jeremyryanwebb

Saltwater fishing guide in SC for a plantation community in which we also run largemouth bass trips in our freshwater lagoons off the marsh. We have lots of vegetation but not much timber/tree cover and over years of scouting/guiding I feel the overall most effective lure day in and day out to use in our waters are a paddletail swimbait on some sort of weedless jighead. Especially depend on the Keitech Swing Impact Fat 3.8 and 4.8. Since our water is so dark at times I feel that the thump of the paddletail needs just an extra bit of water displacement to call out some fish. -What are your opinions on a Keitech Swing Impact Fat paired with an underspin kind of jighead and what brand/size? -Also what are other lure setups you think would excel in our marshy grassy waters (Waterways average around 6 ft deep)

Brett Hite has made a killing on the pro tour using chatterbaits without skirts. I know they've had articles in the past on it, check those out

Ive lost a couple tarpon that were 100 pounds easy. Talk about a heart breaker

Well....Ive never ran, or been on a bass charter but regardless of species if it is catch and release, the guide should only be fishing to find fish in open water or to demonstrate a technique and then be done with it. If fishing specific cover the client should have the all throws bc he/she is the priority in catching fish. I only help run redfish and inshore saltwater charters which is completely different. When I am polling from the platform on a charter for redfish, im all eyes and paying attention to things around me....not fishing. The only time I will throw a line in is when I am fishing with a client that has no one else on the boat with him except for me and he/she states that they want to take a couple fish home for the frying pan and we are having an incredibly slow day on bites. Still catch and release is the way to go but the ocean is different than the saltwater life cycles.

I am in the process of getting my license to run inshore charters for the Outfitters I work for. Ive been taking mental notes on all the best guides I come in contact with and have had the pleasure of working under two of the top captains in the South Carolina lowcountry. One consistency I have found in all the best guides is that they are very honest, straight forward and humble people you will meet on or off the water. This guy will get weeded out by the real guides in his area.

I completely agree. Ive made a couple topwater lures simply by carving them out of bass wood, which is extremely cheap at your local craft store. Sealing the bait so it doesnt take on as much water. Less startup costs than the rest. And the good thing about hand carving is that your imagination is your limit, lots of trial and error but it wont break your pocketbook.

Its hard to beat a one knocker in my opinion. The sound the single rattle gives off is so much less agressive than the original multiple ball rattles but still gives off enough sound to call them in from a decent distance. I especially like this sound for my smaller baits since it is so much less threatening to those reluctant fish.

I follow these guys on instagram as well and they must be pretty good considering how hard it is to find them in stock. I had one line thru swimbait I got in a myster tackle box and it was terrible (cant remember what company.) It swam on its side and fell apart in no time..only fish I caught was a huge prespawn catfish.

I was an all oakley guy for years. Then one day I was working a fly fishing expo and a guy from Smith Optics was there so I tried some on. I havent felt the same about Oakley lenses ever since. The Smith Optics sunglasses opened my eyes to a whole new world, give em a shot.

Do any of you guys ever add any kind of trailer? I read an article in a magazine, cant remember which pro it was with. But in the article he explained that he would either get a blade off of a bigger buzzbait and put it on, or add a trailer...both keep the bait on top of the water at lower speeds. I havent personally tried this but was wondering if it worked well for anyone else.

The Keitech Mad Wag is my new favorite. Im starting to stick by Keitech products pretty firmly. Its hard to beat the action you get out of them.

I grew playing baseball all the way through college....so its natural for me to be superstitous. I had never used any additional scents before I decided to throw some Megastrike on my SK redeye shad about a month ago. First cast with it I got a double hookup!!! Never had actually seen two fish on one lure before then. So obviously from that cast on....I added megastrike to my list of superstitions.

I love listening to some music when i fish...but sometimes opt to keep it off just so I can hear any disturbance on the water around me. And to keep an eye out for all the gators we got here in South Carolina.

I thought that would be the case. The whole reason I'm such a fan of keitech is the extreme tail action with minimum movement. Hard to beat Keitech!

So I need some input. Huge fan of the Keitech line of swimbaits. But I see now that Bass Pro is making a swimbait with a similar body style. I know the Keitechs are great but I have not heard any reviews on Bass Pro speed shad. How's the action compare? Durability?

Probably comin up on 100 now. Biggest Catch: 6 pounds 5 ounces. Best Catch: 2.5 pounder and a dink on a Sk red eye shad (one on each treble)

Yeah, the plantation I work at has 18 ponds ranging from 7-15 acres. Some have lots of shade coverage while some are just open water, and some have crystal clear water... some are more murky. Ive found the water temp to be as much as 5 degrees difference in ponds on the same day. So its been kind of wierd because the bass will be in different spring stages depending on which body of water im on that day.

This happened here in South Carolina last week. I went there two days in a row. The first day there was probably 40 bass in a backwater area sunning just below the surface. So the next day I took my friend because he didnt believe that I saw that many fish in one area. Most of the fish would be in groups of 5 or 6 and sit in about 8 inches of water facing the bank and others alone slowly cruising just under the surface. They were not hungry however, I was even casting well onto the bank and bringing it into the water with minimum disturbance. Ended up the only 3 I got to bite were tiny bass. Fly fishing has its perks and this was a time I had wished I was better at it and prepared for it. Very frustrating.

Over time you will develop your own "style" of fishing that will most likely be made up of those baits that work best in your region/ those you have confidence in(which means it was succesful for you in the past). I started out throwing senkos and had great success. Since then I would say I have evolved into more of a power fisherman because covering alot of water is what I feel confident in. You will learn from your experiences and you will create your own style....its good to listen to people in what they have had success on in the past, but never be afraid to experiment.

Maybe we do like baseball did to Barry Bonds....if the world record fish is juiced up for that reason. It would need to have an asterisk * beside it showing that performance enhancing baitfish took part in the catch. World Record Largemouth : 22.5 lbs World Record Largemouth : 26.3 lbs* Hows that? lol

Speaking of fishing a memory...About two months ago I had an amazing day. Fished this backwater pocket with overhanging trees on a Xcalibur xr50 real gill. For two weeks after that I fished that memory only to come up with a couple dinks. So yesterday....I went back to the same spot after letting it rest for a couple weeks. Threw the same bait I had thrown before and immediately hit the jackpot on a hungry group of fish again. It wasnt fishing a memory....It was almost fishing DEJA VU. 6.4 lbs, 3.4 lbs, 3.2 lbs, and 5 more between the 1.5 and 2.5 range. It was great! Same bait, Same cover, same time of day.....BUTTTTT one thing I learned was to not fish a memory. I wasted two weeks pushing for something that wasnt there instead of thinking and using my currect weather and water conditions. I thought I was being determined by putting so much time into a spot i knew could produce, but really it was ignorance because I had been overwhelmed by one good day of fishing here. LEARN FROM EXPERIENCE.....BUT DONT DWELL ON IT

I almost forgot Sofia Vergara......she would make my jon boat look better than ever.

Bill Murray......or maybe Michael Jordan.

Those types of ponds usually don't have much cover for the fish. And the fish are easily spooked because they sense so much in that small of a body of water. I would say if there are any trees overhanging the water at all to start by throwing some kind of creature or senko under those overhangs. Ive found bass in these kind of lakes bass hang out underneath these trees waiting for something to fall into the water. Or try a weedless frog on those pads whenever you find lowlight situations.

Got two of the lipless cranks and three squarebills for 15 bucks and some change. I got so excited to see that it was XCALIBUR instead of Excalibur stuff like they usually have. I couldn't believe what I was seeing.