OCdockskipper

Glenn was right about going into a corporate store. What you wanted does not create any commission for the clerks, so those at authorized stores typically aren't interested in assisting you & have been known to pass along misleading information.

Why is it so hard to solve a murder in West Virginia? Because all of the DNA is the same and there aren't any dental records.

I think you just broke the law...? The response to that is "I wasn't aware that he was lost. Have you tried posting his picture on a milk carton?"

OK, so I am happy with my Drain the Lake performance so far. I had Logan, so I once again got the huge bonus for picking the winner of the tournament and having Christie & New helped get me to just under 2000 points for the event. After 2 events, I am in 157th, feeling pretty good about my position. So I check out my wife's score. She is in 31st, 156 points ahead of me. She didn't even know it until I showed her. How can I win a fishing trip with Zona when I can't even be the high score in my own household?!? With the huge bonus you get for picking an event winner (additional 300 pts for the 5 regular events, additional 600 pts for the Classic), I am thinking it will take getting at least 5 of the six event winners to have a shot at this. Interesting, the history at Guntersville & the 2 northern stops may make picking the winner with your 8 choices very doable. That would make the Classic the tougher one, but the smaller field again makes it not out of the realm of possibility.

The 4.75" Yum Swurm (a soft jerkbait). Works well for skipping under docks even with a decent amount of wind. I just keep using mend-it on the ones I don't lose.

No, but I use a shoe as a hammer, a butter knife as a screwdriver and I trim my hedges with a lawnmower...

I agree, I have found that topwater success varies greatly based on the part of the country you are in & more importantly, the particular lake you fish. For example, many people have mentioned how clear water tends to lead to more bass hitting topwaters. Well, my home lake has visibility that varies from 4 - 7 feet year round and there are maybe 5 days a year when you can catch more than a handful of bass on topwater. In my opinion, the reason why is twofold. First, there is a lot of human presence on the water (pontoon boats cruising around) without a lot of cover for the fish, so it tends to push them towards the bottom (the deepest spots are 12 feet). Second, all of the forage on this lake is bottom oriented (crayfish, bluegill, small carp), so these fish have become accustomed to food being below them and danger being above them. I believe these are the same reasons why a Ned rig is an absolute killer on this lake.

I believe I told this story before, but it is worth repeating. Back in 2015, the B.A.S.S. Elites held a tournament on Lake Havasu the first week of May. Most of the fish were post spawn, but there were enough bass still on beds that some anglers targeted them. Timmy Horton picked up a few bed fish and then saw one that looked to be about 4lbs (better than average at Havasu). He spent about 30 minutes working the fish until he finally got it to bite. A quick battle ensured & he boat flipped a healthy 3 plus pound fish. Unfortunately, for him, it was a Redear sunfish.

Correct. Without a rudder (or engine) on the back of any boat, when you steer with a bow mounted electric, the back end will swing. Their is no resistance on the back as the front moves. To get a visual of the difference, take a pen or pencil and lay it down on a hard surface in front of you. Use your finger to push the pen one way or the other & you will see the back end swing out. Then to contrast, place a finger against one side of the rear of the pen and use your other hand to push the front of the pen the opposite way. The front steers while the back stays in place.

I too have the original version, albeit with a bunch of modifications. When I saw the new version, I was disappointed, for many of those changes hinder the ability to store tackle or utilize the space on the boat. The new version kind of reminded me of the Simpsons episode where Homer designed a car. Cut off the top & bottom of an old trolling motor, leaving just the mount and the shaft. Attach the bullnose rudder to the shaft & you are set. I know the bullnose rudder is designed to be attached to an active trolling motor, but using it as a rudder works great for me.

When I was a kid, we vacationed at the Delta at New Hope Landing. Someone told me that the freshwater clams were good to catch catfish with. So I dug a few up, put it on my hook and ended up catching a larger clam. I catch clams a lot when using a SK Redeye shad & bouncing it along the bottom. The lure falls quickly and the hooks are exposed, so the small clams end up closing on the shank of the trebles.

How will I ever catch up to you in the standings if we keep picking the same guys? ? It was so much easier when you used to pick Rick Clunn... You can check out his lineup by clicking on his name & then changing to the past event. He had: Livesay Blaylock Combs Pipkens Zaldain I had the identical lineup save for Patrick Walters instead of Livesay, meaning I was ahead of him the whole tournament and then he zipped by me like I was standing still on Sunday.

As was stated, lure wise the Chatterbait and the Ned rig are a couple of items to check out. Considering you are in smallmouth country, the Ned rig may end up being a pleasant surprise. One suggestion, follow the advice of guys like Bluebasser86 and Team9nine regarding the technique and for a moment, pretend you are a beginner. This is one of those techniques where seemingly simple things do make a world of difference if you choose to instead do it "your way". I was like you, I had taken time a decade plus away from intensely fishing. Learning to fish a Ned rig properly changed and improved my skillset, not just for finesse fishing but for other techniques as well.

No, I didn't take any pictures, I will though the next time I am there. The pond (3 acres) is just a portion of a small creek that runs from the property in Georgia into Florida (just north of Tallahassee). I was told the previous owner installed the dam about a decade or so ago. While it is a pond, the water is typically still flowing into the pond & out of the spillway most of the time, so much of the characteristics of a river are still present.

Reread what he wrote, he wasn't contradicting you. He used a double negative, that he "has not had one not hang up", i.e., they all hung up.

When I was younger, we would catch sunfish that had larger mouths than bluegill and would aggressively go after bass lures. We called them Rock Bass. Years later, I found out that they were actually Green Sunfish. I caught a dozen or so small bass from a Georgia pond on nearly consecutive casts and thought I was dealing with a population of stunted largemouths. Finally, I looked a bit closer at them, did a quick google search and realized they were actually Suwanee bass. Much more aggressive than largemouths.

I was one of the judges back in 2018 when Texas Fest was held on Lake Travis & I have been a marshal for a few different "regular" tournaments. The process between the two is very different. The call for judges goes out 6 months in advance and is done by an organization outside of B.A.S.S. (Texas Wildlife I believe). Texas uses this tournament to promote their fisheries, so they are partners and are responsible for helping make the tournament work. All of the judges are volunteers and it is a very strict selection process because you can't have a dozen of them not show up in the morning. Texas Wildlife has refined this process over the years and has a great system in place to pull off 1 tournament a year using this method. To marshal, you pay for the right to have a front row seat for 2 or 3 days. You don't have any responsibilities, if you just want to sit there, eat Bon-Bons and say 'git-R-done" everytime your angler hooks up, you can. You are a spectator, not a judge. Now, as a spectator, you can play cameraman and have your photos or footage from your phone end up on TV or on Bassmasters site. It was fun for me to see footage I shot of Brandon Lester & Chad Pipkens be played on ESPN. The marshal program is run by B.A.S.S. So the short answer is I don't believe there are any other states that have organizations in place to secure judges like Texas does. If you went to paid judges, the costs would skyrocket and would need to be covered by additional TV contracts even beyond what MLF does (their judges are volunteers who get a small stipend).

Another fun thing to do with human scammers is to flip the script on them. Engage them when you answer the call and as they get ready to launch into their spiel, interrupt them and tell them you are a consultant and you get paid for giving out information. Ask them for their credit card number so you can bill them for your time before you proceed. You get a lot of "Uhm" responses. Or you can go the CrankYankers route and answer the phone as if you are someone with special needs. No matter what they say, respond with "I won? I won the contest? Mom, Mom, I won!! We won mom, we won!!" Just keep repeating variances of that over & over as they try to explain themselves and calm you down.

All 5 fishing tomorrow, with the weather changes, it wouldn't be surprising to see a 30 lb bag from anyone in the top 30 or so. Went 8 for 8 on DTL as far as making the cut, but I am playing it for the long haul. There are a few people that would have been good choices here, but I want to use on other bodies of water (St Lawrence & Champlain) or for the smaller Classic field, so I passed on them. I notice many of those high in the DTL rankings used Feider & both Johnston brothers here. That surprised me, considering how solid those and a few other anglers are everytime they go to St Lawrence & Champlain. My hunch is those players are going to run out of racetrack when we get to the last two events, having to pick anglers who could have had a top 25 finish here, but will bomb up north.

Interesting change in Bucket C... Keith Combs was the top choice in this bucket (41%) followed by Clark Wendlandt (15.1%). After day one, Combs was in 89th & Wendlandt was in 48th. That gave those 15% of the field a whopping 84 point lead over nearly half the field in this bucket. Then today Combs weighed in 24 lbs while Wendlandt zeroed. They basically swapped spots, Combs moving to 42nd with Wendlandt dropping to 93rd. That 84 point advantage for 15% of the field suddenly flipped to a 102 point disadvantage. I don't know if I have ever seen a 186 point swing in one day between the top angler chosen in a bucket and the 2nd choice. In the words of an ex president "It was Yuuuuge".

Does anyone know what happened to Combs? Did he say anything from stage as to why he had a tough day? I had 3 in the top 10 (Walters, Zaldain & Blaylock), 20th (Pipkins) & then Combs, who bombed. He was the last person in the world I would have worried about not catching them. It will be interesting if his picks show up tomorrow... ?

Plus, I like his history on Fork & sight fishing. He finished 13th two years ago when they were there in the Spring and 13th last year when they were there in the fall. That seems to show a comfort level with the lake no matter the time of year. If it is a sight fishing derby, I think back to Zaldain on the Delta in late April of 2015. He caught a 30lb bag the first day which included a 12lb pig, followed it up with a 20lb plus bag the 2nd day & then ran out of fish to finish in the middle of the top ten. Most importantly, this is bucket E, where a top 10 finish is just as likely as a two day zero...

My experience with clear water is to use stuff that is the same colors as the forage base, whereas in stained water I like to use colors that stand out. So the answer to the OP's question is what are your bass eating now? When real shallow and visibility over 6 feet during the postspawn, I really like holographic shad colors for smaller baits. It seems to look like fathead minnows or any small fry of most species.

Often yes, but there are always a few that fool you. Time of the year and what lure you are using can make a difference. When you foul hook one, all bets are off. Earlier this year, I foul hooked a 12 lb. carp in the tail while using a Ned rig on 8lb line. It was one of the few times I have ever felt the need to backreel. That fish dragged my little boat all over the lake for about 20 minutes. It was near impossible to land him (no net, couldn't get his head turned around).

Incorrect. Human presence affects a fish's temperament. If they come to the bank to feed & there are no people that they can see, they will feed. However, if they come to the bank to feed & there are anglers visible (either on shore or in a boat) or people just milling about, the fish will vacate the area. The additional human presence pressure the fish into not feeding. This has been proven time & again these past 12 months as more people have hit the waterways during Covid 19 shutdowns.