Shad_Master

There used to be a lady that worked in our office you informed me that "fishing is an excuse for doing nothing". I advised her, not if you do it the way I do and offered to pick her up at 3:30 that next Saturday to accompany me on a 2.5 hour drive to an 8 hour tournament. She didn't take me up on it

Great article Matt-Fly -- wonder if you or someone could do a similar article on crawfish -- I have been doing some looking on the internet but haven't found the type of detail that you and Raul are able to put in your posts. Thanks.

An interesting side note, but according to the fish weight calculator on this site, the SM should have weighed 13.1627025# -- I know it's just an estimate, but interesting never the less.

The "technique" as it is usually discussed is a finesse presentation and therefore uses light line and small baits. However, I would see nothing wrong with pitching a rig with the weight on bottom. Some people use a jig as the weight for the drop shot with a plastic tied on above. I have even heard stories of people catching two bass on a rig like this.

If you live in the Omaha/Council Bluffs area, our local club is looking for more members, especially non-boaters. If you would like to get more info, PM me or checkout our website www.smallboatbassclub.com. Don't let the name of the club fool you, we make no limits on boat size and have several rangers and at least one triton and one express in the club. We fish a 7 tournament club schedule and a 9 event calcutta series. I've been a member for going on 4 years now and have never had more fun with my clothes on.

Joining a Bass Club is the best move I ever made. But you do have to be careful when selecting a club. Attend a few meetings, if you can, or even fish as a guest at one of the tournaments. Also check to see if the club has a website. If they do and have a forum, see what some of the discussion is about. This is how I selected by club and it was the best move I ever made. Our club dues are $20 and there is an optional $20 dues for the "calcutta" series. Non-boaters are expected to pay a "non-boater" fee to their boater to offset the cost of gas, based on the distance traveled to the lake and the cost of gas at that time. There are camping/motel/meal costs when you travel to the tournament and the "bait monkey" will suck you dry, but the rewards are well worth the cost, even if you don't cash a check at the tournaments.

How do you guys, especially the smaller clubs, set your schedule for the year? We have a local club that has two tournament series. The club tournaments are all fished on a set schedule voted on by the membership, but I am more interested in ideas for the other series. We call this the Calcutta and it is more informal and another way for club members to get out and fish. The idea started out to fish a lake close by the tournament lake on the day before or the day after the club tournament. This didn't work too well as there was not a lot of participation. The the format changed to fishing on non-tournament weekends at lakes "close to home" (usually not more than a 1-2 hour drive). Eventually this came down to fishing a series of tournaments on one lake -- problem was a lot of guys were pre-fishing and the playing field got skewed. So then we went to a "draw" selection for lakes -- named four lakes and drew on the night before the tournament and everybody showed up at that lake and fished. Last two years, we had a fixed schedule but had to include some lakes that are not very good producers in order to fill up the season. Last year we branched out but this required driving up to 2-2.5 hours for a short day of fishing. Now we are considering: -- set a pre-selected schedule -- going back to the draw -- selecting up to three lakes and rotate (fish each lake three times in succession) We also talked about voting on where to fish at each months meeting, but there is some concern that this will lead to a lot of arguing. Just wonder how you guys do it. Thanks for any input you can give me.

Watched Hank Parker last night fishing with Hank, Jr. in a little swampy area out of those kayak things that he sells. Man there were snakes crawling, swimming, laying in the trees , but they were catching monster bass in 1' to 5" of water. Pretty cool 8-)

I feel it's better than a sharp stick in the eye, but only barely

An old crusty guy in these parts that has more experience than I've got soft plastics told me the secret to catching fish on a jerk bait - he said, "Son, you cast it out a far as you can - lay your rod down and pour a cup of coffee - give it a jerk - drink the coffee - give it another jerk - light up a cigarette - give it a jerk - smoke the cigarette - give it another jerk -- get the picture?". Have never really put much time into them since then, but with KVD and the Classic and all, have been thinking about pulling them out again when the water turns liquid.

;D I think your probably right Nick_Barr, but there have sure been some times when I wished I could get my bait up under some docks or low hanging willow trees. Just don't think I could talk the wife into okaying $700 for one. There must be a market for them though, it will be interesting to see where they show up.

Reading the comments in the post about most effective techniques, got me to thinking. What do you consider the most difficult technique to learn. For me it would be top water plugs (Spooks, Sammy's, etc.). I have trouble knowing when to use them and how best to work them in the conditions. I plan to keep on trying and reading all I can of the forum.

Check out the discussion in the Tournaments section -- we've been hashing this one for awhile now. Some realy interesting comments.

Did you guys notice this in the Tackle Guide of the latest BassMaster Magazine? Has anyone here tried this thing? As much fun as we have had with Biosonix on this forum, just thought I would throw this in the mix to see what the reaction, if any, is.

We just got one here about a month ago, be sure to sign up for the rewards point program -- you get 2 points for every $ spent on BPS or Red-Head gear and 1 point for every $ spent on everything else. 500 points = $10 in free merchandise. Have managed to find a reason to stop by four times since opening day (I was in line for that one), but have only managed to pick up a few bags of ZOOM Horny Toads for 1/2 price. Too much stuff, can't make up my mind -- have my Santa list all ready though

bassdoktor, that's something I hadn't considered about the 3X's. If that is the case, there might be a reason to pick some of these up out of the bargin bin

Every year I set a goal to try to improve on one technique or another. This year it was jigs, because I have been fishing for about 40+ years and had never caught a fish on a jig. I did manage to start catching some on jigs and it was a hoot , but I don't think I caught enough to feel that I have "mastered" this technique, so I will be reading posts about this over the winter and will probably keep it as my goal for next year. One thing I did do however, by accident, was discover the ZOOM Vibra Tail Worm. I caught more fish on this during the season than all the other techniques combined, including my 6#'er. Might have caught some of 'em on a jig, but it's hard to stop doing what's working.

Another thing I learned right at the end of the season this year is to look for the first drop off away from the rip-rap. I was fishing a dam on the lake and trolling inside other guys from my club that were out about one cast. They had found that the fish were suspending on the drop off and biting when the T-rigged bait made the fall off the ledge. Nothing was biting up on the rocks, even though they had been two days before :'(

It really depends on the water. Here in the mid-west, wacky rigs will get snagged very easily, but T-rigs work well along the weed lines or in the brush piles.

The little doo-hickey's you get from GYCB that goes on the line in front of your Senko to keep it from pulling down on the hooks. Don't know what they are called, found them on this site earlier this year -- need to order some more.

Good point Chris, I think (?) this is more the case on large lakes than on smaller ones, but I do know that I have found bass on "nothing" banks especially in the Spring.

Bandit makes a good crankbait and they are pretty sturdy for bouncing off cover. I don't know that they are "better" than others, but for the price they will get the job done.

Oh contrare, my young padowan (sp?) :-[ Berkley GULP! Night crawlers can be fished T-rig or C-rig. Last year I came in tied for 3rd in a tournament using only GULP! Nightcrawlers. You don't want to overpower them with your bullet weight though, use the least amount of weight that you can. BTW, just because the $$'s are low right now is no reason to quit fishing, even with all the lures in all the bait shops in the country, you can still hook lots of bass on the orignal night crawlers you dig up in the garden. Tight lines and keep casting.

Yeah, it's called a rope. You can tie the rope to your tow vehicle as you are sliding it off the trailer and then pull it up to the dock and tie it off while you go and park.