much needed advice

[Kimble08]

I have been fishing almost all my life with my grandfather, and recently he passed away. He always fished in local bass tournaments and in memory of him I wanted to start fishing in the ones he did, He left his boat to me, so I want to put it to good use. My question is what kind of lures is best to use, its in a river and im not sure what works best and the best places to troll are.. where do the bass lay on rivers, is there any techniques that are perferred, any advice at all on tourney fishing would be greatly appreciated

[BadKarma42]

I don't have any experience fishing rivers, but I'm sure there are a lot of people that can offer some good advice to you.

It might be helpful if you revealed what river and the area you planned to fish...

[roadwarrior]

Welcome aboard!

If you are targeting smallmouth bass, go through our "Smallmouth"

section. There are many threads that discuss a variety of aspects

and lures to consider.

8-)

[Trevor in Burke]

for starters, any structure... with senkos, waky rigged or regular (i call it regular because i believe texas rigged involves a bullet weight, and you don't want that for a senko)

[Bass XL]

Welcome! My favorite technique to use on rivers is simple. Just find a bridge and throw a crankbait at the bridge pilings. Make the crankbait crash into the pilings and hold on!

[FD.]

Welcome to the forums

[Daiwa]

Welcome! My favorite technique to use on rivers is simple. Just find a bridge and throw a crankbait at the bridge pilings. Make the crankbait crash into the pilings and hold on!

I wouldn't recomend this. Your crankbait will chip and it wont bring em in.

[SPEEDBEAD.]

Welcome! My favorite technique to use on rivers is simple. Just find a bridge and throw a crankbait at the bridge pilings. Make the crankbait crash into the pilings and hold on!

I wouldn't recomend this. Your crankbait will chip and it wont bring em in.

Dude, stop.....seiously.   :   :-?

River fishing can be frustrating because a lot of times, EVERYTHING looks good.  Trees here, ledges there, boulders somewhere else.

Before getting into one of the tournaments, make sure to do your homework and some prefishing in that area.  Talk to some of the locals you see in the area.  While most may not tell you anything, there is always that chance someone will.

Either way, I am sure your grandfather would be honored you chose to continue his memory in this way.

Good job.

Wayne

[Grey Wolf]

WELCOME!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Bass XL]

Welcome! My favorite technique to use on rivers is simple. Just find a bridge and throw a crankbait at the bridge pilings. Make the crankbait crash into the pilings and hold on!

I wouldn't recomend this. Your crankbait will chip and it wont bring em in.

HAHAHAHAH!!! Your kidding right!

Daiwa: If it didn't catch fish, I wouldn't have posted it. Yeah, your crankbait MAY chip, but thats what you get when you go fishing. Also, I reccomend you catching up on your "City Limits" show, becuase this technique is specifically mentioned in it. Also, I had a similair question as kimble a while ago. I e-mailed Tommy Biffle and he suggested this technique.

* Woo Daves was on "A Day on the Lake" not too long ago, and this technique was used yet again.

OK, I'm done.

[CPT Scrap]

indeed, i usually dont get a bite on cranks UNLESS i hit it off something (rock, pyling, etc.)  In my experience (shallow river systems) find a good break away from the channel.  it may be a flat that has the channel running on the one side of it.  I'd sit in the channel and cast onto the flat.  however, this is shallow water, i mean less than 6 ft in the channel.

best thing you can do is just go out and play around, try a bunch of things, see what sticks.

[Bassnbrett101]

Welcome! My favorite technique to use on rivers is simple. Just find a bridge and throw a crankbait at the bridge pilings. Make the crankbait crash into the pilings and hold on!

I wouldn't recomend this. Your crankbait will chip and it wont bring em in.

HAHAHAHAH!!! Your kidding right!

Daiwa: If it didn't catch fish, I wouldn't have posted it. Yeah, your crankbait MAY chip, but thats what you get when you go fishing. Also, I reccomend you catching up on your "City Limits" show, becuase this technique is specifically mentioned in it. Also, I had a similair question as kimble a while ago. I e-mailed Tommy Biffle and he suggested this technique.

* Tommy Biffle was also on " A Day on the Lake" not too long ago, and this technique was used yet again.

OK, I'm done.

Seriously its a proven technique...  I do the same thing with jerkbaits.  You WANT your crankbait to hit something on the retrieve and cause a reaction strike.

On another note : The river, alyout of the river, and whats in the river would help alot.  And trolling is illegal in most tournaments, I have no clue if the tournaments youre fishing allow it or not I'd ask the tournament director before you try it.

[Grey Wolf]

Welcome! My favorite technique to use on rivers is simple. Just find a bridge and throw a crankbait at the bridge pilings. Make the crankbait crash into the pilings and hold on!

I wouldn't recomend this. Your crankbait will chip and it wont bring em in.

[/quote

You're wrong with that statement Daiwa.

[fishfordollars]

River fishing is fun. I fish the Neches and Angelina the most. The Neches is below Toledo Bend and the Angelina is below Sam Rayburn. I run and gun fishing each cut that I come across. I will start on the upriver side working smaller cranks and plastics. Throwing at each point on each side of the cut as well as the mouth. After working each I will move up inside the mouth and throw back out over each point and back up the cut. If the cut is large enough(and some are only a boat width wide) I will work my way back until the cut opens up. If it does I throw small plastics, cranks, and spinnerbaits around the opening. Back on the river I will throw larger spinnerbaits when the dam opersators begin generating a current. I will target any thing that will break the current. When the generation begins the fish tend to stack up in the mouths of the cuts so I will fish just the mouths as they are out of the current. If the cuts have large openings that resemble a small lake I stay with the areas that have the deeper water and fish them as I would a small lake hunting humps, laydowns, etc. Hope this helps.

[Daiwa]

Welcome! My favorite technique to use on rivers is simple. Just find a bridge and throw a crankbait at the bridge pilings. Make the crankbait crash into the pilings and hold on!

I wouldn't recomend this. Your crankbait will chip and it wont bring em in.

HAHAHAHAH!!! Your kidding right!

Daiwa: If it didn't catch fish, I wouldn't have posted it. Yeah, your crankbait MAY chip, but thats what you get when you go fishing. Also, I reccomend you catching up on your "City Limits" show, becuase this technique is specifically mentioned in it. Also, I had a similair question as kimble a while ago. I e-mailed Tommy Biffle and he suggested this technique.

* Tommy Biffle was also on " A Day on the Lake" not too long ago, and this technique was used yet again.

OK, I'm done.

You WANT your crankbait to hit something on the retrieve and cause a reaction strike.

I understand what you are talking about but its just my 2 cents. I'm not telling the guy to follow what I say.

And if you need it to hit to make a reaction strike, before the lure hits the water give a nice hook set motion and it will make it splash, while saving you a lure. Like I PMed Bass XL, I used to ALWAYS use the teqnique, and even used it last Saturday, I have caughten like 1 or 2 fish off it while loosing like 20 lures. Try sending a spinner or something else down there.

Or find some current. Current in the water will attract fish.

About last Saturday, I was on a big lake throwing cranks at the bridge pillings for walleyes. Didn't get a thing and now I'm down a nice lure.

Go with what you guys like. Like I said, this is only my 2 cents.

[Tin]

I always figured Biffle was a die-hard jig guy but I got to fish with him a few years ago and was surprised by how good he was at cranking shallow water. Just slamming a Strike King 4S into laydowns for reaction strikes.

Ok back on topic...This is a great idea, I personally find drop-shotting bridge pillings to be more productive and you are in the strike zone longer. As the Beader said everything looks great on a river. You can fish laydowns for hours and not get touched. But bridges always hold fish for me.

[ZEN BASSIN]

Try everything that the board has suggested then see what's working best for you on that day. We all have different styles. Best of Luck

[peidy_p]

I fish Venice la. the best lure in this river is a 1\4 oz chartrouse n white spinnerbait with a gold 3 1\2 willow blade