Randall

Went fishing today at Varner looking for a fish I saw yesterday getting ready to get on a bed way over ten pounds that I thought was at least 13lbs. Instead I found this fish floating that was 15lbs 1oz when the scale was still. We also had a good day fishing catching our best fish weighing eight pounds on a swimbait with our best five estimated between 28-30 lbs. I hated to find this big fish dead but it gives me confidence that other 15 lbers and over are in the lake since this is the second 15lb floater found in less than a year.

I used one Senko77 had and wasn't really impressed with it. It was more like a big shallow crankbait than a swimbait. I am glad I tried his first before buying one. Saved me $20.

I use braid on swimbaits because I feel it helps me move the bait in the mouth of a big fish after it clamps down on it to set the hook and bring the fish straight to the boat when hooked so it can't throw the bait. If I am bed fishing though I use Fluro more often than braid. The thing I see most people doing that keeps them from getting strikes on swimbaits is reeling them too fast. I like to reel mine as slow as possible with the tail still kicking. To slow it down even more sometimes I fish Matt's BG like a jig on the bottom by just raising my rod tip to pull it up off the bottom and letting it fall back on tight line in deeper water.

I use a a 1/8 ball head jig with an oversized black nickel hook like a Spotsticker or shakey head. I insert the ball part of the head into where the hook will later come out of the tube and then use a lighter to melt the plastic back around the hook. Just be careful not to catch the bait on fire or get burned. I have also used jigheads with a teardrop shape head wich fit a little better into the head of the bait but I kind of like the way a round head makes the head a little fatter.

My brother lives just south of Memphis and brought his family to Atlanta to visit for a couple of days. We hadn't had time to fish together in years after fishing every chance we got when we were kids. We went to Varner and caught a bunch of fish and talked about all the good times we had fishing when we were kids. One of those days I will remember for a long time. We did get one big fish, a couple of three pounders as well as around ten one to two pounders all on dropshot rigs and splitshot rigs with trickworms and flukes.

No tournament but alot of trailers in the parking lot. I went out also two days ago for a couple hours in the afternoon with Doghouse and his dad. All our fish Thursday afternoon came on moving baits running and gunning with the motors on high. Our best two fish in this photo hit jerkbaits. We also caught fish on spinnerbaits. Some days they want power fishing baits and others like today you have to keep it in front of them for a long time to get strikes. Some days they bite in a foot of water and others it 15-20 feet of water.

I use them during the spawn alot. The paddle tail fat minnow is a great swimbait for swimming around bedding areas when they will not hit anything else. I usually slide a 1/8 oz jighead inside.

Here is a view inside the mouth of the fish where you can see the spot where Senko77's jig hook was.

I went fishing with Chris today (Saturday) and he got a new PB 9lber on a jighead and worm out of a deep brushpile. I have been after this same fish for a couple days since Ryan (Senko77) lost it last weekend at a tournament. Tell me where a ten pounder lives and I will fish for it until I catch it. Fish should have weighed more this time of year but I am guessing it hadn't been eating until today since it still had a big sore spot where Ryan's jig had been. It came out of the same brushpile Ryan hooked it out of. Chris also lost another real good fish just a few minutes before he hooked this one. We ended the day with some where between 10-15 fish all caught on trickworms except one that hit a chatterbait. Ryan, Chris says thanks for leaving him this fish. ;D

The kickin' minnow sinks. I like the way the six inch bait is weighted but on the ten inch I take out the belly weight and melt the plastic back with a piece of plastic worm where the weight was when fishing water less then ten feet deep. That's the way we caught the glacier fish. ;D I usually just cast and bring it back as slow as I can with it still kickin'. There are times when a jerk or change in speed can trigger a strike though.

It 's now my favorite swimbait. It imitates big gizzard shad better than any other swimbait I have tried. I have already caught a 12.6lb LM and a bunch of five to seven pound bass on it. We caught the big fish in this photo on the ten inch version last Wednesday. We also lost a fish much bigger than these that looked to be eight to ten pounds the same day.

Nice boat Chris. After you beat your PB you caught last time at Varner with every fish we are going to catch Saturday you will be back. ;D Just not as often. Big fish are addictive.

I told you it was good before Saturday. Its crazy what a bad cold front in March can do to the fishing. See how fat some of our fish are. They were eating non stop for at least a week.

Here is Doghouse with another nice fish. It was fun while it lasted. Can't wait for later this week when the water starts to warm back up. ;D

Here is a friend I showed around the lake a few days before the tournament. He and his dad ended up beating us by about a pound in the tournament.

Here is our biggest fish from a tournament where Doghouse and myself placed second. The fish weighed over five pounds.

Here are a couple I got on a jig the same day.

Here is one of the cold nasty days but Doghouse and myself managed to find a couple of good ones. Here is Doghouse with a good one on a crankbait.

Here is the other guy I was fishing with with another Varner hawg.

I took these two guys fishing in the next two photos and they had the time of their life. There best five went around 35lbs and every fish they caught was over three pounds and most were over five pounds. Every fish of the twenty five they caught was caught on the same spot where the boat sat anchored for five hours without moving. It was just an incredible day of fishing.

Last couple of weeks we had periods of unseasonably warm weather that really turned the fish on at Lake Varner. Then just a few days ago we had a flood followed by multiple fronts and very cold wind that really turned the fish off. :'( We have a forcast for this week for it to warm again into the seventies that should get the fish going again. :)This is usual early March fishing at lake Varner and its usually on or off and nowhere in between. Here are a few pics from the days when the fishing was on. On good days we were catching 20-30 fish a day with best fives going 15-35lbs with most days best five going around 20-25 lbs. Best baits for big fish have been swimbaits in six inch and ten inch versions. Other baits that have been working also are jigs, jerkbaits, rattle traps, spinnerbaits and trickworms. The big fish in this photo were caught on ten inch swimbaits. We also had a eight to ten pound fish that got off this day also on a big swimbait. Doghouse fished in the same place where we caught these the same day and also had a 20lb+ sack of fish. This spot was loaded with big fish which is why the background is erased.

I have a new favorite swimbait to imitate gizzard shad that I just started using. It's the Storm Kick'n Minnow. I have tried a bunch of swimbaits including some of the ones that are in the $30-70 dollar range. I prefer this one that is under $6 to imitate gizzard shad over all the others. It has a wider swimming action than most other swimbaits which makes it swim more like a gizzard shad. It may not swim like a perch but it is cheap. I do know they make one in a perch pattern. To imitate perch though I would get a Mattlures perch. Matt's baits are a little more than the Storm baits but have a lot of detail and are well worth the price. I also think the baits that swim with the tail like Matt's may look a little more like a perch when swimming.

I guess I should have explained it better but since mine is a low power unit and I only do this type of fishing for the most part in winter when there is very little plankton to cause clutter on the screen I can turn it all the way up and only see fish, bait and lures when fishing this way. But, you will have to turn the sensitivity down to remove clutter caused by plankton, debris, mud particles, etc in other situations. I do have to adjust mine down in summer when there is more plankton in the water which causes clutter on the screen.

I do a lot of finesse fishing in weeds. I use two rigs 90% of the time. The first is a splitshot rig with a 1/32 or 1/16 oz bullshot weight placed one to two feet up the line. The second rig is a jighead and worm. The jighead I use is a Spot Stalker jighead which has a head designed like a grass jig. With the jighead I use a 1/16 or a 1/8 oz jighead. Most of the time I use a trickworm on both rigs. What you want is just enough weight to get the bait down to the top of the weeds and not so much weight you hang up in them.

At that depth I like the 1 1/2 oz Ledgebuster.