Randall

Lightninrod took a great photo so I hated to do that but it did have a famous landmark in the background. ;D

It depends on species of fish as to how far a bass can move in a vertical line to strike a bait. Smallmouth and spots have been shown to be able to make moves of fifteen feet to feed while some largemouths have been shown to lose their equalibrium in a vertical movement of more than three feet. I have seen hybrids and spots follow a hooked fish on a jigging spoon on my depthfinder about fifteen feet before they stop chase and head back down while I have never seen a largemouth do this more than five feet. For a largemouth to get a consistant strike you really need the bait to be no more then three feet over where the bass is suspended in deep water. You can get strikes from a largemouth five feet down but most of these bass will usually be smaller fish since larger bass usually will not make large vertical moves to feed.

I had the pleasure to fish yesterday with the famous Lightninrod. I met him at the ramp around noon and a Varner regular had already recoginized him from his famous fishing reports. He needed no introduction even though he had never been to Varner. So, I was fishing with a celebrity in the world of fishing. We got started and it wasn't long before I had a bite on a trickworm that didn't feel all that big until it started taking drag. We got it in the boat and weighed it at 7lbs 4oz. We are off to a great start since we are just after nothing but big ones. A few minutes later a storm came up and we fished for a while since there was no lightning and got soaked. It looks like the storm will go on by but then we get some lightning. Its not good to be out in an all electric boat in a thunderstorm with big bolts of lightning so we take off toward the ramp. Later I am thinking that it might even be worse since the guy I am fishing with is called Lightninrod. We wait out the storm back at the ramp and get to go back out for a while but the big ones aren't biting. We got a few more small fish but nothing big. Had a good time despite the rain and got to meet and fish with Lightninrod.

Thanks. I probably enjoyed that trip as much as any I have been on. He was a great kid, loved fishing, and was very polite and well mannered. He got excited over catching that small fish and when you think about the fact that he doesn't get the chance to go fishing you can see why. The people at Fox Five and Wednesdays Child do a great job of trying to get these kids adopted as well as making sure they have a good time doing things they love. Most would never get the chance to do things like going fishing that this program allows them to be able to do. If anybody knows anyone who might be looking to adopt a nice young man who loves fishing please pass the link on to them. I would love to hear that Chris has been adopted by a nice family who will take him fishing.

Doghouse and myself fished in a tournament Saturday at Varner. We had a bad day in the fact that we didn't boat all the fish we could have since I missed two giants on a 10 inch swimbait and had another fish that I set the hook on that didn't move that doubled up the rod before coming off. We still managed to get on some other good ones and get them to the boat on plastics and a Mattlures bluegill. Our five fish weighed 25.5 pounds and beat two other sacks that were right around twenty-five pounds. If we had landed all the fish I feel like we would have had 40lbs+ . Were going to try it again next weekend so hopefully the big ones will still be biting and we can land them all.

Someone pointed this out to me this morning that a few California guys that fish the lake also think this is the same fish because of the markings. They posted it over on the Bass Fishing Home Page in the Other Topics. At least I wasn't the only one that thought it was the same fish. It still looks like the same fish to me. But I guess we will never be able to ask the fish where she was earlier this year. Chris I will take your word for it. Just thought it was interesting that I wasn't the only one.

If you take the photos of the fish and match up the markings its the same fish. Each fish has its own markings and no two fish have the same markings. The fish has a unique mark on the tail and although the fish has a different coloration when caught this time the markings are the same for the ones that you can see this time. That fish has just been eating real good.

If I am not mistaken that is the same fish that Fish Chris had caught earlier this year as well as another guy who also turned it loose. Shows what catch and release can do!

The water was still hot at 85+ but it was nice yesterday with the breeze clouds and temps lower than the ninetys. One of the nicest summer days I can remember for just being comfortable.

Here is our first fish of the day that hit a Mattlures East Coast Series swimbait (same as the Mattlures Perch) that Matt painted to look like a shad for me.

Sombody please tell the fish at Lake Varner its not spring it's July and the big ones aren't susposed to bite unless the water is at least below 70 degrees. ;D I took a vacation for a week and didn't fish at Varner for five days in a row. Wife had a big list of things for me to do and it was hard since the last day I fished before I took the Vacation I thought I had just about got the big ones figured out and we caught a big one that afternoon. Next day I was cleaning out the attic and doing home repairs wondering if the big ones were biting while I was stuck at home working. So Sunday afternoon I got out to the lake in search of the big ones and had five good ones out of around twenty fish caught that went 25lbs plus. Water temps were 85-90 degrees. Next day I was back with a couple of guys and the first spot we stopped I got a big swimbait fish just under eight pounds that confirmed for me that the big ones were feeding. We fished the spot a while longer with nothing so we continued to move around the lake on what I call big fish holes since the big ones were eating getting one here and there until we had caught around ten fish with most of them going over four pounds but we still hadn't got the giant we were looking for. Around 1pm we hit what Doghouse and myself call the 10lber hole. Its an area that multiple big fish live and feed in that gets very little fishing pressure because to most it looks like nothing. More than once it has produced two fish between 10 and 12 pounds in one day so I am thinking this is one of our best chances to get a big one. Its also the same area my big fish in my last post here came from. . The guy in the photo, Victor , makes the first cast with a trickworm right on target to where I think a giant might be. His line starts moving off and he sets the hook with eight pound line and it don't move. Then the fish comes to the surface and goes crazy pulling off three big jumps in a row while spitting out a big gizzard shad before it starts taking drag. A few minutes later the fish gives up and goes into the net looking every bit of eleven or twelve pounds. We weigh it and the scale says 9.5lbs. He was really wanting the fish to be over ten but it had an empty stomach when it got to the boat and the shad it spit out weighed a pound easily. :'( We finished out the day with some more fish but no more monsters. I started estimating our best five for the day and came up with at least 30lbs minimum but maybe as high as 35lbs for our best five. ;D Best five I can remember in July. My camera lens must have been fogged up when I took the photo since this photo didn't come out well and a couple more didn't come out at all but I did get another photo of the first fish of the morning thaty came out pretty good before the lens fogged up.

Good choice for an affordable swimbait. I caught a bunch of big fish like the one in the photo on it last fall.

Spot Stalker www.unclejosh.com

I have about ten chairs on my carport that almost went to the dump today I guess they will be in the lake by next weeek. ;D

15lbs 12oz on Mattlures Bluegill.

Something to think about is that LM bass almost alway prefer weeds over other cover. I have some brush that I have put in some of the lakes with weeds I fish but it usually only produces well when we don't have many healthy weeds in the lake. In lakes without weedbeds brush etc. is usually much more productive. IMO brushpiles etc. are much better placed in areas that already have fish rather than areas with no fish. The reason being is that the brush will make the fish that are in the area easier to locate and easier to get to bite since they will concentrate or feed in and around the brushpile.

The kit works great but butt weighted rods are a matter of personal preference. It will make the rod heavier but makes the tip feel lighter. All my rods are weighted this way but I have had some people pick up my rod and ask me how I can fish with a rod that is so heavy.

Just from looking at it I don't think it was really close to a WR but who knows. Lots of water splashing and not that clear of a shot. It was a big fish though.

I started with a pretty easy to carve basic shape and worried more about the action of the bait than the shape in the beginning. I wanted a lipless bait with a gliding action that did a 180 when I stopped the retrieve which depended more on the weight placement and where the line tie was. This is the hardest type to make but I got a shortcut since Whittler was nice enough to give me an idea of where the weight should be in the bait since he had made some musky glide baits. I still had to experiment and make around eight baits before I got one with the right action I was happy with. It was trail and error until I got the line tie, weights, and joints positioned right to get a swimming action out of my bait. It took alot of work spread out over a month or more. Not easy at all. I used basswood and screweyes to make the bait. Now that I can make it and know where to put everything on my bait it only takes a few dollars to make a bait and I save by not having to spend a lot of money on a swimbait. But if I had it to do all over again I would start by making a swimbait with a lip first since it would be easier to get a good swimming action out of it. I really would have a hard time telling you exactly how to make one but the basics though is to get a shape carved then add weight in the belly of the bait to act as a ballast so it sits upright. Then cut the bait where you want joints and add hardware for joints, paint and a lip to make it swim. Here is a photo of mine which don't look like much until you see it swim. I have a video of it swimming somewhere I will post. It has probably caught around 20 fish so far for me and all were good size fish. Here is the video. http://media.putfile.com/swimbait-1

A Falcon rod is more sensitive than an Ugly Stick. As a general rule the way a sensitive rod is constructed it will always break first before a rod like an Ugly Stick. No surprise in the results but I would just about bet if they did a test on sensitivity the results would go backward from the Falcon being the most sensitive they tested down to the Ugly Stick being the least sensitive.

Most of my rods are Falcon Originals from Walmart and are abused on an everyday basis. They are thrown around and bounced around together in my boat everyday. I catch a bunch of big fish on them in a years time. I have dead lifted a couple eight pounders into the boat when I couldn't get to the net. If anyones should break mine should have. I have had them all for three years and have never broken one. About the time I got mine there was a guy who already had a bad reputation for cheating people out of money and not getting people rods they had paid him to make trying to sell rods on the web who is also the person who I believe started the rumor about Falcon Rods breaking. Very few peoples rods ever get abused the way mine have been and none of them have broken out of around ten I own. So, I have since concluded the rumor started on the web years ago is false. Not sure what happened to your rod but I doub't it was the fault of the company. I have seen some broken in Walmart but have always guessed it was from falling from racks and other things that happened in Walmart. Yours could have been damaged the same way but under normal use a Falcon rod is hard to break. Don't know about their customer service since I have never had to use it but the rods from my experience are excellent rods.

Chattahoochee River cliff. Really nice place considering it is going right through a city.

Rainbow at sunrise over Stone Mountain at Georgia's Stone Mountain Park.

We are seeing our first real heat wave of the Summer here In GA. Water temps at lake Varner are hot and just under ninty degrees in the afternoon. Most people give up on catching big bass in the heat of summer or just fish in the early morning, at night or late afternoon. The last few days we have been catching a bunch of smaller fish four pounds or less in the am. Its been the best bite for numbers this year so far since the fish are bunched up and where you get one there are usually more. Then the bite slows down and most people leave the lake when it starts to gets hot. It was 98 degrees yesterday with afternoon water temps over 89 degrees. Then the big ones start to bite. You may not get many bites but for the biggest bass in the lake the hottest part of the day has been hottest part of the day. ;D Yesterday we had around fifteen bites early from 7am til 10am. Then we had zero bites for two hours. From noon til 4pm we had four bites. Every fish in the afternoon was four pounds or better. This has been the norm for over a week now. Best bait in the am has been plastics and the best bait in the afternoon has been a wake type swimbait and a splitshot rig trickworm. Here is a photo of the biggest fish from last week caught at 2pm in 98 degree heat in two to four feet of water. :oDidn't weigh the fish but I believe it to be a fish that I last caught in November that weighed twelve pounds when it was much fatter since it came from the same exact spot as the one last year. It was much lighter this time but still around ten. Wanted to get it back quick after a photo since it was hot and I didn't have a scale ready.

Thanks alot! Got any pics of the one you make?