james 14

I'm going to have to go with Chris Lane on this one. He's won twice on Okeechobee and I imagine he'll be in mix this time around as well.

I may be interpreting wrong but he reinforced much of what I already do...and then some. I'm still refining my approach and this helped a lot. A few side notes: I've been in Kissimmee a LOT. While his thought process is sound on the area outside Grape Hammock I wouldn't expect to find much here on a typical day. They don't have the locks open with much water flow unless we've had a lot of rain. In the instance they do have them open there are many places to catch bass relating to current and I'll certainly keep this spot in mind but I'll also hit the entrances and exits of the main canals and even right in front of the dam. There's also not much in the way of gradient anywhere in the lake which highlights his point about bass not being out further than the grassline. During the summer your main gameplan is to flip the outside grassline...unless you know where some of the planted brushpiles are. You'll do much better with this approach than a 300 yard wide pinch point with a flat sandy bottom. Slowly we're getting more hydrilla outside of the grasslines and this is giving the bass (and anglers) more options. Basically, you have to consider a few other factors to consider. The same pinch point between two midlake islands will see more regular current flow due to wind and should be a more regular hideout for bass.

I really think that's going to be too small for a full limit of fish. We use a 120qt cooler (30 gallons) and had fish dying with two limits and water temps in the 70s. You're half that size and the loss of useable space is almost exponential since you won't even be able to fit a 7+lb fish. They make 30 gallon containers like you're looking at and they're only $10 last time I checked. I would get two, spray expanding foam on the bottom and sides of one and place the other inside of it. And now that I realized it only 10" high I have to say it's a no-go for sure. You're going to have water sloshing and fish jumping out all the time.

Last year had the same time frame as this year in regards to TV time. When Outdoor Channel recapped it all recently they had to split days 2 and 3 since they only do hour long shows. I wish they covered all of the tourneys in as much time. The hour long shows don't do much to cover 4 days of fishing. I got tired of hearing the same quotes from the anglers each day. I was glad I had it on DVR so I could skip through. I also think they could've done a little more to highlight some of the other drama going on. Davy Hite and (whoever else was fishing the same little area) were trading off turns at a 6+ lber on bed. Timmy Horton had 17lbs by 10:00 on day 3 and they never even mentioned his name. There were a few other side stories you got to see if you were watching the live blog and war room and they left most of it out making it the Chris and Bobby Lane show. All in all I enjoyed watching it. All they can do to talk about what the anglers are doing, what they're using and anything else that pertains to their thought process is TV gold they should take full advantage of.

Swivels? Apparently I'm picturing this rig incorrectly. I was imagining the same thing as a drop shot except you tie another fluke on the tag instead of a weight.

Is there one better than a palomar?

I use toothpicks, do NOT like the rubber inserts because they're a pain to get out of the weight and will be getting some bobber stoppers soon. A few notes: While using a stopper in front and behind the weight is a good shortcut to a C-rig it takes a lot of feeling away from the bait by having the weight secured to the line ahead of the bait. If the line is allow to slide freely through the weight it greatly increases your feel with the bait. This is a greater concern the heavier weight you use. Using a bobber stopper on top only allows the weight to push against the hook on the hookset which pushes the hook point up if you're using a snell knot. Otherwise the snell doesn't work as well.

On soft plastic baits such as flukes and frogs I've always pushed the hook through so it sat IN the slot on the opposite side to make it weedless. However, I've seen a few pros recently hook theirs THROUGH the slot so the point rested on the flat side of the bait. Am I doing something wrong here? I'm surprised I never thought of this since there are some of these baits that are quite difficult to get a good hookset on. Hooking the bait through the slot so the point was skinned on the flat side seems like it would allow for a much easier hookset than pulling through all that plastic should the bass inhale it to where the bait curves on it's side and doesn't push the hook out of the slot.

No there wasn't but you did see them all switch to soft plastics on Day 2? They knew when to slow down and, more importantly, where exactly the fish where so the slower approach was more effective.

Both boats start at about the same price but I'm sure one would stand out as the better choice over the other. Instinct says the Triton would be better but the Explorer IS their lower end line. According to the specs on each site the Nitro is about 400 lbs heavier which I'm sure makes a difference in top end, however, the Nitro is an inch longer and three inches wider. Nothing against Mercury but I also like the option of going with a different brand on the Triton. Other thoughts?

I knew there was a reason a didn't like the Saints. Should they be stripped of their titles...no, I don't think so. Is it a blatant case of poor sportsmanship...absolutely. There should be review of game footage and suspensions issued for every instance of intentionally trying to harm another player i.e. the Brett Favre incident.

This but in white on every spinnerbait and always a trailer hook. http://www.basspro.com/Bass-Pro-Shops-Cajun-Trailer/product/32792/101685

When we're fishing a tourney and he gets a phone call, puts it on speaker-phone and carries on his conversation. I'm usually tempted to kick the trolling motor on high towards the opposite side.

You forgot about the tie for the record LM. Probably the most prestigious of them all.

Has anyone seen one of these or have one? A buddy of mine is looking to buy one off CL and I want to get as much info before I drive out there. Will a standard 6 gallon tank fit behind the "v" seat? Is this thing welded or not. Seller says no but other sources say yes. Does it come standard with a stepped down transom for a 15" motor? Does $700 seem right for a 1448 with a mod-v hull in good shape? It also comes with a TM and batt but those are going on his son's boat. Any other info? Exact model number? Yes we've asked the seller but I'm trying to get multiple sources since you never know who you're dealing with on CL.

In the coverage online yesterday they mentioned some things that make me think they're going to be doing as much as they can to have the truest "live" coverage available. Being the first year I've seen the coverage it was cool to have the up-to-the-minute catch reports even if they were not always complete...you've gotta save at least a little drama for the weigh-in. During the weigh-in I plugged my laptop into my TV via HDMI cable and had the whole thing on 47" while sitting on my couch.

This highlights the importance of learning how to pitch and flip correctly. Not only will you catch more fish but you never know when you might have to do it for 100k!

I was rooting for them after Day 1 and was stoked for Chris to come out on top at the end. I can't wait to see the TV coverage next weekend. Watching the weigh-in and war room online for the first time was very cool.

I'm it has a lot to do with getting caught up in the moment. It came across to me like he was a little irritated but I don't know the man so I could've easily taken it the wrong way. Those guys all know each other and likely have a banter we'd never fully understand as "outsiders". It was indeed a shameless but clever opportunity to plug his sponsors but that's part of the game since it's the sponsors that make it all happen.

I'm not the type of person to show much excitement so I can completely understand. I was the guy at concerts who would've rather sat and listened than stand and scream during the performance. I was usually annoyed when I had to stand because everyone around me was standing. I was pretty excited, however, when Lane's final weight was announced. I was rooting for him and Bobby after Day 1. BASS did a good job in the War Room of building up the anticipation. BassTrakk had them listed as a near tie and then right before the War Room went off the air they said Lane told them he only though he had 10-12 which was less than the 13 BassTrakk showed. I was surprised to see he had a 6.5 lber and it almost makes you wonder if they played it up a bit to create a little more drama at the weigh in. In the war room they listed his biggest fish as a 4.5.

I keep the rod tip as low as possible, even underwater, to keep the fish down and reel as quickly as possible. This is mostly a concern when fishing with treble hooks. If you're using light tackle it's a little more difficult to use this approach since you can't manhandle the fish as much. This is one of the reasons it's important to use a rod that loads up more so you have more room to give the fish before the line goes completely slack.

I'm usually turkey hunting at that time so I don't have a lot of experience finding fish. I've got a big tourney on a So FL lake in March and the vast majority of spawning activity will be over. Most articles I read talk about fishing deeper lakes and don't reference a place that has water no deeper than 8ft with hydrilla all over. My current plan of attack is to start the day hitting some open water grass points (maidencaine) for any bass schooling on shad and then move to the outside grass lines and pad fields just off of the spawning areas. There's also a bank lined with cypress trees that I'm really optimistic about. Some of these trees come out 20-30 yards off of a few well defined points. In the summer I wouldn't try and win a tournment beating a cypress bank in 2-3 FOW but with 70* water temps in March I think I could catch one or two. The lake has a couple of deeper holes (if you call 8 or 9 ft deep) but I don't think the bass will be out there in abundance at this point. It also has an abundance of hydrilla all over the lake since it only averages 4-5 FOW. Again, with the bass just coming off the spawn I don't forsee them being in the middle of the lake even if it is only 4 FOW with hydrilla patches all over. Of course I'll be prefishing. Just trying to solidify my game plan before heading out. Edit - forgot one other thing. I've caught bass in prespawn flipping mats...is this is a good post spawn tactic?

Their website lists average speeds for available motors on each of their boats...as does Tracker. Can anyone testify to the accuracy of these numbers? It says the Z7 with a 150 will go around 60. My instinct tells me these are only accurate with one skinny dude driving, no tackle and a near empty tank.

I had no idea a shaky head wasn't supposed to stand up. I did a lot of looking around for setup that would get the worm to stand up and had no idea why all these guys used trick worms with the technique seeing how they don't float up at all. I use a Chompers stand up shaky head with a Strike King 3x finesse worm. I've tried and I cannot get these things to fall over. To me this is a better horizontal approach, crawling it slowly along the bottom. If I was working fish right under the boat I might stick with the regular round head and trick worm and jig it.

Elias's win had nothing to do with him using the a-rig and everything to do with his hydrowave