Lund Explorer

I'd say that the first thing to consider is what the release site is like. If it has good cover and food, a lot of those fish might be there a week or more later. THis was the case at last year's Kentucky Lake roadtrip. The marina at Moor's had a tournament weigh in on the Saturday we got there and they were still catching bass out of it on the Friday we left. Second thing to consider is how many fish are getting released at this site. Finally, it would really depend on if you had any fish patterned away from this place, which saves you a couple of hours during your tournament day. In my experience, I've never cared for fishing a release site the very next day. Any Wednesday night tournaments nearby?

$95 is a pretty low price to get for selling out a reputation, unless that reputation wasn't worth much to begin with.

Looks like Norman Bates got his Mom out of the motel for a day on the beach!

Be happy that you wife collects something you can play with. Mine collects breakable knick-knack junk that I don't even want to touch.

Welcome to Bass Resource. My first piece of advice would be to follow this link and get ready to start reading. http://www.bassresource.com/how-to-fish/

That would explain this picture of RW showing how big his roadtrip bass was!

That is one beautiful looking puppy A-Jay. Should we assume that this is the price of a week long trip to Lake Erie? I'm thinking two new PB's should equal two puppies though!

A bakery? Does this mean all the relatives will give up asking you tax questions and start asking for discounted donuts?

I'm almost fully there, just to the "Tired" stage. Have to work today through Thursday and then I'm done until June 4th. That should give me a few days on the water for the pre-to-post thingy. Schedule has me sitting at my desk for 8 days in June and then I'm headed north for two weeks until July 3rd. Too many honey-do's in July, so I've got a reserved campsite near Hamlin Lake from Aug 14th until Sept 23rd to make amends. I'm either going to get in a lot of fishing this year, or we're are in for a bunch of rain!

The first thing I would do is to follow the old adage of "Walk a mile in his shoes!", and then come back to us wih an answer.

Go For It! Even though you took the time to ask the original question, your quick defense of the choice shows you probably didn't need to ask in the first place. Added to the fact that the news is saying this morning that only 1 in 5 graduates will be able to find work associated to their chosen major most likely renders the entire subject moot. Can anyone say Graduate School?

Jerkbaits, Spinnerbaits, Spider Grubs, plus I'd bet a soft swimbait would work though I've never tried one up there. http://www.fishweb.com/maps/antrim/lakeskegemog/index.html IMO the best two places are 1) the stump invested water where the river comes into the lake, and 2) the narrows going into Elk Lake. As far as other places to try should include Torch Lake, Elk Lake, but if you've got boat enough, you need to try Traverse Bay. There's a bunch of other lakes around the Traverse City area that hold smallies.

Must be time for all the MI guys to chime in. Made the first real bass fishing trip this morning. Water temps sitting around 58 and all those funny looking shiny spots have shown up again this spring. Every darn one of them seems to have a young buck sitting on it ready to pounce on the first thing that comes anywhere near these places. Wasn't much of a challenge to put a couple dozen greenies in the boat, but the top five probably barely squeaked in at 11 - 12 lbs.

How'd your weekend go?

http://www.mcgi.state.mi.us/MRBIS/results.aspx?extent=514287.0307801068,552790.0878623165,440146.3173565753,493487.43440135195,16094.33 The DNR's website will search lakes with state launch sites/public access by lake name, county, etc. A decent small trolling motor would add a lot of water to your choices.

I have to agree with Tom in that you need to make some changes. Along with his advice, I would suggest that you might want to spend half the day during your next tournament there taking a boat ride. If you are still stuck on the dinks, turn that entry fee into what I call tuition. Take a cruise around the lake and see where other guys are fishing. See if where they are fishing is different from the kind of water you have been targeting. As you slowly chug past these guys, maybe pickup on what they are throwing. IMO, spending 8 hours hauling dinks doesn't teach you anything. You might as well spend that time learning something new.

Back in the days that I fished draw tournaments the back seater was always given the right to operate the trolling motor for half of the fishing day. I'm not sure why so many organizations got away from that. Hopefully you'll be able to take advantage of that chance. Thinking of all the things I've learned here, I have to say that priority #1 has to be getting to the point where you can walk a limit of fish up to the scales. How you go about that is going to be the key. These are the things I would suggest doing. Study, study, and then spend some more time studying! You need to learn the body of water you are fishing, what techniques tournament winners have been using there, and everything you can learn about being a backseater. I've never fished this place, but i believe the Potomac River is what would be called a tidal waterway. This should mean that the prime times during the day will be during the changing of the tides when the river's current positions fish differently from times when the tide isn't running. You are going to want to find out what those times are for the day of the tournament. I remember reading a few tournament reports in BASSMASTER about tournaments held on that water. If my memory hasn't completely failed, one of the most productive patterns dealt with fishing in, over, and along side some fairly large emergent weedbeds. I also recall reading somewhere about fishing old pilings and other rubble that provided current breaks or ambush points during those prime times. You are going to want to select lures that work both on top of those weeds like a frog, along with either jigs or a T-Rig with a pegged weight to get down through those weeds. I suppose you could take along the infamous senko, but weightless worms usually don't work very well when the guy on the trolling motor is zipping along at his own pace. I'd stick with something that gets down to the fish as quickly as possible! You can also find a lot of good suggestions on how to make the most of being the backseater right here in these forum pages. Some are a little negative, but you will do best if you concentrate on those that show how to positively react to the challenges faced when you are in the back of the boat. I think the most important thing you can do to insure getting those five fish in the boat is to remember that you have to take advantage of those prime times during the day. When the fish turn on, you want to be throwing you best baits at the best spots. Watch the angles your boater is giving you and work the lure that fits that situation.

Grandpa, I thought about your original post when I saw this on the news. http://www.charter.net/news/read.php?id=17476159&ps=931&cat=&cps=0&show=big〈=en One look at this gal reminded of the old leather coat I had to retire a few years ago.

Probably the most important question is whether you are the boater or destined to fish in the back of the boat all day long. My first reply was the best advice I can give you if you are in control of the boat, but it can be a whole different matter if you are behind the guy on the trolling motor. It is almost impossbile to give you an accurate answer without knowing the answers to questions that have been asked here several times. What are the winning weights with the group you are fishing with? Are you the boater or the rider?

These are the guys you're fishing against? If you are front seating your own boat with this crew, you need to throw away everything in my previous post!

The first question I would ask is what kind of weight does it take to either win the tournament or to place in the money? How much is the entry fee? What about big bass pot, entry and prize money? Catching a limit of fish that average 2.5 to 2.7 would give you a weight of 12.5 to 13.5 lbs. If that is good enough to win the tournament then you have to figure out how to put five in the boat. If the winning weight is closer to 15 lbs, then you need to start thinking about catching bigger than average fish. Assuming that it would take that 15 lb bag to cash 1st place money, I would try to break down the day so that you are targeting bigger fish during the prime times of the day. That may mean throwing big topwaters first thing in the morning as well as throwing jigs or big worms on prime deep water structure at other times of the day. Around here, there is a good chance at hanging a deep water hawg between noon and 2pm which is when you want to be on that prime structure. Between these two times, I would setup a milk run of a few high percentage docks or other shallow water spots trying to put as many fish in the box as possible. Looked at another way: First two hours - Big topwaters looking for a toad during prime morning bite. Middle four hours - Fill the livewell with the two pounders. Last two hours - Cull the dinks with a possible hawg or two!

I've never tried it with a spinnerbait, but I have used a leader for jerkbaits. A little research will tell you which length leader will turn a floating bait into a suspending one. Single strand wire will also stop a lot of bite offs when fishing jigs or worms, but I think it also deters a few bites from the bass too. On a slow moving rig I would suggest using a black felt marker to color every other inch of the leader to breakup the look of the leader. Make sure to voice your opinion on the new pike regulations that the DNR is looking at right now. They need to allow more people to harvest all of the hammer handles!

Into the sixth page, I would have thought by now that the conversation would have turned to where Bill Dance hammers all of his fish.

Why don't you just name him "Senko" so that when he grows up he'll have his own pinned thread?

If there were other people there to witness it, why didn't you just signal for a tow? In CYA mode, you may want to explain what happened to your club's president before the complaints start rolling in. I'd say it's time to be a little proactive, and it may go over better if you "fess-up" first.