IndianaFinesse

Cavitrons are good buzzbaits, you will be very pleased with them. I like to crimp the rivet (to prevent it from turning, so that it's louder) and rough the rivet up with wire paper or something to make it noisier.

The original Pop-r gets my vote.

Either that's a fake video, or that woman has serious issues.

I couldn't care less about whether the plastic floats or not, but elaztech has the advantage of durability and is softer than most (if not all) other plastics. If you don't leave the baits under pressure, and don't put anything else in with them, you shouldn't have any issues. This is coming from a guy who has gone through upwards of 50 bags of elaztech, give zman another try. That being said, there are a few other baits that do well for me to. The zoom finesse trick worm and 4 inch robo worm being my favorites. Or, just get the 3× plastics from strike king, since it's zman your done with and not necessarily elaztech...

Sucking describes that day well, fishing hard for eight hours for only two bites was terrible. And to top it off, there was literally a boat every third or fourth dock, the cold rain had created a line of colder, muddier water that left only the lower 1/5 of the lake fishable which condensed the competitors. That was my first tournament that had more than 15 boats in it, so it kind of threw me off mentally.

I cashed good with a little over five pounds on Monroe last time I went there (big cold front), and also with 2.5 pounds on Morse (50° water with 2-3 inches of visibility, plus a cold front and over a hundred tournament boats) No tournament experience on the others, but as the other two were exceptionally bad conditions don't necessarily go off of those. It really depends on the season like team9 said and also the current weather.

That could work (and could be handy around heavy cover) but it will reduce the diving depth of your cranks a fair amount. If you were to buy more line, I would recommend replacing it with 10-12 pound depending on how much cover you're fishing in.

Never did that with a bass, but I have with channel catfish. The same fish broke both of my two partners line, one and then the other, before I landed him on the same lure (t-rigged worm) a minute later. Got both of the broken off lures back. What's the new finesse technique?

How do you hold the rod if you don't palm the reel? I've always palmed casting reels, and haven't figured out another good way.

Just look around on google earth, pick a couple that look fishy and that don't have any obvious fences, and go check them out. If you don't see any no trespassing signs, you're probably not going to get prosecuted. In most cases, the worst that could happen is you get kicked out.

Man, I wish I could get a boat on the gravel pit we were fishing. It is so much easier to just put the trolling motor down and fish with all your rods and tackle within arms reach than having to treck it through thick brush to get there and walk/wade around the lake while carrying everything you brang. Plus I could get offshore in a boat. I don't know if I would be willing to try and launch a boat without a ramp though, at least not at the gravel pits I've been to. We once sunk our van well up past the axles nearly to the top of it's wheels in sand (no shovels with us either, just sticks), on a 100+ degree summer day, on the one day we forgot water, but that's another story. BTW, I'm surprised they weren't eating the jerks there with the wind and clear gravel pit water, I know you love your jerkbaits.

Focus less on lure choice (especially for now), don't pay any attention to lure color (they don't usually care), and focus more on seasonal patterns, daily/weakly movements, and finding catchable bass. Start with only a couple versatile techniques, and remember that if the bass aren't eating your kvd 1.5 they aren't going to eat another brand of crank that dives to a similar depth. The depth of your lure and the speed of it are the only thing you have to worry about, provided it is in front of catchable bass. I assume you're shore fishing, and one of the only spots on the lake that will have bass on it year round is the causeway. It can be the best spot on the entire lake, and it holds bass year round. Concentrate on fishing them, and work the entire causeway thoroughly while experimenting with different depths and speeds.

I would take the $300k for winning the classic, plus your sponsor worth shoots through the roof even more so than from winning the aoy. Winning the classic also means that the xxxx bassmaster classic champion will pretty much precede your name forever.

I don't think it was a bass either. They will usually hold it for a long time, once I experimented with not setting the hook all day and they would usually hold on for at least 5-10 seconds, and would often refuse to drop it and hooked themselves. Most likely a bluegill pulling it under.

Or, you can use a cheapo 80$ Walmart depth finder (piranha max, 3.25 inch screen) like I do. Takes more time to identify and understand a spot, and you had better learn how to triangulate, but it can be done with good success. Everything on the market today is a head and shoulders above what people were using to fish offshore 40-50 years ago.

Spring, what's not to like about being able to fish for big, aggressive bass in shallow water after dreaming about them for the entire hard water season? I love all three phases of the spawn, and ice-out should be declared a national holiday.

Monster bass, you've got some fishing partner there.

Strike king swim jig.

A lot of people are going to disagree with this, but I don't think they care that much. Can choosing the right "action" for the day help? Sure, but I don't think it is as important as some people make it out to be. I think how it influences the rate of fall is what's most important.

Got out fishing yesterday and today, and for some strange reason they seemed to be biting better than before the cold front. No idea why, but I'll take it. Caught 27 in about four hours yesterday, with five fish measuring over fifteen inches for about 13 pounds. A whole lot more than has been coming out of this lake recently, the past couple tournaments it only took 7-9 pounds to win. Caught some of them fishing a main lake shoreline with a shallow crank, some other by skipping docks up river and on mainland points with shaky heads, and the rest offshore on shaky heads, neko rigs, and deep cranks. Offshore was the best bite of the three, the 14-16 inch size class school had moved up from being suspended off of the structure the other day up onto the breaks in 14 feet of water, a change from nearly uncatchable to very catchable. Almost went out to cataract today, but decided that I didn't want to deal with the labor day madness. So instead I went to one of my old favorite gravel pits that I learned to bass fish on. Used to spend a lot of time there. Ended up catching a total of 46 (plus a very aggressive snapping turtle, I hate catching those things), all fish under fifteen inches but it was still fun. 15 feet of clarity and little vegetation makes for a lot of sight fishing for small schools. They were all caught on shaky heads and a pointer 78, mostly in 10-25 feet of water around the old ramps. Took a bit for me to try the pointer, but once I did they ate that thing up like candy, every bass I hooked had a half a dozen more trying to take it out of its mouth.

Is that over on CL? Thought about going there today for bass, but decided against it because of the labor day boat traffic. Went to one of the gravel pits I used to frequent instead, and got a bunch of bass fishing from shore. Jerks and shaky heads, on the old ramps.

I highly doubt that the bass actually think a hollow body frog is actually a live frog, I mean does a frog walked across the surface really look like the real deal?

Anyone know the cheapest place to buy powder paint, in light of the labor day sales?

That's just because of it's tiny diameter. 20 pound gliss is equivalent in strength and diameter to about ten pound normal braid. So if you normally run twenty pound braid, use about fourty pound gliss. And if you use a mono/flouro leader, that eliminates the problem altogether.

Gliss.