Randall

All I got to say is that if I send you a email next year and tell you the big ones are ready to catch you are just going to have to skip work. ;D

47.4 lbs back in April. They weighed 8.0, 8.3, 8.4, 10.8, and 11.9. The 11.9 spit out a big half digested gizzard shad that would have probably added close to a pound to that weight making it over 48 pounds. Caught at lake Varner.

With braid and the flipping stick take the fight to the fish. Thats what they are made for. I bring it as fast as I can to the boat and never give it a chance to fight.

I am guessing he meant Lunkerville since I have seen him there on the website before. TSC is The Sportmans Channel. I believe it will also be on The Water Channel or if you dont get either of these you can see it at www.lunkerville.com. Look froward to seeing it earthworm77.

Those weeds should produce a topwater bite all day long.

Fluke on a jighead. I will use a spoon in winter but this time of year I will swim a fluke on a jighead through those fish. Texas rig the fluke on a jighead like a spotsticker or spot stalker and you can work it through the brush without hanging up as well.

Most of the lakes I dropshot in have a lot of larger fish so I rarely use small baits and less than eight pound line. A trickworm is about as small as I go in most cases.

Anything I suggest is because I believe in the product and use it and most of the time pay for it. I have turned down offers from sponsers because I refuse to promote someones product just because they give me product ,pay me, or give me a patch to wear. If I suggest it its because I think its the best bait for the job period. Its more important for me to be honest and for people to know I am telling them to use a certain bait because its the best instead of thinking I am trying to sell something. I also have very little respect for companys that offer sponserships and discounts to almost anyone willing to sign up just to get people to push there product on the internet on forums like this. Most of those people arent really sponsered they are just part of a dirt cheap sales team for those companys.

Fish a Texas Rig with a lighter weight and swim it over the slime or a splitshot rig with a very light weight and a straight tailed worm. I fish a splitshot rig with a 1/32 oz weight down to ten feet in weeds and slime rigged with a trickworm. Its just enough weight to get it down without it hanging up in the weeds and slime. I also won tournament one time fishing with a guy wacky rigging a trickworm with an open hook in algae. The fish still took the worms even though it was covered in the stuff.

Fish all day then you will know you are there at the best time. All lakes are different though. On some I catch more and bigger fish early on some its later.

Sorry Bro ain't no fish worth that risk. By the way do you know how fast someone thats been thrown over board sinks to the bottom wearing waders. I don't probally because no one has lived to tell. No offense not trying to be mean or anything just hate to see you get hurt or killed You wont sink if you have on a PFD. ;)But in Feb its not sinking you worry about. Its the cold water. My boat handles 35 mph on the lakes I fish well. Theres a couple of guys on this board who have been with me in high winds and can tell you that I am not putting myself in danger with 35 mph wind. Its just hard to control the boat in the wind. Go over that and it dangerous and I am off the lake quick.

Even though I had on waders the boat was never in danger of going down. I looked back at my post and saw how it read. It should have read more like water was splashing over the front as I hit the waves. The front of my boat was hitting the waves but a whole wave never came over the front.

The fish will bite in the wind. Its just a matter of boat handling and what your boat will handle. My all electric rig will do pretty well up to about 35 mph. After that I have to stay in protected areas or its dangerous because I cant pump out the water as fast as its coming in. This past Feburary I had two days with 35 mph winds from the South and we caught five fish limits weighing over twenty five pounds both days burning rattle traps. It wasnt easy to control the boat but the fish were biting. I wore waders one of those days to keep my legs dry from the waves coming over the front of the boat. LOL. I have also seen three 14 foot jonboats sink at 30 mph.

Being someone who recently started guiding (two years ago) I have to say that there is some good advice in the previous posts. I would definately charge more. If the other guides are charging more and you are charging way less then as your potential clients shop around your prices will get you more negative feedback from other guides as well as make you look to be a less qualified person to take them out. Cheap prices could cause you to get less trips insted of more. You dont have to charge as much as they do but I would be close to their prices. I charge $150 a day for my guide service but I have far less money going out than you will. My boat is an all electric boat which all put together cost me less than $1000 dollars. It costs about $1 a day to operate and my tow vehicle is a small 1991 Dodge Colt which burns very little gas and is cheap to operate. And I probably dont charge enough. You will have a larger boat and tow vehicle and expenses to operate those add up quick. Next question is what kind of experience do you have in dealing with people and operating a business. Before being a guide I was a manager at other peoples large businesses. Without this experience I wouldnt have made it as a guide and would probably been back working a job real quick. At the time I started my guide service there were four other people who started guiding on the same lakes I did. They were all decent fishermen. They were all gone in a couple of months. And like George said they gave people a bad taste for guides on those lakes because they couldnt keep people catching fish and didnt have good people skills. All they did was tick a lot of people off. Also, there is a big difference between you catching fish and getting other people to be able to catch fish. You will have all different kinds of people of different skill levels get into your boat. All of them will not be able to cast well, feel strikes from fish, work a topwater properly, etc. You will have people get into your boat who think they know everything about fishing and will not listen to you about the lures, location and techniques you say will work. If you dont have the skills to deal with these people then you will have a very long day on the water. These ( the one who think they know everything) are also usually the ones who will bad mouth you to everyone they meet after the trip and try to ruin your reputation. Without the skills to help these people catch fish they may catch nothing for the day even though you could have caught 50. I suggest getting help and advice from someone who is already a guide there. I had a few guys, including Triton Mike from this website, who gave me a bunch of help and advice as I started my guide service. The advice they gave me was a big help in getting started and staying in business.

My three biggest fish all over thirteen pounds have all hit a 1 1/2 oz spinnerbait. Two more over ten pounds have also came on a big spinnerbait. I have caught numerous fish over nine pounds on crankbaits as well. But I hit every fish on the head which means it didnt move far to hit the bait. I caught them on stumps, rocks, or brush just after hitting what they were holding on. In the lakes I fish big fish dont chase bait often so a fast moving lure will get them if you get it into the small strike zone of a big fish. Finding them is the hard part but I have found most people can land a six pounder but once it gets bigger than that more and more fish are lost. Most people panic once they see a big fish and this alone causes them to lose the fish because they get so excited they dont know what to do. Also I have seen a lot of big fish lost due to a poor hookset on stretchy lines and rods without enough backbone to set the hook. So the right equipment is a big factor as well. Big lures will work but I catch plenty of big fish on medium size baits as well.

Topwater where the weeds are just under the surface all day long and toad type baits where there is grass on the surface. Also swim a worm with a light weight just over the grass. If there is any kind of channel running through the area pitch worms , tubes , and jigs to the edges of the channel with enough weight to get down in the stuff. Use a larger bait as well there should be a few good ones in there. Senkos should be good there to fish when you need something slower and they wont hit surface baits.

Agree with Matt 100%. The best way to catch a big female is dont catch the males. I even leave males alone if I dont see a female with them. It might be different somewhere else but on the lakes I fish you cant win a tournament without catching a big female or two off a bed during April. Try other ways to catch them and you will usually catch 0 big females. I know the big females still feed off the bed because I catch them with huge shad in their throat but they arent that catchable by anglers because when they arent on the bed they are suspended over the closest deeper water. They are still shallow just over deeper water. These suspended fish are the toughest fish to catch not the ones on the beds. The other thing I will add is that catching a big female has a lot to do with timing. Triton Mike and Doghouse can verify that I told them both when a big bunch of females could be caught on Varner this year. I went out the next day and caught five fish that weighed 47.4 lbs and none of these five were males because I watched the males with Doghouse go out to a ditch where the females were suspended and get the females the day before. When the males went out to get the females and were trying to get them on the bed the females werent real catchable. They would cruise around on the flat and go back to the ditch where they would suspend and wait on the right male. The next day after they had deposited eggs the afternoon and night before they were catchable although harder to catch than the males.

There are still plenty of fish still shallow at Horton but there are some deep as well. Last Saturday we caught over twenty and most came from long shallow points (way offshore but shallow) on topwaters and on a splitshot rig with a trickworm. Almost all were good size fish. We also caught our biggest fish around four pounds from around 15 feet of water on an old road bed. I will be fishing there the next two days and will leave a report on Saturday or Sunday after I win the tournament. Splitshot rigs and topwaters have dominated post spawn Horton tournaments for years. The splitshot rig always works.

I noticed you live in Fayetteville. Are you fishing any of the smaller lakes like Horton there?

What I am finding is that this heat wave is sending some fish deep but they are scattered and you just get one here and there. If the heat lasts another week or so I expect these deeper fish to bunch up more. I have also found some fish still shallow and they are bunched up in small areas. The only problem is that 90 percent of shallow water doesnt have hardly any fish. Two weeks ago you could throw anywhere shallow and get bit. Now the fish are just using the very best shallow structure but they are bunched up on it. Find the sweet spots and you can still catch a bunch still shallow on the lakes I fish. Dont find them and you would swear all the fish have gone deep. Keep in mind that all lakes are different though. On the lakes I fish there are a lot of shallow fish year round. On others the majority of fish live deep year round.

Its been my experience that no one can tell you how to do it and keep you from backlashing with a baitcaster. Each person uses different reel settings, casting techniques, etc. Its all in getting the settings right on your reel for your cast with the brake and magnets and getting the feel for it. The first thing I would suggest is to go with someone who can do it and let them teach you. If that isnt possible then get a reel that the adjustments for the brake and magnets are all on the outside of the reel. Start with the brake adjusted to where the bait will not move after slowing down and hitting the water. This way a backlash is imposible Turn the magnet all the way up and back off each a little at a time until you get the settings right to match your cast with out backlashing. Some people cast hard and others cast easily to get the same results so setting differ for each person. The other part of the secrect is to keep the trajectory of the bait flat and low to the water and provide a little lift with the rod at the end of the cast while using both the rod and your thumb on the spool to give just enough lift to keep the bait on the surfacebut not off the surface or under the surface. The only video that I know of that shows how to do it is Denny Brauers "Jig Fishing Secrects". It really doesnt go into detail though. Maybe I need to make a video and sell it. :

Today there were no clouds in the shy and 90 degrees at mid day in 30 minutes we caught seven fish and had a big Hawg hit a topwater so hard it came a foot out of the water. Its all about knowing how to adjust to the conditions. That was half of our fish for the day even though we started at sunrise. It can be the best time to fish.

At that water temp my first choice is flipping a tube. Second choice a tube. Most of the time I find that wont be good frog/toad water until it gets a lot warmer. A senko on the edges and over where it dont come to the surface might be good also.

All the above replies are correct in one way or another but also chartruse does appear as a very bright white to fish in certain depths and colors of water. As water gets deeper or more stained certain colors are filtered out while others stay. Blue is one of the last colors to get filtered out which is why in summer crankbaits with blue backs are very popular. Red is one of the first and turns black in deep water which is why red hooks on a deep crank are a waste of time. To a fish living in deep water the color chartruse is filtered out and it appears as a very bright white which is more visible to those fish living in deeper water. So on a deep crankbait that is chartruse with a blue back the fish sees a very bright white with a blue back. To fish living in deeper water looking up at a chartruse spinnerbait going over top of them they see a brighter white lure so it has more visibility and can call fish up to strike it from a farther distance than just plain white which starts to appear more greyish or a dull white than plain white at deeper depths. Think of fish living in deep or stained water as living in a black and white world for the most part. Another way to see kind of what a fish sees in chartruse is to take a black and white photo of the bait and look how bright the white color it turns is. Also red shad worms and plain black worms look just the same to fish in deep or stained water. So some people fishing black and red shad dont always need both colors.