I haven't found that bass care squat about the color of my worms, so I have a bit of fun with them and throw all kinds of colors. Usually something obnoxious like pink (I get a lot of comments about that one) chartreuse, white, etc. but today I went with the black grape, if any of you read much for older articles and stuff the colors black grape, blue, and yellow were the green pumpkin and black/blue of the day. Mostly fishing windblown points in 3-8 feet of water, the wind kept me on the shorelines.

I currently throw mine on a 7'2"MH/F Tatula. It's not ideal, but gets the job done. I used to use my 7'2" HF Tatula, but lost too many fish just because the rod couldn't absorb headshakes well as the fish got near the boat. I do think it's pushing the MHF rod's upper limit. I always underhand lob it on that rod. Ideally if I could get a dedicated rod for that class of topwaters I'd get like a 7'4 or 7'6 MH Moderate, almost like a deep cranking rod or something.

Milos, you are the guy with the telescoping spinning rod combo using 6 lb line. Your rod isn't a good choice for bass lures becuase of it's action....too slow to work a top water lure unless you make a steady retrieve. Don't waste more money on your outfit by considering FC line, it will cause you nothing but headache. You might be able to use Trilene XL 8 lb mono that will work for everything you use, as long as you keep lure weights under 3/8 oz. think about upgrading your rod to a 1 piece medium fast action spinning rod. I am not familiar with site sponsor KastKing, I am familiar with Dobyns Fury FR703 S @ $109. Appologize for getting off topic on the rod. Tom

Snagged a whole mattress frame once. First cast and I was already over my spring limit.

If I am hearing a loud click and feeling it, I worry about it and don't continue fishing with that kind of a setup. It may not be damaging, but I don't like it. Fortunately it is easy to fix. If you use fairly heavy line/leader combinations with small enough guides to cause this, learn the FG knot. It has a bad reputation for being difficult and possibly unreliable, but in heavier combinations it's both reliable and fairly easy, with some practice, to tie. There are many videos on line. By "heavier" I mean like 20 pound leader and up, and 30 pound braid and up. The key is the leader because that's where the knot bulk comes from and the FG is easy to tie in + 20 test, and hard to tie in less than 15 test. At least for me it is. There is no knot smaller than the FG since it does not require a loop of the leader; it works with the straight leader with a braid weave on it, similar to the tubular finger trap toy. Except with the FG's braid weaves pulled tight, the leader is actually deformed to have ridges that really allow the braid to grip well. With lighter lines and leaders, you don't need the smallest knot to go through quite cleanly. A simple double uni will work fine. So on the light stuff I use the double uni, and when I get into the heavier stuff I use the FG. If you are using, for example, 10 pound FC leader and 15 pound braid line, the double unis and most other knots will go through most micros with ease. There are other good knots that are small, but the FG is the smallest. It is well worth learning to tie it. Since it goes so cleanly through the guides it does not get damaged by the guides as do other knots that are "clicking" their way through the guides.

Do they need to be in their mouths or is in a glass on the nightstand ok?

Whenever I get skunked I feel better knowing that somewhere out there somebody is getting skunked fishing for sunfish .

Got the win and big bass in the weeknight tournament this week. Weigh in at 9:30, caught the big one at 9:14 on a homemade black and blue bladed jig.

After working hard & saving his money my grandson Aiden (Bayou Boy) Savant purchased his first combo all on his own! Lew's® Laser TXS & 6'6" MH Fast

Nearly every lake has springs. You can use your sonar unit to find springs but it's very time consuming unless you have a good idea where to start looking. Spring water is usually between 50 to 60 degrees year around. During the cold water period you can see spring locations by looking for warm water spots on the lakes surface, they are the first to start to create fogging. During the warm water period the colder spring water surface is the last area to create fog. Seeing fog coming off the water surface where there isn't any anywhere is easy to see. Seeing spots on the water without any fog when the entire lake surface is foggy isn't as easy to see. When you see fog or no fog spots mark a map or use a way point. Now you have an idea where to look with your sonar. The water around a spring will be the same as the spring water and the difference in density is visible on the sonar, it looks like a plume of different color water density. You often see baitfish and other larger fish in and around the plume of spring water. If the lakes surface is calm and flat you can sometimes see the "nervous" water created by the springs current if it's not too deep. Tom

The Dredger is quickly becoming my new best friend........and the WP 110

2nd day of committing to deep CB's and new personal best 5.56. Appreciate the seasoned guys here introducing another arrow in the quiver... Best, Al

Every once in awhile, you need to get back to basics and hit a farm pond to get your confidence back .

Hey Catt, Doing fine my friend. Sorry for the delay in response. Haven't been able to get up to the Bend too much lately.....therefore....little to contribute. Work just keeps gettin' in the way.....but I'm still very fortunate..... Made a quick trip to San Miguel area a few weekends ago. Hadn't fished that area in a while. Very little grass (mainly hydrilla) to be found. Water was fairly stained in that area. Did happen to catch limits by crankin' & draggin' FB jigs near points where creek channels/ledges were close by. Fished a few humps too. 5XD's & DT10's (colors mentioned in a previous post) produced best. Had some good success with zoom swimmin' super flukes (baby bass) rigged on Owner Flashy Swimmers too....... Nothing above 3-1/2 lbs but caught good numbers. Sounds like I was fishin' same waters where @A5BLASTER's been hangin' out......LoL Quick tip: Check ALL of your electronics before leaving home. My front HDS never powered up, so I fished somewhat "blind" and while there, only to find out when I returned home that the fuse in the front power supply was bad. Duh ! Still had a blast though ! Hope to get back there soon. Love Fall on the Bend ! Will be continuing to watch this thread and continue to be thankful for everyone sharing their experiences. Be safe Everyone! Been seeing a lot of reports on FB about lots of floaters being spotted in the boat lanes.

Didn't have very much time to fish last night, actually debated not even going. I'm glad I made the decision to go. Caught 6 5 of which were keepers including these two big girls

More Yak fishing for me yesterday. I took a rare day off as the weather was almost perfect for a day on the river. A little hot but very little wind. I ended the day with 11 fish, 8 Smallmouth and 3 Largemouth. All caught on a red shad Senko or a watermelon/redflake Biospawn Exostick. The two best fish were over 2 pounds, one Largemouth and this Smallmouth. Even with half a tail he put up a heck of a fight including one jump that almost stopped my heart as that was the first look at his size I got and the thought that he shook the hook.

restocked on my bobber stops for a while plus i got a gavocho frog and some owner beasts for my magslowl

One - I don't think that 7' is too short for a frog rod. I wouldn't be that worried about it being too stiff. It is a Carrot Stix. I'd be worried about it being too brittle and easily breakable. I've owned a couple of Wild Black Carrot Stix for a few years now. I'm the only guy I know who hasn't broken all their carrot six. The main reason is that I'm not an exceptionally forceful hook set kind of guy. If it was me and I had the issue of not feeling that rod was right for frogging, I'd try again and buy a different frog rod. Then I'd re-purpose the Carrot Stix, at least until it breaks ( and sooner or later it is going to break, that is what Carrot Stix do ) I'd suggest that you put a decent reel on it with an adequate supply of 15 or 17 lb fluorocarbon and use it to throw heavier football jigs (half or 3/4 oz). In the clear water reservoirs in the Ozarks, it is a good idea to carry a heavy football jig rod all the time. It makes fishing the 15' to 40' points much more efficient, because you ain't waiting so long for the jig to drop. Another purpose for this rod might be for throwing Biffle Bugs. I've experimented with a number of different lengths and actions of rods for throwing Biffle Bugs (I generally throw the half ounce or 3/4 oz size) and I've found that a heavy action rod works best for me. I wouldn't sell the rod, that would be more trouble than it is worth.

I don't do it on single hook presentations, but I will sometimes on trebles. I started doing that on muskie baits to make both my and their release easier and less painless. Well, less painless for me anyway. If the fish are aggressively hitting my presentation and/or getting hooked deep, I'll grab my needle nose and pinch them down.

thanks a lot that worked, i had no idea you had to slide that part over to make the plate come off. i tried it as soon as i saw your reply and it came right off. thanks a lot for your help and looking that video up to help.

It's that good of a deal, and just a trolling motor isn't going to cut it on the river, it took me 7 hours and 8 tanks of gas to go from my closest launch to lock 4, then to lock 3, then back to the launch in a 6hp Jon Boat. If I bribe my buddy into loaning me his tow truck with a case of beer, This 'ski will be about as dirt cheap as a jon boat with no trailer. Did you fish the Mon with it??? You, my friend, know where I can and cannot go like the back of your hand. Should I jump at this opportunity in the morning or not?

Underwater springs shouldn't have much of any oxygen in them, so that's a factor that makes them less attractive to fish. Up here in Coal Country, the acid mine drainage that comes from deep doesn't turn red (the iron doesn't entirely oxidize) until it 'daylights'.

I hadn't thought of this. I won the powerball, for goodness sake! (I didn't, but we're in pretend-land here). I can have more than one place.

Faster moving ones like a buzzbait can be. It drags the nose down too much on slower moving baits like a popper. I prefer braid for all my topwaters except a buzzbait.

Hell yeah! I learned to stay out and push threw! Sometimes at the last stretch the fish turn on and you catch 10 in an hour !

Funny thing about springs around here...they feel cold in August, but really warm in January. Ground water around here is 54° - 55°. Springs all over the place.

I know the location of a secluded oxbox lake that happens to be Artesian Spring feed, the water is very cold year round. The bass are native to the area & not that big (4-5#) but the lake's drawing attraction is the huge Crappie.

I don't see the need for anything over 8' MAX. Mine's a 7'9" and it's plenty long, but it's super high end so it's not real heavy. I don't think you're gonna find a super long, heavy action rod that's not gonna weigh a ton unless it's high end and not telescopic