Team9nine

I was able to see your picture. I did some searching through old newspapers but couldn't turn up anything about the jigs or the trolling motor modification/company. The Footrollaid was both TM'ed and patented between 1986 and 1994. You can see some pictures of the design here: Footrollaid patent I did find some info on one of the inventors...fishing pics and catches from the 1960s into 1971. It appears he (McCaghren) owned a machine repair shop in Decatur, so no surprise he might have invented something like in the patent being an angler himself. I'm not certain about the tie-in with Westmoreland. Billy was tying his own "hoss fly" jigs well before then, and his smallmouth book came out in 1976, a decade before the foot motor deal. I'll keep digging, but this one might stay a mystery. I loaded the picture (below) in case someone else might recognize them. It looks like Charles McCaghren passed in 2017 (age 82). His partner on the FooTrollaid patent, Jack Mullican, passed in 2023 (age 85).

Small keepers are better than no keepers 🤣 at least in my book. All on crankbaits again. Cool bonus fish was a blacknose crappie. Water still needs to cool down more to fire the bite up, I think.

For me, my short list would be: jerkbait crankbait minnow bait Ned No great ideas on how you hone LS skills without being on the water and using it. You can hone settings by watching lots of videos on how pros and guides set theirs up, getting you pretty dialed in with some degree of confidence right off. Beyond that, just remember it’s an amalgam of seeng fish, seeing breaks (cover) and breaklines, and controlling depth and speed, all in near real-time. I’ll add, some great advice above by @casts_by_fly. I fish reservoirs without submerged vegetation, and this year, outside of the recent trolling bite, I’ve probably seen/watched 80% plus of all the bass I’ve caught on screen.

Nothing big, but trolled up a limit of greenies and a few shorts on cranks this afternoon. Water temps still fluctuating, back up to 67-68 with our warming temps.

Yeah, he’s probably all excited now that he knows as a professional angler on the Elite Series, he can win at least $500 if he can just make the Top 40 cut 😉

Yeah, this is going to be a disaster after all the dust settles and reality hits after a couple years under this system (IMHO)

Looks like a lot of “nothingness” from the map, one of those old, flat, and somewhat silted in bodies of water where shoreline cover dominates patterns. The dam is always worth a shot, as well as a few of those points on the lower end. Beyond that, I’d let water color, water elevation, what cover or breaklines you can actually locate when you get there, and local weather conditions dictate my approach. Guessing water temps in the mid to high sixties or close might lend itself to a shad bite with lots of roaming and scattered fish activity (if shad are in this body of water). If so, covering as much territory as possible early on might be a good strategy, then pick apart specific cover options as the bite progresses and clues you in.

Didn't break it down by cover types or retrieve style, etc., since I fished the lake so frequently, but you can cover an awful lot of presentations in a myriad of cover/situations with just a basic jig design or two. I was never a "worm guy" when I tourney fished, as I figured the jig was always more efficient (and had better 'feel'). This was a typical stained water flatland reservoir with no submerged weeds, so my choice/outlook might have been different if I fished clearer water and more weed growth. I had a select few plastics I'd take and use on specific water bodies or under specific conditions, but soft plastics were always more jig trailers than primary baits for me with just a few exceptions (like Stud Fry's).

Bass Pro Shops now long discontinued soft plastic. Smash-Tech eventually resurrected the bait with a near knock-off. Haven't looked to see if they're still around. My buddy and I bought 260+ bags of the originals from BPS when we heard they were discontinuing them, so we always fished with originals Super versatile little bait.

I would speculate that reason #1 probably is one of the larger contributors to what you're experiencing. Add in things like seasonal variability, temporary water condition changes, etc., and that could account for some of it. How many events this is based on could also play a large part. If this is just something like 6-8 events a year, I'd expect to see a lot more randomness or variability to the data. I kept a detailed record of catches on what was my home lake at the time over a period of 6 years and more than 100 events. I only included data from events that I cashed in, because I wanted to see just the most financially productive baits/patterns to focus on, as just numbers or random catches that didn't produce a check didn't really mean anything to me in the big scheme of things. I cashed in 56 of those events, and caught 377 keepers on those tourney days. When I graphed the data (below), what became apparent was that a jig accounted for an overwhelming majority of my fish over that period of time, year after year and season after season. Then you had just a handful of other baits that you could consider fairly consistent producers to compliment it. Was the lake just a good jig lake? Was it just a confidence bait I fished more than others? Was it a bait that a lot of other guys weren't fishing or the fish weren't seeing? Did I have a "magic" color combination? Or was I just a better decision maker on the water - have a better rotation more times than most? Hard to say, but the bass apparently never really tired from seeing these presentations over an extended period of time for whatever reason, despite like most lakes, all the best areas or "spots" were all well known to the locals competing, and everyone beating up the same stuff week after week, showing the fish anything and everything in the way of baits and techniques (for the time).

Fun few hours on the water this afternoon. Surface temps 65 degrees, and the cloudy skies broke and gave way to some sunshine pushing high temps up to 65 degrees. Very light and variable east wind, and the fall colors are probably near peak. Ned did most of the work today.

Change your mindset. An east wind will protect areas that normally aren’t, allowing you greater boat/lure control, or be hitting areas that are normally protected, which could spur activity. Fish each appropriately. I’m looking forward to heading out today with an east wind forecasted!

SNICKERDOODLES!!

I have to ask - based on what you’ve posted, if you haven’t caught, or even hooked, one of these fish yet, how do you know these are bass? Honestly, they sound a lot like the roaming white perch groups I see on my local reservoir (also soft bottomed).

A great fall afternoon on a local reservoir, and the bass were mostly biting crankbaits - 16 total in just over 3 hours - but the largest coming on Ned. Surface temps at 68 degrees with a nice stain to the water. Expecting cooler temps along with some cloud cover this weekend. Might be enough to break my ‘no weekends’ rule and give it another shot.

I’d be trolling a deep diving crankbait at a decent clip and try for a reaction strike. This is one of the prime seasonal windows for doing so.

Fall morning bite has historically been really good for me down into at least the low to mid 60s. Beyond that, I usually preferred afternoons, though high 50s water occasionally has its good mornings, too. These days, every trip is a later day trip, regardless

Never been a big fan, myself, but Rich Zaleski has great success with, and has written much about, what he refers to as a “big jig,” which is partly comprised of two full-bodied skirts as part of the modifications.

Just further down the calendar for most bodies of water. Thermocline was sitting at about 20 ft last week on a local lake here in SC with about 70 deg water temps, but I fished it all through the winter last year and we hit low 40s surface temps in January, so they all eventually turn over. A couple years back, even east Texas reservoirs like Lake Fork had surface ice. Maybe S. Florida, or Mexico - lol

Absolutely! As a bit of an angling historian, there’s so many old “hotbeds” of fishing history, conditions and fish we’ll never see again, only read about them in newspapers, magazine stories and forums. If I had a time machine, I’d probably spend the rest of my life revisiting these angling pioneers and places, and die happy

Not how mine worked - probably varies from bank to bank. I noticed an unauthorized charge pending on my debit card the same day it appeared. Notified my bank immediately and they said they had to wait to see if it went through before I could dispute. What the? - wait til the money is actually gone then call us - lol. Was pretty disappointing. My CC, on the other hand, is all over it. They’ve contacted me based on activity they detected before anything ever showed up in my notifications, which usually show up within 60 seconds of a charge going through.

Start of the cold front hit us today. Pretty tough conditions, then didn’t realize I was about out of gas until I launched, so stayed close and just burned up the trolling motor. Tomorrow is the only cloudy day all week, so hoping to be able to get back out. Surface temps falling fast now, down to 70-71 deg. today. Did score a couple bass along with a handful of crappie.

Along the line of others, any tax sheltered retirement vehicle should be considered as a viable option. I’d look first at how that existing money is being utilized/invested, and reallocate it, if necessary, into more appropriate options, especially if it’s just sitting in a “cash” or money market type account/fund. Beyond that, view it in terms of all other existing options you have at present, but if those are already being properly funded and you have extra monies, by all means start contributing to it within limits and get that thing growing 😎

Different lake, same outcome - water still in the mid 70s and even the thermocline looked to be intact. A good shot of cool air over the next week should help the bite get fired up a bit, I hope.

Slow day with cold front moving in, blue skies, cloud arrival delayed, and light winds. Just stuck a few long skinny guys along with 8-10 crappie. Wind blows today, but hoping for a change of scenery on Friday.