IndianaFinesse

The results just got in, we placed 22nd out of 98 boats and the winning bag was three fish for 7.99 pounds. How do you guys fish when there is so many boats that you are always fishing in water that has already been stirred up over and over all day? Any tips on how to catch bass in way overpressured conditions?

It is my favorite bait for spawning bass, dead sticking it on the bed and jiggling it in place is a good place to start for beds. You can fish it in any amount of wind as long as you can keep it down close the bottom. Past 25-30 miles an hour it gets tough.

We had a great practice for todays tournament on Morse on Friday despite the cold front, found a dozen good spots and caught a fifteen pound limit. Tried up in the bay for a few hours but only caught one dink, the water temperature is only 49-50 degrees (and the water clarity was only 3 inches or so in the clearer areas of the lake) so maybe it was to early. The causeway was our best area in practice, we hooked three bass weighing 3-4 pounds each in five casts before moving. We caught the rest on steep dropping shorelines and docks plus the small coves adjacent to them. Then this morning we found out there was 98 boats in the tournament, double what they expected. Between the tourney guys and the locals there was 130-140 boats on the ~1500 acre lake, which was crazy. In any given ten dock stretch there would be two boats fishing, the amount of boats was made worse by the fact that only the middle 1/6 of the lake was worth fishing because of the cold mud brought in by the rain. The first area we hit today was the causeway, but 30 other boats had already driven over it and five boats fished it in front of us. No hits, but the depth finder showed them still stacked up there. Spent the rest of the day hitting the rest of our areas, but we only caught one keeper on the ned and a few dinks. Never fished behind that many boats or had that tough of a day. Turns out that only 35 out of 98 weighed a bass, and only two boats weighed three bass. Three fish for a little over seven pounds won it. We only had 2.68 pounds, but still got into the top 30. Not sure exactly what place, we did not stay for the whole weigh in (all of the different flights meant that it took almost two hours) so we are waiting for the results to be posted online. So far all we know is only 35 weighed fish. How do you guys deal with fishing behind so many boats in a tournament? When the fish have been pounded to death all weekend how do you still find catchable fish? I'm sure that must have been the difference, otherwise it should have been better than Friday than today.

Maybe.

I did stairs, once... Flipped the bike back tire over front and face planted the dirt. After watching a mountain biker friend go down the stairs with ease.

Did that last Tuesday, in 52 degree water. It floated away in the 10-15 mile an hour wind while I was unsnagging on a boat lift, so I had to swim for it with a net in one hand. Not fun. To the op, I have also had to swim for fish that get me tangled up. One was just over four pounds and got me tangled around the central dock post underneath a dock, so I jumped in after it and managed to grab the fish.

Oh, I thought I heard during Cherokee's weigh in that he was getting married in mid march, must have miss heard him. Looking good for him right now if his pattern holds up, if he wins it I would imagine he will move up to #1 in the world (according to ***) I had previously noticed that Jacob lowballs his weights, I was mentioning Dean Rojas and Zaldian who both estimated their weights higher than they actually had.

Two of my guys way overestimated there weights, so I now officially have 1st, 2nd, 31st, 56th and 85th. Surprised Dean Rojas is doing so poorly, I figured this would be right up his alley given that he won in 2011 and this is almost exactly the same type of tournament. Glad I picked Jacob Wheeler over Tharp. The fact that he was just married a few weeks ago made me nervous about picking him, I figured he might be distracted or have to cut his prefishing time short because of it. Apparently not, as he is sitting in 1st place!

Oh, I didn't realize it was considered gambling since there's no money involved.

And I was just wishing I had picked Ott Defoe instead of Wheeler! Just shows you how much basstrak could be off because of poor cell phone coverage. Unofficially have two in the top 3 and everyone is in the top 51.

Good luck setting the hook on frogs with mono...

A: Jacob Wheeler. Probably should have picked Ott Defoe cause everyone knows he's going to do well, but what fun would that be? B: Dean Rojos, almost picked Mark Davis or KVD. C: Brett Hite, almost picked Stephen Kennedy. D: Jacob powriznik, never wanted to pick someone else. E: Cris Zaldian, almost picked Chris Lane but he can't seem to catch anything right now.

How much does the mono keeper help to reduce weeds?

I would vote for 40-50 pound braid as a compromise between frogs and big topwater, base it on how much cover your fishing in and around.

Forgot my pliers once while walleye fishing an hour away from the boat ramp, and of course they kept swallowing our nightcrawler harnesses. Didn't want to drive back, but the rest of my group wanted to go back unless I unhooked all of the deep hooked walleye for them, so I got stuck with the job of having my hand chomped on by needles and unhooking them. My hands were raw and bleeding by the end of the day, we caught over 50 walleye and about three quarters of them swallowed the harnesses. Had one of them clamp down on my hand and shake like crazy, had to have someone else pry its mouth open. Another time, this afternoon, while skipping docks on a point I got snagged on a boat lift. So I motored over, and got off on the boat lift to unsnag. I had tied the boat off to the lift beforehand, so I untied it as I was getting in the boat, and unfortunately had my pair of aluminum pliers fall out of my pocket into the water in the process. I quickly grabbed my net, and got off on the lift to try and fish my pliers out with the net. Luckily I was able to fish my pliers out of the water, but while I was doing that the wind had carried my boat away. So I'm standing on someone elses boat lift with a net in my hand and pliers once again in my pocket, watching the wind carry my boat away. So I had to jump in the 52 degree water with a net in one hand and swim after my boat that is being pushed away from me by the 10-15 mile an hour wind, while swimming with one hand in freezing water. I managed to catch up to my boat, after about ten minutes and a lot of swimming. Hauled myself back in the boat using the motors prop as a ladder, and drove home to warm up. I had no idea how much harder it is to swim when the water is friged and your hyperventilating caused by shock from the cold.

I probably would have felt bad for him given him a spool of big game, a new rod tip and rod glue, and a new spinnerbait. And I would have most likely been given a lessen in fishing in return.

Cold and muddy water is the worst set of conditions possible in bass fishing, better fishermen than us blank under those conditions routinely so don't feel bad. I probably would have turned around and left to fish a new lake after seeing that chocolate milk.

I'm still trying to decide if the shallow frog bite or a Carolina rig bite is going to be better...

I believe that an honest politician's current status is "extinct".

If I miss a fish, I want my partner to immediately cast back to where I got the bite, the faster someone gets a lure back in front of the bass the more likely it is to bite again. The same goes for if I catch a fish, I want him to cast to the spot where I caught the first bass, as there is often more bass willing to bite if you get back to them quickly. When I have a partner we fish as a team, our goal is to catch the most combined fish. So if he was my partner, no I would not care, but if he was someone else, I would be kind of ticked.

It's not mine either, as I prefer to cast once they are located, are in shallow areas hard to troll in, or if I already understand the structure I'm fishing and have shoreline sitings for the breaks used and the contact point. But it is a handy tool for figuring out new lakes quickly.

Tell that to all of the giant bass Buck Perry and other spoonpluggers caught while or because of trolling.

My thoughts on it is that trolling is not cheating, in fact it is actually harder to master than casting is. Trolling is not randomly dragging a lure behind the boat. You don't hear of many people trolling for bass simply because it is not allowed in tournaments, and like it or not professional tournaments have a huge impact on most people and the fishing industry. I think bass tournaments (and bass fishing in general) would look more like walleye tournaments if trolling had been allowed. It is a great tool for learning new waters and locating fish, and if possible should be used along with casting.

Brightly colored weightless trick worms twitched just underneath the surface, a popper, a spook, a football jig if they've moved off the shallows to ledges, and half of a zinkerz on a mushroom head.