ABA CAST CHAMP 2006

Heddon torpedo. Slow retrieve, quick series of twitches with pauses between to move it no more than 6" per twitch

I don't use Mr. Twister brand grubs, but I do use grubs, usually 3"-5" size. In open water without much cover I use a jig head with no weed guard. When the fish are around stuff like trees, then I'll go with a texas-rigged grub. My favorite colors for are bumblebee (black/yellow swirl), watermelon seed, tequila sunrise, and different variations of white. Jigging the grubs works very well for me, but sometimes, especially in the fall when the baitfish school up into big balls, swimming the grub over, in, around, below the baitfish with a darter-head type jig works very well since the smallmouth seem to be more active here during the fall than in the summer months.

Main lake weed mats near deep water and submerged humps/roadbeds/ledges with stumps and chunk rock on them.

The only thing a landowner can do is ask the trespasser to leave and if the trespasser does not, then call the law. There is only one state in the USA, Texas, that allows landowners to shoot trespassers after dark. Anywhere else, any time of day, in all states it is illegal unless the trespasser poses a situation in which the landowner must defend him/herself. So, trespassers, unless you're in Texas after dark, then you should be safe, but that's no guarantee since there are quite a few insane people out there in the world. No one wants to get shot, but if you do (and live to tell about it) then you could probably be recompensated through a lawsuit. Just ask permission. It's a whole lot easier to deal with a happy landowner, who might say yes or who might say no, than it is to deal with an angry landowner.

3-5" bluegill work the best for me. I hook them through the meat on the top right before the dorsal fin and rig them about 1-2feet unweighted below a 2" diameter round bobber. The bluegills can't pull it under, but they can swim around a bit, usually in circles jerking the bobber around. The only thing that can take a the bobber down is when the bass takes it and they usually just seem to swim off and pull the bobber under slowly when they do this. Count to about 2 or 3 then ram the hook home!

Oh yeah! It's a blast around here when the mayflies hatch because you can catch the bass and any other species for that matter very easily since they all get on the mayflies. The bass will hit anything that goes in the water near wherever the mayflies are falling off the trees since there are so many baitfish gobbling up the mayflies.

Throw an Arkie Salty Craw on one of their weedless jig heads and jig it back bouncing the bottom. Also throw a weightless Creme Rigged Scoundrel Worm. Those are killer for bass in ponds.

Go old school to find what kind of crawdads you've got in your lakes. Walk around the banks and flip over rocks that you can reach from shore and stick our hands in there and grab 'em. I don't think I've ever seen a rule in any tourney that says you can't do that during practice. So, if you can get a bait to match the color of those crawdads then you can load the boat up during a lot of tournaments.

Kentucky. We've got a bunch that fall into the brown/orange/dark olive category such as the rusty crawfish. There's another kind that I haven't been able to find any information on that I've found in KY Lake. It is almost a turquoise bluish/green with 2 skinny yellow racing stripes down its back. Only found a few, and I'm pretty sure at least one of them was female because she was hiding a mess of eggs under her tail, but it's a pretty killer color down here in the spring.

Dominion Dan is right about much of what has been posted as being complete hearsay as to recognizing the species of fish that we're talking about. No offense intended, but there is no "simple" identification such as "removing a scale." One can look at a fish and say that it is one species or another, but everyone should make use a dichotomous key from published material such as The Fishes of Tennessee by Etnier and Starnes in order to determine exactly what species of fish they're dealing with. So I argue that any posts furthermore about a questionable species be left to the replies which have made use of scientific observation rather than replies based on experience and belief. At least the arguments presented would be legitimate instead of being completely biased and the bickering might slow down a little bit .

According to the latest fishing reports here at KY Lake, the smallmouths are spawning right now on main lake pea gravel banks. The water was near 65 degrees when the reports of spawning smallmouths came in, but with the recent cold fronts and the water already back down to 60 degrees on the main lake, there could well be a 2nd good spawn of smallmouths.

Jeeze, those are some grande-sized bucketmouths. Sweet pics.

Wow fo'bizzle, if that's fo'shizzle, then that's a great idea! How did you drum up that idea? It really does sound like something that anyone could benefit from. I'll have to try that sometime this summer.

I don't know of any bass clubs in Louisville that accept non boaters, but if you know someone with a boat who'd be willing to take you as a fishing partner, then there are the TNT tournaments and FNBBO tournaments on Taylorsville Lake every week of the summer. Both series are team tournaments. The TNTs are on Tuesday nights from 6 to 10pm, 5 fish limit. The FNBBO tournaments are the Friday Night Big Bass Open team tournaments, 1 bass limit. Hope that helps some.

No matter where you are, it's hard for any smallmouth bass to resist a natural color tube.

Why do so many people bring dead bass back to the weigh-in??? I have a '99 BassTracker with a livewell that looks about as big as a 10 gallon aquarium (not sure if that's correct, but it looks about as big as a fish tank I've got). A bass has never died in my livewell in almost 10 years and over 60 tournaments. I never use the products that claim to keep the bass alive. When a fish is in the livewell, the livewell is always filled to the brim with water. As a co-angler, I've noticed that too many of the new bass boats' livewells do not fill more than halfway to the brim and the timing systems do not put enough water into the tanks to push out the used water. Whenever my boat is used in a tournament though, I run the aerator very often, especially during the summer period (for about 5 minutes on every half-hour) in order to push out the used water. I feel that my constant monitoring of the fish's conditions keeps them alive. I feel that there are too many people out there who rely too much on these new products and kill many of their fish in the process. Part of being a good fisherman is taking care of your fish and continuing to learn better ways of fish care without the use of chemicals, and the new "keep-alive" products are not the best way to care of the fish.

Okay, big copolymer line it is then. Let me pick your brains a moment longer and ask why the P-Line is a better match than braid with swimbaits.... Thanks er'body.

I don't really pay too much attention to people cutting me off because I know that I am better at fishing than they are and I know what the fish are biting on. They don't know anything. At least that's what I tell myself. Anyway, a quick story...I was fishing an ABA district championship at Barren River Lake last May/June (not really sure which), but the fish were biting like crazy on two of the points that I had caught good fish on during the first day of the tournament. I had caught 2 fish off one of the points already and was going for the 3rd when a jonboat with about 5 scary looking drunken "toothers" pulled straight up to the point and all jumped out of the boat! Since they looked dangerous, I just asked what they were doing and they said very frankly that they were "noodling." Upon hearing this matter-of-fact statement from these unsavory sailors and seeing that they had no intention of making a speedy re-entry to their boat, I decided it would be in my own best interest to go to the other fishy point and to not make a crime scene. Sometimes it's best to just let people have their way, but if it's another bass angler, then give 'em hell.

I am new to fishing larger (5"+) and heavier (2oz.+) swimbaits. I have a reel and rod that can handle the bait, but I was wondering about line selection. It seems like 20-30 pound test fluorocarbon or monofilament line are pretty much standard for fishing these large lures. My question is, would 20-25 pound test braid/Fireline also work well for the swimbait application? (I included the Fireline reference only because I've got a spool of it sitting in my tacklebox) Thanks everyone!

The bass will often go on feeding sprees during instances of increased current on the reservoir. The current stirs the water, so to speak, and will sweep or concentrate bass food sources in certain areas. Many times the bass will sit in the slack water or eddies and swim out in the current to eat the food that is sweeping by. Also, if a pattern emerges with the current then you can basically follow the current from the dam to upriver on the lake since the current process will reach further into the lake later. Also, an excellent thing to take advantage of is after the drawdown. The lake will backpeddle and create current in the opposite direction as it refills. Drawdown schedules can be found on your lake's Corps of Engineers website. Here on KY Lake, we have the TVA, which is similar to the Corps of Engineers since they both use the lakes to generate power. Here's a link to our website and how they post drawdown information http://www.explorekentuckylake.com/weather.htm It may be necessary to call the Corps on whichever lake you're fishing in order to find out the generating schedule.

I have a buddy who throws Pointers and Megabass jerkbaits and he won the co-angler division of the BFL here on KY Lake this weekend with them. He got 19 1/2 lbs. 4 smallmouths and 1 spot. The big smallmouths were 6 1/2 lbs. and 5 1/2 lbs. The spot only weighed 1 lb. That leaves 18 1/2 lbs. to the smallies. So I'd say without a doubt that the pointers are working.

Finally got out on the boat today. Launched from Paris Landing State Park in Tennessee. Water Temp about 51. Water visibility 2-4'. Wind NE 5-15mph. 22 bass (19 largemouth, 3 spots). 15 keepers out of the 22. Best 5 almost 17lbs. 3 yellow bass. 4 drum (weak!). Where the bass were: Main lake points/islands and in the backs of the big creeks. Bass suspending in water 4-12' deep on gravel/rocks and stumps. Productive lures: X-Rap goby color (most productive), X-Rap clown, X-Rap white, Smithwick blue/chrome, Rat-L-Traps in crawdad and watermelon, Norman Mad-N black back/chartreuse, and watermelon 1/4oz finesse jig. *pics coming soon!

Water visibility about 2'. Water temp about 50 degrees. Light South wind. Fish suspended between 4 and 6 feet in 7-14 feet of water 5-30 feet from ledge. Only got in 2 hours of fishing today because of my classes, but I went with some buddies off the shoreline. Caught 11 largemouth, 2 smallmouth, 1 drum, and 1 15lb smallmouth buffalo. The 2 biggest largemouth were 5 1/2lbs. and 6lbs. The biggest smallmouth was 3 1/2lbs. 7 of the bass would've weighed in at tournaments, so it was a pretty decent outing. Productive lures: Jerkbaits- Smithwick Suspending Rogues in blue/chrome, Rapala Suspending Husky Jerks in black/chrome, and Rapala X-Raps in black/silver, olive, and goby. These fish didn't want anything else it seemed like. If you've got any questions, just ask. Oh, and I know everyone wants pictures for the posts in order to support the hype. I'll add them to this and my other KY Lake posts soon. We've been using disposable cameras to get our shots, and we only take pictures of the big ones. So, as soon as they're filled up, which shouldn't be more than 2 or 3 weeks, then I'll put them up here. Remember, patience is a virtue. 'Til then, good luck out on the lake!

I put in some STP carb/fuel injector cleaner and that helped a little bit, actually gained a little over 1mph top speed at a blazing 23.3mph! Fast, huh? Just joking, but next will be spark plugs and then cleaning up the carb and replacing the fuel filter and fuel pump. Maybe after that, I'll be up to 25mph!

I changed the plugs a little over a year ago. Maybe I can take them out and clean them up or just get some new ones. They're pretty easy to put in, so that would be a good starting point. Thanks.