Leaderboard

My great nephew Jace and a nice Guntersville 5-pounder. It was slow for us Sunday afternoon. Weather has been up and down. But spending time with the little man and his dad and this fish made it eventful.

Much better than the last couple trips. Half a dozen dinks, couple 16", and one right at 18".

I was hung up and then suddenly my lure started coming back to me. (Thanks fish for saving my crankbait. I did end up losing 3 due to the landscape matting they put under the gravel/rocks that is starting to come up. I will probably have to stop fishing trebles in this lake. I have lost a total of 5 crankbaits this year due to the matting crap.)

Gotta brag on my son....he got a 10.9 oz giant from a local lake last night in our first Tuesday nighter. What a way to set standards for starting the year!!!

i like to fish these places with some wind blowing straight in on them, even if that means anchoring down

Come on! ?

You've heard guys argue about leader? Where? I do use a leader for drop shotting.

Obviously depends on a lot of variables, but in general, warm rains in the spring are usually a good thing which will get shallow fish biting, even if temporary. Warming water temps will boost up metabolism, and if coupled with some stained water (not mud), create a positive bite window. May not affect deeper fish much though unless accompanied by some strong winds that mix the water well.

No doubt. It's the Louisiana Highschool BASS trail. This past Sunday after fishing for 9 days straight, I decided to go hit a local lake by the house. It was pretty cold with a stout north wind. Both my boys had enough so I went solo. Needless to say they will never miss another trip again. lol Had 25.14lbs best 5 punching mats all day long.

I miss being with you great people, and feel bad that have been away for a time. this winter has been a test to my faith for sure. my mother is 77 and her health has not been the best , so I moved her in with us , so that I could care for her. even with my and my wife's medical skills we were failing . she had 4 pneumonia's in three months .two of which the docs did not think that she would survive. during the last rehab she fell and broke her hip. she is now in assisted living and doing much better proving the to docs that she is tougher than them! during this time one of my wife stints in her heart collapsed. the docs caught it in time and she is getting stronger now. rough winter for sure! but at the end of it all I am truly thankful for what I still have and know that I am blessed, good always comes, and for my family it was number 11 grandchild, [little miss Raegan ].things seem to be back to normal and feeling much better. show me some big ones guys! thats always good medicine

Easter Sunday my two boys and I had a pretty good day on the Bend. We had 30.59lbs best 5 including a 8.28,7,57,6.30,4.24 and a 4.1. All caught on a 12" Magnum Ol Monster in the Mid Lake area. All fish were females ready to bust. Great day with my two sons.

Came on here to tell you guys about Ollies but it looks like the word is already out! My fiancé sent me into Ollie’s this evening in search of pens not knowing that they even had fishing supplies. Walked out with 8 lucky craft lures and bag of senkos and no pens. Bait monkey got me AND I’m in the dog house... well worth it if you ask me

So its settled...We all move to Florida. I'll go there and scope out a few places to live. I figure we will need about a 3 bedroom (bunk beds and we sleep in shifts) apartment with 1 1/2 baths and an eat-in kitchen. Oh, and plenty of closet space for all the gear. Is $600 a month within our budget or should I look in the "seedier" side of town?

I’ll be there also. I’m a boat captain for a local high school team. I plan on talking to everyone there letting them know about the opportunity for these kids to continue to chase their dream at the college level. I’m sure I’ll run into you. We will have to talk big fish over a Dr. Pepper lol.

Hmmmmm....over by the lawn chair or under that manicured bush???

@Lane Martin In 1969 I stood on the level at the dam with my Dad thinking I will be back! Told my wife I wanna move up there when I retire, she said there's no place to shop, I said I'll see ya on weekends!

Get one of these instead of a knocker, http://img.tacklewarehouse.com/watermark/rs.php?path=FRLR-1.jpg If I can reach it, I can get it back 99.9% of the time. I've got them back from every place imaginable with mine.

What’s up Lane! This is Josh Sikes. Heck of a bag of fish man. We been catching 20-25lb bags pretty consistently but I haven’t hit 30lbs yet this year. Congrats man.

Yes Bass anglers love having something to throw at whether that be lay downs, bushes, weedbeds, docks, etc. As such, banks with lots of "cover" tend to attract a lot of fishing pressure, whereas banks that aren't littered with objects/cover like swimming beaches, the dam face, bank transitions, mud/clay banks, etc. don't usually get near as much pressure. These are the types of banks "nothing looking" refers to. The kind that if you were running down the lake and looked over at, you probably normally wouldn't take the time to stop and fish. This also works well because these featureless banks are well suited to an open hook (jighead) presentation on lighter line.

Got on the lake at 3pm today after school was out of the way. 42 degree water temps and it snowed all day, but I found a couple! 4.8" Keitech on a 1/2oz head for the bigger ones, and a jerkbait for the smaller ones. I think I am dealing with a ton of fish, but their behavior is extremely confusing. Today I had 3 bites in 3 casts on the 4.8, casting up into 12/14' bringing it down into 20'. I lost the first one, then caught my biggest two fish on the following casts. Then 2 bites in 2 casts on a Spro McStick on a main lake hump that comes up to 6', I landed both of them, they are the smaller smallmouths pictured. Then 2 bites back to back long lining the damiki abyss 90 on the same spot that the swimbait bite happened, I caught the 12" spot, and on my next cast had a fish run off with the bait on a slack line but I never connected. They fire up really hard for a couple minutes, then it's like they aren't even there!

The biggest key to becoming a better crankbait angler is to pay attention to the vibration. Try to block out distractions and tune in to what your bait is doing. Feel the vibrations the whole cast and retrieve. Use the force! Concentrate on the vibration and keep a positive attitude. The more you pay complete attention to the steady vibration of the bait the easier you can detect a difference or change in the vibration. You can tell when your bait comes in contact with cover or when its about to. You can feel the rush of water that means a fish just rolled on your bait. Sometimes you just loose the vibration which means the fish has your lure or when you feel slack. Most strikes are not bone jarring but a slight difference in the vibration and almost feels like an interruption in the vibration. Most guys say well with a crankbait the fish hook themselves. Well, unless you spend hours sharpening your hooks and if the bass turns with your bait more than likely your missing fish. If you do not react to the strike you can have the sharpest hooks but guess what they can still spit it. You don't set the hook like a jig or worm but I sweep my rod to gather any slack and line stretch just that tension is enough to drive the hook but if your sitting there waiting for the fish to hook themselves your going to be waiting a long time. If your using a dead pulling crankbait where all you feel is the pull and not the vibration you will never feel the difference in vibration and will never have a clue how many fish hit and spit your bait. Color is a factor to what bait to use in what water color or clarity but your first step should always be vibration. Depth control, lip style, line size all need to be factored in also. When figuring out what retrieve to use I try to make an educated guess of what I think the activity level of the bass should be then tweak the way I work the bait as I learn more through the day. I feel that a single rattle or no rattle work best because it gives a bass more of a direction of where the bait is. Sound from rattles kinda spreads out and doesn't give much of a direction just an are of noise but vibration gives more of a pinpoint direction. Baits with tons of rattles in them call bass from an area and in clear water to slightly stained water can be very effective. You need to understand that rattle noise and vibration are two separate things. You can't put them in the same category. Vibration gives a pinpoint direction and rattles give a general direction. Rod position will effect the depth of your bait and will change the amount of feel you have. I try to point my rod to my bait and as the bait runs deeper follow it with my rod. If I keep my rod high it will loose depth if you point your rod to the side you will have a hard time feeling that rush of water I was talking about. Casting distance will effect the amount of room the bait has to reach its deepest running depth. Its kinda a game of angles if you get good at it you can hit structure or a depth zone with some consistency. Different lures that are identical will have different running depths so you need to play with them to figure out what depth they run. The depth on the lure package in most cases is an average running depth. Lur Jenson and DT lures are the few that have an accurate running depth not an average but always factor in casting distance and how much running room your bait has to reach that depth. A Bill Norman bait kinda slowly works its way to the depth and about when the bait reaches the boat is the max depth it will run. It took most of the cast distance to work down to that depth. As a bait gets close to the boat it looses depth and starts working its way to the surface. So if I make a long cast with this bait and reel it in about 30 feet out away from my boat is the max depth that bait will run. The DT baits are different because it digs as soon as you start reeling and in a short distance gains depth. Most baits don't do that and take more running room to reach the same depth. The wider the wobble the more resistance the bait has and the less depth the bait can go. This is crankbait season and I hope this helps you this season ;D

Josh I have the Toledo Bend Blues. I wanna get back up there some bad. Wish I could live on that lake. We will be there April 28th weekend. Both of my boys will be fishing the Highschool State Tourney on the Bend. The youngest boy will be competing in the Jr. Division. He is jacked up. We are putting in at the North Toledo Bend State Park.

Traditionally - one bank per battery. An additional one would be needed to charge the cranker. So if you have a 24 volt Trolling motor - and you want to charge the cranker, a three bank charger would be what you want. A-Jay

This^. A while back I found some fish on just such a flat, and was able to reproduce the results based on conditions and time of year in a few places over and over. They just sit with their bellies in the mud in 2-6 feet of water in the smallest of depressions and sparse weed clumps. Also a great place to go to at night with topwater, if they aren't in the mood during the day.

One of my best winter time spots is a sand point. Looks very boring, but there's always fish there, without fail. I caught a bunch off a mud/clay bank from my kayak 2 weeks ago on a Ned rig. Even I had never fished this bank before but I will in the future.

This, in spades. All the top brands are great. I'm A Minn Kota charger guy, because mine work great, have lasted years, and get the job done very well. My batteries are on the chargers year round, even over the winter and I've never had a problem. I can't offer personal experience on the other major brands, but everyone I know who has used them has been satisfied. Sure, but: https://www.minnkotamotors.com/support/warranty/battery-chargers ...chargers are the kind of electronics that'll either fail early on or last forever...My Minn Kota 4 bank has been in 3 boats over 6 years and is still plugging along just fine.

I think you are on to something.

Never tried it though I'm guessing it would work. For me, easier just to buy line that is already the color I want.

If he didn't use the pattern you were after you boated the first one there's not much you can say. However, it happens more than you think. When it happens you really have to gage his attitude and any comments he has made. You have to "read" him. Its his boat. First thing to do in a low key manner ask him if he wants to try one of what you're throwing. If he he says no thanks, just keep doing what you're doing. If he wants to leave fish to find fish there's not much else you can do. It's his boat. Mike

1. Learn how to cast using your thumb as a break. 2. Don't yank on backlash loops, it just creates tighter knots. 3. Learn how to remove a backlash by slowly pulling out loose line until it stops, then put that thumb on the spool suggly and slowly wing all the line back onto the spool. Now keeping your thumb on the spool slowly pull off all the line down past the loops until it's smooth. Done. 4. Learn to cast braid by pulling off 100' of line, then tape one wrap of Teflon plumbers tape over the spooled line. Now wind the 100' back onto the spool using your finger to keep it tight. This prevent deep backlashes. 5. Use Professor braid line conditioner or use Fins PRT or WindTamer polyU coated line. Tom

Even a slow day inshore in Hilton Head has its moments of excitement.

Nice bag... Nothing like fishing with your sons.

Boo hoo. Lol SC is probably the best fishing in the country. I lived there till last year. In MD now. Horrible winter indeed

No scanning, just fish. Midwest Finesse was developed on flatland impoundments where bass are the dominant predator. Ask a biologist how many times they electrofish down a bank in those type of waters and don't shock up bass. The answer will be "almost never."

The weather here in SC has been spotty as well. Last weekend my son had a baseball tournament in Charleston, SC and Sunday morning game time was 38 degrees. It's been mostly cold (40's and low 50's), gray, very windy, and wet around here for a while. I realize cold is relative to where you live and right now some of you would take low 50's and rain and wind. On the few days we've had it sunny and mid 60's and low 70's there was a steady, strong wind all day. As luck would have it, today and tomorrow are beautiful days and I have to work. And the weekend looks like rain and thunderstorms. Wouldn't you know it - this is one of the few weekends we aren't traveling for baseball. I can't catch a break lately. I just want one weekend of mild, sunny fishing weather. Before you know it, it's going to be 95 degrees and humid here.

Because Legend has it there's a 38"er in there. It's what I heard!!

No. But I've caught a few of them. One was the baited rod of a friend was lost -yanked right off his boat dock. The talk was that it was a HUGE carp; The ultimate"big one that got away story". A couple days later I caught the rod, and reeled in a 15" carp.

Here is the list of all the fluoro lines I like and recommend for bass fishing:

This is my best keeper right now. Going through things with my mom now too....all the best to ya.

Otter Slough, a Southeast Missouri MDC conservation area, in January. Counts for snow geese in the winter have exceeded 250,000 at this area.

Hmmmmm, maybe Mother Nature isn't cool with you.

Yup......snowing again todah

I was followed home today by something black and mysterious.

If you can't remember how many bass you caught you are catching small bass....move! Tom

Fished a local club tourney Saturday and was able to finish 3rd. If only i could have got rid of a 12 incher that cost me 1st place. Only a pound separated us. Here's my best 2 from the day caught on a jig

Several dink bass and couple jumbo 14"-14.5" crappies today.

Stayed on the bank today due to a lack of time. Found that magic water temperature we've been discussing along with a good stain (still clearing from muddy) and managed 38 in just a couple hours doing just what I mentioned in the bank fishing thread. Nothing big, but I would have lit up ScoreTracker Live in an MLF competition with "scorable" bass

The magic number for me is 33 degrees, because when the water reaches that point, my casts are no longer landing on the ice

A 4+, a 3+, and a 2+ yesterday on around 20 total casts off my boathouse, so this afternoon I went down again and gave the same tackle and lure a go. On my 3rd cast to a vegetation line on a point, I caught this, a 25.5" LMB. Gear? a 7' St. Croix Medium powered, F, spinning rod, a 3000 Stradic Ci4+, 10 lbs. Sufix braid to an 8 lbs. Seaguar Invizx leader. The lure was a 3/0 60 degree bend jig hook with an Owner centering pin (CPS medium size) used to nose screw a Keitech 4" Shad Impact and T-Rigged from there. I had to be very careful playing the big girl, bringing her in. Photos, measurements, and off she swam to have more babies. She looked totally spawned out but healthy. Brad