Kowen117

I will be heading up to Plattsburg to fish the FLW Tour as a co angler next month, and i am looking for as much info on Champlain as i can get. Ive never fished the lake before so any help breaking it down would be great. Whats the water clarity like? Structure or cover? any advice for basic color of baits? Im assuming these fish are going to be completely done spawning and transitioned into "summer" patterns?

Looking for a boater to link with for the rest of the gator division. I am registered and paid for the last 3 events. I am on the wait list for toho and would really like to find a link thanks in advanced.

Called and registered first thing this morning so now we wait and see if I get in! If anyone is a boater looking to link let me know as I believe I can still link even after I register? Also if anyone has a boat and is going to be pre fishing Okeechobee or just fun fishing between now and april and would be willing to let me tag along I'd be happy to pitch in trip expenses.

Hello and thank you in advance for any advice. Im currently looking to register for the 2016 FLW BFL Gator division as a co angler for april 23 and sept. 17-18 on Okeechobee. These two would be my first "real" tourney experiance beyond some weekly 4 hour bass clubs. My question is would these be too much for a first timer to take on? Ive never had the opportunity to fish Okeechobee before and would love the chance to learn from the back of the boat of someone who has. Now I understand im not gaurnteed a spot as a coangler in either tournament unless linked with a boater when I register? Any advice on being a Co-angler for the time and tournament fishing in general would be much appeciated; including any other tournament suggestions you might have other than the BFL?

Just sent VMC's customer service an email explaining what happened with my hooks. We will have to wait and see how they handle this.

Thanks guys. I will defiantly take the tides into consideration. As far a artificial goes I plan on taking a lot of my bass lures and just experimenting with them. Live bait with defiantly be aerated. And I never thought about clipping the tail seems like that would be good for bass too. Sirsnookalot our snook season is still closed over here until September of this year and it has been closed since the freeze of 2010. Again thanks a lot guys.

X2 I love my red bug on a shakey head or wacky rigged in stained water.

I was tonight; however, I have tried using a mono leader, and I have used straight 15lb copolymer.

VMC just lost me as a customer for life. I have bought two different versions of their shakey heads now the first one I broke the entire pack of hooks on little 2-3lb fish and the hook literally just broke. Picked up a different version of their shakey heads a week ago to give them one more try. Well tonight was the last straw! I set hook and she took off I am not sure how big she was but I know from the spot I was fishing and other 5lb fish I caught recently she was pushing 7-8lbs. Got half way to the boat and she just came off! Upon further examination of my jig head the hook was completely straight. That for me is unacceptable. Anybody else have VMC issues?

Thanks! Your tips on snook are very helpful! I have done quite a bit of inshore fishing with my cousin, so I am not a complete beginner. He just caught a 35 and a 33 inch snook last week. this will be my first time getting bait and fishing alone. I plan on buying a 8 or 9ft cast net here next week. But I will probably start with some shrimp and artificial. One last thing. How important are the tides?

Looking to start saltwater fishing this summer. I will be doing %100 inshore fishing for snook, redfish, trout, and flounder. First what should I look for when trying to locate bait? After I have my bait what are some key things to look for when locate fish? Do these fish relate to cover like bass or are they just cruising the flats?

I did trip and fall on one this year. Other than that I have never had a problem. I keep all 5-7 rods on deck too. However, I have lost a couple rods from a buddy's Bimini top running in rough water.

How do you guys organize your tackle? Does it stay in the boat or does it come out every time? I have tried the tray method twice and I usually end up with lures all over the deck of the boat and none of my trays stay organized I am about to go for round three with my trays; any tips or suggestions on how to keep them all straight?

I don't even know what I would do with that many rods in my boat! I think I am going to add a few more combos by the end year; I am thinking its time for a glass rod or two.

On any given day on the water how many do you generally have in the boat? I currently carry 7 combos 2 spinning 5 casting but it always seems like I am short a rod or two. Just wondering how many rods you have compared to how many you actually use on any given day?

Skip the stradic and go with spheros instead. There a lot cheaper and IMO just as good if not better than a stradic

best bait I have used recently in lay downs and wood in shallow water. You hardly ever hang up if you rig it right.

Just picked up a drop shot rig for the first time this week, and they are amazing! In 2-3 hours of fishing I caught 18 fish including two over 4lbs off of two sunken trees that lay about 15 feet apart. I was fishing the drop shot with about 15-18 inches in between the hook and sinker with a 6 inch zoom trick worm.

I stripped the gears on one of my baitcaster yesterday on a 3lber, and it is not worth fixing. I am looking to upgrade to a nicer baitcaster in the $100-150 range. It will be used for soft and hard jerkbaits 90% of the time the other 10% is jigs, shakey heads, and topwaters. So which baitcaster is your favorite for these applications? What gear ratio should a be looking at?

Yes I am using 50lb power pro on a heavy action rod, and I had thought that maybe I was simply setting the hook too hard. However, I have been using this setup for 2 years now, and I am just now having this issue. Plus these were mostly fish under 4lbs I didn't think that a fish that small should bend the hook.

I prefer sinking worms. I throw a ton of shaky heads and feel I get fewer bites on sinking worm but I get more hook ups and bigger fish. I think the small fish like to nip a the floating tails so when I set the hook it just rips the tail off.

I have been lucky enough to find some quality fish; however, I have "missed" 10 out of my last 13 fish. Upon examination of my hooks after about my third missed fish I noticed it was bent out at a 45 degree angle I thought I was just using cappy hooks so I switched to 4/0 gamakatsu EWG hooks and same thing every time I set the hooks they just bend out 30-40 degrees by this point I was extremely frustrated so I brought out my only pack of owner hooks I had 3-4 missed fish later I checked my hooks and the same thing happened even with the owner hooks! What I am doing to bend these hooks? Has anybody else had this issue lately?

We are in an extreme drought here in Florida and the 4 miles of river i fish are now only 1-2 foot deep, so i have begun to fish the man made 400 acre lake connected to the river. I have been on the fish near shore but they are all only 14-15 inches long. Here is my problem the lake is pretty much uniformly one depth give or a take a foot here and there. So how do I find fish in this 9-10 foot deep open water? what kind of things should I look for on my electronics? thanks.

Around the 15th I think. What type of cover should I be looking for on the main lake? Brush? Deep water rock points?

I am heading to Kentucky lake early march; however, I am only going to have 4-5 days to fish and I have never fished this lake before so I am trying to get as much info as possible before I go. so far my plan is to fish shallow creek arms and boat marinas with shallow cranks and jigs for pre-spawn bass. what are your thoughts on color choice? If you could take ten baits to Kentucky lake what would you take?