Shad_Master

Several years ago, I hired a guide on Table Rock and he introduced me to the drop-shot and wacky rig method. It was in late June and the bass were suspended at 30' over 70' of water. Since then I have fished for them at TR on my own, with varying success. One thing I have noticed is that they fight more like a Small Mouth than a Large Mouth (often running at the boat or going deep).

Don't worry about it Squid -- you know what they say: Old age and treachery will out do youth and vigor ;D

That's twice today that Squid has jumped in while I was typing my reply. I guess I shouldn't be so long winded ;D

I would suggest that you look into joining a local club and fish some tournaments. This is probably the best way to learn a lot in a hurry. I have been fishing my whole life (soon will be 55 years), but bought my first boat about 4 years ago. After I bought the boat, I looked around and found a local club. We have two types of tournaments. The club tournaments are for year-end points, trophies, etc. and the "calcuttas" are more for bragging rights. I have fished the club tournaments as a non-boater and the calcuttas as a boater. I have learned more by being in the back of the boat from guys who have been tournament fishing for a while, but now I feel that I am ready to starting driving. The main difference is that you are fishing backwards from bank fishing. You throw to the bank and bring your bait out to the deeper water. But you also have the advantage of getting into some of the better fish holding spots that you may not be able to get to from the bank. I still like to bank fish and spend a lot of evenings at a local pond trying out different techniques, but fishing from the boat will increase your productivity a lot.

If you have not had a chance to read his autobiography, Think Like a Fish, do yourself a favor and pick up a copy of this book. It is a priceless history of the sport/business of fishing and has some wonderful stories about a legend.

This reminds me of another quick story. Several years ago, a buddy and I were fishing on a nearby lake that has some good bass, but gets a lot of pressure so we have never done very good there. We had trolled down a long cove without any action at all and were comming up the other side when we heard an awful commotion comming from the next point up. We looked and saw a long-legged shore bird flapping it's wings and running across the top of the water and a bass was chasing it. We put the trolling motor on high and fished that spot with top waters for a long time with no response but laughed about this the whole time.

A couple of years ago I took the family down to Table Rock for a vacation. We got there late and after I put the boat in we had to go to town to get groceries. It was bed time by the time we got back, but I was so pumped I couldn't sleep so I decided to walk down to the lighted dock. When I got there, there was a heron standing on the end of the dock under the light. As I approached, he got upset and flew off. Then I noticed that the fish were swirling under the light at the end of the dock. Thousands of them just swimming in a counter clock-wise circle. They would get to swimming so fast that they would make a votex in the center and when they got to a frenzy, all of a sudden a bigger fish would swim out from under the dock and make a pass through the herd before ducking back in. I decided to try to snag one of these big boys to see what it was (bass, pike, ?). As I was fishing, I heard the sound of someone walking on the dock, but I couldn't see anyone. Just as I was about convinced the thing was haunted, I saw something overhead out of the corner of my eye. I was ole Mr. Heron. He had come back and was watching me from off of the roof. After about an hour, I decided to go back up to the cabin and as I walked away he swooped back down to his original spot, but kept turning to watch as I walked away.

I used to fish pads a lot as a kid. We would use a Johnson Silver Spoon with a white Uncle Josh pork trailer. Throw out onto the pads and pull it along until it drops off. Be ready for the bite. Don't fish much in the pads anymore and had forgotten about this until a few weeks ago when I was telling another guy about it.

If I have analyzed the conditions and feel like the spot ought to have fish on it, or if I have caught fish on this spot under similar conditions, I would change baits. Maybe they have seen spinner baits a lot recently and aren't going to react to them, but they do have to feed. So give them another menu choice. If they still don't bite, it's time to move on.

It's called collecting "capital" -- you do those honey-do's so you can do what you want to do!!

Are you sure you fielded a valid team? the first year I played in a group with my local bass club, I hadn't read the rules real close and spent over the 50 pounts allowed and got nothing for the event, even though one of my guys won it.

I have watched fishing shows where a guy standing in a wrapped boat with a tournament shirt covered in patches is telling me that I should were soft colored shirts and hats to avoid spooking the fish :-/

A tip that I learned a few years ago, but don't always follow :-/, is to carry a bottle of garlic salt when you go out. After getting in the water (handling the motor, etc.) wet your hands and shake some on and rub it in like lotion. This will mask a lot of the "human scent" and supposedly avoid spooking the fish. You can also use this to sprinkle in your bag of soft plastics from time to time to rejuvenate the scent.

Sometime last year, I found a website that was about a feature length movie about bass tournaments that was being made. I don't remember where I found it and can't locate the web site again. Has anyone heard about this, and if so what is the info?

I think this is the essence of pattern fishing, but this only works if you are driving the boat. If you are a non-boater in a tournament and you are fishing with somebody who thinks they have found a pattern, then you try to imitate what they are doing. But if it isn't working, then you try to compliment what they are doing. This happened to me last year on a tournament where my boater assured me that he had caught fish in every direction in a clump of standing trees. After making three passes through the area with only sub-limit fish to show for it, I took advantage of his back lash to cast out of the trees and into the grass along the bank. I caught my first keeper of the day and as we moved from one clump of standing trees to the next, I caught my next one. Throughout the day, I managed to catch a limit of 15"+ fish on the grass line while the boater was moving from one set of trees to the next. I only took 3rd place in the tournament, but 1st and 2nd also reported that they were catching fish on the weedline in various parts of the lake.

I was explaining this to my wife, who generally tolerates my obsession with bass fishing and watching fishing shows when I'm not fishing. She became genuinely upset and said, NO! They can't do that -- he's the voice of bass fishing!!"

Just got your first e-mail since signing up. A great way to start a Monday morning. Good job, lookin forward to the next one.

There are really three that I keep tabs on, for different reasons. Denny Brauer because I have spent time on the Lake of the Ozarks (in Denny's hometown) and just find that he is cool. Rick Clunn, I have read a lot about him and think of him as the Zen Master of Bass fisin. And Gerald Swindle -- several years ago I was watching an FLW tournament on Gerald's home lake. He wanted to fish back in a creek that had been blocked off by a fallen tree. He reached down in his boat and pulled up a Poulan chainsaw (one of his sponsors) and cut the tree to get back into the creek and won the tournament -- Now that's a fisherman!!

One that I really enjoyed was Think Like a Fish by Tom Mann of Mann Bait Company. There's not a lot of fishing technique and stuff, but it is a great read by a legend in the business. Made me laugh -- made me cry. Check it out if you get a chance.

Somebody posted this on another forum right around Christmas time. I saved it and showed my son. Then last week while watching OLN, it came up. He called to his mother to come and watch it. We all thought it was funny. I also like their one with the guys kneeling on the dock -- "Oh, Lord, it feels like a big one...". Don't know if that one is on the web, I would love to have the transcript if anybody knows where I could get it.

Another thing you can do is join a local club. Attend a few meetings as a visitor and maybe even fish a tournament as a non-boater. Once you have found a club that isn't so cut-throat that no-one will give you any tips, you will be surprised how much you learn by watching these guys and trying new things.

Thanks for the 411!

You're right about that SpinnerbaitDan, Senko's are not a good search bait. However, they are dynomite! as a follow-up bait on a missed fish with a topwater or crankbait.

This is a question that has been confusing to me for some time now. When I read about fishing the "inside" weed line, is the the edge of the weeds closest to the bank or furtherest away? Last night I was reading an article and it talked about fishing the "outside" weedline and then following up on the deeper inside weedline (?)

Let me get this straight. You've got a shallow running crank bait, that you are pulling down with a weight. Why not just use a deeper diving crank bait ???