Chaz Hickcox

Congrats Mike! The Gator Division is IMO the toughest BFL division out there.

Bomber fat free shad in emerald shad. Bomber fat free squarebills in dances pearl white XCalibur squarebills, color depends on the water

I've caught monsters with a chatterbait in 42* water. A slow roll on the bottom where you can barely feel the blade ticking.

I grew up fishing the bank on Lake Pleasant. If you have a decent truck you'll have access to the majority of the shoreline, but there's a lot of offroading involved. In the summer I used to drive the shoreline looking for cruisers, then throwing an old school swim bait around them when I saw them. The water is usually clear enough for 20+ foot vis. In town hit Tempe Town Lake. There's boats to rent there and the bass fishing is decent. It's basically fishing a boxy strip mine in the middle of town.

Big fish WILL rarely hunt down a slow bait in cold water. Fish a crank and get them to react to it. No they won't chase a crank, but will snap it up if it bangs off structure right in front of it.

Been killing them on crank baits since November in San Diego County. The bass don't know the date, therefore don't know what time of year it's supposed to be. They work off water temps. If the water is in the 50s start fishing your normal prespawn spots and patterns and you'll find them. If you know you're around fish get a reaction bait out and get them to react, ie cranks, jerk baits, and spinner baits. Use your graph to find the bait, the fish will be close by.

I have a 19.5' Bass Cat and have cruised comfortably over rough water, passing 21' Ranger Z521s who were getting there butts beat up pretty bad. This was in 20mph winds on Amistad. Champion and Bass Cat are going to have the best rough water rides overall. Rangers are wide and basically flat, which means you will feel like your fishing from a floating dock which is great for calm water. However, the generally flat hull will not cut the waves like a Bass Cat or Champion.

I like the Caffeine Shad from SK. I will rig it on a heavy 4/0 Gamakatsu Superline Wide Gap Hook for a little bit more weight to the rig and I ALWAYS tip it with a Reaction Innovations Screwed Up Bullet Head. The RI head will keep the nose of the bait from getting torn up and upon catch of the fish, the whole bait will slide up the line through both holes. This way the bait doesn't get ripped up and I can use one bait almost all day, or until there is no where to bury the point of the hook in the back of the bait. http://www.tackletour.com/reviewribullet.html

Wow, the Boat US one is actually pretty good. The Bass Pro requires one to be in a Nitro or Tracker series boat, and unfortunately I don't have a power pole, not that I don't want two! Thanks. I will likely be doing the Boat US one this year.

They have their Cabela's Cup for the college guys, don't see anything for general dudes like myself. Thanks for the input though. I spoke to a friend of mine at FishBaitRadio.com, seems this is a moot point unless one is a pro-staffer.

Hey all, just curious, which companies have good incentive programs which would be worthwhile to put their logo on a jersey. I have a BassCat, which isn't required to have anything but the boat, but they will be centerpiece on the Jersey, I use Lowrance Electronics and have both a Minn Kota TM and Charger. Are there any lure/rod manufacturers who have good incentives? Been searching for stuff, but can't seem to find any. Thanks.

Same here in Virginia Beach. If you are primarily a fresh water guy such as myself you are actually kind of snubbed at local tackle shops. The bass fishing scene here is pretty small and everyone knows each other. Hell, if you want to go to a bass boat dealership around here you have to drive a few hours to get there (other than BPS in Hampton). Even the BPS sucks as far as fresh water goes. It's all about the salt around here. Speaking of perspective, in the Colorado River System they stocked Stripers a while back. The deep cool water in Lake Powell was so conducive to their habits that they all but annihilated the shad populations, which negatively effected the SMB and LMB populations. Now there is no bag or size limits on stripers. I remember being a kid and fishing cut bait by the dam and we'd bring in 20+ stripers for a cookout at the campground. So in reality it depends on the fishery and ecosystem. Bass can be a detriment to trout populations, therefore, if you are trying to build a trophy trout fishery then yes bass need to be removed. However, throwing them in a bush is wasteful of such a good eating fish. IMO.

As usual Paul, excellent fish!

The temp drop went from between 79 and 81* and fell to between 60 and 63*. The fish out here haven't a choice. Max depth at a channel that is 5 miles from where I had located the fish was 12 ft. Average depth is 3-6ft. I caught fish first thing in the morning in shallow water, little guys though. I figured they would have used the thick grass mats where I was at to get some relief, and I'm sure they were there. Just in a bit of shock. Regardless, I know I was in some good areas just couldn't put it together. This is not lake fishing where the bass can have some reprieve and retreat to deep water. Had it been a lake I would have reverted to football heads, t-rigs or any other ledge fishing technique. Just wasn't the case here. The change in conditions is less of my issue because I was hitting a slump before then. I've just peaked my frustration. I came across many large schools of bream and minnows. It wasn't that there were no fish there. I just didn't get it together.

Catt - Speaking of hooksets, I usually set harder when in a slump. If I go a few hours fishing a T-Rig or flipping a jig and get hit, Lord Almighty help the fish if it's a dink. It's usually then when I set the fish out of the water. I'm not having a huge issue catching fish, but putting good fish in the boat come tournament day. I haven't been skunked since this spring and my first time on the Patomac. With that being said, I can go out and put a number of four pounders in the boat during practice only to fall on my face in the tournament, in size that is. My tournament yesterday we still caught fish, but no keepers. Thanks for the info though. I have been thinking about what I tell my students here at work, 'Go back to the basics and you will succeed.' Usually when they do that they pass their evaluations. I tell them to swing for the fences, but if that's not working to just keep it simple. It's a lot easier said then done. I guess everyone needs a reminder from time to time. One difference may be when prefishing I am more inclined to thouroughly work an area because I don't have a time hack. I am more apt to use different techniques because there's nothing to lose. So with that being said I am more comfortable to think, what could be used differently here that is a simple adjustment. Not necessarily a change, but adjusting more efficiently. Brian - You're right too. Thanks.

Everyone, in every sport has times where they go through down cycles in their performance. For me it has been recently. This spring and early summer I was doing quite well in most if not all of the tournaments I fished. I didn't win them all, but had big fish at a few and stayed around top 5. Lately I have had two tournaments where keeper sized bass haven't hit the boat, or I haven't had a limit, even after having great results and multiple patterns with good fish in practice. It's times like this I wonder what I am doing differently in practice where I can't put it together in the tournament. In more conventional sports we have coaches who are there to ensure we learn from the down cycles, but I feel a little lost right now. The most recent tournament I had an issue with was yesterday. I worked my butt off putting a few patterns together, and catching good fish and numbers in practice. Only to have tournament day fall victim to a cold front that dropped the water temps almost 20*. Normally I would say this to be a contributing factor, but talking to the other anglers they claimed to be on the same pattern I had been on in practice and came in with 18+#, when all I could put together were a number of dinks. Grant it, their spots only dropped about 10-12*. I dunno. What do you all do to pull out of a slumming end of season?

X3 Had an issue losing fish on a spook so I gave the KVDs a shot. Generally try not to fall into the KVD Lemming Crowd, but these things are sticky and I have yet to lose a fish with them.