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I’m cecole... dang, so close to winning it all!!!

I agree with your conclusion on what affects the fall rate. Also, consider that the fish turning off after you switched to living rubber may have had nothing to do with the bait at all. When fishing colder water, I often find a small bite window of 30 minutes to an hour is where I catch most of my fish, and then it shuts off or slows down.

Rojas was saying he's back and feeling great after surgery for a wrist that was hampering him most of last year...I got Dean "The machine" on my radar going forward, for sure. He reeled in a bass with his lost crankbait in its mouth! Might have been one of those occasions where the bass hits, gets wrapped around a tree, and breaks off. *************** I ended at 901 points. 48% overall, and ranked 56th in BR league. A worse start than last year. It's all good, though....the view from my my office window, Friday:

I made it out for an hour and a half before dark. The fish are bedding finally. Traditionally , the first batch of bedding fish on my lake relate mostly to wood bulkhead. Today was no exception. I used a 10 inch grape shad culprit to catch the first fish ( 3.11 ) against A wood b.head. A subtle presentation is best, so I either skip the worm into position, or cast to the bank and gently pull it in , which is how I caught the first fish. Fished other areas, including laydowns near the island, with no results. Caught the 2nd fish ( 2.8 ) near a dock and b.head, with some kind of black grape with green specks ribbon rail worm. Had to winch him out from around the dock pilings. Turned around and skipped the next cast into a nice pocket between the bulkhead and grass bed. The 3rd fish ( 3.14 ) Hit the same worm. Excited to see the fish up shallow !?

http://rense.com/general96/icefestivalchina.pdf

Most business models include making a profit.

R, the Carolina rig can be used all year on lakes, rivers and ponds. Are you asking us how to rig the Carolina rig; what baits work best; or when and where to throw it? The set up is designed to keep the 1/2 ounce weight on the bottom as the worm or lizard follows on a leader about 12 to 18 inches. This allows the bait to move without being impacted by the weight. Lizard's are a bass' favorite snack and they will hit plastic lizards on a C-Rig. Finesse and trick worms work well, too. Some guys use a crankbait. Others creature baits. Anything goes. It's a Carolina rig. Cast, let sit for about 10 seconds, and then drag it slowly back. You are going to do two things: First, feeling the bottom for rocks, grass, wood, tires, and in New Jersey, dead bodies, etc. Second, you are actually fishing for the bass with your bait. Now, to be different, I use GLASS BEADS. Clear glass beads. I also have some "weird" beads I purchased at a bead store in order to have a different "click" from the glass and red plastic beads. Bead size is up to you, just make sure they protect the swivel knot and are not too large. Buy your beads at Joanne Fabric as they are less expensive then in a tackle shop or via the Internet and they have an excellent selection. As for color, as stated above, I use clear beads. But the glass cut reflects light better than plastic beads which is an advantage. I usually throw a green pumpkin with black flake Zoom lizard or a Junebug Zoom Trick Worm. Since you will be on the bottom in darker water you can always dye the plastic's tail in yellow JJ's Magic or another brand. So get your "heavy" rod with your baitcasting reel spooled with 20 pound test fluorocarbon line (some use mono for this presentation), a 1/2 ounce weight with a strong swivel of the size of your choice, your two glass beads and then add about 18 inches of your 12 pound leader with an EWG hook size of your choice depending on the size of your bait and start casting. Put a small spot of fast drying glue on all three knots to help protect them from coming apart. Have fun and let us know how you do.

Lots of aggressive 2-3 pounders have been moving up the past couple weeks... hoping the big girls aren't too far behind. Apparently even carp like Ned rigs... Big one of the day.

Yesterday there was actually two boats on the lake....gosh...haven't seen this in quite a while during the week. I am learning to post pic's so here's a couple more...was a beautiful day and we saw more bald eagles than we did crows....amazing and beautiful. Day started off cold but actually had the warm stuff off by three when the temps jumped into the high 40's. Have gone to the black nitrite gloves in 5 mil. My friend is now a believer off these now too. Was an awesome day and here's a couple pics.

I am probably one of the few on this site that religiously use the C-rig. I like the lazy slow pace of fishing it. Then again, I'm not a tourney angler either. I use a MH rod with 15lb mono line and usually 12lb mono or flouro for the leader. Glass beads are good but break more often so have a steady supply of them. Use either a 1/2 or 3/4 egg sinker and really any creature bait you prefer. I use lizards, brush hogs, and wooly buggers more than anything, but I've also thrown good ole curl tail worms like power worms. It does allow you to find what is on the bottom but for me, I like the slow retrieve.

While I was looking at The Classic field I noticed one particular angler. Stanley Sypeck Jr. is from Sugarloaf, PA. Not too far from me. He qualified by winning a Northern Open on Onieda. Cool to have someone local in the big show. Hope he does well.

On first pass, just eyeballing the choices (will probably change before the event): A: Martens B: DeFoe C: Elam D: Clausen E: Hartman "Time remaining: 31 days" Ugh.

Prespawn is officially here. I love pitching jigs in the cypress knees when the girls start showing up, and the in close battle. This is the first one that looks like she's been fanning a bed. Bottom tip of tail is a little red

Of course it’s about the money. Did anyone ever pretend that it wasn’t? Without the money, there would be no B.A.S.S. Or FLW or MLF. They’d obviously like to be like the PGA where there are millions of dollars in TV and other big sponsors so the payouts don’t have to come from the participants and the Pros make enough money to travel all around the world to compete.

Thank you all for the input! I I understand most of what was said. My other question though, was whether living rubber is necessary and these conditions? I mean, there is no visibility. By letting that jig soak, is the living rubber actually doing anything to be noticed? The only thing I notice it did for me was bulk up my bait. And my very respectful contribution to the fall rate and material debate; I highly agree that skirt material will slow the fall rate of a jig. Rubber is buoyant. Not only the buoyancy, but the drag it creates in the water slows it down as well. Of coarse a trailer will do this too, but maybe not to the same effect, in my opinion. All things considered, between skirt material, bulkiness, and trailer type, many adjustments can be made to pinpoint the fall rate you are looking for!

Fishing structure can be accomplished using a variety of baits. However, if that structure is below 15ft. The number of baits that can be used narrows considerably. ’Deep’ is a relative term as it is determined by what depths are available. I mentioned 15ft. For a number of reasons, not the least of which is the fact that a majority of anglers rarely fish below that depth when deeper water is available. A C-Rig isn’t only a deep water presentation, but it is an excellent choice for deep water because it reaches and stays on the bottom without the angler working any harder to do so. In doing so, it transmits a lot of information back to the angler. Lastly, the bait used can be presented on the bottom, or well off of it by adjusting the leader’s length and material. A football jig can do all but the last, although at times it’s a better option. It is best presented when the location of fish is unknown and you need to cover a lot of real estate fairly quickly. It allows you to multi-task and catch fish in the process.

ya i got a question, how do you fish that sponge?

Fish in the post spawn period are for whatever reason usually suspending, and looking up, so I spend most of my time fishing on or near the surface. Even on clear, sunny days. Weightless trick worms, buzzbaits, poppers, and spooks all get a lot of use (rats can be good also), with the weightless trick worm being my favorite. Even though my pink worm gets a lot of laughs, they all stop laughing and start asking when they see 3 and 4 pounders chewing on it like bubblegum

Great guy glad he won! ?

Congratulations to Omori on the win! The next one isn't until the first week in April. Looking forward to the Classic in the interim.

Tale of 2 days for me this week. Monday I worked hard for 1 bite, and it did not end well. Tuesday I was catching so many fish I started trying to see what wouldn't work. When I was catching them on a 190 Plopper in 14 degree air temps in a foot of water, I knew the answer. They were tearing up my Donut Shad swimbait until the zebra mussels claimed it

This is my lineup for 2018. I fish from the bank and all of this fits in a 3700 Plano case. The painted lures are ones I made myself. I had to customize the case a bit to fit it all. Questions? What is your arsenal?

If it's a super warm March - and I mean well about freezing all day and especially over night - than I'll start looking around here (Otsego County) last week in March or so. Most years - 1st week of April we'll routinely see water on the ice and maybe small open spots in the warmer/sheltered areas of some lakes. By the 2nd week, I'm real close or even floating around somewhere. A-Jay

Everything melted Sunday, after getting 4-6" on Saturday. A gutter fell victim to ice damming. Looks like we hit our average 80" for the season. Now we're in the bonus round.

I'd like to meet these roid enraged gym rat bass that are flexing all these graphite reel bodies. I'm surprised they aren't stripping all the aluminum gears, and melting all the color coordinated reel handle koozies.

You may want to consider our Sportsman II anchor as well. The Sportsman II is rated with a higher holding power than the Micro anchor but is only 19.35 lbs on the transom. The Sportsman II also retails for only $1295.00 and includes the wireless keyfob and dash switch. The ProII will have the same holding power but is slightly lighter on the transom at only 17.7 lbs. It is also available in two colors vs. only matte black for the Sportsman II. Both models will have the down and away deployment and superior holding power. Also, with built in drive off protection you'll never need to worry about damage to your boat or the anchor in the event that the anchor deployed upon take off. If you have any questions about our products, please be sure to give us a call at 813-689-9932 opt 1 for sales. We can also help you find a dealer on your area that may have one in stock.

I reluctantly got in last year thinking it silly , then enjoyed the heck out of it .The live broadcast is great , especially if one of my anglers is in it . I think Bass could do better with the announcers . They need a good play by play man and less color commentators .

Lol, you realize they inflate when wet or submerged. How an inflatable would seem appropriate for these activities is beyond me. Anyway, that West Marine looks exactly like my Stearns jacket, with D-rings added to the belt. They would likely drive me nuts. West Marine stuff is usually a little overpriced, so be aware that 50% may not be as good a deal as you think. I got my Stearns for around $80 at F&S. My Mustang HIT was north of $250.

If I am fishing for fun I would just enjoy the smallies. If I am fishing for money I would try to get a limit of smallies than target the largemouth the rest of the day since they are bigger fish. I would do that the same way bluebasser said to shallow cover or another way is off shore vegetation.

Post spawn here means fishing shallow around bluegill beds, or for suspending fish outside the deep weed line. I like a frog, a shallow running crankbait, swim jig, and a wacky rigged stick bait or finesse worm on a light (1/16 oz.) jig head for the shallow fish. For the deeper fish, I like the wacky rigged stick bait or finesse worm on a little heavier jig head (1/8 oz.), wacky and nose hooked baits on a light line drop shot rig, or a c-rig dragged along the deep weed edge on days when I get a heavy north or south wind that makes boat control a chore. I just let the wind drift me down the edge dragging the c-rig behind the boat. As much as I love to pitch and flip jigs and big t-rigged creature baits, this is one time of the year where I keep that stuff at the bottom of the rotation and only get it out IF all of the above is not working well, or if I go hunting for one big bite.

because of the heavy sinker you can search deeper water fairly quickly and still have a subtle presentation with a soft plastic. it allows you to feel the bottom and see whats there , muck, rocks ,grass etc.also a little easier to fish in wind because of the heavy weight. I use it as a search tool for deep water, after you locate them and catch some you can pinpoint them and work them with a drop shot and usually catch a few more.

Find any shallow cover and fish it. If there's largemouth around you'll find them doing that. No real good way to determine population in a lake that deep though.

Postspawn is one of my favorite periods because it reminds me of Fall. Your response is almost identical to mine. Here’s mine in order: 1) weightless Trick Worm in candy bug 2) Shad chatterbait with paddletail or grub trailers 3) Pop-R popper in baby bass 4) weightless Zoom Fluke Jr in white ice or albino or baby bass 5) Mann’s Baby One-Minus in variations of fire tiger colors. Honorable mentions: Zara Spook in either Black and Silver or Bone, 3” or 4” white grubs on underspins using waking methods, and my prized Livetarget Baitball Series Threadfin squarebill New for 2018 postspawn: swimjigs resembling Shad and bream along with Bluegill and juvenile bass-imitating swimbaits

Anyone have a tall glass tube and a stopwatch?

Nice toy collection! My arsenal is a living bio dome that evolves daily it seems like.

Is the lake pressured a lot? In my experience places that are pressured a lot have big bass that are hard to fool and need more inconsistent retrieves to get them to strike. Jerkbaits are good for this but just about all lures can be retrieves inconsistently (start and stop). The biggest fish I caught last season was on a whopper plopper (start and stop) and my PB was on a small glide bait (start and stop). Maybe look into the savage gear shine glide in the smaller size if your water is clear.

Try different rods in your hands and on the water before buying a bunch of rods. You may find you like different brands for different techniques. Good luck!!

spinnerbaits are something i throw when i want to be tight into cover specifically timber. crankbaits i throw anywhere there is hard bottom, mainly rock or a long point. wind is also a key factor in spinnerbaits as it doesnt give the fish as good of a look at it.

if you plan on beaching your boat much, it helps protect the Keel. in the 30 years that I had aluminum boats I never had a keel guard and my boats were no worse for the wear. My current fiberglass boat has one but I still try to use a dock whenever possible.

And while we're on the subject of swing heads - The Freedom Lure Stealth Swing jig really EXCELS for this constant dragging on the bottom presentation. Comes over, under and through most anything and allows for a Tex-posed trailer. That 'on the nose' line tie is sweet and I love being able to change/match my hook to whatever trailer or situation I need. A-Jay http://www.freedomlures.com/stealth.html

Tak killed it! Unreal he caught a fish that broke him off the day before on a different crank and still had the other one stuck in his mouth.

I don't think material played a big factor, it was probably the profile or the fall rate. I know there are times when the water is cold that the fish will like that bigger bait, but more often than not they will take a smaller offering over the larger bait. In murky water the bigger bait is the one I would have thought would be better but with the cold water and it being shallow, the fall rate of the larger bait may have been the deciding factor but I do better most times in cold water with smaller jigs.

dude the winnings are rolling in. I got a helicopter lure from Roland Martin, a banjo minnow from Overstock Tackle, a Blockbuckster gift card, a Disney Princess rod and reel from zebco, and I hear Jacob Wheeler is sending me the big L he got this week too edit: @OCdockskipper I forgot; I'll have you know that for 2015 Guntersville I had like 4 in the top 6 and came so close to winning that I actually left my prize groups because I wasn't legally allowed to win them lol

All the same anglers are available for each tournament, but the buckets are shuffled around for each one. This is my second year doing this and I think the second year BR has had a group. Nobody got a prize last year that I'm aware of.

New leftover 2017 Polar Kraft 195 TX Pro / Suzuki 140 four stroke. Still sitting far far far away (800 miles!) Just dropped a deposit on it, and picking it up next week.

Hey I think I saw you out there on your yak. I was playing disc golf around the lake today. Went fishing this morning at the big pond in front of the autobahn raceway. Not sure if I’m suppose to or not but had a fish pulling out my fully set drag on my lews baitcaster and then it popped my 15lb line. Buddy told me he used to catch 5+ pounders out of there. He said it was like 90ft deep out in middle.

They boat flip the fish because "somebody" instituted the STUPID rule banning nets. Did I mention this is STUPID?

It’s a below freezing Saturday in NJ and my new set-up just got delivered. I can’t even test cast it at my local pond because it’s likely frozen over. Steez SV TW on a GLX MBR842c (Thanks @Cyacnba for the beautiful reel!) I can’t stop playing with it, and I’m stuck in the house watching Netflix...

This is a photo from back before I left for Toledo Bend, but I think it's worth sharing. Living the dream!