Randall

Nice fish and that catfish had to be fun. Looks like a great place to fish with all those docks.

A couple weeks ago I had told my daughter we would go to a kids fishing event one of my buddys does every year called the Mini Me Classic. It's a great event where parents take their young kids out to fish in a fun tournament. Well, the day comes and my wife has to work at the last minute so there is no way we can get there since I have small pickup truck to pull the boat and four kids. So we decided to have our own tournament here at home for the most fish caught between my daughter and myself. We didn't get out till late in the day and the fish were in a tougher post spawn bite. It's usually easy to catch a bunch of small ones here since it's a small private lake with stunted fish and the fish always bite something but you don't see many big ones. It was tied up with two fish each when we decided the next fish would win it. Then, I set the hook on a big one with six pound line. My daughter got the camera and turned it toward me and got the fish on video about the time it made it's first jump. Here is the video and a couple photos.

Hammond's is the place worth hitting with a big selection. Biggest shop here by far with some different stuff you don't see in many shops. If you are on I-75 there is a place called the Dugout not too far off of it near Kennesaw.

As of right now I probably will not bring the boat. I have had several generous offers offering me a ride and a seat to fish out of so I will probably take them up on it.

I have had good results with the ZeRust boxes.

Got my calendar set and i don't have anything going on that week. Not sure how many days I will be there or when yet but it looks like I might be there the whole week.

I tried the rig for the first time this week for deep water (20-35 feet) since when I picked it up the head was much heavier than the others out there I could find. I was wrapping the line on it and figured out the head was heavier than the baits I was using and it was falling head first to the bottom and catching the line on almost every cast. To keep it from happening I had to start reeling very slow as soon as it hit the water instead of just letting it fall.to keep the head from going nose down. If I tried to cast it into the wind it turned as well. The baits would catch the wind and blow back over the head. I was fishing with 20-25mph gusts. I switched to the yumbrella rig and added weight with heavier jigheads and it fixed the problem. No problem at all casting into the wind or tangles with line as the bait fell to the bottom.

On most of the lakes I fish big bass are heaviest during the late fall. They expend less energy in the cooler water (50-55) and have the advantage of more available forage in preferable sizes to feed on. Eggs have much less to do with it than water temp and how easy it is for the fish to feed and get fat.

I fish a lake that has had a poor crawfish population for years. Past few years the crawfish population has rebounded. They bite a jig and crawfish imitations much better now then in the past. But I also think a jig could represent a bluegill or something else if fished with a swimming motion. If you know the lake or pond has few crawfish those type baits wouldn't be my first choice but I would mix them in and try to learn what the fish will hit when the fish are active. If you are catching them good on a worm then mix in the jig etc. to see what happens. Best time to try things you have little confidence in is when the fish are biting and easy to catch vs. trying to find the right bait when they aren't eating.

I don't wear glasses and have better then 20/20 vision the last time I checked. I wear a pair of the fitovers in low light conditions. They make a pair of fitovers that has a very light tint polarized lens. I think it is called a daylight lens or something like that. In low light conditions I still get protection from a hook in the eye and can see down in the water since they reduce glare without making it look so dark. I have won tournaments with them being able to sight fish way before anyone else on the lake could see fish or been able to sight fish on cloudy days when nobody else can with normal polarized glasses. They don't do much for my image but they help me catch fish.

i don't live far from you and there is only one lake I fish In this whole Atlanta area where I put my jig away most days once the fish start to spawn. On the rest of them I may get more bites on worms but the jig still produces fish. Right now It works both shallow and deep. Once I get into Late March on into April I stay shallow in less than 10 feet of water more often and fish jigs more around heavy cover along the shoreline.

As a general rule most movement will be horizonal not up or down. It all has to do with the swimbladder and how it is connected to the equilibrium of the fish and what a fish has to go through to change the swimbladder. I have watched LM bass follow baits on my depthfinder from 15 feet down around 5 -8 feet before turning off and coming back up but that is a temporary move to feed. I have seen largemouth in very clear water make an approx 8-10 foot rise to the surface to follow a swimbait but go straight back down within seconds. Deeper fish from my observation have a greater ability to move up and down as opposed to shallow fish and I suspect that is from water pressure being more consistant at deeper depths. I have watched Largemouth from both overhead walkways over ponds and lake and from underwater in extremely clear lakes for many days and they just don't move up or down that often or much. Most all of the movement is horizonal. Fish suspend over deeper water and move shallow at that depth when they become active to feed. Some that don't suspend hold to heavy cover and are just inactive. I have talked to Raplh Manns, who many consider to be one of the best biologists when it comes to bass, on the subject and he has noted the same thing as a diver observing bass as have others. Nobody that I know of has taken the time to do a true scientific study and have it published and reviewed by peers so there is no 100% sure on this in the scientific community. As far as fishermen many believe that the fish move up and down because they catch fish in the middle of the day deep and in the afternoon shallow. Many bait fish like threadfin shad don't have the same limitations that a bass does. Threadfin have no swimbladder so they make fast movements up and down throughout the day. They form tight bait balls under bright conditions and scatter more in low light conditions as a general rule. The bait movement, not the movement of the bass, causes the good shallow bite in the am and afternoon and the better deepwater conditions through out the day. I was never taught to bass fish by anyone other then what I saw on TV way back 20-30 years ago which wasn't much back then to lean from. So I came up with my own system and beliefs from overservation and what I learned on the water catching fish. I figured out the horizonal movement of bass in clear water lakes and have used it for probably around 20 years to catch fish. Many of my biggest fish have been caught suspended over deeper water midday after locating the bass shallow earlier in the day or week. I have also reversed it and found the fish with my depthfinder suspended over deep water and caught them when they moved into shallower water later at the same depth they were suspended at. So my whole system of fishing that I use is based on horizonal movements of fish and my belief that LM don't usually make large daily movements up or down.

That Ike Spike head is no longer made. TruTungsten who made it went under. It was real common to see the hook in that jighead break as well. I don't care for most heads that stand up myself . Just give me a regular round head with a normal jighook and a good keeper on the shank behind the head and I am happy.

There are a few of those here in GA. The PFA is producing big fish but is was stocked with low numbers as well so it can be tough fishing. It was stocked with either males or just a regualr stocking a year or two back so now there will be reproduction but the females are already big giving the lake a kind of predetermined balance of larger fish so it doesn't become over populated early on. There is one that is private on the coast on St. Simons island that is from what I heard much like a Kingfisher Society type place. Average fish there is around 5-6lbs now and going up. I first heard about it from guys who were talking about filming TV shows there so I would bet thats where Hank Parkers show was at although I didn't see it. I know of another private lake that did it as well with good results that is not open to the pubilc. I may be wrong but I think Alabama has one or two lakes like this as well with big fish. Edit: The one on St Simons is in a place called Frederica Township.

I fish the two extremes. I go as light as possible to leave the bait in front of the fish longer on the fall and go as heavy as possible to trigger strikes from the faster fall. I almost never fish in the middle unless the fish are just eating it so good you can do no wrong and feel like the fish just have to have it in near for them to eat it.