Randall

Yes. They will be pale in dirty water and have clear distinct markings in clear water. Deep fish can be pale also while shallow fish in clear water will have the best markings. Has a lot to do with the amount of light that hits the fish I guess.

I do well this time of year slowing way down but only hitting the best parts of the structure I am fishing. I dont fish an entire point but only hit the sweet spots with a very slow presentation. Yesterday I got two big fish by fishing a senko weightless in ten feet of water off a points. Thats slow fishing but I was only on each point for five minutes of so. I only made about three casts to most points. I also caught eight fish on a dropshot. I also use a dropshot to get a slow moving bait straight to the target area fast and leave it there for a few minutes while working it real slow. I concentate all my efforts fishing slow on only the very best places and moving around alot more than I normally would. I only got one fish on any one place I fished but caught ten with a couple of good ones by not wasting time by putting my bait in less productive areas.

Chris, the most reliable place to fish on the lake is going to be anywhere there is a channel running through the lake where the fish can go as the water drops. I would fish by any of the culverts since they have current as well as a channel for the fish. Steeper banks will also be good since the fish can move up and down with the water level. The worst places to fish will most likely be flats. My guess is that most of the fish are out of reach from shore and are out in the middle on humps and channels since most of the lake is flat. How low is the water now? I want to get some photos while the water is low enough for me to see some of the good stuff.

Georgia- The first choice and thing I always look for is weed flats. They will always hold fish and I feel It is always the best cover for bass at all times of the year.

Most people look for fish to stay on the bed to catch them but most females only stay on beds when they are dropping eggs. After that they will roam on and off them but still want to protect them. They may also put eggs on two beds when they are close like that. The best way to catch that fish is to put a lure on the back side of the bed and wait as long as it takes for the fish to swim over the bed. I have left a tube as long as 30 minutes with out moving it waiting for a fish to swim by or come back. As it swims over bring the lure at the fish. Do this as many times as it takes to get the attention of the fish and get her to stay on the bed longer. Once she gets to where she is looking at the bait and staying better you have a chance to catch her. My guess is you have already lost your chance but I have seen females stay for as many as five days in colder water. As the water gets to the upper sixties and seventies the stay is much shorter. Most stay one day in 70+ degree water.

I have said a bunch of times that there is no way to tell from a photo. But, if I had to guess I would say 8.5 to 9 pounds. Nice fish!

Sounds like those fish are spawning to me. Only way to catch them is to watch each individual fish and figure out which area he is trying to protect. It is usually where he stops and keeps coming back to when he circles. Once you find what you think is the spot then cast past the fish and bring the worm, lizard, tube etc to the spot and see what the fish does. Do not cast at the fish if it leaves the spot you will only delay it coming back to the spot where it will strike. If the lure isn't in just the right area the fish will not strike anyway and your cast will only chase the fish away. Also look for cleared areas on the bottom which may give you a clue to where a bed may be.

Here is my general rule of thumb. High winds buzzbaits and propbaits work best. A little ripple spooks, small propbaits and Pop-R type baits. Slick and sunny Lucky Craft Gunfish will out perform every other topwater made. Slick but no sun try them all but Lucky Craft Gunfish is still the best bet.

I just got an email from a buddy with a link to an article on what happend that day. From reading the article it seems that two wittnesses say that the trio of anglers tried to act like they had caught the fish legal until the two witnesses told them that they had seen them snag the fish. Anybody else heard anything like this? The article is at fieldandstream.com. It would be a shame if the account of the days events turns out to be true. It would explain alot though.

If you can afford it I would get a Minn Kota Maxxum 74 variable on the front first and then add motors and batteries as you want more speed and distance out of the boat. I fish both Kedron and Lake Peachtree most of the time with one 44lb motor on the back and one 82lb on the front because the lakes are small and this is the most efficent set-up out of the motors I have. When I fish Horton I want more batteries and motors since the lake is larger.

Actual speed depends on a lot of different variables. LBH is both right and wrong depending on the length and weight of the boat, hull style, number of batteries used, weight of contents of the boat, type of trolling motor etc. I have done speed tests on different boats to help myself as well as some buddys decide how to set up boats. From research and actual tests this is what I have found to be the facts. Each boat has a hull speed which is the fastest theoretical speed that a boat can achieve with out getting on plane. To get this speed you multiply the hull length by a number (which I cant recall right now). I do know that a 14 foot boat can reach a hull speed of around 5mph and a 16 foot boat can reach around 6mph. But you also have to keep in mind the other variables such as a v-hull will be faster than a flat bottom jonboat and two 50 lb motors will not be faster than one 82lb thrust motor since the pitch of the props are different and the motors put out different RPMs. With all that being said I could give different situations and give you close to the best way to set it up. But back to the LBH comment. If you put two 16 foot semi-v hull boats with six group 29 batteries going down the lake side by side and one has three 82lb motors and the other has four the one with four will be faster. I know this because in our first tournament this year we were running side by side for about 3/4 of a mile with a boat that was set up with six batteries and three 82lb motors. We turned our fourth motor on and slowly but steadily pulled away from them so they couldnt get the spot we were going to. For the recreational angler that extra motor is really probably a waste of money but if you need to beat someone to a spot two miles away its a big difference. I have also done the GPS and the extra motor made a difference of around one mph. It was a difference between five and six mph. If you didnt have another boat right next to you or have a gps you wouldnt know the difference. There is a big difference between two and three motors though and you can tell the difference.

I was looking one time at length measurements of some bass one time that were all 15-20 lbs and realized that Varner has bass that have the length to weigh that much but they just dont have the gut that those fish do. I have seen and caught a bunch of 27-30 inch bass but they just dont have the gut that California bass do. Last June I caught a 30 inch long nine pounder. When its head came up I thought I thought I had a fish over 15 lbs. Then we brought it in the boat and saw it had almost no gut. I dont know if trout are the answer but fatten those fish up and Varner will compete with any California Lake. I didnt notice the fish getting real skinny in the summer until alot of the Hybrids started reaching 10+ lbs. Maybe the big bass needed the Gizzard Shad that the Hybrids were stocked to control.

I would throw a crankbait. But then again I hardly ever use a c-rig. A jig might be a good bait as well on rocky banks with wind blowing into them.

Some things I have learned about big bass is they are predictable and efficent. They always use the best structure in an area to feed and live. I rarely catch a really big bass by casting as I go down a bank. They are almost always caught on the sweet spots they use to travel, hold and feed. They either hold in the best cover on the best structure or suspend over deep water near the structure where they are inactive. IMHO if you are not a good structure fisherman then you will have a very hard time catching really big fish even in shallow lakes full of good shoreline cover. Big bass always use structure to move and feed. The one thing I have also noticed about big fish is they know how to conserve energy. They dont chase food they stalk it very slowly and when the time is right they use a burst of energy to eat what they can in one gulp. This means that 99% of the time they are inactive and hard to catch. Thats my theory on how they get big. So, I think there are only two good ways to catch a big fish. Get a reaction strike from the spot that it is holding while inactive or catch it where it feeds at the time it is feeding. This goes back to you have to be a good at fishing structure to know where the bass will hold and where it will feed. As for the best time of day I think big bass feed at two times. When the bait cant see them well(low light periods) is the first time they will feed and when they can see the bait the best (mid day). As for the size of bait I think it need to be good size but doesnt have to be huge. It has to be worth the effort to a big bass. The slower and easier your bait is to catch the smaller it can be. If a big bass is going to chase down a meal it needs to be a little bigger. Slow and big is the best but not so big and slow as to look fake. For example a big spinnerbait needs to be fished fast enough to fool the fish while a big worm looks more natural and can be fished slower. Just some of my big bass theorys. I havent read the BBZ book yet but I think I may have to read it. I have heard a lot of good things about the book.

It is neither. Its the guy who can do both as well as catch the ones in between.

As a guide one of the things I want to make sure of at the beginning of the trip before any fishing is done is the type of trip the customer wants. Some of my clients just want to catch fish and dont want to learn the lake or a new technique. These are the clients that I want to fish with as little as possible and have to comunicate my reason for fishing if I feel I must fish to improve the experience of the trip. Sometimes fishing can change or get tough and by fishing I can figure out the fish faster and somtimes figure out what my client needs to do to catch fish. Sometimes it helps if I fish an area where I know there are fish and the client hasnt caught any just to show them how to catch them and that they are there. This usually helps their confidence in the lure or proper technique that will catch the fish. The other type of trip is the one where the client wants to learn the lake or a new technique. Most of these clients will want the guide to fish so they can learn from the guide so usually there is no problem with the guide fishing. Most of these clients will tell me they want me to fish if I stop fishing. Now even though I am fishing I still keep in mind that I want my client to catch the most fish if possible so they get all the sweet spots and the first casts into areas where I think there is a a good chance of them catching a fish. If we are wearing them out on a spot in most cases I stop fishing. The most important thing with both types of clients is for the guide and the client to comunicate both before and during the trip so the clients needs are met for the trip.

My wifes grandmother lives just a few minutes from the Stick Marsh near Palm Bay. I have only fished it once but I caught a bunch of fish with a bunch of six and seven pounders. I have heard it is a tough place when the conditions arent right. I dont know when the last time you fished Kedron was but it has got even better in the past few years because of all the grass growing in the lake. Its a great topwater and frog lake in the summer. I have had kids and beginners out on the lake with me catch 50-100 fish in one day when the conditions are right. I have also caught and seen plenty of 7-10 lb fish there but you still catch mostly 10-14 inch fish. I was on a TV show called Lunkerville and we fished at Kedron. You can watch it at www.lunkerville.com . The title of the show is "Georgia On My Mind". It might bring back memories of your old fishing hole.

Stick Marsh/ Farm 13. I think this one wins hands down for both numbers and big fish. I have two great lakes where I live here near Atlanta. Lake Varner is one of the best big fish lakes anywhere and Lake Kedron is incredible for numbers but I am still willing to travel to Florida to fish Stick Marsh/ Farm 13. I cant say that for any other lake unless I went to Mexico.

You could get a Minn Kota variable speed motor instead of a five speed etc. This way the motor will run at any speed you want a crawl to full speed. I have a Motor Guide variable speed but I am not impressed with it when compared to the Minn Kota my partner has.

I was pretty aggitated by the time I saw this post and realized why I couldnt get a password. The guy on the phone at AOL tried to talk in circles and got me more ticked off. He didnt seem to like it when I informed him that I was going to cancel my service and inform everyone I came in to contact with about the poor customer service I was getting from AOL. If I would have had to change my email address I would have made sure to give a good explanation on why I did so to the hundreds of people who may need to send me an email. Maybe plenty of people gave them something to think about. I still may get DSL. Its not like this is the first time I have had a problem with them.