MFBAB

The floating Rapalas are one of my fav baits ever, caught my first bass on one. The countdowns are great too, I use them almost exclusively for Trout on the White River in Arkansas but never tried them for bass, no reason really. The CD is just a sinking version of the original, they are great on the river because you can keep it in contact with the bottom (as you drift) where the fish are holding very easily. Good luck with the baitcaster, you will get some backlashes at first but once you get used to it you will love it. Line twist will be a thing of the past compared to spinning tackle and you will be able to control your casts infinitely better, especially with the heavier lures

Bass - Use a Shad Crappie - Fish in Mississippi

Anyone fish Pickwick last w/end?

I love rooting around in the clearance section at Wally, sometimes you find something you can't live without. I get a lot of marine stuff like 2 cycle oil, etc. in there too, no beating their prices.

I started several years ago, the main reason I waited in the first place was just because I didn't know how to do a pitch cast. I just rigged up a 1/4 oz. jig on a rod and kept it out on my back deck for a few weeks and took a few minutes here and there to start pitching it at targets in the yard. It didn't take long to get decent at it and now I almost never go fishing without one on the deck, even if it isn't your main pattern on a given day you can almost always pick off a few bonus fish when you see a good laydown or something that "needs to be flipped"

I plan on starting to use Hula Grubs some this year, I've heard too many good things about them, thanks for the reminder.

Nobody ever mentions single tail curly grubs in these threads but they work well as jig trailers and you can bet the fish aren't seeing them presented this way very often.

I just found out about it today and downloaded it, really cool. As popular as this site is I was surprised that we weren't already in their directory.

That sounds like a good plan, give us an update later to see how you did. I like those Bitsy Bugs a lot, you should try slow rolling it around areas that you would fish a spinnerbait in too, that is a great finesse alternative to a standard spinnerbait. Another really good finesse presentation with a Bitsy Bug is to take the skirt off of it and put a 2.5" Yum Crawbug (the smallest one) and pitch it around cover, if they won't hit that it's going to be a really tough day, lol.

The best answer I've found for post frontal days is to obviously downsize everything, slow down and try to get tight on the available cover but for me it's also important to fish baits with the least amount of appendages, ie: no curly tails, flapping style jig trailers, etc. I have a lot better luck on the tough NE wind days with straight tail worms like Senkos or Trick Worms and the old school chunk style jig trailers with straight appendages. I'm not trying to trigger a bite with a ton of action on these days, more along the lines of trying to remove any potential reasons for them not to eat my bait. Less action = an easier meal for a negative bass. No guarantees but this method has salvaged a lot of days for me when they don't seem to want the bigger, faster moving baits.

This is pretty general but I love the idea of being able to ask questions about a product (or just search the forum)before I buy it, whether it's line, electronics, terminal tackle, whatever. As others have said, you are getting real information from other "unsponsored" w/end warriors, not just the hype you hear on the TV shows, etc. To me this is probably the greatest benefit of forums in general. I've also met some new fishing buddies along the way through forums and there's nothing wrong with that. Best fishing tip I've heard in the last year: Rattletraps are idiot baits, you are an idiot of you're not throwing them when the water is cold....

Question for Mods, I just got this app on my iphone. It is a forum browser app that lets you post pics and comments etc. There are hundreds of forums in their directory but I couldn't find Bass Resource there. Have you considered setting up an account with them? Here's a link: http://tapatalk.com/ Also, I apologize if this is in the wrong forum, wasn't sure where to post.

Kent, you know what I mean, we didn't fish that spoon slow and vertical on those bait balls I think the bass were pretty much gorged out on dyeing shad anyway but that would have been a logical next step if we had to do it again the next day. BTW, that firewood lady has called me three times asking for your phone # !!! Jiggin it - The recent rains and increased current are probably the biggest thing you have going in your favor right now, maybe it will flush some of the biomass out of the river. We had fairly clean water last w/end but it's probably a little different right now.

I fished w/ RW last Sat and we didn't do jack fishing structure from 0-20' range with a variety of baits. I told him if I was doing it again the next day I'd be looking at vert jigging a spoon or something around bait in 20-30 fow, think bluffs, creek channels, etc. This is where the concentrations of birds (feeding on shad) were and most of the bait showed up in those zones on sonar also, didn't try it that day but would definitely be my starting point if I were fishing there right now. Good luck.

I got one and it ain't good. RW and I fished the lake yesterday and there is a major shad kill on, we caught one bass in 5-6 hours of fishing and based on conversations w/ other fisherman (from above and below the dam) we were ahead of the game, lol. BTW, his stomach looked like it had a baseball in it from eating Shad. If you're a Bass or a Seagull, Pickwick is awesome right now, if you're a fisherman or a Shad, not so much....

That looks good, I bet those pinchers have a nice action in the water. Reminds me of a small Yum Crawbug on a naked jig but yours is probably a little more lifelike for sure, nice job.

I use a notebook to write down the lake, weather, water temp and in general the high points of the trip from memory, sometimes I don't get around to it until a few days later. The big payoff comes when I add it to the master log I keep in the puter right before the new fishing season starts, it's always neat to have a reminder of what you were doing at that time last year or previous years, lake levels, what worked where, etc. It's also interesting to see how fuzzy my memory of those old trips can be when I read what actually happened compared to how I remembered it

I use a notebook to write down the lake, weather, water temp and in general the high points of the trip from memory, sometimes I don't get around to it until a few days later. The big payoff comes when I add it to the master log I keep in the puter right before the new fishing season starts, it's always neat to have a reminder of what you were doing at that time last year or previous years, lake levels, what worked where, etc. It's also interesting to see how fuzzy my memory of those old trips can be when I read what actually happened compared to how I remembered it

I use a notebook to write down the lake, weather, water temp and in general the high points of the trip from memory, sometimes I don't get around to it until a few days later. The big payoff comes when I add it to the master log I keep in the puter right before the new fishing season starts, it's always neat to have a reminder of what you were doing at that time last year or previous years, lake levels, what worked where, etc. It's also interesting to see how fuzzy my memory of those old trips can be when I read what actually happened compared to how I remembered it

Dave Whitlock is one of the all time greats in fly fishing for sure, several good books and inventor of many great bass and trout fly patterns.

The Compleat TN Angler - Summerlin/Markham - Must have for TN guys Spoonplugging - Buck Perry Lunker - Bob Underwood Knowing Bass - Keith Jones - This book is based on Berkley research but it isn't about selling Powerbait or Gulp, pretty good read. In Fisherman Largemouth and Smallmouth handbooks are both good In Pursuit of Giant Bass - Bill Murphy Both KVD books are pretty good 101 Bass Catching Secrets - Roland Martin - Laugh it up, this is a really good one River Smallmouth Fishing - Tim Holschlag - This is a new book, it is way more informative and detailed than Holschlags previous book "Stream Smallmouth Fishing," which wasn't half bad either. Big Bass Magic - Doug Hannon Bass Tactics - Larry Larsen Slider Fishin - Charlie Brewer John Hope's Trackin' Trophies - Jesse Miller Those aren't in any particular order and some are out of print but they are all full of good fishing info in one way or another. Now, If I could just get the Bass to read a few of these....

The Buck & Bass in Jackson changed to the name Elliots a few years back but I'm pretty sure they are closed now. There is still an Elliots on Hwy 79 a couple of miles W of Paris Landing (by Fish Tales Lodge) which is the same layout as the old Buck & Bass if you're ever out that way. Great store and the owner does some guiding on KY lake so they know what to put on the shelves

Jig Man, after you mentioned Fluxing I did a quick google search and found a great thread on TackleUnderground about it, thanks for the suggestion. Hope it's OK to post this link to another forum here, this is very informative, especially for a beginner like me. http://www.tackleunderground.com/community/topic/13369-best-lead-melt-flux/

The East side (LBL side) of KY lake tends to be rockier and also has more cool water tributaries, better smallmouth fishing on that side. Look for some bluffs and areas where the channel swings in on the bank, steeper breaking banks in general. If I were doing that tomorrow I'd idle around those areas and see where the bait is suspended and then probably cast and count down a grub or blade bait through it for starters. Good luck! I actually am going to Big Sandy this w/end but looking for something brown with antlers